Sherif Ali Mohtady Mohamed

FACTORS AFFECTING LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY IN BUILDING PROJECTS IN THE GAZA STRIP

Abstract Productivity remains an intriguing subject and a dominant issue in the construction sector, promising cost savings and efficient usage of resources. Productivity is one of the most important issues in both developed and developing countries. The developed countries are aware of the importance of economic growth and social welfare. The developing countries which face unemployment problems, inflation and resource scarcity seek to utilise resources and in such a way to achieve economic growth and improve citizens’ lives. Productivity is an issue of particular importance to projects located within the Gaza Strip, as it is considered a newly‐developed area, and a huge number of projects have been planned for the near future. The aim of this research is to identify factors affecting labour productivity within building projects, and to rank these factors according to their relative importance from a contractors viewpoint. The analysis of 45 factors considered in a survey indicates that the main factors...

STRATEGIC IMPLEMENTATION OF IT/IS PROJECTS IN CONSTRUCTION: A CASE STUDY

The need for improved implementation of Information Technology (IT) and Information Systems (IS) has been emphasised in both empirical and prescriptive research studies. This problem is magnified in the construction industry, which has been slow to embrace and utilise new technologies with negative consequences on productivity and innovation. This paper presents a strategic implementation framework for IT/IS projects in construction. The framework builds upon recent published works and encompasses well-documented predictors for effective IT/IS implementation. A case study with a large multi-national construction organisation is used to demonstrate the strategic implementation of a Project Management Information System (PMIS) used for the construction of a mobile phone telecommunications network in the South East of Queensland, Australia.

Factors affecting the performance of construction projects in the Gaza strip

Abstract Construction projects located in the Gaza Strip, Palestine suffer from many problems and complex issues. Consequently, the objective of this paper is to identify the factors affecting the performance of local construction projects; and to elicit perceptions of their relative importance. A comprehensive literature review was deployed to generate a set of factors believed to affect project performance. A total of 120 questionnaires were distributed to 3 key groups of project participants; namely owners, consultants and contractors. The survey findings indicate that all 3 groups agree that the most important factors affecting project performance are: delays because of borders/roads closure leading to materials shortage; unavailability of resources; low level of project leadership skills; escalation of material prices; unavailability of highly experienced and qualified personnel; and poor quality of available equipment and raw materials. Based on these findings, the paper recommends that: 1) project ...

Modelling project investment decisions under uncertainty using possibility theory

With the increasing popularity of privately financed and operated construction projects, a systematic evaluation of investment options is needed, especially if they are competing for the same capital resource. Traditional evaluation methods incorporating risk analysis techniques require the input of relative frequencies which are not easily available in construction. This paper proposes a method capable of modelling the effects of both monetary and non-monetary aspects of an investment option, using interval mathematics and possibility theory to handle the inherent uncertainty associated with such aspects. Two numerical examples are presented to demonstrate its application in the assessment and ranking of available investment options.

Leadership behaviors, organizational culture and knowledge management practices: An empirical investigation

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between leadership behaviors and knowledge management (KM) practices. More specifically, it aims to examine the influence of transformational and transactional leadership behaviors on KM, and the moderating effect of organizational culture on this relationship, in the context of small‐to‐medium sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in Australia.Design/methodology/approach – A total of four hypotheses were proposed for testing. It also provides is a succinct review of KM basics relevant to the study, the relationship between leadership and KM, and leadership and organizational culture.Findings – The results suggest that both transformational and transactional leadership are positively related to KM practices. They also reveal that charismatic leadership and contingent reward leadership behaviors have greater influence on all the dimensions of KM practices.Research limitations/implications – A key limitation of this study is its cross‐secti...

Utilizing the balanced scorecard for IT/IS performance evaluation in construction

Leading organizations do not stop at the gathering and analysis of performance data; rather, these organizations use performance measurement to stimulate improvement efforts and successfully translate strategy into action. In other words, they use performance measurement for managing their organizations. The most commonly used performance evaluation tool, the balanced scorecard (BSC) has been used extensively in the manufacturing, government, banking, retail, insurance and financial services sectors. This paper looks at potential applications and benefits of using the BSC as a framework to evaluate the performance improvement resulting from IT/IS implementation by a construction organization. The paper firstly seeks to adapt the original BSC concept to construction and then attempts to develop a performance measurement framework in the form of a tiered “Construct IT” BSC. The developed framework allows for the measurement of IT/IS performance at three different decision‐making tiers (i.e., project, business unit and enterprise tiers). At each tier, a group of performance indicators are used to describe key aspects of activities that occur frequently enough to warrant meaningful measurement and comparison. The proposed framework applies the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and multi‐attribute utility theory (MAUT) to facilitate aggregating the obtained diverse performance measurements, thus giving rise to an overall IT/IS performance improvement measure (score) at each decision‐making tier. To illustrate the application of the proposed framework, a project tier example is provided.

Structural equation model of construction safety culture

Purpose – This paper sets out to describe the development and empirical testing of a structural equation model of construction safety culture. A key contribution of the model is providing insights into the interactions among safety culture enablers, and the relation between those enablers (what the organisation is doing) and safety culture goals (what the organisation aims to achieve) in the context of the Thai construction industry.Design/methodology/approach – Based on the internationally recognised EFQM Excellence model, this paper empirically examines the interactions and causal relationships between five enablers (i.e. Leadership, Policy and strategy, People, Partnerships and resources and Processes) and safety outcome (i.e. Goals). The paper utilises the structural equation modelling technique to test the hypothesised positive inter‐relationships between the enablers and goals. A questionnaire survey was administered to a sample of construction contracting organisations operating in Thailand to elic...

An empirical investigation into the link between information technology implementation barriers and coping strategies in the Australian construction industry

The need for the improved implementation of information technology (IT) has been identified in both empirical and highly structured research studies as being critical to effective innovation and development at an industry and enterprise level. This need is greater in the construction industry as it has been relatively slow to embrace the full potential of IT‐based technologies. In an attempt to understand why the construction industry lags other industries in the uptake and effective implementation of IT, this study reports on an investigation of the Australian construction industry, which identifies the impediments or barriers to IT implementation and the most effective coping strategies to overcome them. A questionnaire‐based research approach was adopted for this purpose and a total of 134 valid survey responses were received from various architectural, engineering and construction professionals. The questionnaire was designed to identify perceptions of the most significant barriers to IT implementation and to determine the most “practical” and “effective” corresponding coping strategies to mitigate their effects at three decision‐making levels: Industry; Organization; and Project.

IT/IS Projects selection using multi-criteria utility theory

In recent years, there has been a growing awareness that most decision makers are not only concerned with the financial implications of information technology/system (IT/IS) projects, but they are also concerned with other objectives such as competitive advantage, market share and future growth. Nowadays, multi‐criteria decision‐making methods are gaining importance due to their inherent ability to judge different alternative scenarios for possible selection of the best alternative. This paper provides a decision‐making framework for senior executives when selecting innovative IT/IS projects. The proposed framework is based on the multi‐criteria utility theory (MCUT) combined with information economics principles to select IT/IS project(s) based on “business value” and “risk” criteria. MCUT has the advantage of taking into consideration the decision maker’s preferences in the form of utility functions defined over a set of tangible and intangible criteria. To illustrate the application of the proposed framework, a hypothetical case study is provided, where input elicited from four engineering professionals is used to develop utility functions for a predefined set of selection criteria.

Empirical investigation of construction safety management activities and performance in Australia

The construction industry seems to suffer from a general inability to manage workplace health and safety to a level where an achieved improvement in safety performance by a way of pro-active measures can result in zero accidents. This paper investigates the effectiveness of safety management activities as currently adopted by Australian contracting organisations. A safety management survey has been conducted of contracting organisations operating in the State of Queensland, Australia. Based on a research model depicting statistical analysis techniques, a safety management index reflecting the intensity of level of safety management activities has been developed to provide a means whereby individual organisations can be assessed and graded on their safety management commitment and attitudes. The paper reports on a detailed empirical analysis carried out to examine the relationship between the intensity of safety management commitment and the overall safety performance, pro-activeness and record.