Leadership and Change in Construction Industry - Coursework Example

the construction industry is the subject of increasingly strict legislation across a wide range of issues relating to employees, customers, energy, and natural resources.

Some of these challenges are sector-specific. In the housebuilding sector, there is a shortage of housing, and this is unlikely to ease in the short term unless planning regulations are relaxed and a substantial affordable-housing program makes an impact: high house prices exclude many prospective first-time buyers from the housing market. The infrastructure subsectors have experienced a decline in work, much of which is due to delayed programs in, for example, transport. The industrial construction sector has experienced a growth in warehouse construction work, but the factory sector is likely to remain subdued as the UK loses manufacturing jobs to cheaper manufacturing centers overseas. Commercial construction work benefits from major Private Finance Initiative (PFI) programs in education and health, although some of these have been delayed. Output from office construction is particularly important in the commercial sector, while work in the retail subsector faces increasing planning restrictions. In the building materials subsector, there are challenges relating to rising energy costs and environmental issues, such as sustainable material sources, disposal of waste, and recycling. New materials are being investigated to accommodate improved environmental features; for example, reducing heat loss and simplifying construction methods (UK Construction Industry Market Review, 2006).

These major developments in the UK’s construction industry highlight the importance of the human resource issues to be faced by the managers within this sector of the economy. Attracting skilled labor and career-oriented employees (especially considering the growing share of part-time and casual jobs in the sector), retaining such employees in order to build bench strength required for succession planning, providing advanced training are only the most evident tasks to be fulfilled by the companies within the construction industry in the long-term perspective. Therefore, strong and effective leadership is a critical aspect of human resources-related activities required to manage the recent challenges.

Leadership in the modern highly dynamic and turbulent marketplace is not restricted to simply getting the employees to do what the leader wants and requires them to do. The key task of a modern leader in the construction industry is to bring out the very best of the employees’ potential and help them focus their energies to reach a common set of goals.