The effect of leadership style on unskilled labour motivation at a selected construction company in Cape Town

Abstract

Studies on leadership and its effectiveness seem to express much emphasis on the leaders themselves as needing training. Literature is equally awash with studies on motivation theories, and generally considered as a one-size-fits all approach. It is also well documented in the literature that leader behaviour and style is contingent to the environment, the organisational culture and the people concerned. The task to be performed also impacts on the leader behaviour specific to the tasks and the people performing the tasks given the expectations from the leader. The high failure rate of construction projects, which are themselves managed by qualified engineers in the construction industry, was of concern in the research. The focus however was on the nature of hard-skills leaders working with and managing of unskilled labour force that may need micro-management. The population of study was the unskilled construction labour and how they are impacted on by the leadership styles of managers with hard skills. The population was randomly sampled at the sites where the research was conducted, and data collection was through direct administration of the research tool. The difference in the expectations, based on the gap of the hard skills concerned and the expectations of the labour force in the execution of the project was under examination. The hard-skills professionals are expected to focus on knowledge of task execution when the unskilled need constant direction and transactional leadership. The objective for the study was to identify the leader behaviour and the perception of the subordinates to these leader behaviour patterns. A mixed research methodology was used. The findings clearly identify that hard skills are essential for managing and executing construction projects, while soft skills significantly help leaders achieve task execution results timely. The study confirms that the effectiveness of the project team depends on the contingency of the project leadership style.