CHAPTER ONEAINTRODUCTION1.1 Background to the studyThere are many difficulties that today's companies must overcome in order to justify their continued existence. These difficulties include staying competitive, improving the value of an investment, and ensuring long-term viability. These organizations take part in and carry out activities that help them accomplish their …
See more
CHAPTER ONEAINTRODUCTION1.1 Background to the studyThere are many difficulties that today's companies must overcome in order to justify their continued existence. These difficulties include staying competitive, improving the value of an investment, and ensuring long-term viability. These organizations take part in and carry out activities that help them accomplish their goals, whatever those objectives may happen to be. In order to accomplish these goals, companies are often faced with the challenge of identifying the appropriate talents and leadership to achieve the required outcomes. The capacity to make choices, having energy, having a strong sense of responsibility, confidence and pride in one's command are all characteristics of effective leadership according to Adair (2005:12). Daft (2007:4), on the other hand, describes leadership as an influence connection between leaders and followers who intend actual changes and results that represent their shared goals. Similarly to a rudderless aircraft, Burke (2007:28) thinks that project teams accountable for the fulfillment of organizational goals would be similar in nature. A rudderless aircraft is described as one that does not have a specific destination. According to Summers (2009), the goal of leadership should be to guarantee that human beings and equipment are improved in order to raise quality standards, to ensure that a significant quantity of delivery is made, and to provide benefits to human beings. Leaders are defined by a number of characteristics, including personality, culture, position, attitude and set of behaviors (Yudelowitz et al., 2002). Everything that is required to bring about a positive transformation is included by the term "leadership."Glaser (2012) asserts that the global geopolitical situation in the twenty-first century is changing, necessitating the involvement of businesses in the development of new organizational models in order to adapt to and succeed in the face of changing circumstances, technological advancements, and internationalization. Businesses in smaller nations must turn to creative leadership styles that will improve employee morale, according to Moore (2013), in order to stay competitive in the growing global community and global marketplaces in order to attract investors. The infrastructure of a nation is a significant source of worry for both investors and other economic actors, and this is true across the world; yet, the methods used to execute infrastructure projects and maintain them are distinct from one another. The leadership qualities and capabilities of a project manager have a significant impact on the project's overall success. Tuner (2008) suggested that project managers should use a three-directional approach to leadership, and project managers should follow his advice. The three-directional strategy includes working upwardly (to maintain the support of project owners and sponsors), outwardly (to gain the support of resource suppliers and stakeholders), and finally downwards (to win the support of project stakeholders) (that is, to rally the commitment of members in the project performance). Fiedler (1967) also said that there are three types of leadership styles: task-oriented, people-oriented, and power-oriented.According to Makilouko (2004) and Loong (2006), previous research to identify leadership styles used by project managers have usually shown that the leadership style is people-oriented, but the leadership style may vary depending on the kind of project (2003). As a result, given the significance of significant investment in the construction sector in Ghana, as well as the fact that leadership style may have an impact on the success of a project, it was necessary to conduct this research. 1.2 Problem statementThe construction industry has seen different leaders with different styles of managing projects over the years, which have had a great effect on the performance of tasks. Many studies have been done globally to address this issue. But, irrespective of the numerous studies conducted, it has not been easy to agree on the subject matter. For instance, the studies were undertaken by Keller (1992) and Tabassi and Babar (2010) revealed the existence of a relationship between transformational style and project performance. In contrast, Keegan and Den Hartog (2004) found no significant relationship between the two. Regardless the several studies carried out globally on the impact of the leadership styles of project managers on project performance, and the subject has not been extensively covered in Ghana as most researchers focus on cost and time overruns. For example, the research was undertaken by Addy and Coffie (2014) on this subject was focused on the building construction aspect of projects, with the researchers using both qualitative and quantitative methods to find conclusions and make recommendations. Thus, very little research has been conducted on the road construction sector and how leadership styles affect performance resulting in the need for this study.
See less
