The Construction Professional’s Kanohi Kē: The Road to Purpose-Fit Selection for New Zealand

Abstract

AbstractThe New Zealand construction industry requires resilient construction professionals with soft skills and certain personality profiles to ensure that their teams are led well and thus resulting in the successful delivery of projects. These individuals will need to have previous experience that will have conditioned and honed their various skillsets and their own personality traits that have been moulded over time. The New Zealand (NZ) construction industry has a specific culture based on its ethnic profile that influences the way things are done. Selecting individuals with exceptional organisational performance is a significant task that NZ construction companies need to constantly be aware of. If the company selects the wrong individual it can have financial and relationship damaging consequences. Previous studies have indicated that there is a positive link between personality and performance outcomes. Psychometric tests can assist in effectively selecting more purpose-fit construction professionals. A Likert scale was used to rank the South African Personality Inventory (SAPI) dimensions, according to importance, of construction professionals in NZ. Data was collected via Qualtrics from 266 Site Safe members, their industry partners and then analysed at Massey University. The SAPI personality results suggested that construction professionals in NZ most valued personality traits such as; Integrity, Orderliness, Interpersonal Relatedness, Facilitating, Achievement Orientation and Traditional-Religiosity. All of these fall within the SAPI main dimensions of Conscientiousness and Positive Social-Relational Disposition. The third main dimension reflected as Intellect/Openness with sub-dimensions such as; Epistemic Curiosity, Broad-Mindedness and Intellect. Extraversion proved to be of lesser importance, but in the context of a construction project and teamwork, there is, in moderate consideration, a time for displaying Sociability and Playfulness. The least preferred personality traits were presented under the main dimension of Negative Social-Relational. The sub-dimensions under the least preferred personality traits included Arrogance, Conflict-Seeking, Deceitfulness and Hostility-Egoism. The NZ construction industry is a very close-knit family and word of mouth or personal referrals are prominent in finding a career for many. To ensure individual retention, the correct connections must be made between and individual and the culture of a specific construction company. The research recommends that the personality tests used to employ construction professionals should be combined with a General Mental Ability (GMA) test, as this may increase the probability of a more industry purpose-fit selection. In the case of young graduates entering the often unforgiving work environment with all its complexities and actors, it is also recommended that they be advised through engagement (prior to commencing their appointment) of the stress that can be experienced and how to relieve some of this through maintaining work-life balance activities outside work as this is not part of the SAPI personality test.KeywordsConstruction professionalSAPIPersonalityNew Zealand