Management of Sustainability : Leadership Styles and Promotion of Sustaianbility in the Construction Industry

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Management of Sustainability

Leadership Styles and Promotion of Sustainability

in the Construction Industry

MASTER THESIS WITHIN: General Management

NUMBER OF CREDITS: 15 credits

PROGRAMME OF STUDY: Engineering Management

AUTHORS: Fares Aljundi, Mohamed Eyad Draki

TUTOR: Joaquin Cestino Castilla

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Master Thesis in General Management

Title: Management of Sustainability: Leadership Styles and Promotion of Sustainability in the Construction Industry

Authors: Fares Aljundi and Mohamed Eyad Draki Tutor: Joaquin Cestino Castilla

Date: 2021-05-24

Key Terms: Sustainability, Promotion of Sustainability, Leadership, Leadership Styles, Construction Industry

Abstract

Sustainability has recently received an increased level of attention across all sectors over the world, the construction industry is no exception. This industry is one of the most complex and dynamic sectors. Consequently, promotion of sustainability within the construction industry is a leadership challenge that requires a unique leadership style. Existing literature has been focusing on leadership and sustainability that have been investigated separately with little rigorous research regarding the linkage between these two concepts in the management research. It has been noticed that all these studies were within national and specific contexts. The promotion of sustainability varies from one country to another due to the fact that each country has its own climatic conditions, cultural patterns, and traditional settlements. The present study investigates how leadership styles of leaders in construction firms shape the promotion of sustainability in two different contexts. A multiple case study was applied, and data was collected through conducting interviews with twenty managers charged with the promotion of sustainability in Sweden and Saudi Arabia to fulfil the research purpose by adopting a qualitative research approach. The MLQ model was used to identify the participants’ leadership styles. Furthermore, the United Nations Global Compact framework was used to segment the cases in terms of the promotion of sustainability. The study concludes that two of the identified leadership styles do not work similarly in Sweden and Saudi Arabia. Transformational leadership styles shaped the promotion of sustainability at a high level in Sweden, but at a low level in Saudi Arabia. Additionally, transactional leadership shaped the promotion of sustainability at a high level in Saudi Arabia, but at a low level in Sweden. While the passive leadership style shaped the promotion of sustainability at a low level in both countries. Managers can use these findings to promote sustainability practices and shape their styles of leadership taking into account contexts that differ from one country to another.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to express our gratitude towards everyone who helped us during the whole process of writing the thesis. This includes our professors, and in particular, our supervisor Joaquin Cestino Castilla whose feedback and support were significant to guide us throughout this tough period. We would also like to thank all our peers that reviewed the work and provided us with their valuable feedbacks. Furthermore, we would like to thank the organizations and participants who have willingly shared their precious time during the process of interviewing to provide us empirical data. Finally, our families deserve a special mention for their support. This work would not have been possible without their encouragement.

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3.6- Research Trustworthiness ... 29 3.6.1- Credibility ... 29 3.6.2- Transferability ... 30 3.6.3- Dependability ... 30 3.6.4- Confirmability ... 30 3.7- Ethical Consideration ... 31 4. Empirical Data ... 32 4.1- Company A ... 33 4.2- Company B ... 35 4.3- Company C ... 36 4.4- Company D ... 38 4.5- Company E ... 38 4.6- Company F ... 39 4.7- Company G ... 40 4.8- Company H ... 41 4.8- Company I ... 42 5. Findings ... 44

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5.2- Integrated Analysis Phase ... 48

6- Conclusions ... 55

7- Discussion ... 57

7.1 – Implication for Practice ... 59

7.2 – Limitations... 59

7.3 – Further Research ... 60

References... 61

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List of Figures

Figure 1. Method Steps ... 24

Figure 2. Analysis Phases ... 29

Figure 3. Analysis Explanation ... 44

Figure 4. Transformational Leadership Style Analysis ... 45

Figure 5. Transactional Leadership Analysis ... 46

Figure 6. Passive / Avoidant Leadership Style Analysis ... 46

Figure 7. Leadership Styles' Promotion of Sustainability in Sweden and Saudi Arabia ... 51

Figure 8. Model of Leadership Styles & Promotion of Sustainability ... 52

List of Tables

Table 1. United Nation Global Compact Framework ... 17

Table 2. Summary of Leadership Styles ... 19

Table 3. Leadership Styles Dimensions ... 26

Table 4. Summary of Interviews ... 27

Table 5. Summary of Cases ... 32

Table 6. Leadership Styles Determination ... 47

Table 7. United Nations Global Compact Framework... 48

Table 8. Promotion of Sustainability. ... 49

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1. Introduction

This chapter presents a brief review of the existing literature about the concept of sustainability with narrowing it down into the sustainability within the construction industry. Furthermore, it explains the necessity of leadership towards sustainable construction and leadership styles in the construction industry. This is followed by the problem that the research is trying to solve, the purpose of the research, and the studied research question.

1.1- Sustainability

The concept of “Sustainability” was defined for the first time by Brudland Report which was published in 1987 by United Nations of the World Commission on Environment and Development. The term was defined as the development that satisfies the needs of the present without affecting the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs (WCED, 1987). This definition was in reference to sustainable development, and the purpose was to encourage development with a dual focus on reducing poverty and taking into account long-term ecological effects (Crews, 2010). However, the literature of sustainability is more expansive nowadays compared to the way it used to be in the past since the concept has expanded since 1987 to have a focus on economic profits, social impact, and the environment (Crews, 2010). As an evidence, a google search in April 2021 on the term of “sustainability” turned up 858,000,000 entries in 0.73 seconds. A search on “sustainable development” recorded about 560,000,000 results in 0.63 seconds and within Google Scholar about 3,680,000 results in 0.03 seconds. As a result, this term is considerably significant nowadays and has become a trend in all industrial sectors around the world.

As sustainability and sustainable development have received an increased level of attention recently across all sectors over the world, the construction industry is no exception (Zuo et al., 2012). This research considers sustainable construction within the mentioned context of sustainable development that was produced by the Brundtland Report (WCED, 1987). Dickie and Howard (2000) defined sustainable construction as “…. the contribution of construction to sustainable development”. The promotion of sustainable construction is important as “what we build today will provide the built environment of the future and will influence the ability of future generations to meet their needs” (Dickie and Howard, 2000). The promotion of sustainable construction is about adopting practices that contribute to the achievement of more sustainable development. Some of these practices are: being more competitive, delivering structures that provide well-being, protecting the natural environment, and minimizing its impact on the consumption of energy and natural resources (Pitt et al.,

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2009). In order to indicate these sustainability practices, authors use the United Nations Global Compact framework as it is one of a three international guidelines reporting on the three pillars of sustainability which are the most used in the world (Dumay et al., 2010 p. 538). It is important to highlight that this framework is used extensively worldwide as more than 10, 000 companies and organizations from over 130 countries use it to report on sustainability. In this context, this framework can be considered as the “largest voluntary corporate responsibility initiative in the world” (UNGC, 2013).

The promotion of construction activities affects fundamentally the social, environmental, and economic aspects of sustainability. Positive impacts include providing employment opportunities and building various types of structures to satisfy human beings’ requirements. On the other hand, negative impacts include generating waste, greenhouse gas emission, noise, and dust (Zuo et al., 2012). Consequently, achieving sustainable development is affected mainly by the construction industry as long as it has the highest impact on the environment compared to the other industrial sectors (Sev, 2009). In the past years, communities in different spots around the globe have classified the construction sector by having a major role in encouraging sustainable development in a global context due to its effect on the global environmental issues (Maliene & Malys, 2009; Tsai & Chang, 2012). The buildings sector consumes a third of global resources (Yeheyis et al., 2013), one sixth of global freshwater withdrawals (Dixit et al., 2013), 25% of wood harvested, and 40% of all raw materials (Yeheyis et al., 2013). Furthermore, the construction industry is responsible for about 50% of all energy usage and anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions globally (Blankendaal et al., 2014).

1.2 -Leadership

Leadership plays a vital role in achieving the objectives of the organization through controlling the human activities (Müller et al., 2012), as well as promoting sustainable practices in the construction industry (Jones et al., 2017). It is the ability to influence other people to achieve desired results (Yukl et al., 2002). In the context of intra-organizational leadership, it is about influencing other subordinates, superiors, or peers within their organizations to achieve specific aims and objectives (Gattiker and Carter, 2010). The role of a leader is required in any organization or any team in order to achieve its goals (Zaleznik, 2004). Regarding this context, it is important to mention that leadership can be practiced by any individual regardless of the position of hierarchy of that individual in the organization. Based on this, anyone in an

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organization could potentially be a leader at some point in time if the involvement in the process of influence is presented (Taylor, 2008).

Leaders in construction organizations have a more difficult challenge in promoting sustainable development. This is because attaining such a goal requires awareness of all stakeholders involved in the project who lack of willingness in sustainability. Therefore, training and awareness development for stakeholders are needed regarding sustainability (Reffat, 2004).In addition, implementing sustainability practices is not an easy task due to the fact that the cultural aspect can affect sustainability as it can play a major role in influencing how a society expects organizations and businesses to implement social and environmental issues (Ringov & Zollo, 2007). Another issue that brings a distinct challenge in implementing sustainability in construction projects is the nature of these projects. They are temporary and have time limits. Each project has unique characteristics that need constant replacement of the project team personnel (Chan et al., 2004). According to Egan (1998) and Latham (1994), dealing with rapid, complex, and often discontinuous change requires effective leadership styles.

1.2.1- Leadership Styles in the Construction Industry

Leadership style is described as a combination of leader’s self-related cognitive information, personality traits, the primary motivates, and thoughts on operating situational variables (Toor and Ofori ,2006). It is all about how people interact with those they seek to lead (Groetsch and Davis, 2006). An effective leadership style must be possessed by the leaders in the construction organizations in leading their firms to attain sustainable development (Opoku et al., 2015). Many styles of leadership have been proposed for organizational leaders including transformational leadership, transactional leadership, ethical leadership, authentic leadership, and strategic leadership. In this study, authors focus on the leadership styles that are assessed by the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) (Form 5X) that was first constructed by Bruce J. Avolio and Bernard M. Bass (1985). This model measures a full range of leadership styles assessing transformational, transactional, and passive/avoidant leadership styles. The reason behind choosing this model is its well-establishment that covers a full range of leadership styles as well as the fact that it is extensively researched and validated. Therefore, it is the most relevant tool to analyze the complicated data collected from the construction industry.

The MLQ model identifies transformational, transactional, and passive avoidant leadership styles. In terms of transformational leadership, it motivates subordinates to perform

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beyond the expected levels of performance and can be identified with the goals and the interest of the organization. While the transactional leadership is about monitoring performance and taking the required corrective action. Whereas the passive avoidant leadership is about taking corrective action only after a problem becomes significant and obvious (Antonakis et al., 2003). Each of these leadership styles prove effectiveness depending on the given circumstances, attitude, beliefs, preferences, and values of the people involved. Therefore, it is important that the leadership styles adopted by construction leaders suit the organization’s beliefs and values towards achieving sustainable development (Opoku, et al., 2015).

1.3- Research Problem

As demonstrated in the previous background, sustainability in the construction industry has become an essential issue that affects human impact on the natural environment and on the quality of life (Tabassi et al., 2016). Implementation of sustainability in the construction firms is a leadership challenge and requires a unique leadership style (Opoku et al., 2015). The promotion of sustainability varies from country to another due to the fact that each country and region has its own climatic conditions, cultural patterns, and traditional settlement. These factors should be the basis of the solutions for each situation. In addition, a study made by the European Sustainable Investment Forum (2016) has reported that there has been a substantial variation between developed and emerging nations as well as among the emerging nations themselves, when it comes to the adoption of sustainable business practices (Eurosif, 2016). Regarding this context, it is important to highlight that sustainability promotion and its practices might differ from country to another as well as from industry to another based on the capabilities and resources (Osborn et al., 2015). Accordingly, managers have to contemplate all associated variables to sustainability which are influenced by the conditions and cultural aspects of the region, as well as the fact that constructing building can vary from one country to another based on the vegetation and pollution in terms of sustainable development (Edwards, 2005).

Existing literature has been focusing on leadership and sustainability that have been investigated separately with little rigorous research regarding the linkage between leadership and sustainability in management research. A search in the Web of Science database in May 2021 on “sustainability practices AND leadership styles” provided 45 hits in the management research. It is noticed that all the research done to link sustainability practices and leadership styles are done within national and specific contexts. Opoku et al., (2015) study the leadership styles of intra-organizational leaders who are leading the sustainability agenda in the UK. In

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addition, Tabassi et al., (2016) focus on the leadership styles that support sustainability in Malaysia. Furthermore, Sujana (2020) determines the contractor project manager’s leadership styles in Indonesia based on path goal theory to support construction sustainability. These studies conclude that their theoretical results are not transferred to other countries, so more investigation is necessary to figure out how leadership styles shape the promotion of sustainability in different contexts. Plus, these studies focus on what are the best leadership styles to promote sustainability within a specific context, while ignoring how these leadership styles promote sustainability. All of the above indicates that the literature of management provides no research on leadership styles linked to sustainability in two different contexts. In other words, in two different countries, which is the gap that this research is filling. Regarding this point, authors believe that collecting data from Sweden and Saudi Arabia to study how leadership styles work to promote sustainability within these two cultural nations will provide useful and comprehensive information in terms of the linkage between sustainability practices with leadership styles in two contexts to check how they work.

1.4- Research Purpose

In the problem statement, it is argued that sustainability and leadership in two different contexts/countries, such as in Sweden and Saudi Arabia have not been linked together in the previous research of management. Therefore, the purpose of this study is:

To investigate sustainability practices in the construction industry within these two countries and link it with leadership styles. The study focuses on the effect of construction leaders’ behaviors and leadership styles in the promotion of sustainability practices within

the construction industry. 1.5- Research Question

In order to fulfill the purpose, it is necessary to understand the way that leaders of construction firms promote sustainable activities and the effect of leadership styles of these leaders in achieving sustainability in the construction industry. Thus, the research question is:

RQ- How do leadership styles of leaders in construction firms shape the promotion of sustainability practices within the construction industry in two different contexts?

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2. Frame of Reference

This chapter provides a comprehensive overview on the theoretical framework including relevant theories and definitions related to sustainability, construction industry, leadership, leadership styles, and the linkage between them.

There is a significant relationship exists between leadership and sustainable development since leadership paves the way for appropriate development in social, human, and cultural dimensions. This inference applies to all domains, and the construction industry is no exception. In the construction industry, sustainability is an integral part that affects almost all the operations involved in construction business. The present research is an in-depth exploration of the relationship between leadership (leadership styles and types) and sustainable practices in the construction industry. To arrive at such an aim, authors conduct a review of extent literature pertaining to the research topic to identify pre-existing knowledge, through which the research gap is identified, and the novelty of the paper being framed. For the purpose of identifying research articles pertaining to the research topic, the following keywords are used: Leadership [and/or] Leadership Styles [and/or] Construction Industry [and/or] Sustainability [and/or] Sustainable Practices [and/or] Relationships.

2.1- Overview of the Main Concepts 2.1.1- Sustainable Construction

November 1994 saw the holding of the First International Conference on Sustainable Construction in Tampa - Florida, United States of America (Hill et al., 2010). The term “sustainable construction” was originally proposed to describe the responsibility of the construction industry in reaching sustainability. According to Kibert (1994), the term was defined as creating a healthy built environment using resource-efficient and ecologically based principles. Sustainability in construction refers to leveraging the natural resources in a manner in which the resources can be renewed, reused, and refilled. Furthermore, the appropriate usage of the resources must ensure its availability for future generations too. In this perspective, sustainability is an umbrella term and it is applied in a wide range of concepts from development policies, energy source usage, production planning in architecture to agriculture (Yılmaz & Bakış, 2015). There are three primary dimensions or otherwise components present in sustainability such as social, economic, and environmental. Sustainability has few efficient parameters such as social fair, economic progression, and environmental protection.

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2.1.2- Leadership

Leadership cannot be defined by a single definition (Bennis, 2007; Vroom & Jaago, 2007). It is one of the most crucial and significant factors in project management, especially in construction industry. Leadership is often treated as an art with which one can influence others so as to attain the intended results. Leadership has been defined as a manner of conduct followed by managers in their specified roles so as to accomplish the finest performance from the team they coordinate with (Walker, 2015). In the definition provided by Fiedler (1967), it was suggested that leadership behavior is concerned with particular acts in which a leader relies on when coordinating and directing the work of his group members. Some of the terms given herewith are worth considering in the current research work such as vision, mobilizing, persuading, directing, coordinating, and motivation.

2.1.3- Construction Industry

There is an important role played by construction industry in terms of a country’s economic and social growth (Boadu et al., 2020). Construction is one of the oldest industries practiced by human beings when started moving on to a settlement-based lifestyle from a nomadic one (Kikwasi & Escalante, 2018). The industry is around us in the form of environmental transformation via the construction of health infra, roads, bridges, housing, water, and power infrastructure. As a result, construction is one of the crucial industries in the socio-economic development of a country. It includes capital accumulation, employment of skilled and non-skilled individuals and generates household income (Olarewaju & Ibrahim, 2020).

However, construction is a collective term and it is challenging to define since various authors proposed different perspectives on the term “construction” (Plessis, 2007; IGT, 2010). The current research is focused on the construction industry and sustainability concepts, as authors refer to concepts and parameters involved in this regard. Accordingly, construction can be explained through four ways which they are as follows: the site-level activity, comprehensive project cycle, whole universe related to construction sector, and the visionary processes involved in the creation of human settlement (Plessis, 2007).

2.1.3.1- The Construction Industry in Sweden

When taking an in-depth look on the construction industry in Sweden and its impact on the environment, it has been noticed that this industry considerably affects the promotion of sustainability in the country as long as it is responsible for approximately 155 TWh of energy,

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75 Mt of materials, and 3 Mt of chemical products. Moreover, it generates 5 Mt of waste yearly. Consequently, it is considered as a major contributor to the environmental impacts in Sweden (Boverket, 2007). The construction sector accounts for about 40% of the use of energy and materials in Sweden (Boverket, 2007). It is proven that one of the most environmental impacts identified within this sector is the transport during construction and the use of energy during maintenance (Varnäs et al., 2009). In addition, the industry sector contributes to about 30–50% of the waste generated in higher-income countries (Chadwick et al., 2003). Due to these numbers, construction projects in Sweden are complying with the building code established by the National Board of Housing, Building and Planning (Boverket). Boverket is a central government authority, founded in 1988, that is responsible for regulations and guidance related to planning, construction, and the dissemination of related knowledge and the fulfilment of sustainability targets relating to the built environment (Francart et al., 2019).

Sweden is one of the most developed countries that put huge attention on the sustainability practices as it was ranked as the most sustainable country in the world based on a study made by RobecoSAM (Apine, 2016). This rank was earned due to the use of renewable energy sources and low carbon dioxide emissions, as well as social and governance practices such as labor participation, education, and institutional framework.

2.1.3.2- The Construction Industry in Saudi Arabia

Construction projects in Saudi Arabia have noticed an extensive rise for the past 20 years as this sector was considered as one of the largest and fastest growing market in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries (Ikediashi et al., 2014). Regarding this context, this sector comprises a 15% of its workforce and consumes more than 14% of the country’s energy (Dhahran International Exhibition Company, 2015). Moreover, according to Alrashed & Asif (2014), The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is one of the largest users of fossil fuels in the Middle East as it has been noticed that the energy needs of the country comes mostly from oil and gas. However, this need is expected to expeditiously grow in future due to several factors like the burgeoning population, high economic growth, and low energy prices. The construction industry in Saudi Arabia contributes to a huge environmental waste which pushes the Saudi government to issue a decree that requires all construction companies to comply with the new resource consumption standards to reduce the impact of waste in the construction industry (McCullough, 2014). Consequently, the country has paid more attention recently to achieve sustainable development and attain sustainability practices in its construction projects in order to protect the environment and minimize its impact on it, as it issued a several legislations

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regarding the application of sustainability as well as by joining a number of global conventions over the past few years (Almasabi, 2013).

2.2- Sustainability in the Construction Industry

United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) published a report in 1991 on sustainability which defined the concept of sustainable developed as “increase in human life quality with the condition of staying in the borders of bearing capacity of the bounded ecosystem” (UNEP, 2011). In current civilized world, there is an ever-growing need exists for buildings so that people can dwell in it. However, constructing buildings create many environmental issues right starting from construction, operation, maintenance to destruction. Energy consumption of such buildings create a direct impact on the environment while natural resources get affected which can be understood from climatic changes and deterioration in air and water quality in cities (Vyas et al., 2014) . As per a data report published in 2010, buildings consume about 45% of the global energy while the water consumption stands at 50%. In terms of environmental pollution, 40% solid waste from cities gets dumped or disposed without proper treatment; the water pollution level stands at 40% while air pollution at 23%. Finally the greenhouse gas emissions account up to 50% (Dixon, 2010). The above-mentioned environmental challenges can be overcome if appropriate changes are made in the applications in construction industry. Environmental damage is the primary measurable effect for the construction industry while socio-economic impact can also create a lot of disadvantages in this regard.

Sustainable development in construction industry is measured through various indicators in terms of social, economic, and environmental aspects. Being an important component of a nation’s growth, the construction industry is dynamic, active, and ever-growing in both developing as well as developed nations (Forum, n.d.; Industry and Environment;, 2003; Technology, 2004). European commission (2006) mentioned that a total of 11.8 million operatives are employed in this sector which makes it a crucial one in terms of social as well as economic aspects. Being the largest industrial employer in Europe, construction industry provides employment up to 7%, whereas its industrial employment share stood at 28%. Construction industry received an whopping 910 billion Euros in the year 2003 which is equal to 10% of gross GDP and 51.2% of Gross Fixed Capital of EU-15 (Europa, 2006). On the contrary, construction industry is the main contributor for high-energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, solid waste generation, environmental damage, resource depletion, and external and internal pollution (Cica, 2002; Melchert, 2005; Zimmermann et al., 2005).

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The whole project view must be addressed in the construction industry which is an unclaimed mandatory condition to define a project since the former is synonymous to actual construction work itself. This led to sidelining of the pre and post construction activities and the focus has turned towards the construction stage or else the next project is overviewed (Kagioglou et al., 1998). However, these haphazard movements brought an insufficient understanding about the client requirements and ineffective project brief coupled with hesitant contribution from internal and external specialists. There should be informed decision-making processes in place right starting from conceptualizing the design and construction processes that understand the project requirements through the operation and until the demolition/deconstruction stage. These design and construction development processes should be the forefront of the project since it has direct consequences on the project outcomes, especially on-site activities and it further creates an impact on the sustainability aspect. It is important to note that when a whole project view is undertaken, it is easy to identify and segregate the tasks that demand independent and inter-dependent functioning (Kagioglou et al., 2000).

2.2.1- Sustainability Practices in the Construction Industry

The construction industry is a complex and diverse sector due to the different construction methods that are used within this sector. Furthermore, any change of practices can’t be speedily applied, and those changes are often avoided. This is because of the lack of appropriate policy guidance or government regulation, or through the resistance of commercial interests (Spence & Mulligan, 1995). Understanding the concept of sustainability is the basis of the integration as it plays a major role when implementing appropriate sustainable construction practice (Tan et al., 2011). In this context, there are many ways in which the nature of current construction activity can be done differently to make it less environmentally damaging, without reducing the useful output of construction. These include improving land-use and pollution emission legislation and control pre-construction environmental impact appraisals and extending the life of reuse of existing buildings. Perhaps of greatest significance within the industry itself would be to increase the use of mineral, agricultural, and demolition wastes in construction (Spence & Mulligan, 1995).

According to the literature presented by Tan et al. (2011), sustainable construction practices include six major areas, and each one of these practices has its principle that need to be done separately. The first area is the compliance with sustainability legislation principle, which is basically to comply with different governmental sustainability legislation, including

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environmental requirement and social responsibility to improve business competitiveness. The second area is the design & procurement which includes the improvement of the project’s whole life value through green design and the promotion of best practice construction procurement throughout the supply chain. Whereas the third one is the technology & innovation. The goal of this area is to enhance the capacity of technology & innovation for increasing the sustainability of both the construction process and its resultant assets. The fourth area is the organizational structure & process which includes the re-organize and re-engineer the organizational structure and process for facilitating the implementation of sustainable policy and strategy. The fifth area is the education and training. These two aspects are concerned with increasing the organizations’ commitment to sustainable construction through better education and training of every staff in the company. The sixth area is the measurement and reporting. This area is mainly dealing with developing a measurement and reporting system or use existing benchmarks for evaluating companies’ environmental and social performance and identify the areas for improvement. Overall, the construction industry worldwide is growing at a rapid pace and it includes complicated activities. Furthermore, a change within the activities in this industry is needed and this change requires an appropriate leadership style to deal with. Consequently, promoting sustainability in the construction industry is a leadership challenge (Opoku et al., 2015).

2.3- Leadership Styles in the Construction Industry

In the recent years, various studies have been conducted with regards to leadership in construction industry due to the increased awareness and interest among the researchers (Ofori & Toor, 2012). Leadership is an important tool, and its application can achieve success in any sort of activity that involves various stakeholders. Leadership has been emphasized as an essential characteristic in construction industry by a number of researchers (Nguyen et al., 2004; Odusami et al., 2003). According to Thamhain (2004), the importance of a leader is highlighted by supporting how far a leader is crucial in the development of an encouraging work environment that motivates the participants of a project. According to Munns & Bjeirmi (1996), the project leader’s vibrant handling of the project with experience, expertise, and great leadership qualities decide a projects output as success or failure. Chinyio & Vogwell (2007) mention that if the leadership is effective and encourages all the stakeholders, then the construction project can be successfully completed, and the primary goal can be achieved without any conflicts.

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Regarding the context of leadership in the construction industry, it has been noticed leadership and leadership styles are important in this sector in achieving a certain success, development, or an increase in the performance. In the research conducted by Maqbool et al. (2017), the authors analyzed the impact of emotional intelligence, project Managers’ competencies, and transformational leadership on project success. In this study, a total of 107 Pakistani construction firms were studied with a view to measuring the effects of these variables on the overall performance of construction projects. From the results, it was inferred that there exist a notable and positive relationship between the three independent variables (emotional intelligence, project managers’ competencies, and transformational leadership) with a dependent variable (project success). Additionally, project managers that have high emotional in addition to high transformational leadership behavior, with competencies such as communication skills, teamwork, attentiveness toward others, and conflict management skills, can play a vital role in order to contribute more to the success of projects than their counterparts.

Oyetunji et al., (2019) describe and analyzed the relationship between worker’s performance and leadership behavior in construction industry in Nigeria. In this research article, leadership behavior as well as its influence upon the performance of construction workers inhabited in Lagos - Nigeria was investigated. Based on the results attained from primary data analysis, it was inferred that the supervisors’ leadership behavior influenced the commitment of the workers positively i.e., accomplishment of the goals set by construction companies. With an overall mean score of 4.09, transformational leadership style was found to be the most exhibited leadership style at the construction site under study. Furthermore, the study also found the presence of a positive linear correlation between the performance of the construction workers and transactional leadership behavior.

In the study conducted by Liphadzi et al. (2015), the researchers considered the construction industry in South Africa and analyzed the relationship between project success and the leadership styles. The study used both primary as well as secondary data sources. Based on an extensive review of literature. The secondary data was collected, whereas a structured survey questionnaire was used for the collection of primary data. The researchers collected a total of 150 responses from project and construction managers belonging to South African construction industry. The study findings inferred that there exists a positive relationship between project success and transactional leadership. No significant relationship was found by the study between the success of construction projects and laissez faire leadership style.

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According to the literature presented by Grill et al. (2019), the researchers intended to analyze the relationship between leadership practices followed by construction site managers and their impact on occupational safety through an observation study. This comprehensive study attempted to elucidate solid, real-life transformational and passive/avoidant leadership behaviors based on context-specific descriptions concluded from the interactions that occur on a day-to-day basis between the employees and construction site managers. The study incorporated a mixed method design and combined the structured observations from construction site managers along with responses collected from construction employees through questionnaires. The research findings revealed that when passive/avoidant leadership style was applied in less instances and followed transformational leadership at most of the times, effective results can be achieved for the construction site managers in terms of enhancing occupational safety in the industry.

Leadership is a key factor in succeeding construction projects in which the success or failure of project management depends fundamentally on the project leadership (Liphadzi et al., 2015). As sustainable construction has received special attention recently due to the impact of this sector towards achieving sustainable development, promotion of sustainable practices in these projects is not an easy task and is considered as a leadership challenge that require unique leadership styles (Opoku et al., 2015). Leadership styles have to do with how people interact with those they seek to lead (Liphadzi et al., 2015). Consequently, construction industry has different leadership styles to its credit. Moreover, the studies mentioned are presenting an idea on the relationship between leadership and its styles in construction industry. This will be beneficial in this study in order to understand how this leadership style works in this industry as well as how and why they affect the shape and the promotion of sustainability in this sector.

2.4- Linkage between Sustainability and Leadership

Metcalf & Benn (2013) have examined the disagreement and confusion over the multiple leadership styles related to the successful implementation of sustainability in organizations. In this context, the authors found that the solution exist within the complex of the sustainability concept itself. However, leadership for sustainability requires leaders of unique abilities as leaders and leadership play a major role of how sustainability of the organization links to the wider systems in which the organization sits, and achieving that link well requires unusual leaders and leadership style.

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The government policies and legislative acts put forth by the UK government along with the few other drivers, such as reputation and competitive edge coerced the country’s construction firms to follow and adopt sustainable business practices in the long-run (Bennett & Crudgington, 2003; Holton et al., 2008; Woodall et al., 2004). Williams & Dair (2007) in their paper conducted a quantitative study which involved a total of five case studies based on England. The completed projects were taken into account and the case studies found numerous challenges to follow sustainable construction practices, non-requirement of sustainable buildings from clients, lack of expertise and power, real and perceived costs involved in the project, and stakeholders’ hesitation towards sustainability measures. In the mixed method collaborative research study conducted by BCG (Boston Consulting Group) and MIT slogan management review, the researchers interviewed a total of 50 leaders in sustainability and 1560 responses from business leaders. This seminal article found the root cause of challenges involved in pursuing sustainability in organizations, such as lack of correct and reliable information to take informed decisions, flawed execution of sustainability of companies when delivering sustainable projects and struggles faced by the companies in defining the business case for sustainability (Berns et al., 2009).

In this context organizational leaders should be able to exercise strong decisions when it comes to sustainability and move beyond efficiency, compliance or just being green. Organizations started observing ‘sustainability’ as a part of their long-term business survival strategy and as a tool to gain success (McCann & Holt, 2010). Leaders must be open to incorporate sustainability measures in their day-to-day’s organizational activities so that it becomes an integral part of the overall business strategy (Ofori, G. and Toor, 2008). However, in the study conducted by Parkin (2010), the relationship between sustainable practices and leadership was emphasized. Being an important tool, leadership plays a vital role in government, business, or any kind of organizational setting that aims at achieving sustainability.

2.4.1- Linkage between Sustainability and Leadership in the Construction Industry

Sustainability practices in construction industry attracts more attention since it is one of the key sectors that drive the economy of the country while at the same time, it also concerns the environment. Leaders play a major role in construction industry since their efforts create a high impact upon sustainable development (Ofori, G. and Toor, 2008). Leaders’ approach, commitment, and their conviction heavily influences the organization’s ability to work towards the sustainability agenda, irrespective of their level of maturity (Opoku et al., 2015).

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In the paper conducted by Tabassi et al. (2016), the authors analyzed the relationship between sustainable construction projects and the leadership behavior of project managers. In this study, the authors extended the competencies of leadership into hierarchical and reflective constructs by the integration of eight components. With a sample size of 70, the data was collected from project managers who worked in eco-friendly building projects. After analyzing the data, the results showcased that the leadership competencies of PMs as second-order reflective constructs often conclude at significant and direct influence upon the success criteria for sustainable buildings. In addition, the results also suggested that the intellectual competence of project managers corresponds to the most considerable factor on sustainable building accomplishments. However, Delnavaz (2012) described in his study the role played by project managers in sustainable building process and analyzed it. The aim of this study was to assess the way in which the project managers integrate the concept of sustainability into building processes so as to succeed in sustainable building project. The study mentioned that the clients may sometimes get influenced by the project managers since the latter group of people lead the designers who work according to client requirements. Sujana (2020) determined contractor project manager’s leadership styles in Indonesia based on path goal theory to support construction sustainability. She concluded that a further research has to be done to check how the culture work environment affects the linkage between leadership and promotion of sustainability.

All in all, the project managers enact a crucial role in the integration of sustainability with building projects at the time of design and construction processes so as to successfully construct a sustainable building. The studies mentioned above brought out some of the numerous challenges when it comes to follow sustainable construction practices as well as the need for a strong leadership to exercise a strong decision when it comes to sustainability. In addition, they highlighted the importance of the leadership in achieving sustainability in any organization since implementation of sustainability in the construction firms is a leadership challenge and requires a unique leadership style. However, all these studies were conducted in a specific national context without taking into consideration the cultural effect and how it shapes the promotion of sustainability in two contexts (two countries).

2.4.2- Cultural Effect on Sustainability and Leadership

As the authors mentioned in previous points, the increased awareness of sustainability nowadays leads the organizations to put sustainability practices as part of its goals and strategies. However, implementing these practices is not an easy task due to the fact that the

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cultural can affect sustainability as it can play a major role in influencing how a society expects organizations and businesses to implement social and environmental issues (Ringov & Zollo, 2007). Caprar & Neville (2012) state that culture is the antecedent, or the condition, influencing the adoption of sustainability. Moreover, culture can be defined as the beliefs and values that are widely shared in a specific society at a particular point in time (Ralston et al., 1993).

The perception and the idea of culture is fairly complex and can have various types of effects on sustainability as it has a significant role in “norming” the proliferation of sustainability-relevant institutions. Additionally, it influences the “conforming” to pressure for sustainability emanating from these institutions (Caprar & Neville, 2012). Add to that, based on Hofstede (2007), culture have five dimensions which can be used to differentiate among national cultures. These dimensions include: power distance, individualism-collectivism, masculinity-femininity, long-term vs short-term orientation, and uncertainty avoidance. The concept of culture and sustainability have been investigated by many researchers. Park et al., (2007) proposed that culture could influence how people utilize their natural resources and environments by shaping their attitudes and perceptions. However, the impact of culture on normative beliefs about morally correct behavior can act as mechanisms for environmental beliefs and behavior (Cohen and Nelson, 1994). Consequently, the appropriate perception in a certain society can notably differ across cultures (Tata & Prasad, 2015). Sustainability or sustainable development in the construction industry is often explored owing to the fact that the dynamics, complexity, and multidimensional nature of the sector often necessitates the examination of its impact on ecological safety (Abramyan, 2018). A study by Liu et al. (2020) has explored the importance of sustainable development in the construction industry with a special emphasis on exploring the impact of the construction industry on ecological balance. The findings of the previous study revealed that in emerging nations, sustainable construction as a concept is possible and can be in line with the policies by organizations operating in these nations laid to ensure a sustainable business environment. However, in the developed nations’ scenario, sustainable construction is not really a need as the laws underlying are already in line to promote, support, and maintain sustainability in all construction operations made by organizations operating in developed nations.

Literature studies in the past have immensely explored the existence of varying leadership styles across different groups, organizations, cultures, and nations. According to Khan et al. (2015), the existence of a leadership style is often associated with the demands that are situational and are specific to an environment. The environment can be described as it is

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the presence of a cultural setting or a nation’s social touch. (Khan et al., 2015). It is important to highlight those rules and regulations in different countries and the tending to attain sustainability practices from one country to another explain the differences in sustainability between countries (Kolk, 2004). This statement has been supported by Legendre & Coderre(2013) as they stated that rules and regulations, as well as the business culture of the country, plays a vital role in influencing its sustainability practices and leadership.

2.5- The United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) Framework

Sustainability indicators are important tools for both a company’s public communication and policymaking. This is because they entitle to connect information on companies and countries performance in areas such as environmental, social, and economic development (Singh et al., 2009). According to UNGC (2013), the UN Global Compact is defined as “a strategic policy initiative for businesses that are committed to aligning their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption”. Moreover, The United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) is one of the most important corporate social responsibility initiatives as it allows to set up strategies and operations with principles that involve human rights, labor, the environment, and anti-corruption (Orzes et al., 2018). The (UNGC) is extensively used all over the world by more than 9000 companies and 3000 non-business actors operating in 170 countries are involved (United Nations Global Compact, 2016). This framework has ten principles shown in Table 1.

Table 1. United Nation Global Compact Framework

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Based on the UNGC’s website, the UNGC has several benefits such as, adopting an established and globally recognized policy framework for the development, implementation, and disclosure of environmental, social, and governance policies. Moreover, it advances sustainability solutions in partnership with a range of stakeholders, including UN agencies, governments, civil society, labor, and other non-business interests. Additionally, it utilizes the specialized work streams in the environmental, social, and governance realms. All these points made the authors of this research to decide to use this widely known framework in order to indicate sustainability practices in the selected case studies in terms of reporting on the three pillars of sustainability (social, economic, and environment) as well as that this framework provides broad guidelines regarding the implementation of responsible practices. (Orzes et al., 2018).

2.6- Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ)

The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) tool was developed and constructed by Avolio & Bass (1991) with a vision to assess a full range of leadership styles. This tool is composed of 9 scales that measure three leadership styles: transformational leadership (5 scales), transactional leadership (2 scales), and passive/avoidant behavior (2 scales). It is known as well as the MLQ 5X short or the standard MLQ. This tool has been known as a standard and effective instrument that has been used in different fields of human activity all over the world. The MLQ tool model assessing such a scale in order to measure a broad range of leadership types from passive leaders to leaders who give contingent rewards to followers, to leaders who transform their followers into becoming leaders themselves (Antonakis et al., 2003). The MLQ-5X has been translated into many languages and used successfully by both researchers and practitioners all over the globe. The MLQ-5X is composed of 36 items sub-categorized under the nine leadership factors. Consequently, each leadership scale is comprised of four items related to each factor. The component of all the three leadership styles is described by Table 2.

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Table 2. Summary of Leadership Styles

Source: Adapted from Avolio, B. J., & Bass (2004). 2.6.1- Components of Transactional Leadership

Transactional leadership consists of two main factors: contingent rewards and active management-by-exception which they are described as follows:

1. Contingent Rewards

Contingent reward leadership means that relationship is between leaders and followers under the basis of constructive transactions (Antonakis et al., 2003). Leaders who have this leading style are focused on identifying all the objectives and tasks needed to be done as well as making clear what one can expect to receive when performance goals are achieved (Bass, 1995) .

2. Management by Exception (Active)

Bass (1995) described the management by expectation leadership of leaders as a leader who puts all attention on monitoring mistakes, task oriented, and when mistakes are identified, the leader then change the course of action and correct the situation.

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According to Burns (1978), transactional leadership can otherwise be termed as exchange transaction in which most of the relationships that exist between leaders and followers are present. This occurs especially in the background of parties, legislatures, and political groups. In the perspective of followers, the leader’s degree of recognizing is proportional to the number of rewards or punishments. However, this leadership style is too narrowly focused and sometimes it focusing issues are the wrong concerns (Bass & Steidlmeier, 1999).

2.6.2- Components of Transformational Leadership

The latest version of nine-factor full range leadership theory revised by Avolio, B. J., & Bass (2004) consists of five factors of transformational leadership as defined below:

1. Idealized Influence (Attributed)

This factor refers to the leader’s charisma. As it is consisting with inspires trust and instills the pride to the followers as well as having a vision and confidence and going beyond self-interest to achieve the goals of the group or organization (Bass, 1995).

2. Idealized Influence (Behavior)

Idealized influence behavior refers to the leaders’ actions that are based on their charismatic values, such as expressing the sense of self-confidence as well as specifying the importance of having a strong sense of purpose. (Antonakis et al., 2003; Bass, 1995).

3. Inspirational Motivation

Inspirational motivation refers to the ways that leaders engage and motivate their followers by talk optimistically about the future as well as talk enthusiastically about what needs to be accomplished (Antonakis et al., 2003).

4. Intellectual Stimulation

Intellectual stimulation refers to the leader actions that encouraging followers into looking for differing perspectives when solving difficult problems as well as exploring new things to learn that expand their creativity (Antonakis et al., 2003).

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5. Individual Consideration

This factor refers to the support, encouragement, personal attention, that been practiced from the leader to the followers which makes them feel important and valued (Antonakis et al., 2003).

In general, transformation leaders tend to create long-term relationships with their subordinates and they focus much on the transformation of their team members from being a self-interested individual to an employee who prefers organization’s interest and goals over his or hers (Burns, 1978). Burns (1978) mentioned has also mentioned that transformational leaders are the ones who seamlessly influence their followers and ensure that they are empowered from a moral and ethical point of view. This leadership style can be identified with the interests of the organization. Transformational leaders show positive qualities and ethics. This supports leading by example to influence followers’ moral, emotional, effectiveness, and cognitive behavior. Moral qualities of transformational leaders contributes positively towards supporting the promotion of innovations in organizations they lead (Liphadzi et al., 2015). 2.6.3- Components of Passive / Avoidant Leadership

There are two factors involved in passive-avoidant leadership such as management-by-exception (passive) and laissez-faire leadership (Avolio, B. J., & Bass, 2004).

1. Management by Except

Management-by-except is defined by (Bass, 1997) as a passive approach in which the leaders perform only the course correction in case of an unprecedented event or uninvited issues.

2. Passive Management by Exception

Passive management-by-exception has been defined by Avolio and Bass (B J Avolio & Bass, 1991) as a leader’s unwillingness to make any decisions until the problem emerges.

LF leadership is deemed as the most inefficient leadership style ever studied. In this leadership style, the leader is characterized by their non-performance, avoids decision-making responsibilities, non-involvement, irresponsible, lack of influencing behavior and authority upon subordinates and reluctant to have firm decisions (Antonakis et al., 2003; Avolio, B. J., & Bass, 2004).

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3. Methodology

In this chapter, the research methodology is presented. At first, the research philosophy, approach, and design are explained. Then, data collection, interview guide, and data analysis method are provided. The chapter is finalized with a discussion about the trustworthiness and the ethical considerations of the research.

3.1- Research Philosophy

Authors believed that the reality of the world was perceived differently by each person. The opinions, feelings, and thoughts of the observer defined the truth. This belief matched with the definition of a relativistic ontology, which is based on the fact that scientific truth is created by people themselves (Easterby-Smith et al., 2018). The aim of this research was to explore the linkage between construction leaders’ behaviors and leadership styles with the promotion of sustainability practices within the construction industry in two different contexts. This exploration process of the relationship between leadership styles and sustainability combined with the relativist ontology was approached from a social constructionist epistemology. Social constructionism focused on the ways that people made sense of the world by sharing their experiences with each other through the medium of language (Shenton, 2004). In this thesis, the linkage between leadership styles of construction firms’ leaders with the promotion of sustainability in the construction industry was determined by people rather than objectives and external factors.

3.2- Research Approach

This research followed a qualitative approach to data collection and analysis being adopted. As long as the research purpose was to explore how leadership styles shaped the promotion of sustainability in the construction industry, authors believed it was important to understand the mindset of leaders in this industry and their characteristic in order to provide more understanding and insights on how that shaped the promotion of sustainability.

Qualitative research allowed in-depth exploration of concepts and it was mostly focused on language and textual data. A qualitative design method helped authors to have a better understanding of each the respondent and response, which in return provided much deeper analysis of responses. Moreover, it avoided further generalized conclusions. It was more explorative in nature, consisting more of open ended rather than structured questions and responses, and it consisted of information gathering in non-numeric form, while interacting with the cases (Easterby-Smith et al., 2018).

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3.3- Research Design

Research design was about organizing research activities, including the collection of data in the most suitable way to achieve the research purpose. Its essence was about making choices about what would be researched, and how. Constructionist research design was linked to this study (Easterby-Smith et al., 2018). Consequently, there were several methodologies that suited this design. Having said so, this study was based on an embedded multiple-case study (Yin, 2009). The cases were 20 participants’ cases divided in nine companies in Sweden and Saudi Arabia. These participants had managerial positions charged with the promotion of sustainability. Primary data was collected through interviews with them based on a semi-structured interview protocol. There were several points that motivated the authors to choose this methodology. Firstly, multiple cases allowed a wider exploration of theoretical evolution and research question on how different leadership styles shape the promotion of sustainability (Eisenhardt & Graebner, 2007). Secondly, using this methodology enabled the authors to understand the similarities and differences between cases and compare between different leadership styles and how they shape the promotion of sustainability.

There were three points that had to be taken into consideration when applying a multiple case study. According to Yin (2009), the authors had to understand and identify the specific audience of the study. In this research, the authors were linking two important concepts in the management field that were leadership and sustainability. Therefore, this study was targeting the audience within the field of management. Yin (2009) also stated that authors had to identify the cases and the specific type of the cases that shall be implemented. In this thesis, authors have decided to select their cases from the construction industry due to the fact that this industry has had the highest impact on sustainability compared to other industrial sectors. Authors have decided to collect their data from companies in both the Swedish and the Saudi construction industry due to the fact that previous studies in the literature that have been done regarding the linkage between sustainability practices and leadership styles in the construction industry were very limited and done within specific national context. These studies concluded that their theoretical results were not applicable to other industries or other sustainable buildings projects in other countries. (Opoku et al., 2015; Tabassi et al., 2016). Therefore, checking how these two cultural nations shape the promotion of sustainability provides useful and comprehensive information in terms of sustainability practices and their linkage with leadership styles. Furthermore, implementation of sustainability in the construction firms is a leadership challenge because the construction industry tends to be one of the most dynamic and complex industries and promotion of sustainability within this industrial sector requires a unique

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leadership style. Consequently, construction industry provided an excellent setting to study this link due to the fact of how stringent its conditions for sustainability were. In addition, Yin (2009) writes that during the design of the case study, the structure should be identified. In this research, authors decided to follow the structure shown Figure 1.

Figure 1. Method Steps

Figure 1 explains the used method steps that have been followed in this research. The first step was case selection in which authors have decided on the criteria that was used to choose the appropriate organizations and the participants themselves. In the second step, authors developed an interview question guide based on the MLQ model dimensions as well as the facts that enabled them to identify the promotion of sustainability. The third step was conducting the interviews with the participants to gather empirical data. Companies’ websites, reports, social media platforms, such as LinkedIn, were used to complement what was needed to be known about the companies and the participants. In the fourth step, the authors analyzed the empirical data in order to extract results and conclusions.

3.4- Data Collection 3.4.1- Case Selection

This study was based on a multiple-case methodology. Authors have applied a mixed sampling approach. The first approach was the purposive approach in which case selection strategy focused on both the organizational and individual levels. In terms of the organizational selection criteria, authors have decided to include organizations from the contracting companies in the construction industry in Sweden and Saudi Arabia. This was due to the direct effect of these organizations on the promotion of sustainability as they were responsible for the physical execution of the construction projects. Plus, authors have decided to collect their empirical data from the construction industry due to its considerable effect on sustainability in both countries. While regarding the individual level, authors have decided to choose participants in the construction contracting firms that were charged with the promotion of sustainability by having the ability to influence other subordinates, superiors, or peers within

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their organizations in terms of promoting sustainable practices. Therefore, this research followed Northouse’s (2010) definition of leadership as “A process of influencing a group of individuals to accomplish a common goal and not necessary an executive position”. With taking this into consideration, the interviews included participants that had different managerial positions in their companies that affected the promotion of sustainability. Whereas the second sampling approach was the snowball approach. Participants that met the criteria were included in the sample and then asked whether they know others who also met the criteria.

The cases were 20 managers charged with the promotion of sustainability divided in 9 companies in Sweden and Saudi Arabia. Primary data was collected from interviews that were based on a semi-structured interview protocol to link leadership styles with the promotion of sustainability. Moreover, secondary data was collected from companies’ sustainability annual reports and websites. Authors have collected secondary data by going through the annual sustainability reports and sustainability policies that were adopted by the participating companies in order to understand the main issues and strategies that these companies and participants focused on regarding the promotion of sustainability. In some cases, secondary data helped in relating the level of promotion of sustainability by the participants to the United Nations Global Compact framework to check how the cases promoted the sustainability. Moreover, as mentioned earlier, website and social media platforms, such as LinkedIn, were used to get the required information about the participants.

Authors contacted several construction contracting companies that fitted the above-mentioned organizational criteria and received responses from nine organizations whose main offices were in Sweden and Saudi Arabia. During the initial contact, the purpose, method, and ethical considerations of the study were presented. Then they introduced authors to one or more contacts within the organization that both fit the individual criteria and were interested in participating in the study. Finally, authors scheduled the interviews with the participants. 3.4.2- Constructing a Question Guide

Authors have divided the question guide of the interviews into two main parts to reach the research purpose. In the first part, the focus was on identifying the leadership styles and behaviors of the participants. As shown in Table 3, thirty six questions of the first part of the interview were divided into nine dimensions that measured three leadership styles: transformational leadership (5 dimensions), transactional leadership (2 dimensions), and passive/avoidant behavior (2 dimensions). Each dimension had 4 questions. Authors structured