Leadership in construction partnering projects

In recent years there has been a growing interest in the use of partnering in
construction. Central to any successful partnering arrangement is the change in cultural and
behavioural characteristics towards mutual trust and understanding. Leadership is originally
the source of the beliefs and values which forms shared assumptions of organisational culture.
This paper builds on the leadership literature which has so ably demonstrated the influence of
powerful leaders. As Bueno and Bowditch states “the reality may be that managing will
remain much more of an art than a science”. However true this statement may be, there is a
number of things that management can do to further cultural integration and the success of
construction partnering projects. This paper initially reviews the theory behind partnering,
culture and leadership. It stages arguments and discussions over the importance of behavioural
aspects of leadership and explores applicability of leadership styles to construction partnering
projects. Further, this establishes the requirement of project leader to exhibit different
leadership styles and modes of motivation to demonstrate a range of behaviours together with
the combination of transformational and transactional, firelighter leadership style.