The impact of subordinates' professionalism on leadership effectiveness in the construction industry

Professionalism is often considered as the extent to which skilled personnel are committed to their profession and their work, which is characterized by a set of attributes including a commitment to professional organisation and profession, and a strong belief in altruistic service, self-regulation and autonomy. Previous research suggested that professionalism among skilled personnel served as a form of resistance and control for coping with the leadership behaviour of their leaders. It was revealed that professionalism, as possessed by professional subordinates, would reduce their need for dependence on task-related information and reduce the effects of leadership from their leaders. The purpose of this study is to empirically analyse professionalism as a moderating variable in the leader-subordinate relationship. Specifically, it explores the effects of subordinates' professionalism on the relationships between transformational, transactional and laissez-faire leadership styles, and subordinates' work outcomes in the construction industry. A conceptual model is constructed to explain the hypothesized relationships. The main objectives of this study are: (1) to investigate the level of professionalism among professional subordinates. (2) to examine the leadership styles of building professional leaders as perceived by their professional subordinates. (3) to examine the relationships between leadership styles and subordinates' work outcomes. (4) to analyse the moderating effects of subordinates' professionalism on the relationships between leadership styles and subordinates' work outcomes (subordinates' extra effort, leader effectiveness perceived by subordinates, and subordinates' satisfaction with leaders). The findings of this study support the proposition that transformational and transactional leadership are in general positively correlated with subordinates' work outcomes while laissez-faire leadership showed negative effects. The results further support that transformational leadership can augment transactional leadership to produce more effective subordinates' work outcomes. The results of moderated regression analyses suggest that subordinates' professionalism has different moderating effects dependent upon the type of leadership styles and the type of subordinates' work outcomes. The results of this study reveal that high levels of professionalism among subordinates serve to enhance the positive relationships between transformational leadership and subordinates' work outcomes. (Abstract shortened by UMI. )