Leadership styles of women managers in the UK construction industry

This paper is part of an ongoing doctoral study about exploring the contribution of women
managers towards the construction industry. UK construction is typically portrayed as a male
dominated industry. Women are highly under-represented particularly at the managerial and
technical sectors of the construction industry. This research intends to explore the
contribution women managers could bring to the construction industry. Exploring the benefits
women could bring to construction will help to recruit more women workforce to
construction industry which in turn will help to address the skills shortages in the industry by
bringing in a wide range of skills and talents. Women’s presence in managerial workforce is
growing and continues to motivate research on the leadership styles typically exhibited by
women to determine if women have their own ways of leading. Further leadership is
considered as an important quality for those who occupy managerial positions in
organisations. In this context this paper takes the leadership styles exhibited by women
managers in construction industry as the primary unit of analysis. Thus this research fall
under three major knowledge domains namely gender, leadership and construction. In order
to ensure the comprehensiveness and completeness of this study, an expert knowledge
capturing exercise has been undertaken. This paper shares the captured expert opinions about
the identified knowledge domains.