The relationship between diversity, leadership and innovation in the South African construction industry
The absence (or lack) of a diverse leadership and workforce in the South African construction industry is hindering innovation in the industry. The result is a weakened ability to respond to a fast paced technologically driven market and economic changes which impacts directly on organisational growth and performance. This further limits the industry's ability to provide inclusive innovative solutions to industry challenges and societal infrastructure challenges. Little is known about the role of leadership in driving, influencing, and managing the relationship between diversity and innovation in the South African construction industry. The construction industry has not been responsive to market changes and consequently, has been slow to innovate and grow. The rapidly evolving societal contextual landscape requires a more diverse workforce to specifically respond to and address these challenges. South Africa is faced with many infrastructure challenges, such as insufficient eroded road and water infrastructure, lack of sufficient housing, high unemployment of construction graduates, that impact negatively on society's most impoverished and marginalised. The exclusivity of South Africa's growth path is further emphasised by a high unemployment rate of 25%, while the comprehensive social welfare system has succeeded in reducing inequalities in access to public services and housing, poverty has remained stagnant, and inequality has remained exceptionally high, underpinned by one of the world's consistently highest unemployment rates. This study investigated the role of leadership in managing the relationship between diversity and innovation in the construction industry by examining how leadership influences, drives, and manages this relationship to advance organisational performance in the South African construction industry. A convergent parallel mixed method approach was used to elicit the views of all the professionals (the construction industry work force) working within the South African construction industry on how they perceive, interact, feel, experience, engage and rate the level of importance of the three elements under investigation. A pilot study was conducted with a small sample to evaluate the comprehensibility of the questions. Thereafter, a questionnaire (survey) was distributed to professionals in various roles and levels within the South African construction industry. To better understand how leaders within the South African construction industry view, interact, feel, experience, engage and rate the level of importance of the three elements, semi-structured interviews were conducted via Microsoft teams concurrently with the questionnaire that was distributed via the survey monkey digital platform. The quantitative data collected was exported from the Survey Monkey digital tool to the SPSS 27 software and analysed using descriptive, inferential and probability tests. The qualitative data was analysed thematically using the NVivo 12 software. The research found that the South African construction industry has the potential and opportunity to contribute to societal infrastructure challenges and that there is a correlation between leadership's ability to drive, influence and manage the relationship between diversity and innovation to advance successful organisational and industry performance. This study provided a framework articulating the mediating influence of leadership on the relationship between diversity and innovation to drive better inclusive societal infrastructure problem-solving in the South African construction industry.
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Department of Construction Economics and Management