An investigation into the relationship between diversity, leadership and innovation in the South African construction industry

Abstract

Without a diverse leadership and workforce, in the South African construction industry innovation is hindered and slowed, resulting in a weakened ability to respond to a fast paced and technologically driven market and economical changes, which has a direct impact on organisational growth. Little is known about the role of leadership in managing the relationship between diversity and innovation in the South African construction industry. The construction industry has not been responsive to market changes and therefore slow to innovate. This rapidly evolving contextual landscape requires a more diverse workforce in order to address these challenges. This paper presents the findings from a study that investigated and analysed the role of leadership in managing the relationship between diversity and innovation in the construction industry. In this context leadership is described as the ability to select, equip, train, and influence one or more followers who have diverse gifts, abilities, and skills and focuses the followers to the organisation’s mission and objectives. Diversity are described as age, ethnicity, cultural background, gender, race and capabilities. Innovation is described as the implementation of ideas that have come together to create new solutions to problems or improvements to existing systems, processes, products, or attempted solutions.