A leadership-as-practice perspective on design in architecture, engineering and construction projects: interaction analysis of a collaborative workshop

Abstract

This paper proposes an alternative perspective on the role of leadership in the context of collaborative practices in architecture, engineering and construction design. While most of current leadership literature is focused on outstanding individuals with abilities to influence others, the aim of this study is to focus on leadership as a set of emergent interactive practices. To this end, the paper presents a video-based interaction analysis of a collaborative design workshop for a medical imaging centre in the Netherlands. Findings suggest that leadership-as-practice emerged through specific patterns of domain knowledge ownership, frequency of interactions, actor responsiveness and cross-disciplinary knowledge brokering. The paper calls for further empirical studies in the domain of interaction-focused leadership practices.

Keywords:

• AEC project organizations
• collaborative design
• leadership-as-practice
• video-based interaction analysis
• workshops

Acknowledgements

In particular, we would like to thank the project director and the PM of the MIC project without whose support this study would have been impossible. We would also like to thank all the participants of the workshops who chose not to disclose their details.

Funding

This project was funded by the Dutch province of Overijssel as part of the High-Tech Health Farm interdisciplinary research initiative.