Amin Akhavan Tabassi

Transformational leadership and teamwork improvement: the case of construction firms

Purpose – A need for effective leadership and adequate managing the personnel is vital for every construction organization. Meanwhile, the dynamic and complex environments of the industry may be caused that not much research has been conducted on leadership practices in the industry. The purpose of this paper is to study the leadership style of the construction leaders in Iran and explore the correlation of transformational leadership practices with teamwork improvement in the construction companies. Design/methodology/approach – The research analysis was completed on a sample population of 107 managers within nominated construction firms in Iran. The analysis methods in this research were mainly descriptive and regression-based analyses and the type of investigation was a co-relational study. Findings – The research found the level of the leaders’ orientation for people and task in their leadership style, their transformational leadership qualities, and the relationship of transformational leadership wit...

Influences of Polymer Modification and Exposure Conditions on Chloride Permeability of Cement Mortars and Composites

On the basis of laboratory investigations, this paper presents the chloride penetration and diffusion over different exposure conditions of three commercial polymer-modified mortars, styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR), polyacrylic ester (PAE), and vinyl acetateethylene (VAE), and unmodified conventional mortar mix and composites. The results indicated that within 15% of polymer addition in cement mortars, there was a substantial decrease in chloride penetration. The diffusion coefficients of chloride ions estimated from the simplified linear error function–based (SLEM), Newton-Raphson, and least-squares fit methods showed increasing value coefficients with the increasing age of specimens or cycles of exposure. The results also revealed that at 15 and 40 cycles of wetting and drying, the cement mortars modified with VAE exhibited a much superior quality in chloride penetration than SBR- or PAE-modified mortars.

Team development and performance in construction design teams: an assessment of a hierarchical model with mediating effect of compensation

A high-performance construction workplace invests in its human resources and facilitates their technical and innovation skills through team development. Though team development has been explored in many studies, to date, little research has disentangled how team development and compensation methods enhance team performance in construction companies. Accordingly, team development as a hierarchical, reflective construct, incorporating six associated components was extended and the variables of the model in a nomological network analysed using partial least squares (PLS). As a result, with the help of PLS path modelling, a hierarchical team development construct with the mediating effects of compensation on the relationship between team development and team performance was developed. The research analysis was completed on a sample population of 128 construction design teams and the results lead to the development of a model that shows team development has a significant direct and indirect impact on team performance. The results also confirm the mediating role of group compensation on the relationship between team development and team performance. In general, it is suggested that the design teams achieved better performance when the leaders adapted team compensation methods consistent with the team development practices.

Effects of Different Curing Regimes on Engineering Properties of Polymer-Modified Mortar

AbstractDespite the fact that polymer-modified mortar can be widely used as a material for major construction projects, the extensive use of this promising material may be hampered because of not enough published data on its durability performance. This paper, based on a laboratory program, compares the engineering properties, over different aging, of three commercial polymer-modified mortars [styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR), polyacrylic ester (PAE), and vinyl acetate-ethylene (VAE)] and unmodified conventional mortar mixes exposed to different curing conditions. The results show that the SBR mixes appeared to possess better engineering properties than the PAE and VAE mixes, and a well-designed polymer-modified mortar mix can retain its engineering properties over a long period of time.

Linking Team Condition and Team Performance: A Transformational Leadership Approach:

Because project teams in the construction industry shape the primary focus of the industrys project life cycle, a high-performance construction workplace facilitates employees’ technical and innovation skills through team development. Drawing on the current research in general teamwork and leadership, this study, from a theoretical perspective, extends the team condition as a hierarchical construct, incorporating six associated components. This article argues that team building and team development can be studied as ongoing processes that are crucial to project success. In order to reduce the risk of common method variance, the research analysis was completed using 94 construction teams from three different sources, within which team members rated their leaders transformational leadership behavior. The team leaders evaluated the teams conditions, and, lastly, the supervisor of each team rated the teams performance. The model shows that the team condition, which is defined as the factors that contribute to making a great team, has significant direct and indirect impacts on team performance. Furthermore, the transformational leadership behavior of team leaders showed a mediating role between the team condition and the performance.