Investigation of Construction Leadership Effectiveness on the Performance of Building Construction Projects: A Case of Hawassa City

Abstract

Nowadays, building construction industries are boosting globally, so proper leadership practice for the better performance of projects is needed. The objectives of this study were; to assess the current practice of construction leadership and the level of effectiveness in building construction projects at Hawassa town, to assess the key success factors on construction leadership that can affect the performance of construction projects, and to assess the effects of poor construction leadership on the performance of the building constructions projects and possible recommendations to improve the existing practice. The literature review and questionnaire survey were used to collect the necessary data to address these objectives. The relative importance index (RII) method was adapted to find the most significant practices, success factors, and effects on the performance of construction projects, and the values obtained from the questionnaire were analyzed through Microsoft excel software. Mean scores were also used to show the rankings with graphs. Whereas the validity and reliability of questionnaires were checked by Cronbach’s Alpha using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Accordingly, from those eighty practices or skills that were studied under twelve groups, the research identified five major problem areas on the practice of construction leadership in construction projects and those were time management, conflict resolution, problem solving and Informed Judgment, integrity and ineffectiveness on communication were ranked depending on their average RII values 0.742, 0.727, 0.730, 0.721 and 0.719 respectively. Twenty-nine factors that affect construction projects' success were divided into four categories. From those major success factors project managers related, supervisors’ competency, Project management, and project teams were ranked depending on their average RII values 0.772, 0.751, 0.746, and 0.743, respectively. The study also indicated decreased productivity, a lower level of skill of project manager to execute projects, and failure to improve health and safety were other effects in projects due to lack of proper leadership practices throughout the projects that affect the performance of construction projects. The remedial measures were determined to improve time management culture, skilled and competent professionals should join the industry, periodic training sessions regarding leadership should be given, and implement a performance management system at the individual and project level to ensure dependable planning and controlling system and so on. Generally, all parties participating in building construction projects must contribute their rightful parts towards establishing better leadership practices on projects.