The characteristic of leader innovativeness, a case in Indonesian’s construction industry

Abstract

This research in the construction industry aims to understand the characteristics of Leader's Innovativeness. The construction industry, which is a project-based organization, has several unique criteria, including: geographical challenges at the project site, intense competition, the importance of innovation created in a short time. Leader innovation is generated in a leader-member exchange (LMX) between leaders and followers in the form of an exchange of ideas and knowledge (Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998). This research is very important because innovation is an antecedent of performance, where according to Hobday (2000), leaders are known to have comprehensive general knowledge, while followers have deep specific knowledge. The higher the level of Leader's Innovativeness, the higher the quality of Innovation that will be applied to construction projects. This study takes the object of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) which are well-known in the construction sector in Indonesia which have branches in all corners of the region, so they are considered to represent the construction industry. This research uses descriptive statistical analysis method and involves a total of 121 projects spread throughout Indonesia at the time of data collection, with a participation rate of 97.52 percent. The results showed that the Leader's Innovativeness variable had a high level with a mean of 4.98, especially for Consideration on Risk & QCDof 5.15 and Considerations on Health, Safety and Environmental Security (HSE) of 5.03.