Leadership practices and communication framework for project success – The construction sector

Various leadership theories and frameworks in the literature assist project professionals in understanding diverse styles and practices for achieving project success. These theories and frameworks provide a foundation for exploring how leadership practices, communication, team dynamics and project outcomes interact to achieve success. These are valuable tools for evaluating leadership effectiveness and are widely adopted by project management practitioners (Raziq et al. 2018). These frameworks highlight the importance of effective leadership, communication, vision, collaboration, stakeholder management, and project performance. Prominent theories such as Transformational (leaders inspire and motivate their followers to achieve exceptional performance and outcomes; Bass and Avolio 2000), Transactional (focuses on the exchange between leaders and followers, and motivate their followers through rewards and punishments based on performance as projects progress), Servant (focuses on serving and supporting their followers, prioritising their needs, and promoting their development and fostering a positive work environment) and Situational (contingent upon the situation and the development of followers, and competence of their team members) provide a conceptual base for analysing the relationship mechanisms between leadership practices, communication, team dynamics, and project success. Common themes across these frameworks include effective leadership, communication, vision, team cohesion, stakeholder management and project performance. Equipped with insights from these theories, project managers can develop innovative strategies to address challenges in the construction industry. This study delves into project managers’ perspectives on leadership and communication practices within the construction sector, establishing the positive impact of key success factors on project outcomes. It creates the positive impact of key project success factors on project outcomes and introduces a nuanced LPCD framework. Additionally, the study’s bivariant correlations analysis demonstrates significant positive relationships between predictors and project success, encouraging project managers to adopt identified leadership behaviours for improved outcomes.

The project manager is pivotal and responsible for driving the project forward to achieve success. The project manager’s competencies and behavioural practices play a central role in overseeing the project and effectively managing the team and stakeholders in the context of influencing project success. Simultaneously, the project owner or sponsor is crucial in offering strategic guidance, decision-making authority, support and mutual understanding throughout the project. Muller and Jugdev (2012) identified leadership practices and communication as critical success factors (CSFs) motivating and inspiring team members toward achieving project success. Anantatmula (2010) emphasises project manager’s leadership, role definition, people-related performance factors, clear communication, team building, and establishing trust as the key elements for improving performance. Studies consistently show a strong relationship between leadership characteristics and project success (Geoghegan and Dulewicz 2008; Müller and Turner 2010; Kissi et al. 2013; Tabassi et al. 2016).

Leadership’s increasing recognition in project management research underscores the significance of competencies such as leadership, results orientation, assertiveness, reliability, and efficiency, all linked to improved project delivery (Gruden and Stare 2018; Sampaio et al. 2021). Project managers’ leadership and communication skills significantly influence project performance (Moradi et al. 2020), with behavioural practices like leadership, organisation, target management, and emotional intelligence identified as key factors (Sang et al. 2018). Soft skills like leadership and communication are essential for effective project management (Alvarenga et al. 2019). As discussed previously, various leadership theories and frameworks, e.g. transformational, transactional, servant, situational and strategic, exist in the literature, which empowers project managers with an understanding of various leadership styles and practices, enabling them to devise innovative strategies to address the challenges in the construction industry.

Effective communication is another vital factor in successful project management within the construction sector, enhancing collaboration and stakeholder engagement and reducing errors, rework and costs (Chowdhury et al. 2019; Zhang et al. 2022). Project managers utilise communication competencies to communicate effectively in different contexts: team management, negotiation, developing stakeholders’ relationships and conflict management, ultimately impacting project success (Ziek and Anderson 2015, pp. 788–803). Clarke (1999) stated that ‘effective communication can motivate, reduce non-productive efforts, avoid mistakes, manage uncertainties, encourage teamwork, and build confidence’. Communication is a significant element in a project manager’s behaviour, primarily when referring to the involvement of clients, customers or users (Munns and Bjeirmi 1996; Tukel and Rom 2001).

Project management institute PMI (2021) highlights the centrality of relationships built through effective communication for successful project objectives (Meng and Boyd 2017). Effective communication is fundamental to relationship development, aiding project managers in achieving project objectives. Project leaders need to develop and maintain inter-relationships within project network teams and external stakeholders/suppliers to achieve project performance. Meng (2012) demonstrated relationship management’s significant effect on construction project performance.

Conflict, a common challenge in construction projects, can lead to increased costs, delays, reduced productivity and damage to relationships, ultimately impacting project success (Alazemi and Mohiuddin 2019). Conflict is inevitable in the presence of different parties and multidisciplinary teams working together with varying priorities in construction projects’ unique and complex nature. Effective conflict management is essential, as unresolved conflicts can hinder project progress and negatively impact team performance (Chen et al. 2014). High levels of conflict reduce team performance in terms of schedules, costs, quality, specification and process satisfaction (Barki and Hartwick 2001; Leung et al. 2005), necessitating effective conflict management to control and reduce adverse impacts and enhance positive outcomes (Rahim 2002). Conflicts can positively or negatively impact an organisation’s business (Chandolia and Anastasiou 2020), affecting project success.

Amid the complex construction environment, project professionals strive to mitigate project failures by adopting innovative leadership practices and strategies for industry success. A critical review of significant empirical studies identifies varying leadership practices/behaviours employed by the practitioners to achieve success. These studies were carried out in specific contexts, indicating patterns and research landscape in the literature. For example, strategic leadership was identified as the most common and dominating style in promoting sustainability practices for inter-organisational leaders in the United Kingdom (Opoku et al. 2015). Higher transformational leadership behaviour was found to be a central aspect of safety-promoting leadership style at the construction sites in Sweden than in Denmark indicating national cultural context (Grill et al. 2019). Project managers’ strong focus on monitoring and control, adequacy of planning and time management in a Chinese study was based on performance and maintenance (P-M) leadership theory. Less experienced managers were identified to be more task-oriented than more experienced managers who preferred relationship-oriented behaviour to achieve project objectives found in a study performed in South Florida, USA (Panthi et al. 2009). Democratic, transformational and transactional are the leading leadership styles in the South African construction industry found in an investigative study conducted on construction professionals (Emere et al. 2018). Behavioural characteristics/ traits were identified based on investigating the project manager’s behavioural competencies, e.g. trustworthiness, leadership, communication, emotional awareness, leveraging diversity, relationship building, assertiveness, reliability, ethics, creativity, team spirit, strong commitment, monitoring and control, conflict resolving ability, honestly, hard work and respect team members and other viewpoints (Yong and Mustaffa 2013; Liu and Fang 2014; Gruden and Stare et al. 2018; Sang et al. 2018; Moradi et al. 2020; Van Marrewijk et al. 2023).

Additionally, the review and synthesis of research studies from various countries/cultures found that the construction industry in most Western countries adopted transformational/transactional leadership practices focusing on relationships, team building, risk-taking and entrepreneurial behaviours (Opoku et al. 2015; Grill et al. 2019; Parson 2020) compared to task-oriented, autocratic, paternalistic and authoritative behaviours in countries such as Indonesia, Nigeria and some parts of China (Oke 2010; Liu and Fang 2014). A culture of acceptance, compassion and tolerance is prevalent in the South African construction industry, attributed to cultural influence (Emere et al. 2018). A specific country’s socio-cultural and psychological mechanisms and environment often influence leadership behaviours, ultimately impacting project success dimensions.

Recently, the project management institute (PMI) has described project success as ‘based on adapting to the unique context of the project, its objectives, stakeholders, governance, and the environment using the most appropriate processes to achieve the desired outcomes while maximising value, managing cost, and enhancing speed’ (PMI 2021, p. 44). The term ‘success’ is a highly complex measure used as an indicator and is interpreted differently by different individuals and organisations (Samset and Volden 2012 cited in William and Samset 2012), and measured differently depending on the type of projects and targeting benefits (short or long terms). Project success is a complex, multidimensional construct that has evolved. Definitions vary across stakeholders and projects. Recently, Pinto et al. (2022) described ‘success to capture a variety of perspectives considering factors like benefits realisation, stakeholder perceptions, timing, context, efficient use of resources and sustainability’. Zwikael and Meredith (2021) discussed stakeholders’ contingent perspectives of success (e.g. in terms of the funding and the delivering organisations, evaluating the project manager’s performance and project success separately). Jugdev and Müller (2005) concluded that project success is a multidimensional construct that includes short-term project management success (efficiency) and the longer-term achievement of desired results from the project (effectiveness and impact). PMI (2013) emphasises two aspects relevant to the project’s success: completing the project within time, cost, quality and scope, and stakeholders’ satisfaction. Ika (2015) advocated the success determinants to be the key stakeholders, the project team, customer satisfaction, meeting project organisation objectives, benefits to the project organisation and opportunities for commercialisation. Research on project success has demonstrated that defining it has been challenging for practitioners and scholars because stakeholders (internal and external) rarely agree on their viewpoints on its definition and on judging the project success criteria. For instance, meeting business expectations may have unintended consequences on society, highlighting the importance of sustainability (Ika and Pinto 2022). In addition, project ambiguity arising from internal and external stakeholders’ changing demands, market turbulence and environmental instability makes defining and judging project success even more complicated (Wiewiora and O’Connor 2022).

Project success analysis is widely used to identify success factors and enhance project quality, efficiency and effectiveness. According to Rockart (1982), CSFs are those few areas of activity in which the desired results are essential for a project manager to achieve their objectives. Therefore, determining success areas/factors will lead project managers to concentrate on achieving pre-determined goals. Determining the CSFs will give project organisations a competitive edge in fulfilling all stakeholders’ aspirations. Our study has investigated and explored the importance of key success factors based on the following measurement dimensions: time, cost, quality, and scope, end users’ satisfaction, team satisfaction, meeting organisation goals and objectives and customer and project stakeholders’ satisfaction in this study.

While leadership traits and motivational factors for project success have been extensively studied, there needs to be more empirical evidence supporting studies investigating the impact of leadership behavioural practices and communication on project success in the Australian construction sector. Our study aims to bridge the knowledge gap found in the literature review by investigating the leadership practice behaviours and communication underlying relationship mechanisms with project success to address the ongoing issues and challenges with the introduction of the digital revolution, emergence of new technologies, artificial intelligence, increase in computing power and continuously changing organisation culture in the Australian construction industry.

Based on our critical review of global research studies, existing leadership frameworks and theories and informal discussions with a number of project professionals, several attributes of leadership and communication practices (Table 1) were identified for our detailed analysis. These attributes for constructs were used to create a comprehensive 74-item survey questionnaire for a cross-sectional study. Core variable measurements were operationalised through multiple dimensions: (1) leadership practices, assessed by a 32-item scale; (2) communication, measured through 16 items; (3) relationship management, assessed on a 6-item scale; (4) conflict management, measured using a 9-item scale; and (5) project success, comprising 11 items. The questionnaire underwent content validity evaluation by expert practitioners (one PhD academician and four experienced senior practitioners with master’s degrees in engineering). This led to refinements on four items to finalise the measuring instrument. The data was tested for normality-skewness kurtosis indexes (George and Mallery 2010), parametric and non-parametric data distribution, randomness, multi-collinearity, common method bias, and reliability for internal consistency and found to fall within limits. Cronbach’s alpha (α) was used to measure the different constructs’ internal consistency (reliability). Cronbach’s alpha (α) measured internal consistency. All constructs have Cronbach’s alpha (α) value >0.7, and the overall value is 0.926, indicating satisfactory internal consistency for the study (Anderson and Gerbing 1988; Hair et al. 2010). Principal components analysis was conducted to measure the construct validity. We used the KMO test, relationship strength correlation matrix (equal or >0.3) and Bartlett’s tests of sphericity (p < 0.05) measures to verify the suitability of sample data for factor analysis. Latent factors were identified through factor analysis, with leadership practices, communication, relationship management and conflict management revealing 13 enabling success actors (Appendix 1). Multivariate regression analysis further examined these factors empirically to identify key success factors.

Of the (66) respondents (a mix of project managers/leaders from clients and main contractors from public and private sectors project-based organisations) for this study, 50% were in the 50 + age group and had a master’s degree as their highest educational qualification, and 31.8% of the respondents had 20–30 years of professional experience in the construction industry. The respondents’ demographic background of mature professionals with high engineering degrees made them knowledgeable enough to answer questions posed in the questionnaire (Table 2).

A critical review of 35 research studies resulted in thirty (30) leadership practice characteristics (chronologically) used globally in achieving project success: (1) Relationship, (2) Motivation, (3) Influence, (4) Vision, (5) Goal-Oriented, (6) Trust, (7) Encouragement, (8) Communication, (9) Inspire, (10) Task-Oriented, (11) Team Building, (12) Stakeholders, (13) Empowerment, (14) Commitment, (15) Emotional, (16) Effective Communication, (17) Conflict Management, (18) Flexibility, (19) Self-Management, (20) Coaching, (21) Goal Setting, (22) Share Information, (23) Self-Awareness, (24) Seeking Feedback, (25) Sensitivity, (26) Leading by Example, (27) Caring Others, (28) Empathy, (29) Self-Development, and(30) Humility (Table 1).

These behaviour practice characteristics identified above were grouped into four main clusters and categorised/graded based on our understanding and 35–40 years of practical experience in managing projects: (1) Interpersonal Practice Characteristics, (2) Emotional Practice Characteristics, (3) Tasks Oriented Practices Characteristics and (4) Intellectual Practices Characteristics (Table 3). The researchers collected frequency data for these (30) behavioural practice characteristics from each cited study and analysed them to grade these clusters. The clusters for a (set of characteristics) were graded based on (mean) average frequency occurrences in the cited studies: Interpersonal Practices characteristics (4.54), Emotional Leadership Practices characteristics (3.30), Intellectual Practices characteristics (2.71) and Tasks Oriented Practices characteristics (2.54), respectively (Table 3). The clusters on behaviour practices were examined, categorised, and graded from (high to low values) based on the following calculations (Rehan et al. 2024).

Average occurrence frequency (AOF) for a behaviour’s characteristics = Total occurrences/cited journals

Mean (AOF) = Sum of (AOF) for a cluster/No. of behaviour characteristics in the cluster

Interpersonal Practices characteristics – High

The analysis demonstrated high-to-moderate levels of managerial interpersonal and emotional behavioural practice characteristics to achieve project success compared to low levels of intellectual and task-oriented behavioural practices on construction projects. The analysis indicates the project manager’s preferred choice of ‘leadership practices’ to achieve success in the construction industry.

The research emphasises a preference for people-oriented and relationship-driven leadership practices over task-oriented approaches, highlighting the significance of interpersonal sensitivity and self-management in managing emotions and improving outcomes. These findings resonate with Goleman’s (2003) emotional intelligence framework and corroborate relationship management’s impact on project performance in the Australian context.

Likert data underwent EFA to identify interrelationships among variables (Deng et al. 2014). Following Norusis (1993), the analysis utilised principal components factor analysis with varimax rotations on a 74-item questionnaire, meeting all necessary conditions for convergence and discriminant validity and reliability testing. KMO tests yielded acceptable values (0.792 and 0.750) for communication, relationship conflict management, and leadership practices, respectively, falling within the acceptable range (0.5–1.0) (Malhotra 2008). The relationship strength (>0.3) and Bartlett’s sphericity tests were significant, indicating the appropriateness of sample data for the factor analysis. The analysis retained factors with loadings >0.5 (Hair et al. 1995) and eigenvalues >1.0, and rotations were applied to eliminate cross-loadings. The leadership practices construct uncovered nine latent factors (LBSF1 to LBSF9) having a cumulative variance of 72.36%, while a group of (communication, relationship management and conflict management) construct produced four underlying factors (CMSF1 to CMSF4) with a cumulative variance of 64.21% (Rehan et al. 2024) (Appendix 1). Principal component extraction analysis reduced 74 items (original) to 42 items for success factors. All these extracted enabling success factors are important for project managers to concentrate on to achieve project success. All other extracted success factors were excluded during the iteration process because they failed to meet the system’s entry/removal-level criteria (probability-of-F value-to-enter < = 0.050, probability-of-F value-to-remove > = 0.10).

The latent factors identified in factor analysis were further examined empirically using multivariant regression analysis to identify the key success factors. A backward stepwise regression technique (Chan et al. 2004) between latent/underlying factors as predictors and project success as a dependent variable was used to identify key success factors (Table 4). The regression analysis resulted in five key success factors. The most dominating key factors identified are namely (1) CMSF1 (Effective Communication), (2) CMSF2 (Relationship Management), (3) LBSF2 (Leading by Example), (4) LBSF3 (Interpersonal sensitivity) and (5) LBSF7 (Self-Management). The variance explained by these five factors is 66.23% (Appendix 1).

A multiple regression was used to investigate the impact of these key success factors on project success (Table 4). The adjusted Pearson’s R-squared value of 0.532 and significance value of <0.001 show the fitness of the model, demonstrating a positive and statistically significant impact on project success and are consistent with the theoretical arguments. A variance of 53.2% for project success is explained and accounted for by these five key success factors (Table 4). The identified key success factors positively and statistically significantly impacted project success.

Further, Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r) for core variables revealed statistically significant and positive relationships between predictors and project success: leadership practices (r = 0.576^**, p < 0.000), communication (r = 0.638^**, p < 0.000), relationship management (r = 0.628^**, p < 0.000) and conflict management (r = 0.629^**, p < 0.000). The empirical findings support positive relationships among leadership practices, communication, relationship and conflict management with project success, affirming the theoretical base. Such insights motivate project managers to modify their behaviours, fostering improved project results.

The research data in this study primarily comes from project managers (self-assessment). To mitigate bias, questionnaire items were randomised, and Harman’s single one-factor analysis found a variance in squared loading of 33.18% against the threshold value of 50%, indicating no significant bias in the data. Additionally, the findings on key success factors and their practice attributes based on dataset-1 were subsequently validated by a second dataset-2 feedback response collected from 43 followers (project engineers, project supervisors, team members and senior managers who worked with project managers) using relative index analysis (mean and ranking) on evaluating their project managers leadership behavioural practices, revealing congruence in behavioural practices broadly (Table 5). The limited number of followers’ responses prevents broad generalisation and poses one of the limitations of our study. However, including a wide range of professionals in future research, such as those in engineering practice, quality assurance, safety and external evaluators, would provide more comprehensive insights into leadership and communication behaviours. Due to time constraints, this aspect was not part of this study, which is acknowledged as a limitation.

Based on the preceding discussions, the researchers have developed a new LPCD framework (Figure 1). The framework is made up of four groups interrelated and linked to project success. The various interactive relationships with project success are represented more systematically (Figure 1), helping project leaders identify performance drivers to achieve success. An explicit model has been proposed for practitioners to manage projects to achieve success.

The study suggests an explicit proposal for leadership practices and communication, based on the developed LPCD framework model, to enhance project success for construction professionals. Effective leadership, communication and project management practices are critical for project success. Identifying leadership characteristics, behavioural clusters, key project success factors and leadership behavioural practices can help project managers adopt our explicit model for developing effective project management strategies.

These are specific techniques, actions or behaviours that project managers/leaders use to influence and lead their teams to achieve project objectives/goals. These practices help set clear visions, inspire, and motivate, provide effective communication, ensure objectivity in feedback and create a positive work environment to achieve project objectives.

By incorporating the identified leadership behavioural practices into project management strategies, construction industry practitioners can enhance team performance and stakeholders’ satisfaction and ultimately achieve project success. Our proposed explicit proposal and framework will assist project professionals in enhancing collaboration, communication and conflict resolution, improving project outcomes and success.

The study focused on addressing gaps in comprehending the link between leadership behavioural practices and project outcomes to interject digital era challenges; the findings on human-related factors have the potential for supporting leadership behaviour practices in adopting technological advancements (building information model [BIM], frameworks, solutions, etc.) in the construction sector. Despite improving cost, quality and productivity through emerging digital technologies like BIM, global positioning systems (GPS), global information systems (GISs) and cloud computing, the study acknowledged various barriers, such as cultural, organisational, institutional, technological and financial factors, to their effective adoption (Ramilo and Embi 2014).

Digital technological advancements significantly influence leadership and communication practices in the construction industry. These advancements have revolutionised project planning, management and execution, leading to changes in leadership practices and communication strategies. Emerging technologies, such as BIM, GPS and GIS, enhance and facilitate collaboration among project stakeholders and integration, monitoring, communication, coordination and safety practices in construction projects (Zhou et al. 2012; Zhang and Arditi 2013), enable real-time communication and teamwork, coordination irrespective of physical location and offer extensive project-related data, empowering leaders to make informed decisions, optimise resource allocation and mitigate risks. For instance, leaders use BIM for collaborative design reviews and feedback, improving planning and design quality while streamlining construction processes and minimising rework; GIS and GPS technologies enable accurate mapping and geospatial analysis, optimising site layout, logistics and resource management and overall efficiency and productivity. Digital technologies facilitate transparent communication and engagement with project stakeholders, encompassing clients, regulatory authorities and empowering field teams. Some of these innovations significantly impact project organisations in achieving productivity improvements up to 40% (Guo et al. 2017). By adopting digital technologies, leaders drive organisational success and continue to overcome the challenges of multilateral project complexity and diverse workforce, achieving superior project outcomes.