Francis Tekyi Edum-Fotwe

Developing project management competency: perspectives from the construction industry

Abstract Project managers in todays construction industry are faced with a situation whereby the fundamental roles and functions they perform are witnessing a gradual shift in focus. To maintain their professional competency, practising project managers in construction adapt to this changing industry environment by relying on knowledge and skills acquired through training and experience. The extent to which such training enables project managers to effectively adapt to changing demands have considerable relevance not only for the training of future project managers, but more importantly, the kind of management and general manpower development policies that construction organisations can adopt. The paper presents a study that focuses on the development of construction project managers and how they maintain their professional skills in a changing construction business environment. The paper first sets out the areas of knowledge and skill required for project management certification, and argues that the traditional engineering orientation of these requirements are insufficient for todays construction project manager. It identifies the general knowledge and skill elements that are perceived as essential for developing project management competency through a survey of project managers in the construction industry.

A review of financial ratio tools for predicting contractor insolvency

There is a variety of financial ratio analytical methodologies for evaluation of construction companies corporate performance and identifying potential insolvent contractors. These methodologies comprise traditional approaches, subjective index and ratio models. The shortcomings of the financial ratio analytical methods are highlighted and some approachesto improving their efficiency presented. It has been suggested that standardizing the assessment criteria of subjective index methods for the construction industry can reduce the variation in different expert evaluations and so lead to a more uniform assessment. Secondly, the transformation approach has been recommended as a means of improving the efficiency of ratio models.

Information procurement practices of key actors in construction supply chains

Abstract This paper presents a survey on the practices associated with the acquisition, use, storage and transfer of information by a sample of professionals (actors) within the construction supply chain. The role of information in construction supply chains witnessed a shift from its passive function in decision-making from the 1990s, to a strategic resource that drives both the processes and competitiveness of companies. This change presents challenges for organisations that participate in the construction supply chain. The way organisations involved in the construction supply chain manage this resource will have direct impact on their competitiveness. This is influenced by the information acquisition, processing, utilisation and transfer practices of their professional staff (actors) involved in the processes of the construction supply chain. The paper presents results from a survey that looks at some aspects of how key actors in the construction supply chain address these information-related issues.

Reconciling construction innovation and standardisation on major projects

The concepts underlying innovation and standardisation presents an apparent divergence in what each strives to achieve. In the view of the authors, this has contributed in no small measure to the low take‐up of standardisation within the construction sector as organisations strive to be innovative to improve on their performance and attain continuous improvement in their processes and operations as well as design solutions. The paper presents as a case, how one major public sector outfit is striving to achieve innovation within an agenda that involves a widespread adoption of standardisation. It presents the motivations for adopting an organisation‐wide agenda on innovation and standardisation, identifies the elements of apparent incongruity between the concepts, and outlines how the case organisation has resolved the divergences.

Contractor practices for managing extended supply chain tiers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how contractor firms manage their relationships with extended supply chain tiers and investigate the range of ICT technologies used to facilitate such practices. Design/methodology/approach – An on-line questionnaire survey was conducted to gather information about supply chain management operations, supplier relationship management and the ICT technologies used by contractor firms to manage their extended supply chain tiers. Findings – The extended supply chain relationships of contractor firms are primarily composed of contractual, technical and financial entities, but findings suggest that the vision to consider extended supply chain firms when selecting suppliers are still myopic. Majority of ICT technologies are used between Tier 1 supply chain firms and there is an inconsistency in the number of technologies adopted with the extended supply chain tiers. Despite having a high involvement relationship with Tier 2 downstream firms, findings indicate a l...

Implementing commercial information exchange: a construction supply chain case study

The concept of electronic trading (e-trading) has transformed supply chain interactions in many industries, yet little research explored its implementation by Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) supply chain firms. E-trading relies on commercial information exchange by supply chain partners which is generally adopted through intermediary technology partners (Hub Providers) to facilitate the accurate and timely communication of transactional data between buyers and supplier. A case study was conducted to explore the challenges and barriers to implementation of cross-firm commercial information exchange. The study primarily involved investigation of the interfaces between software development and organizational functions assisting with the electronic exchange of commercial information (eCIX) implementation. Findings from the case study show that implementation of commercial information exchange is not an easy task with several themes of factors to be considered during delivery of such projects, namely technical, coordination, integration and organizational. The study contributes to the knowledge and deployment of e-trading solutions within the context of AEC firms, and should be of interest to the practitioners contemplating similar projects.

Overview of funding for construction craft skills training in Sub-Saharan Africa: a case study of Zambia

The wealth of any nation is ultimately based on its human resource or social capital. Education and training are the primary vehicles of developing this resource. Funding of formal construction craft skills training at trade institutions in Sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA) is examined, using Zambia as a country case study. The data in the research were collected via semi‐structured questionnaire interviews directed at government financed trades training schools offering construction programmes in Zambia. Results of the research show that formal construction craft skills training in Zambia has not been adequately funded over the years resulting in: ill‐qualified low numbers of poorly remunerated teaching staff; poorly maintained infrastructure and workshop facilities not well equipped for teaching purposes; and out‐dated curricula of construction craft programmes. A wide range of measures is required to improve funding for construction craft skills training. These include: increased training regulation and co‐ordination by government, development of efficient and effective funding mechanisms that involve employers of crafts‐persons, and training provision frameworks that encourage increased involvement of private training providers.

The application of causality to construction business ethics

Purpose - – This paper aims to investigate two causality concepts, sphere of control (SOC) and agent–action–results (AAR), and their potential applications to construction business ethics. SOC is used in ethics training, and AAR is applied to ethical decision-making (EDM). Design/methodology/approach - – A framework of ethics training and a framework of EDM for construction companies have been developed. Interviews were conducted with experienced construction engineers and PhD ethicians to test the validity of the EDM framework. Findings - – Literature review has been conducted in ethical issues, ethics training and EDM, leading to the developments of the frameworks. The framework of ethics training incorporates SOC to reflect the ethicality and personality traits. The framework of EDM is based on AAR, combined with a stakeholder approach and Kohlberg’s cognitive moral development theory, with a review from EDM models in business. Both frameworks include project-level component to reflect the unique feature of the construction industry. The framework of EDM showed a good practicality through the interviews on an ethical dilemma example. Research limitations/implications - – For the ethics training framework, a long-term observation or survey should be accompanied to evaluate the framework in detail, tracing the improvement of ethicalness of course participants. Practical implications - – The customized ethics training will be more efficient and effective, as it considers individual ethicality. The scoring system of the EDM framework is simple and practical. This is particularly relevant for construction ethics management, considering that most of construction practitioners are engineers, not philosophers or psychologists. Originality/value - – Applying causality concepts, SOC and AAR, to construction ethics is a novel approach in construction management. This research has made a good advancement in construction ethics management by providing the right directions to be explored in these new areas.

Developing Incident Causation Constructs for Managing Safety in Construction

The UK construction industry has a relatively high level of fatal and non-fatal accident rate, which creates the need for improving its safety performance (HSE, 2006). However, the safety performance of the UK is no worse than that of other leading advanced economies, and it may be inferred that improving safety performance is a problem that is shared wider than the UK. While progressive efforts have been directed at improving safety in construction, the level of performance appears to stagnated over the last decade HSE, 2006). The levelling in safety performance would suggest that improving safety further beyond current attainment calls for a radical look at how safety is addressed by construction. Such a radical look would not only cover the planning, implementation, and management of safety in construction, but also give attention to aspects beyond the traditional practices of safety management. Because the incident research was limited this paper focused on the effort of safety management needs to shift from managing and monitoring accidents to managing and monitoring incidents. This will call for a greater understanding of incident causation in construction, and also to divert attention from monitor and manage for accident to monitor and manage for the incident, which mean the incident investigation has two main parts managing (before the incident happened based on analysis the causes of incident to reduce it and reduce accident events which also improve the safety) and monitoring (after incident happened as part of control and management to improve safety in construction) and to develop a system for analysis and then documented on the form of a report and finally deal with the perpetrators of the violation of safety regulations, in order not to repeat it.

MERIT 3: Managing the Virtual Construction Company

The paper presents a computer-based development (MERIT) that provides engineers and construction managers with that opportunity of learning to manage in a virtually simulated Architectural Engineering and Construction (AEC) business environment. It outlines the history of the development and describes the main concepts underlying the development as well as what the software does. The MERIT simulation illustrates how multimedia can be incorporated into an interactive training system to facilitate the acquisition of managerial skills and knowledge for engineers in the AEC sector.