Abstracts Business

Leadership and management, the solution to the construction industry crisis

by Joseph M. Molnar

The business roundtable report describes the construction industry as an industry in crises. The crisis is centered on the downward trend in quality and productivity, the dwindling numbers of trained, skilled craftsmen, and the uncontrolled, escalating cost of construction. The issue is very complex, and complex problems, typically, have complex solutions. It is not my contention to trivialize the problem with simplistic observations but to hopefully shed the light of common sense and understanding that might lead to viable solutions. The focus of the roundtable report is economic in nature; the crisis is defined and described in economic terms. In this report the economic crisis is translated into the terms of a moral crisis. The Business Roundtable Report also goes to great lengths rationalizing the problems in the industry by using the make up of the industry as an excuse for poor performance. It's that way because we are set up different from other industries like manufacturing and sales, and there I believe is the genesis of the problem. This quote is in essence accepting the circumstances and limiting the potential solutions. Before effective change can happen, there must be an understanding that change is required. Fulfilled potential comes from the potential of unlimited change. This report is not the big picture fix to the complex issues of the industry, but more of a beginning of how individual leadership skills affect our industry, and how the development of those skills during the education process will lead to viable solutions. The research begins with a discussion of integrity, ethics, and character leading to a working definition of leadership. The working definition of leadership is used to measure the ability of the education process to develop the industry's future leaders. The measurement was accomplished by surveying the Leadership and Management attitudes among current graduate students