Sustainable Construction Projects: The Level of Understanding on Leadership Skills among Project Managers

Abstract

A project manager is a crucial factor of a project's success, especially in sustainable construction projects. Their role as a leader is also observable with regard to achieving sustainability objectives in sustainable construction projects. In contrast to conventional projects, sustainable construction projects face more nuanced issues. The influence of leadership skills of the project managers is therefore becoming essential for the success of sustainable construction projects. This study examines the level of understanding of leadership skills among project managers in sustainable construction projects and determines the correlation between their experience and understanding of leadership skills. A questionnaire survey was carried out among 153 project managers with experience in the management of sustainable construction projects in Malaysia. The IBM SPSS software version 24 was used to perform a descriptive statistic, a normality test, and a Spearman's correlation test on the data collected. The results indicate a very high level of understanding among project managers regarding leadership skills in sustainable construction projects. Apart from that, there is a positive correlation between years of experience in sustainable construction projects and the level of understanding of leadership skills among project managers in sustainable construction projects. The findings of this research will serve as an avenue for future researchers to identify the necessary leadership skills for project managers to manage sustainable construction projects effectively.