Project Leadership in Construction in Developing Countries

Leadership plays an important role in social settings; be it in the political arena, social environment, or business organization. The very nature of construction projects makes leadership even more essential. Construction projects are complex as they involve several stakeholders with diverse backgrounds and often competing needs. Large construction projects pose additional challenges due to added technical, managerial, and social complexity. Project managers tend to focus on managing the technical tasks, being conscious about the project budget and schedule, and meeting hard deadlines and other project parameters. Project managers often pay less attention to the importance of the human element, the team that delivers the tasks on the projects. This leads to poor team performance which, in turn, has an impact on project performance. The need for effective leadership in construction is acute owing to widely highlighted problems of the construction industry and poor performance on its projects: project delays, cost overruns, disputes, and a poor record of safety and environmental performance. Studies further indicate that the developing countries face even more severe problems in these regards, and that hinders their efforts to establish the physical foundation for their socio-economic development. The aim of this chapter is to highlight the importance of effective project leadership and its development in construction in the developing countries. The objectives are to explain leadership and its relevance to projects; to consider the special requirement of project leadership in construction; and to discuss the need for project leadership in construction in the developing countries. Finally, suggestions are made for project leadership development in the construction industries in the developing countries.