Leadership in construction

The state of Employee Engagement in the UK remains low, with only around a third of workers reported as being highly engaged, and productivity continues to lag nearly 20% behind that of other G7 countries. Increased economic uncertainty means improving engagement, and associated productivity gains, is a vital activity to support the wellbeing of both our people and our economy.

Research Findings

The three factors from this research that were found to correlate most highly with engagement are:

• Extent to which leadership was distributed. This referred to the distribution of decision making responsibility across leadership roles, the level of contribution to the strategic direction and business planning process of the organisation, involvement in two-way communication and how emerging leaders are supported by the company.
• How well boundaries were managed. This referred to the extent to which managers protect their team from external factors and events, help teams communicate with each other, act as advocates on behalf of their team to other in the organisation and helps resolve conflict between teams.
• Provision of team direction – This referred as the extent to which managers ensure that a team has clear performance goals and clear direction and ensures there is understanding of where the team is going.

So, how does this impact the construction industry?