Master’s Programme in Industrial Management and Innovation Masterprogram i industriell ledning och innovation SAMINT-MILI 2046 Achieving project success through leadership communication A study on construction industry Sumit Das, PMP ® Vijaya Mishra Master’s Thesis 15 credits June 2020
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Master’s Programme in Industrial Management and Innovation
Masterprogram i industriell ledning och innovation
SAMINT-MILI 2046
Achieving project success through
leadership communication
A study on construction industry
Sumit Das, PMP®
Vijaya Mishra
Master’s Thesis 15 credits
June 2020
Abstract
Achieving project success through leadership
communication
Faculty of Science and Technology
Visiting address: Ångströmlaboratoriet Lägerhyddsvägen 1 House 4, Level 0 Postal address: Box 536 751 21 Uppsala Telephone: +46 (0)18 – 471 30 03 Telefax: +46 (0)18 – 471 30 00 Web page: http://www.teknik.uu.se/student-en/
Sumit Das and Vijaya Mishra
In the modern world, the significance of projects is continuously increasing
because of its ability to help organizations perform fast-paced changes, quick
innovation and generate long-term revenue. Our area of concern in this study
is the construction industry. A construction project performance banks on
different dimensions of project management. Leadership is one of the
essential factors in construction management and communication is a topic
frequently linked to it, but the linkage often is limited to a view of
communication to achieve a particular purpose. In a construction project,
communication has been forgotten as a leadership principle. The people
component of project management is where the main problem lies but has
not been suitably addressed by researchers, project management practitioners
and enthusiasts. The purpose of this research is to determine how leadership
as a form of communication ensures delivering a successful construction
project.
In this perspective, fourteen professionals from the construction industry
were interviewed via semi structured interviews to check specific
components of leadership communication and to validate the theoretical
framework. The data collected is analyzed thematically. Our findings reveal
that leadership communication has a considerable impact on the project
success. Leadership communication is anchored in the character of a project
manager and is instrumental in managing diverse workforce, crisis situations,
relation with stakeholders, company’s brand image and helps in integrating the
project. Thus, it ensures project success as well as delivering the
organizational strategic goals.
Our theoretical framework contributes to the communication foundation
model by Zulch, 2014b and leadership communication framework by J.
Barrett, 2006 by adding three management layers. This showcases important
dimensions for leadership communication theory. Hence, managers are
recommended to use our framework for delivering a successful project.
Subject reader: Simon Okwir Examiner: Sofia Waghrell SAMINT-MILI 2046 Printed by: Uppsala Universitet
Acknowledgements
This Master Thesis has been written in collaboration with Uppsala University. The research
work has been independently formulated by Sumit Das and Vijaya Mishra, with the help of
interviewees from various construction organizations.
Firstly, we would like to express our gratitude and appreciation to our subject reader,
Simon Okwir, lecturer at the department of Civil and Industrial Engineering, Industrial
Engineering and Management at Uppsala University. He guided us pedagogically throughout
the research process, listened to our ideas, gave us constructive feedback whenever
required, and provided us the opportunity to conduct an interesting research on leadership
communication. He also guided us in the process of framing and formulating the research
topic.
Secondly, we would like to thank Åse Linné, Associate Professor at the department of Civil
and Industrial Engineering, Industrial Engineering at Uppsala University for critically
reviewing our research work and providing valuable feedback for improvement.
Furthermore, we would like to thank Per Fors, Postdoctoral fellow at the department of
Civil and Industrial Engineering, Industrial Engineering at Uppsala University for his guidance
and feedback on leadership. We would also like to thank Uppsala University and all the
teachers from the department of Industrial Engineering and Management for sharing us
knowledge which will help us become leaders of tomorrow. Everything we learned during
the master program helped us in the formulation of this research paper today.
Sumit Das and Vijaya Mishra
Uppsala, 29th May 2020
i
Contents
List of figures ............................................................................................................................. ii
List of tables ............................................................................................................................. iii
List of abbreviations ................................................................................................................. iv
and financial management are unique to construction (Table 5). We will be discussing all
these knowledge areas throughout, but our focus would be to reveal how communication is a
cornerstone function to ensure project success. Secondly, it is limited to the construction
industry which operates in “goal-oriented” mode and in a matrix environment. Thirdly, as
there in no universal definition of a successful project in our study, we have considered a
successful project as the one which is delivered as per the desired scope, schedule, cost,
quality & customer satisfaction.
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2 LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter starts with describing leadership as a form of communication and its types followed by
the construction project environment. Previous secondary data available on the topic are discussed in
detail. The requirement and influence of leadership style in influencing the people behaviour,
managing them, maintaining effective communication and in making a project successful is reviewed.
Then communications management involved in the project lifecycle is described. Communication
models, channel, planning, execution, monitoring & control and barriers in the construction segment
are reviewed. This is followed by our theoretical framework and dimensions under test at the end. In
the next chapter we will describe methodology used for our research.
2.1 Leadership as a form of communication
Leadership is the behavioural style of a manager used to integrate organizational objectives
and personal interests to meet a goal. Whether a PM is appointed for a project or not, largely
depends on their leadership style (Kerzner, 2005). Leadership is important through all the
phases of the project life cycle. Arguably, the construction industry can be seen as having a
greater need for leadership because of its complexity, techno-commercial and other
specialized skills requirements and increasing realization on the people side of project
management. Managers have a high focus in accomplishing the tasks on time, within budget
and meeting scope whereas leaders are concerned on how to accomplish the task. Managers
focus on process whereas leaders focus on systems which can be translated to managers
having short-term views and leaders having a long-term view (Goetsch and Davis, 2003). It is
the people component of project management where the main problem lies because a PM has
to often manage people whom he or she is not a superior to. Leaders tend to solve the main
problem to deliver a successful project and thus having a sustainable approach in comparison
to managers. But the mainstream construction industry is more conventional in nature which
creates an urge for leaders in the modern construction industry to take initiatives in order to
make it more flexible and adaptive to change in the modern business environment (Toor and
Ofori, 2007).
According to Hoard, the project management skills maturity can be explained just as
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in psychology. Maslow too placed physiological needs at the
base of the pyramid. Safety, love, esteem needs are next in the hierarchy and self-
actualization being at the top of the pyramid. He stated that the need of a particular level can
be fulfilled only if the need below it is satisfied, e.g. a person can address love needs if the
physiological and safety needs are satisfied. Similarly, Hoard’s PM maturity hierarchy of
skills is shown in Figure 3.
• The bottom level represents leadership which is considered to be the base upon which all
other skills are built.
• Once the leadership is addressed, the basic management skills can be addressed in the next
level. Team work, communication, motivation and negotiation are part of this level.
• Once the basic managerial need is satisfied the next level of project management skills can
be developed. These are the nine knowledge areas from the PMI stated in PMBOK.
9
• Post forming a firm foundation on the above-mentioned skills in the pyramid, project
management maturity is achieved.
Article by Zulch (2014b)
stated that the Hoard PM
maturity model has been
criticized by many authors as
leadership cannot be the
starting point. A professional
must be a good manager
before becoming a great
leader. Also, the nine
knowledge areas are stacked
together which can be
misinterpreted having
hierarchical dependency. The
communication management
plan helps in keeping the
stakeholders engaged,
obtaining & confirming their
continued commitment towards the project. Managing stakeholder engagement towards the
project ensures that project goals are achieved through communication and negotiation. It
also helps anticipate the future problems that may be raised by stakeholders, assess the
project risk, mitigate them to keep stakeholders satisfied and ensure project success (Pmbok,
2017). Hence, we argue that the PM maturity model should have stakeholder management, as
satisfying them is one of the parameters of project success. While applying the model in the
context of construction projects, it must have Health, Safety, security & environment
Management (HSSE) and financial management when applied in the context of the
construction industry. Scope, schedule and cost are interrelated and changes in one also
affects the other. Quality is the product of interrelationship between these three.
Communication is a function which integrates all the knowledge areas together (Kotzé, Berry
and Verster, 2008) and hence it should be at the bottom as a foundation. Leadership must be
at the top position of the pyramid (Zulch, 2014b). Hence, there is a need for revision in the
PM maturity model.
J. Barrett explained leadership communication in the form of three rings (refer Figure 4). The
core, managerial and corporate. As a professional move up in his or her career, the
communication complexity goes up as well. The core communication ability is represented in
the centre of the ring. Strategy development, effective writing and speaking is the foundation
upon which core leadership communication depends. Strategy is the foundation on which
every effective communication depends. Leaders are required to successfully analyse a
situation and accordingly develop a communication strategy. They also need to write simple,
clear, concise and effective correspondence such as email, reports, proposal, documents etc.
and deliver oral presentations during meetings. These are the basic skills but as managers
Figure 3: Project management hierarchy of skills (Hoard)
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move up the ladder in the organizational hierarchy, they need to widen their horizon to
managerial and corporate leadership communication as well. Widening the horizon depends
on how a professional masters the core communication. The managerial leadership
communication consists of emotional intelligence, cultural literacy, listening, coaching &
managing team to develop managerial skills. Understanding the audience, their motivations
and actions in all communication situations is essential for a leadership communication.
Financial incentive as a motivation can be good but true motivation comes from within and to
understand this manager will require spending time with their team(Tonnquist, 2013). This
would be possible with self-awareness and emotional intelligence (EI). People with high EI
enable them to know what they feel, meaning of their emotions and how these emotions can
impact others. The openness of the audience with respect to his or her manager attribute can
assist or resist the proposed thought. Thus, for managerial leadership communication, EI is as
important as the core skills in the innermost ring. An understanding of cross-cultural
differences and active listening is required to interact effectively. The managerial ring also
includes team management and leading teams which are also required capabilities for today’s
leader.
When a professional move into a high-
level leadership position, he or she
needs to master the skills in the outer
circle – employee relations, change
communication, media relations, crisis
communication and reputation
management. In the context of the PM
maturity model, we argue that core
communication must be at the bottom
of the model. As an individual moves
up in the hierarchy, he or she masters
managerial and corporate
communication. He or she becomes the
face of the organization’s voice for the
public. Thus, the leadership
communication framework again
reconfirms that communication has to
be at the base and leadership at the top
in the PM maturity model. To reach the corporate level, professionals must clear the initial
two layers of core and managerial (J. Barrett, 2006). The leadership communication
framework can be applied to various project roles – governing, organizing and managing,
executing and supporting. We argue that core communication is essential for all irrespective
of their project roles as it is the foundation. The importance of managerial communication
increases as communication complexity, team size and number of stakeholders increases and
is therefore applicable to all mid-management professionals such as PM’s, program managers
and team leaders. But the construction industry seems to ignore this and there are instances
when a technical expert is being promoted to a PM position. Such PM’s fail to meet the
Figure 4: Leadership communication framework
(Barrett)
11
project objectives due to lack of managerial skills (Palm and Lindahl, 2015). We also argue
that the corporate communication is most important for the governance role who are
generally senior level managers such as CEO, COO, HoD’s and project owner because they
are the project’s face to the public. Leadership communication is also dependent on the
ability of creating a positive image inside and outside the organization because if the
audience does not trust or believe the leader, it will have low persuasive force. Charisma also
describes the ability to persuade others. Creating a positive image and charisma depends on
the leadership style (J. Barrett, 2006).
The real management is people management, but PM’s tend to focus more on improving the
project delivery process. Improving the project delivery is good but the most valuable asset
for us is the people working the project (Pell, 1987). Relationships tend to exist between
project leadership with a high level of verbal communication. Communication is therefore a
strong force which ensures project success and the project leader needs to develop a
leadership style that nurtures effective and efficient communication with stakeholders.
Leadership can be depicted as a communication skill that functions to get tasks done by the
project workforce by managing them. It includes communicating, delegating and
coordinating the work through all levels. Leadership therefore is a communication skill
(Zulch, 2014a) and leadership communication is the controlled, purposeful transfer of
meaning used by leaders to influence an individual, organization or community. The purpose
of leadership communication is to deliver a message which can guide, direct, motivate and
inspire the team to act. It can be strategy development, effective writing, or speaking in a
highly complex matrix construction environment (J. Barrett, 2006). Since, leaders can
influence the behaviour of the workforce and can set a vision to keep them focused, we argue
that leadership as a form of communication can lead to better management of a diverse
workforce and therefore enhances the chance of project success.
2.2 The construction project environment
This section describes the environment in the project lifecycle to understand the strategy,
delivery methods and how they impact other aspects and stakeholders. The project
environment is very broad and includes the geography in which it is being executed. The type
of solution proposed may vary and can vary the type of stakeholders involved, e.g. consider a
road project which would connect two cities to alter the traffic flow. The surrounding areas in
this case may be positively or negatively impacted by the project and each solution can have
a completely different set of stakeholders involved. There could be a wide range of project
delivery methods such as – design-bid-build, design-build, engineering procurement
construction (EPC), self-performance, integrated project delivery (IPD), public-private-
partnership (PPP). These methods define whether the project execution to be contracted, sub-
contracted or completely done by a single entity. A common type of a construction project
could be the one that is performed outside the owner’s organization by a contractor
(Construction Ext. Pmbok, 2016).
Both owner and contractor organizations have PMO’s. The owner has a controlling or
directive PMO whereas the contractor generally may use multiple supportive PMO to
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complement the organizational structure. The communication can be improved if the
contractor is able to match the owner’s project management execution and strategy. There are
certain factors which are outside the control of the PM known as enterprise environmental
factors. Economic, financial and site location factors come under this category. The
construction project cost is generally sum of the material cost and human resource cost but a
lot of factors such as government policies, inflation, changes in the foreign exchange rate
may have a huge impact on the project cost and can make it unstable. Construction projects
may require a huge amount of funding because they are large scale and long duration.
Financial institutions are also important stakeholders and they may act as project constraints.
If the project is being executed in a foreign currency, the associated exchange rate shall be
considered as a risk factor. The decision on selecting the site location may bring along issues
such as applicable laws, regulation, labour availability, brownfield / greenfield, site
accessibility etc. These can directly impact the project cost, e.g. contractors bidding for the
project investigate the weather pattern and include the cost in the bid (Construction Ext.
Pmbok, 2016).
A construction project has strong focus on results. Hence all construction projects are driven
by deadlines and gate models which provide predictability in a challenging working
environment (Maier and Branzei, 2014). It is extremely important to track, monitor and
communicate various information critical for achieving project deadlines. Communication
leads to cooperation, cooperation to coordination and coordination to project success (Badiru,
2012). Most of the construction projects operate in a matrix environment and due to
communication malfunction between the temporary and permanent organization the project
progress is affected, the project predictability is lost and thus gate models have become a
hypocrisy (Palm and Lindahl, 2015). There is an imbalance of power between the permanent
and temporary organization. Resources are suddenly removed by their line managers which
causes fragmentation, disruption and inefficiency in projects. The matrix organizational
structure adds complexity in the communication between the PM and line manager. Almost
one-third of the PM’s are overloaded and stressed due to this and it directly impacts the
project performance and success (Zika-Viktorsson, 2006). Project integration management is
the main role of a PM and lack of motivation and coordination among the employees are the
biggest barriers to it. Many PM in the beginning of their career do nothing to address
communication rather than issuing reports. Highly experienced and performance driven PM
go beyond just preparing communication plans and issuing reports. They engage with
stakeholders to know exactly what needs to be communicated to each other and often recheck
the project communications requirement at team meetings to limit the possibility of
communication problems (Mulcahy,2016).
The characteristics of construction projects impact the society and stakeholders. Good
relationship with stakeholders is vital for project success and communication plays an
important role in keeping stakeholders engaged and to get valuable feedback (Mulcahy,
2016). Project governance plays an important role in establishing an integrated view
considering the stakeholder relationship. The fast-changing construction industry is putting
high pressure on PM to perform better with fewer human resources. Almost one-third of the
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PM’s are overloaded and stressed and this directly impacts the project performance and
success (Zika-Viktorsson, 2006). PM’s have less work life balance and often work for
uncompensated work hours without complaining (Legault and Chasserio, 2012). In this work
environment PM’s often lose focus in their work. Leadership plays an important role to shift
focus of project workers on key tasks to be accomplished by better people management (Toor
and Ofori, 2007).
2.3 Leadership styles
The leadership style influences the leadership communication effectiveness of a PM, so
understanding of the generally known leadership style is relevant. It influences the ability to
create a positive image and charisma. Though high importance has been placed in effective
leadership in research, the construction industry still faces major leadership challenges.
Generating conditions for the team to succeed is what a leader does but it becomes complex
because it is a dynamic behaviour which needs to be varied with different circumstances. A
PM also uses his or her character to communicate and lead a project. As per the leadership
Johari window, a leader needs to be self-aware regarding – what they know and do not know
about themselves, what others know and do not know about them. This will help leaders
know where he or she stands. Giving and receiving feedback can be difficult but can act as
an endorsement to provide support and encouragement or a correction through constructive
suggestions (Tonnquist, 2013). There have been several leadership theories which are broadly
classified as per Table 1 below.
Table 1: Leadership theories
Leadership theories Year Example
Great man theories 1800s “Who’s born to lead?”
Trait theories 1930s “What traits characterizes a good leader?”
Behaviour theories 1940s Task-oriented vs people oriented
Contingency theories 1960s Situational leadership
Transformational theories 1970s Inspirational and charismatic leadership
Post-heroic leadership Last 10-20 years Relational, collectivist, centred, participatory, responsibility, encouraging, innovation, seeking consensus, working for people growth, focusing on action and interaction and collaboration.
As presented in Table 1, the heroic leadership was unidirectional and a top-down influential
process which drew a clear line between the follower and leader. Whereas the post-heroic
leadership is agreed to be relational, collectivist and participatory in nature. It does not focus
on individual attributes and character. It is a result of interaction and relationship between
individuals (Sobral and Furtado, 2019). Based on the leadership theories, there are several
leadership styles. The famous article by Daniel Goleman known as Leadership that get results
describes six basic leadership styles – the coercive, authoritative, affiliative, democratic,
pacesetting and coaching style. Goleman said “Don’t take a one-size-fits-all approach to
leadership. Choose the style that maximizes your effectiveness in a given situation.”
Managers often fail to understand how the leadership style impacts the climate in an
organization which in turn affects the project performance. The way managers motivate,
14
make decisions, communicate, handle changes and crises can impact the climate. The greater
number of styles a leader masters better chances of improving the organizational climate and
business performance. New researches suggest that successful leaders apply a combination of
these styles in the right measure and at the right time. This is very difficult to put into action
but pays off in performance. Very few leaders have all the six styles, and even fewer know
when and how to apply them (Goleman, 2000). The most important leadership arising from
the heroic paradigm are – charismatic, transactional, transformational and visionary (Sobral
and Furtado, 2019). As per Smit, Cronje and De some of the mostly applied and well-known
leadership styles in business management are presented in Table 2:
Table 2: Leadership style(Smit, Cronje & De)
Contingency or situational style
This style is based on matching personal characteristics of a leader with a leadership style best suited to a situation.
Visionary style A visionary leader always focuses on the vision, listens to others, involves them and clearly communicates with them.
Path goal style This style provides necessary direction and support to the team to make sure that the team achieve organization goals.
Fiedler’s style This style correlates with the contingency style. It not only matches the leader’s personality and style but also changes the situation so that it becomes compatible with the style.
McGregor’s theory - x and y style
Theory X directs, and forces work to the tea because it believes that people try to avoid work and responsibility. Opposite to that theory Y assumes that people enjoy their work and take responsibility.
Lifecycle style It is a contingency style which believes in task maturity of employees such as accepting responsibility, working knowledge, experience. They aim to balance tasks and relationships.
Behavioural style This style differentiates between task oriented or people-oriented approach. It gives attention to relationships while discussing task issues to achieve a successful conclusion.
Actional centred style
In this style the leader focuses on task, team and individual i.e. achievement of objectives, group coherence and individual needs through communication.
It has been observed that PM’s who are more task oriented and low in people orientation
performed acceptably well. Some research shows that managers tend to use a supportive style
in the pre-study phase and a directive style as the construction progresses. Toor and Ofori
also mentioned in their article that study on PM’s of various geographical areas showcased
that, some of them considered relationship oriented to be more effective than task oriented,
some PM’s are relationship oriented and adopt a supportive style, male and female PM’s
were similar in transactional leadership but their transformational practices were significantly
different, PM’s at higher designations are stronger in pacesetting leadership (Toor and Ofori,
2007). In a survey study on a mega scale project, it was found that transformational leaders
were rated high compared to transactional leaders and the use of punishment was rated
lowest. Most of the identified leadership are self-centred, relationship-centred, change-
centred or task-centred. Mindfulness leadership can create situational awareness and generate
more effective ways to communicate and collaborate with others (Roussel, 2019).
Above research showcases that there can never be an agreement on what leadership style can
be best suited for a construction project environment because no leadership style can
15
maximize the best outcomes in all circumstances (Fiedler, 1967). Leadership can never be an
exact science, but neither can it be a complete mystery to those who practice it. As the
business environment is changing leaders must act the right style at the right time in the right
measure (Goleman, 2000). Every individual has a different set of values, background, culture
and experiences and therefore PMs need to have a unique and reliable leadership style that is
consistent with their personal appeal and motivations. Some researchers also consider
authentic leadership as a solution to the problem of leadership crisis in the modern business
world (Toor and Ofori, 2007). Most of the literatures on leadership do not talk about how a
PM can develop a particular leadership style, why he or she selects a style over another, why
some style can work effectively with a team while the same may fail with other team or
whether there is a set of characteristics which may result in best leadership.
2.4 Communication Process
Information is a one-way process whereas communication is a two-way process. The latter
happens when the sender and recipient exchange information. The communication must solve
a purpose and there is a sequence of steps in this process –
Table 3: Communication process
Encode Encoding is translation of thoughts or ideas into language.
Transit message Using a channel the information is sent. There may be several factors impacting the transition of message such as distance, technological error, no background information, cultural gap. These are known as noise.
Decode The recipient translates the message into a meaningful idea.
Acknowledge The recipient acknowledges the receipt, but this does not necessarily mean agreement.
Feedback The recipient after decoding and understanding the message encodes ideas into a language and transmits it to the original sender (Pmbok, 2017).
In a project, the communication is initiated by a stakeholder seeking information, asking a
query, giving an instruction, team activity or networking. The sender is the starting point of a
communication. Table 3 shows that a
message, thought, signal or idea may
involve transforming inner feelings,
thoughts by the sender during encoding.
The encoding activities could be speech,
non-verbal signs or even writing it down.
The sender after encoding should be
aware of the communication factors such
as nonverbal, para lingual, words and
select an appropriate method to deliver
the message. Decoding on the other hand
is active listening and reading to convert
the message into a meaningful pattern.
When applied to the context of
construction project management, the Figure 5: Communication flow in a project
16
competency of a PM in encoding and decoding plays an important role to deliver the project
outcomes. The feedback’s role is fundamental in successful communication. In absence or
delay of feedback, interventions by a PM is required. This may seem easy but considering a
project which is going to be executed for several years, with several stakeholders the number
of communication channels is very high, and it is complicated (Talukhaba A, Mutunga T,
Miruka, 2011). Figure 5 shows the communication flow in a construction project.
Communications shall happen internally and externally to the core project team, vertically
up-down to different levels of the organization and horizontally among the peers.
Communication always happens in a process and it is important to review the internal and
external communications. Table 4 depicts the types of communication in a company. The
company’s culture and organization process asset (OPA) drive formal communication. The
organizational structure can also have a significant impact on formal communication. As
most of the knowledge sharing happens via email, meeting and general conversations,
informal verbal as well as written is very important. Verbal communication has the most
influence on project leadership (Zulch, 2014a). Meetings have the potential to discuss the
differences and come up with the best plan. But the amount of effort and time invested in a
meeting is unknown, so it has to be planned efficiently (Gorse and Emmitt, 2009).
Table 4: Types of communications in a project
Communication Type Examples
Formal written Project charter, project management plan, Complex problems, contract
Formal verbal Presentations, speeches
Informal written Email, text message, handwritten notes
Informal verbal Meeting, conversations
Formal organization is the skeleton of the company, whereas informal communication is the
nervous system through which the process, thoughts and actions in a business unit (BU)
flows (Fischbach, Gloor, and Schoder, 2008). Non-verbal constitutes a major portion of
communication and can be described as body language. Pitch and tone of voice as well as
selection of words are also part of making a communication effective (Mulcahy, 2016). There
has been improved project performance in terms of budget, schedule and customer
satisfaction for PM’s who actively communicate with team members (Henderson,2004).
Even if a project is planned very well, communication may get hindered by barriers or noise.
A few technical barriers could be word interpretations, reality perceptions, attitude and
opinions. Other barriers are psychological distractions such as nervousness, stress, fatigue or
illness, emotional distractions such as extreme happiness or sadness. Some personal barriers
are not knowing the language, culture, social background, demographics or education.
Research shows that gender can also act as a communication barrier. Men tend to have a
different interpretation of emotional feelings and lack of trust with women (Hale, 1999).
Using idiomatic phrases such as what is your game plan? or what a bad idea? can also hinder
the natural flow of communication (Mulcahy, 2016). Age, personality, leadership style,
Physical appearance etc can impact the sender as well as the receiver and comes under
environmental barriers. All these barriers impact the delivery and receipt of information
17
(Gillard and Johansen, 2004). Emotional intelligence and positive ethos play an important
role to minimize the communication barrier (J. Barrett, 2006).
2.5 Project communications management in construction
The Pmbok guide demonstrates ten knowledge areas mapped across five process groups and
the construction extension mentions two additional knowledge areas specific to the
construction industry (Table 5).
Table 5: Process groups vs knowledge area mapping
Knowledge Areas
Process Group
Initiation Planning Execution Monitoring & control
Closure
Integration Management • • • • •
Scope Management • •
Schedule Management • •
Cost Management • •
Quality Management • • •
Human Resource management • • • •
Communication Management • • •
Risk Management • •
Procurement Management • • • •
Stakeholder Management • • • •
Health, Safety, security & environment Management
• • •
Financial Management • •
The project integration management is the main role of a PM where he puts all the bits and
pieces of a project together into a cohesive whole in order to meet the project objectives
faster, cheaper and with optimized resources. Scope, schedule and cost are the triple
constraints of a project. They are interrelated and changes in one also affects the other.
Quality is the product of interrelationship between these three. Human resource management
organizes, manages and leads the project team. It is the people component of project
management where the main problem lies. Hence human resource management becomes
even more important in a matrix environment because a PM has to often manage people
whom he or she is not a superior. Risk management helps the PM to deal with known
unknowns and unknown unknowns. Unknown unknowns can completely invalidate the
project or end up annihilating the management reserves completely. Procurement
management includes the processes necessary to purchase or acquire products, services
needed outside the project team. The success of the project is also highly dependent on how
satisfied the stakeholders are. They can negatively or positively impact the project outcomes.
A PM’s effort to clarify work scope, objectives and establish agreement between stakeholders
positively influences team member’s satisfaction. Health, safety and security management
includes the process to maintain the wellbeing, safety and security of office and site
employees, contractors, sub-contractors and all others working for the project on or off-site.
Financial management ensures that pay-out and receivables are coordinated in a fashion to
maintain the working capital. All these knowledge areas are required to be integrated.
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Integration of the project is the main role of PM as it helps to avoid scope creep. Scope creep
is the uncontrolled expansion of a project or product scope without adjustments in the
schedule, cost and resources. A PM integrates the HR, risk, HSSE, procurement, stakeholder
and financial knowledge areas and then makes a trade-off between the project constraints to
avoid the scope creep (Pmbok, 2017). But project integration cannot happen without the
communication support and thus is a cornerstone function (Zulch, 2014a).
Müller and Turner stated that, in a complex construction environment, the mutual exchange
of information shall flow in a way that it succeeds in finding the right level and it is the
responsibility of a PM to ensure that all the stakeholders are on the same page by asking for
feedback or follow-up. Inadequately communicated scope of work, project objectives,
unclearly defined responsibility can result in ineffective communication and lead to project
failure. Hence the PM leadership communication has a prime importance because it helps in
analysing the audience in every situation and accordingly develops a communication strategy
that facilitates the objectives (J. Barrett, 2006), e.g. a PM has arranged a meeting with a seller
who did not show up. This happened several times until he found that they had a fixed
contract which did not have any mention of such a meeting. This replicates that the PM must
have a strategic approach to leadership communication. Also, succession in the managerial
and corporate leadership communication depends in mastering the core capabilities of
strategy, writing and speaking. Construction project management requires constant flow of
ideas or signals for negotiation with suppliers, contractors, clarifying scope internally and
externally, resolving disputes, bargaining with service providers (Zulch, 2014b). Leadership
communication demands for foreseeing all interferences through audience analysis and thus
developing a communication strategy to control the situation and accordingly transmitting the
message (J. Barrett, 2006). Hence, we argue that leadership communication can lead to better
project integration. A construction project progresses from initiation to closure (Figure 6), but
there is no communication in the initiation and closure phase indicated in Table 5. In the
setting of communication management, it is worth discussing.
Figure 6: Project phases
Initiation – A project in the initiation phase is top driven and the project scope is broad before
appointing a PM. There is no mention of the application of communication management in
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this phase, but it does mention integration and stakeholder management. Most of the
communication takes place in silos unless a PM is appointed. Upon selecting a PM, he or she
formally operationalizes the communication process. This is when the communication is
planned and further executed and monitored. We agree that the initiation phase does not have
a stringent communication requirement but, even the initiation phase of a construction project
needs to be integrated and stakeholders to be managed. We argue that there is a chance of
useful information being missed to communicate during this transition of project from
business development or bidding team to the project department. Identifying stakeholders is
an important activity in the initiation phase. Without communication an important
stakeholder can be missed which can further result in project objectives not met or change of
scope (Pmbok, 2017). This has not been addressed in the former research articles and project
management books.
Closure – The important document which is created in the closure phase is the “lesson learnt”
document which is updated in the organization process asset (OPA) so that it can be referred
and used in another project of the program or portfolio. It is prepared in consultation with the
project execution team. Since this does not have much dependency on other support functions
and stakeholders, this might be the reason that there is no mention of communication
management in the closure phase in Table 5. However, in the same table the presence of
integration, human resources and procurement can be seen. The most important things in the
HR management which takes place in the closure phase is project performance appraisal. It is
done to address unresolved issues and provide constructive feedback to the team. The need
for performance appraisal is dependent on the project duration, complexity, organization
policy and the frequency and quality of regular communication. The procurement closure
involves administrative activities such as finalizing open claims, addressing each and every
contract applicable to the project or project phase. Procurement negotiation also takes place
to settle all outstanding issues, claims and disputes (Pmbok, 2017). These activities require
coordination with internal stakeholders as well external stakeholders such as seller,
contractor, service provider. It requires a PM to manage changes, teams, employee relations
(J. Barrett, 2006). This shows the requirement of leadership communication in the closure
phase as well. We argue that the communications management needs to be included in the
closure phase. Now let us view in brief how project communications are planned, executed,
monitored & controlled in the remaining three phases throughout the project lifecycle.
2.5.1 Project communications management planning
The PM and the project team are the central point of all project communications. They are
not limited to just sharing project information and documents but also collecting, analysing
and providing feedback to various stakeholders to overcome cultural, social and contractual
barriers. The complex multi organizational, varying interests and diverse communication
network (Figure 7) formed in a construction project is the primary source of challenge to the
project objectives. It is very important to assess the project documents such as contract,
specific conditions, design documents before preparing a plan for communication. The
requirements specified in the contract, determines what has to be documented to meet the
contractual obligations. Communication plan should ensure that communications occur
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internally and externally to the core
project team, vertically up-down to
different levels of the organization
and horizontally among the peers.
While preparing the communication
plan high level corporate and social
responsibility shall be considered by
the PM. The communication plan
should take care of the
communication flow among the
designers, contractor, subcontractors,
procurement team, and project owner
organization for coordinating the
change orders, RFP, RFQ, IFB, RFI
claims etc. as these have a serious
impact on the project cost and
timeline. The communication plan also determines the frequency of reports, e.g. daily report
is a document which is shared on a daily basis to keep all the stakeholders informed regarding
the project progress. It also acts as an extremely important means to resolve disputes
(Construction Ext. Pmbok, 2016). It is evident from the above that, while planning the
communications management the PM needs a solid communication strategy to make the
communication plan effective, clear and concise. This connects to the core communication of
the leadership communication framework by Barrett.
2.5.2 Project communications management execution
Due to the high complex construction environment, PMs must act proactively to ensure that
the information is generated, transmitted and understood appropriately. Based on the project
delivery methods explained in introduction, various organizations may work together in the
construction having competing interests. This can become a source of conflict.
Documentation is one the most important means to solve contractual disputes. Centralized
management of project documents such as contracts, insurance, equipment warranty,
checklists, invoicing etc is very effective. Avoid, smoothening, compromise, forcing and
collaborating are some conflict resolution techniques among which collaborative approach is
the best and long-lasting resolution. To collaborate it needs for a PM to interact well
individually as well as in groups which is an attribute of a manager. Managerial
communication begins with interpersonal skills, understanding of the cultural differences and
active listening (J. Barrett, 2006). Thus, the construction communication management in
execution conforms to the managerial ring in the leadership communication framework.
2.5.3 Project communications management monitoring & control
Project communications shall be monitored and controlled so that the right information
reaches the right person at the right time in the right format to meet the information need of
the stakeholder. There are several reporting formats in construction projects which solve
different purposes, e.g. performance report, geotechnical report, topographical survey report,
Figure 7: Construction project communication
network (Cons. Ext. Pmbok)
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soil report, contractor performance evaluation (CPE), customer satisfaction index (CSI),
quality assurance (QA), quality control (QC), project performance index (PPI), project
quality index (PQI), earned value management (EVM), health safety & environment (HSE)
report, lessons learned documentation etc. Every report has a specific purpose of reporting
with different frequency and different set of concerned stakeholders. The PM needs to listen
to stakeholders, teams and understand the cross-cultural differences to interact effectively
with them (J. Barrett, 2006). The performance and various other reports keep the stakeholders
informed regarding the predictability of project success thus keep them satisfied. The
monitoring and controlling of communications management requires managerial
communication skills from the leadership communication framework by Barrett. When there
are crises and escalations which are unresolved by the mid managers, it is then escalated at
senior level. As an individual moves up in the hierarchy, he or she becomes accountable for
resolution of such issues. They are also responsible for the smooth functioning of the entire
program or portfolio and thus they are the face of the organization and voice for the public.
This requires mastering the core and managerial ring of the leadership communication
framework.
2.6 Theoretical framework
A goal-oriented construction project has strong focus on results and hence driven by stringent
deadlines. The project performance is highly based on the schedule, cost, scope and quality
performance. Any issue impacting the project baseline (schedule, cost or scope baseline)
results in either project getting delayed, over budget or scope not met. Integration of project
is the main role of the PM as it helps to minimize the impact on schedule, cost and resources
due to project issues. A PM integrates the human resource, risk, HSSE, procurement,
stakeholder and financial knowledge area and then makes a trade-off between the project
constraints. They are interrelated and changes in one also affects the other. Quality is the
product of interrelationship between these three. (Pmbok, 2017).
When a technical expert is being promoted to a PM position, they fail to meet the project
objectives due to lack of managerial skills (Palm and Lindahl, 2015). Leadership is one of the
essential factors in construction management and communication is a topic frequently linked
to it, but the linkage often is limited to a view of communication as a means to achieve
particular purpose (Ruben and Gigliotti, 2016). Practically, this view of communication does
not capture the broad leadership practice. High importance has been placed in effective
leadership in research, the construction industry still faces major leadership challenges.
Because the construction industry has been considering leadership and communication in
isolation to each other. So far, there has been little research on integration of project
knowledge areas with leadership communication. The PM’s leadership communication has a
prime importance because it helps in analysing the audience in every situation and
accordingly develop a communication strategy that facilitates better people management and
also achieves the project objectives (J. Barrett, 2006). Past researches in the construction
industry are focused on few known leadership styles for effective communication,
communication competencies for being a leader or better people management in an atomistic
manner. There is a need to design a framework that integrates leadership communication with
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project knowledge areas with a prime importance to integration. Figure 8: Leadership
communication framework used in this study is derived from the integration of
communication foundation model (Zulch, 2014b) and leadership communication framework
(J. Barrett, 2006).
Figure 8: Leadership communication framework used in this study
Article by Zulch (2014a) stated that leadership cannot be the starting point. A professional
should be a good manager before becoming a great leader. Strategy is the foundation on
which every effective communication depends. Leaders are required to successfully analyse a
situation and accordingly develop a communication strategy (J. Barrett, 2006). Thus, in the
context of leadership communication, the core should be at the bottom. Managerial leadership
should be in the next layer as it is built upon the core. Post mastering in the core and
managerial a professional move into the next layer of corporate leadership communication.
Our study does not intend to go into the management layers but the core, managerial and
corporate conform to the operating core, mid-level management and senior-level
management respectively (Roth, 2016).
Table 6: Dimensions under test from the theoretical framework below capture the dimensions
to be tested. From the article on leadership communication by Barrett, we see that the three
levels of managers require different leadership communication skills. Integration
management is the main role of a PM. Apart from the knowledge in schedule, cost, scope and
quality a PM should also master skills that help to effectively integrate the project. Hence
knowledge of what facilitates project integration is highly relevant for a PM. The leadership
style influences the communication effectiveness of a PM and the ability to create a positive
image towards the audience, so knowing reliable leadership style with respect to the
construction is relevant. Section 2.3 showcases that there can never be an agreement on what
leadership style can be best suited for a project environment but Smit, Cronje and De
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described the mostly applied and well-known leadership styles in business management and
same were also mentioned in the “Leadership Communication in Project Management”
article by Zulch (2014a). The styles which are generally used in management are situational,
visionary, people and task oriented, McGregor theory X and Y, action centred and
behavioural which we will examine in our study. Authentic leadership is said to be a solution
to the problem of leadership crisis in the modern business world (Toor and Ofori, 2007).
Hence, we have also considered authentic leadership for this study.
Table 6: Dimensions under test from the theoretical framework
Management Level Dimension under test Dimension under test
Operating core Core leadership communication i)Project integration, ii)Characteristics to communicate effectively
i)Strategy ii)Writing iii)Speaking
Mid-level Managerial leadership communication i)Project integration, ii)Characteristics to communicate effectively
4 ML1 Telecom construction Kuwait Skype 46 minutes
5 ML2 Oil and gas India Skype 27 minutes
6 ML3 Robotics Israel Skype 44 minutes
7 ML4 Telecom construction India Skype 25 minutes
8 ML5 Building construction Denmark Telephonic 49 minutes
9 ML6 Renewable energy infrastructure India Skype 27 minutes
10 ML7 Railways India Skype 34 minutes
11 SL1 Energy Infrastructure India Skype 33 minutes
12 SL2 Automobile France Telephonic 26 minutes
13 SL3 Renewable energy infrastructure India Skype 73 minutes
14 SL4 Building infrastructure Denmark Telephonic 25 minutes
3.3 Data analysis
This section of the study will tell about how systematically logical techniques have been
applied to describe, illustrate and evaluate the data. For this, we have followed the “Thematic
analysis by LincoIn and Guba, 1985 which consists of six steps as mentioned in Table 8.
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Table 8: Thematic analysis of data
Phase-I Familiarizing yourself with your data
Phase-II Generating initial codes
Phase-III Searching for themes
Phase-IV Reviewing themes
Phase-V Defining and naming themes
Phase-VI Producing the report – writing it up
The first phase is familiarizing with the data and it requires us to fully devote ourselves to the
data and repeatedly go through it. The purpose is to find meaningful patterns in the collected
data. Our data collection is done in three levels and the initial pattern will be in three different
levels and then we will check whether there is a possibility to generalize the pattern or not.
The second step is generating initial codes which is basically sorting and organizing the set of
interviews which again has been done in three sets – senior, mid and operating core. The next
phase is searching a theme to bring meaning and identity to the codes followed by reviewing
the themes. The review brings meaningfulness, resonance, consensus and validation to the
theme. In the fifth phase we will write a detailed analysis and try identifying the story which
the themes tell. The last step is writing up the report in a concise, coherent, logical, non-
repetitive and interesting manner within and across themes.
3.4 Research quality
3.4.1 Reliability and replication
If the results obtained from a research study can be repeated, then it can be said as reliable.
Reliability becomes more important in a quantitative study compared to a qualitative study
(Bryman and Bell, 2011). The data gathering in a qualitative study is done by asking
questions in a flexible manner and the answers are very much context dependent. Different
respondents may have different answers for the same question. Therefore, the results obtained
would be difficult to replicate unless it is applied in a similar setting in a construction
environment.
3.4.2 Validation of collected data
Leadership is one of the essential factors in construction management and communication is
a topic frequently linked to it, but the linkage often is limited to a view of communication as
a means to achieve a particular purpose. Practically, this view of communication does not
capture the broad leadership practice. So far, there has been little research on integration of
project knowledge areas with leadership communication. Hence in line with the theoretical
framework we created an interview guide. The respondent of the interviews are real world
practitioners working in construction companies in segments such as building, energy,
railway, telecom and oil & gas. Comparing the primary data from interviews with the
secondary data from project management books and relevant articles helped us to clearly
understand how essential leadership communication is for construction projects. Validity can
become questionable if it is not able to answer what this research is intended to answer. It can
be classified as internal and external validity. Internal validity is basically answering the
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relationship between the variables of this study defined in the theoretical framework whereas
external validity is the generalisation and application of the results of this study to other
research areas (Bryman and Bell, 2011). As this study is focused on the construction industry
and the respondents of the interview are from a construction background, therefore the
external validity of this study seems to be frail.
3.4.3 Risk analysis and mitigation
There are always chances of occurrence of risks which can affect the whole research study.
We need to identify these sources of risk and plan a risk mitigation strategy to reduce these
risks. Table 9 presents how we have ensured a strategy to tackle the risks.
Table 9: Risk mitigation strategy
Risk Type Risk Sources Mitigation strategy
Descriptive Validity (Norris, 1997)
Use of unauthentic data sources, factual inaccuracy
Use of authentic data from verifiable sources
Interpretive validity (Norris, 1997)
Incorrect interpretation of data Transparency in interpretation to be built by transparent use of synonyms while interpreting data
Internal Validity (for causal links, not for descriptive cases) (Yin, 2003) - Second type of theoretical validity (Norris, 1997)
Ambiguity in understanding the correct relationship of found variables as it is just one or few cases, lack of evidence in data, incorrect analysis of data
Using pattern matching, explanation building, logical models Bringing transparency in analysis, if possible, using replication of casual links for more than one evidence in cases
Reliability (Yin, 1981, 2003)
Replication of case study with similar results could be difficult because of non-transparent data collection and analysis methods
Protocol preparation for data collection, data categorization and data storage, transparent and robust analysis methods for case analysis
3.4.4 Ethical considerations
Blomkvist & Hallin in their book on “Method for engineering students” mentions four ethical
requirements in a scientific research work. The ethical requirements are attached herewith:
• The respondents in the study shall be made aware regarding the purpose of the study
• The respondents shall agree to the interview data being used for study
• If the gathered data for the research is considered confidential, it should not be shared in a
free manner
• The collected data for the study shall only be used for the purpose it was declared to be
used while collection
We followed all the above stated points during this study. While collection of data both from
primary and secondary resources, we followed anonymity and confidentiality. We did not
mention the name of respondents or their organization name anywhere. This is as per Bryman
and Bell.
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4 EMPIRICAL FINDINGS & ANALYSIS
In this chapter the data collected through interviews are presented and analysed. The data collection
is based on the interview guide which we have described in the previous chapter. As shown in our
theoretical framework the data has been collected and presented in three segments -operating core,
mid managers and senior managers. Here we will describe and interpret the components of core,
managerial & corporate leadership communication, project management skills that are essential for
the respondent in order to integrate the project and communicate effectively. In the next chapter we
will discuss the significance of the findings.
The interview findings and analysis are presented in the different managerial levels for better
understanding. For better presentation the section-II findings of the interview guide have
been presented collectively. Constructive codes have been used to interpret the findings.
4.1 Operating core
We have interviewed three interviewees from the operating core level working in different
companies. Table 10 shows the details for the operating core respondents.