Anthony Walker

The measurement of total factor productivity of the Hong Kong construction industry

Previous research work concerning construction productivity has often been related to labour productivity. Although easy to measure and understand, labour productivity may be misleading in measuring the efficiency of utilization of resources. An alternative concept — total factor productivity — is preferred. However, this concept has seldom been used in empirical research of construction productivity due to problems of measurement and availability of data. This paper presents a method of indirectly measuring the total factor productivity of the construction industry using various construction cost and price indices and other statistics. Although special reference has been made to the construction industry of Hong Kong, the same approach should also be applicable to other countries.

The importance of property‐specific attributes in assessing CBD office building quality

Purpose – This paper identifies the importance of key factors influencing the quality of CBD office buildings. An office building quality index (BQI) is constructed and its relationship with net rent assessed.Design/methodology/approach – The importance of 30 property‐specific CBD office building attributes on the quality of CBD office buildings is assessed using a survey of property industry respondents. The analytical hierarchy process procedure is used to determine weights for each of these attributes to construct an office BQI.Findings – Findings indicate that functionality (31.0 per cent), services (22.6 per cent), access and circulation (16.4 per cent), presentation (13.1 per cent), management (11.5 per cent) and amenities (5.4 per cent) are the order of importance in assessing office building quality. There was found to be a strong functional relationship between office building quality and net rent.Practical implications – A better understanding of the factors influencing CBD office building quali...

The positive use of power on a major construction project

Although reasonably well developed in the general management literature, the source and use of power in organizations has received little attention in relation to its effect on the management of construction projects. This paper reviews the literature on power and its relationship to both formal and informal authority, and its manifestation as organizational politics, and relates them to construction projects in general. Reward, coercive, expert and referent (prestige) power and the role of resources are covered in this general review. A closer examination is then made of power through a case study of the development of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, which identifies the positive use of power and its implications for the outcome of the project.

Benchmark pricing behaviour of land in China's reforms

Summary Following open door policy, China is allowing a major and valuable national resource, namely land, to be privatized in the market. Land has not been allocated according to the market since the Communist party took power in 1949. Without extensive market activities it has become imperative for both central and local government to devise guidelines when selling land to developers who have found great potential in this market. After initial pilot studies in some cities, a benchmark pricing model was finally devised to provide guideline land prices. In theory, this model has the role of leading the existing land allocation system into a price mechanism similar to a market economy. However, the legacy of the socialist ideology concerning the assessment of value exerts a strong effect on the benchmark pricing model which makes the behaviour of the benchmark prices inconsistent with market prices. An examination of the benchmark pricing of land in various Chinese cities has revealed that China is still f...

Economic reform and the future for real estate in the People′s Republic of China

Examines the development of China′s land management system and the hidden constraints within which a socialist market system is striving to get established. Also examines the rationale behind investment in geographical areas of the PRC and the different trends in foreign investment observed to date. The establishment of real estate markets in China really only commenced in 1978 as a result of China′s drive for modernization. They are, however, struggling to develop against a legacy of central economic planning and the allocation of land by the State to state‐owned enterprises. This legacy eschewed the principles of communism by allocating land without compensation, where the terms of years were deliberately unspecified, where any rights of transfer were left unclear and where the obligations and rights of land users were not clearly defined. Since 1988, successive legislation and new regulations have sought to drive out these old principles and replace them with laws and regulations with which the West ma...

Private industrial project management: a systems-based case study

The technique of linear responsibility analysis is used for a retrospective case study of a private industrial development consisting of an extension to existing buildings to provide a warehouse, services block and packing line. The organizational structure adopted on the project is analysed using concepts from systems theory which are included in Walkers theoretical model of the structure of building project organizations (Walker, 1981). This model proposes that the process of building provision can be viewed as systems and subsystems which are differentiated from each other at decision points. Further to this, the subsystems can be viewed as the interaction of managing system and operating system. Using Walkers model, a systematic analysis of the relationships between the contributors gives a quantitative assessment of the efficacy of the organizational structure used. The causes of the clients dissatisfaction with the outcome of the project were lack of integration and complexity of the managing sys...

Property rights implications of public-private joint ventures

When a public institution contracts with a developer for a co-development project, there are two main options for arrangements: the equity or the cooperative joint venture. Equity is basically a shareholding arrangement, whereby inputs are valued at market worth in exchange for respective shares of ownership of the joint development. Under cooperative joint ventures, however, shares of ownership are not necessarily based on the values of the inputs. The partners simply draw up a contract that defines the inputs and apportions the outputs of the joint development. This paper argues that a cooperative joint venture between a public institution and a private developer is basically an arrangement to reduce dissipation of rent under public ownership. Unlike the equity arrangement, cooperative joint ventures necessarily lead to an apparent transfer of shares from the public institution to the private developer. Evidence found thus far in Hong Kong and China is consistent with this hypothesis. Variations of the cooperative joint venture are discussed together with examples.

An anatomy of a Hong Kong project — organization, environment and leadership

An analysis is presented of the organization structure of a large complex project in Hong Kong which involved both public and private sector participants. The project is the US

A conventionally-managed project: a systems-based case study

400 million Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. The analysis identifies the novel contract strategy used and the resulting relationship which existed between contributors to the project. The analysis is based on the systems approach to organization structure and focuses on the structure of decisions, differentiation and integration of the operating system, the client and the managing system. Distinction is made between the macro- and micro-environments of the project with which the organization structure had to interact. Features of the leadership styles adopted at a high level on the project are discussed. Conclusions are drawn within the context of the interplay between project environment, organization structure and leadership.

Convergence of the land tenure systems of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan?

The technique of linear responsibility analysis is used for a retrospective case study of a private development consisting of an extension to an existing building to provide a wholesale butchery facility. The project used a conventionally-organized management process. The organization structure adopted on the project is analysed using concepts from systems theory which are included in Walkers theoretical model of the structure of building project organizations ( Walker, 1981). This model proposes that the process of building provision can be viewed as systems and sub-systems which are differentiated from each other at decision points. Further to this, the sub-systems can be viewed as the interaction of managing system and operating system. Using Walkers model, a systematic analysis of the relationships between the contributors gives a quantitative assessment of the efficacy of the organizational structure used. The projects organization structure diverged from the models propositions resulting in dela...