Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management

Zhang, Rita Peihua; Pirzadeh, Payam; Lingard, Helen; Nevin, Steve

2018 Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management

doi: 10.1108/ECAM-09-2016-0207

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to use a longitudinal approach to measure safety climate at construction projects, and explore the relationship between safety climate and the level of project completion in the dynamic construction project environments.Design/methodology/approachMulti-wave safety climate surveys were conducted at four processing plant construction projects in New Zealand. Safety climate was measured with a multi-level measurement instrument, which measured construction workers’ perceptions of client’s organisational safety response (COSR), principal contractor’s organisational safety response (PCOSR), supervisors’ safety response (SSR) and co-workers’ safety response (CWSR).FindingsAt the organisational level, the research identifies a general downward change trend in workers’ perceptions of COSR and PCOSR. At the group level, no clear or consistent change trend is identified between the level of project completion and workers’ perceptions of SSR and CWSR.Research limitations/implicationsThe research suggests that the construction project management should consistently emphasise the importance of safety, even when they are facing production pressure. The research highlights the opportunity to examine the role of supervisors’ leadership as an antecedent to the group-level safety climate and the development of workers’ safety concerns for their co-workers over time.Originality/valueThis research provides the starting point for understanding safety climate in the dynamic and constantly changing construction project environments, in which the relative priorities change, adverse events arise and production pressures fluctuate over time.

Deng, Xiaopeng; Low, Sui Pheng; Zhao, Xianbo; Chang, Tengyuan

2018 Engineering Construction & Architectural Management

doi: 10.1108/ECAM-02-2017-0042

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the micro-level variables contributing to political risks in international construction projects.Design/methodology/approachA total of 25 micro-level variables were identified from the literature review, and a questionnaire survey was performed with 138 professionals from both academia and industry. Then, the Spearman rank correlation was used to test whether there was agreement on ranking between the two respondent groups. Furthermore, the 25 variables were grouped into six underlying factors through the exploratory factor analysis.FindingsThe results indicated that the most critical variables were “project desirability to the host country,” “relationship with governments,” “misconduct of contractors,” “public opposition to the project,” “experiential knowledge of political risks” and “advantageous conditions of contract.” In addition, the opinions within each group were consistent and there was no significant disagreement on the rankings of variables between academics and practitioners. However, the academic and practitioner groups held different opinions on some individual variables. The impact direction of the variables was associated with confusion among the respondents.Originality/valueThe findings presented in this paper can help international construction enterprises effectively manage political risks in international construction projects.

Holt, Gary D.

2018 Engineering Construction & Architectural Management

doi: 10.1108/ECAM-02-2017-0019

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to field a critical response to Kog and Yaman (2016) specifically; and more widely, to strengthen debate on contractor selection (CS) research.Design/methodology/approachCritical narrative and opinion based on personal worldview, experiential knowledge and future insight/vision.FindingsIt is argued that enduring CS research has become somewhat stagnated. It has over-emphasised selection process models vis-à-vis the reliability and currency of their processing components, and has inadequately focused on achieving real-life impact.Research limitations/implicationsThe principal implication is to engender constructive debate in the field and encourage a change of direction in CS research. The limitation is that this response reflects a personal view and so will be open to “challenge”.Practical implicationsPotential to encourage increased practicability, accessibility and generalisability of CS research products, leading to their increased real-life take-up and improved impact on practice.Social implicationsFor society, the optimal implications would be improved project outcomes; healthier stakeholders’ financial interests; and an enhanced constructed environment.Originality/valueThe content is entirely original insofar as it comprises a personal viewpoint.

Pellegrino, Roberta; Costantino, Nicola

2018 Engineering Construction & Architectural Management

doi: 10.1108/ECAM-02-2017-0036

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to focus on productivity as it unfolds during the execution of a particular task, i.e., reinforced concrete operations. The main aim is understanding whether the learning effect explaining the improvement of productivity in subsequent cycles of a given repetitive construction process is mainly attributable to a pure worker learning (independent on the specific site) or to the experience developed by the crew on the site conditions.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conduct a research that empirically investigates and compares the change in productivity data of a single worker during his/her working life and that of a crew involved in specific repetitive work, such as the concreting activities of a multi-storey building.FindingsThe findings suggest differentiating between productivity gain as a result of the learning effect of the individual worker throughout his/her working life (which is independent of the specific project and site) and that of a crew composed by more workers which repeat reinforced concrete operations in a given specific project.Research limitations/implicationsDespite the great attention reserved to learning in construction, few researchers discuss on the real applicability of the learning curve (LC) theory in the construction industry. The authors contribute to this literature by empirically investigating the contributions that the learning effect of the individual worker and that of a crew repeating a given task (i.e. reinforced concrete operations) in a given project have on the productivity improvement for subsequent cycles of the repetitive construction process.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study have important managerial implications. The shape of the LC of the individual worker implies that learning increases relatively slowly in his/her working life (particularly after one to two years), while the effects of the crew experience are immediately significant in a time range of few weeks. This means that a single “one-off” multi-storey building project will show in the first storey the “historical,” individual productivity of the individual workers (i.e. not going to vary significantly in the next few weeks). The productivity improvement in the further storeys will only depend on the project-specific (and collective, for the crew) “learning” due, for example, to better coordination or to other issues that are progressively solved moving from the first storey to the following ones. So, the project-specific LC increases in a faster way than the individual one, and the overall productivity can be improved by accelerating the project-specific learning rate with more accurate project-specific design and management.Originality/valueThis paper enhances the understanding of the contributions that the learning effect of the individual worker and that of a crew repeating a given task (i.e. reinforced concrete operations) in a given project have on the productivity improvement for subsequent cycles of the repetitive construction process. This will contribute to improve the planning and control of site work activities, avoiding time and money wastefulness.

Sundquist, Viktoria; Hulthén, Kajsa; Gadde, Lars Erik

2018 Engineering Construction & Architectural Management

doi: 10.1108/ECAM-08-2016-0177

PurposePartnering has been at the top of the management agenda in the construction industry for many years as a means of improving performance. Previous research shows that partnering has not reached the desired level of strategic partnering, but stopped at project partnering. The purpose of this paper is to provide an analytical framing for transformation from project partnering towards strategic partnering with suppliers.Design/methodology/approachThe framework is based on two building blocks: a case study of a contractor involved in implementing strategic partnering with four of its suppliers and a literature review dealing with partnering in construction; and models for close and long-term buyer-supplier collaboration in other contexts.FindingsTransformation towards strategic partnering should preferably be based on extension of project partnering in two dimensions: extension in time through relationship development with suppliers and extension in space through increasing network orientation across projects.Practical implicationsSucceeding with relationship development and network orientation requires contractors to abandon two significant aspects of established construction logic that serve as significant implementation barriers. Competitive bidding in single projects needs to be replaced by collaboration over series of projects. The decentralisation of authority to the project level needs to be supplemented with increasing centralised decision making.Originality/valuePrevious research showed that despite the considerable interest in partnering there is a lack of systematic theorizing of the phenomenon. This paper contributes to theoretical anchoring through the combining of the case study and the literature review in the abductive approach applied.

Wang, Qiankun; Guo, Zeng; Mei, Tingting; Li, Qianyao; Li, Peng

2018 Engineering Construction & Architectural Management

doi: 10.1108/ECAM-09-2016-0210

PurposeConstruction industrialization is emerging in the construction industry, as a result, buildings with prefabricated assemblies are gaining more and more ground. In most situations, the prefabricated building assemblies are installed by labor crews manually. If some assemblies are ill-designed, clashes between labor crews’ workspaces and them may occur, which will have bad effect on workers’ productivity and even incur hazard. The purpose of this paper is to provide a 4D building information modeling (BIM) based approach to find potential workspace conflicts during the installation process of prefabricated building assemblies in the detailed design process so as to eliminate them in advance.Design/methodology/approachFirst, a workspace modeling method is provided; second, three kinds of workspace conflicts are analyzed; third, a 4D-BIM-based approach is established; fourth, a prototype tool based on the approach is developed; and finally, a case study is conducted to test the tool.FindingsThe result shows that the proposed tool can detect or precaution workspace conflicts and visualize them in a series of views; in doing so, valuable information can be obtained for improving the design quality of prefabricated assemblies.Research limitations/implicationsThe proposed approach and tool only concern the congestions caused by ill-designed prefabricated components; the tool needed to be further optimized for speed; the tests on the tool are limited to a single case study; and more tests are needed to verify its effectiveness.Originality/valueThis research provides a 4D-BIM-based approach and a prototype tool for installation workspace analysis. It can be used to provide support for design optimization of prefabricated building assemblies.

Shurrab, Mohammed; Abbasi, Ghaleb; Al Khazaleh, Razan

2018 Engineering Construction & Architectural Management

doi: 10.1108/ECAM-01-2017-0001

PurposeConstruction organizations and companies are concerned with the motivational factors of the project managers that influence the project success. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to use a questionnaire based on five Likert-scales to identify and investigate the importance of the motivational dimensions on the construction project managers in JordanDesign/methodology/approachTherefore, this study aims at using a questionnaire based on five Likert-scales to identify and investigate the importance of the motivational dimensions on the construction project managers in Jordan. The six motivational dimensions were interpersonal interaction, task, general working conditions, empowerment, personal development, and compensation. Hypotheses testing were also developed to study the influence of both the characteristics of the project manager and the characteristic of the project on the motivational dimensions.FindingsThe results showed that the construction project managers in Jordan were motivated more by compensation and personal development. Moreover, the level of education for the project manager was positively related to the motivation by task. It was also noticed that the project manager, who had higher experience, was motivated more by empowerment. The study is valuable in providing important information for the construction organizations in Jordan to actively influence the construction project managers’ motivation.Originality/valueThe urgent needs for increasing project managers’ motivation is the major concern for organizations and companies. Increasing the project managers’ motivation has a major influence on increasing the project success rate and productivity. Construction sector is typically country’s most important asset economically and socially. Currently, no studies were shown to investigate the construction project manager’s motivation in Jordan. This study is, therefore, aims to evaluate the factors that influence the construction project manager’s motivation in Jordan based on content and process motivational theories’ perspectives. This research also utilizes the motivational factors instrument to test its validity in Jordan construction sector.

Zuo, Jian; Zhao, Xianbo; Nguyen, Quan Bui Minh; Ma, Tony; Gao, Shang

2018 Engineering Construction & Architectural Management

doi: 10.1108/ECAM-01-2016-0016

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to identify the soft skills of construction project management; and second, to investigate the influence of these soft skills on project success factors in the Vietnamese construction industry.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire survey was conducted with 108 project management professionals from the Vietnamese construction industry. Partial least square structural equation modelling was employed in data analysis.FindingsFour-dimensional structure of project success factors was confirmed in this study. Results also showed that soft skills of project managers significantly contributed to project success factors and hence the project success.Research limitations/implicationsThere may be geographical limitation on the conclusions drawn from the findings. Similarly, the sample size was still small, despite a relatively high response rate. In addition, the majority of the respondents were contractors and clients as other project players were reluctant to respond to the survey.Practical implicationsThis study provides an understanding of the relationship between soft skills and project success factors.Originality/valueAlthough there have been studies focused on soft skills of project management and project success factors, few have attempted to analyse the effects of these soft skills on critical success factors. Thus, this study adds significantly to the existing research on both project management skills and project success factors.

Hassim, Salihudin; Muniandy, Ratnasamy; Alias, Aidi Hizami; Abdullah, Pedram

2018 Engineering Construction & Architectural Management

doi: 10.1108/ECAM-09-2016-0215

PurposeThe pre-tender estimation process is still a hazy and inaccurate process, despite it has been practiced over decades, especially in Malaysia. The methods evolved over time largely depend on the amount of information available at the time of estimation. More often than not, the estimate produced during the pre-tender stage is far more than the tender cost of the project and sometimes, it is perilously underestimated and caused major problems to the client in the monetary planning. The purpose of this paper is to determine the most influential factors on the deviation of pre-tender cost estimation in Malaysia by conducting a survey.Design/methodology/approachFuzzy logic, combined with artificial neural network method (fuzzy neural network) was then used to develop an estimating model to aid the pre-tender estimation process.FindingsThe results showed that the model is able to shift the cost estimation toward accuracy. This model can be used to improve the pre-tender estimation accuracy, enabling the client to take the necessary early measures in preparing the funding for a building project in Malaysia.Originality/valueTo the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study on tender price estimation standardization for a construction project in Malaysia. In addition, the authors have used factors from literature for the model, which shows the thoroughness of the developed model. Thus, the findings and the model developed in this study should be able to assist contractors in coming out with a more accurate tender price estimation.

Adesi, Michael; Owusu-Manu, De-Graft; Murphy, Roisin

2018 Engineering Construction & Architectural Management

doi: 10.1108/ECAM-12-2016-0264

PurposeProfessional quantity surveying (QS) services are critical to successful delivery of construction projects within planned budget, quality and duration. The supply of QS professional services is largely dependent on the price level of services and the willingness of clients to pay. The pricing of professional QS consultancy services has been confronted with a myriad of pricing challenges due to rapid changes in the business environment; the pervasive influence of information technology; and the complexity of clients’ expectation. It is therefore necessary for QS consultancy firms to develop strategic competences for the pricing of their services. In addition, numerous studies have not given the pricing the pricing of professional services the requisite attention. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the strategic competences for pricing professional QS services.Design/methodology/approachThe study was positioned within the positivist tradition. As a result, the quantitative approach was adopted using a survey questionnaire to collect data from QS consultants. The sample size of the study was 79 professional quantity surveyors chosen by using simple random sampling technique from a population of 372 registered professional QS of the Ghana Institution of Surveyors. Using the χ2 test and factor analysis, the study established relationship between strategic competences and pricing of QS services.FindingsThe study found that strategic competences for pricing QS professional services is significantly related to the managerial and professional competence of QS consultants. The strategic competences of QS consultants identified by this study include business management, services cost management; and production capabilities.Practical implicationsThis study provides an empirical basis for QS consultancy firms to focus on strategic direction of their contractual arrangement with clients. Practically, resource configuration and on strategic competences for professional service pricing would create price leadership.Originality/valueThe study advances the pricing knowledge within the QS practice by demonstrating the nexus between strategic competences and the pricing of QS professional services which hitherto this study have not been effectively investigated.