Bourdieu Capitals and Leadership: The Case of Design Consultant Firms’ Managers in the Malaysian Construction Industry

Abstract

The creative products of Malaysian design firms are critical for sustained competitiveness in the increasing globalised and local construction market. These products are derived from the collaborative efforts of the design leaders and their subordinates. Owner-managers of design firms are aware of the role of their leadership in increasing the productivity of their creativity workers. Knowledge of effective leadership traits has initially guided leadership development and sustainability. Later theories such as charismatic theories and leader-member exchange theories have a common theoretical paradigm of leader-follower relations. A novel approach to this leadership theoretical paradigm is replacing relevant leaders’ traits with Bourdieu capitals that effectively influence their followers. This paper reports the findings of interviews with subordinates in Malaysian architecture, civil engineering and landscape architecture consultant firms regarding the influence of the superior’s Bourdieu capitals upon their creativity. Qualitative thematic coding analysis of the interview transcripts generated the relevant Bourdieu capital categories and theme. The leader’s human, emotional, leadership, cultural and social capitals were found to influence the subordinate’s creativity motivation. The data indicate a common theme of followers’ creativity motivation through learning from leader’s superior human capital. The learning is aided by the leader’s emotional capital. Thus, Bourdieu capitals offer an innovative perspective in studying and possibly quantifying leaders’ influence upon their followers.