IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/conmgt/v39y2021i7p565-578.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A taxonomy of digital leadership in the construction industry

Author

Listed:
  • Sambo Lyson Zulu
  • Farzad Khosrowshahi

Abstract

Businesses in the construction industry are experiencing pressure to modernize by embracing digital technologies. Like any other change initiative, digital transformation requires that leaders are at the forefront of their organizations’ pursuit for digital innovation. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the different leadership approaches exhibited by construction industry leaders in influencing their organizations’ digital paths. Qualitative data collected from 41 construction industry professionals were analysed using an inductive thematic analysis approach. The main finding was a taxonomy of digital leadership types characterized under six themes: proactive and forward-thinking; supportive; uncoordinated; cautious; resistant and visionless and undriven leaders. These themes provide an insight into how leaders influence the digital transformation paths in organizations. As far as the authors are aware, this study is the first that developed a taxonomy of digital leadership approaches in the construction industry. This is a valuable step in understanding leaders’ influence in driving digital transformation in the construction industry. Thus, the taxonomy of digital leadership can be used to evaluate leadership styles and attitude towards digitalization. The findings are also a platform for further studies on digital leadership in construction.

Suggested Citation

  • Sambo Lyson Zulu & Farzad Khosrowshahi, 2021. "A taxonomy of digital leadership in the construction industry," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(7), pages 565-578, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:conmgt:v:39:y:2021:i:7:p:565-578
    DOI: 10.1080/01446193.2021.1930080
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/01446193.2021.1930080
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/01446193.2021.1930080?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Muhd Shafiq Johari & Syamsul Hendra Mahmud & Sarajul Fikri Mohamed & Mohd Saidin Misnan & Tantish Kamarudin & Mohd Azwarie Mat Dzahir, 2024. "A SWOT Analysis of Digitalization in the Construction Firm: Challenges and Barriers to Managers Level in Malaysia," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 8(3), pages 1520-1540, March.
    2. Turgut Karakose & Ibrahim Kocabas & Ramazan Yirci & Stamatios Papadakis & Tuncay Yavuz Ozdemir & Murat Demirkol, 2022. "The Development and Evolution of Digital Leadership: A Bibliometric Mapping Approach-Based Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-26, December.
    3. Sambo Lyson Zulu & Ali M. Saad & Barry Gledson, 2023. "Individual Characteristics as Enablers of Construction Employees’ Digital Literacy: An Exploration of Leaders’ Opinions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-17, January.
    4. Sambo Lyson Zulu & Ali M. Saad, 2023. "A Sensemaking Perspective of Digitalisation in Construction Organisations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-18, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:conmgt:v:39:y:2021:i:7:p:565-578. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RCME20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.