A satisfying leadership behaviour model for design consultants

Design of construction project is a collective effort involving a team of specialists from different organisations. A lack of direct contractual relationships makes the line of authority subtle. The leadership of the design team leader could affect the productivity of the design team and therefore the project success. This paper aims to establish the relationship between leadership behaviours of design team leader and the satisfaction of the design team members. An empirical survey was carried out in Hong Kong and the results indicate that "charismatic" and "participative" leadership behaviours of the design team leader primarily determine the satisfaction of the team members. A satisfying leadership behaviours (SLB) model has been developed by multiple regression analysis based on the identified leadership behaviours. The SLB model was validated and the result reveals that the prediction error of the model is satisfactory. The practical usage of the SLB model has also been examined in this paper. © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd and IPMA. All rights reserved.