Causal-comparative analysis: Leadership efficacy of construction and manufacturing continuous improvement practitioners

The purpose of this quantitative causal-comparative study was to examine if, or to what extent, there was a difference in the leadership efficacy of continuous improvement practitioners (1) between the construction and manufacturing industries and (2) within each industry, in the United States. To explain this phenomenon, this study was based on the theoretical foundation of Social Cognitive Theory and its description of efficacy. Studying this topic was intended to assist with identifying opportunities to increase economic value by improving the effectiveness of continuous improvement programs in the construction and manufacturing industries. For the study, the target populations were continuous improvement practitioners from each industry that were associated with corresponding professional networking organizations. The categorical, independent variables for the study were the construction industry and the manufacturing industry. The dependent variable was the leadership efficacy of the groups of practitioners. Research questions for the study compared the leadership efficacy mean scores between the manufacturing industry (n = 54) and the construction industry (n = 59) and within each industry. With limited confidence, the researcher found that the manufacturing continuous improvement practitioners (mean = 80. 32) exhibited higher levels of Overall Leadership Efficacy than the practitioners from the construction industry (mean = 80. 07). The results of the study were limited by shortcomings in the data collection plan that resulted in a sample size that was too small to make proper inferences about the findings.