Attributes Indicating Communication Influence on Leadership Development: A Delphi Selection Process

Communication is an essential subject to the built environment and it generally presents special challenges. This is mainly true within the construction industry, were collaboration tends to be characterized by unfamiliar groups of people coming together for short periods before disbanding to their respective construction tasks, moreover the industry is dynamic and complex, which makes communication by industry leaders important. The study aimed at establishing the influence of different communication factors on leadership development in the construction industry. The study adopted the Delphi survey system of data collection to examine the study objective. Delphi experts (Construction specialists and researchers) were engendered from peer-reviewed conference proceedings and the South African construction industry professionals' database. The appraisal of different communication factors was done by identifying the influence of each communication factor on leadership development; these factors were measured between no influence and very high influence. Data collected were analyzed using mean item score and interquartile deviation. Of the different communication attributes evaluated, the ability for leaders to develop active listening skills had a high influence on developing communication attributes for leadership development in the construction industry. The article contributes to the frame of knowledge on leadership development and communication in the construction industry. © 2020 The Authors. Published by Budapest University of Technology and Economics & Diamond Congress Ltd Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of the Creative Construction Conference 2020.