Subashini Suresh

Six Sigma and leadership: some observations and agenda for future research

Purpose – Leadership has for a long time been a topic that attracts the attention of both academics and practitioners. In spite of the extensive literature on leadership and very little literature on leadership in Six Sigma, there is almost a complete absence to explain how and what leadership characteristics are needed for successful implementation of Six Sigma initiatives. This paper aims to address this issue. Design/methodology/approach – This research adopts a triangulation method, however for the purpose of this paper; the focus is on a thorough review of literature. Findings – From an exhaustive literature review, this research has made some observations and developed an agenda for research. This is presented in the form of an integrated leader, leadership and Six Sigma framework in addressing organisation sustainability issues. Originality/value – The developed integrated framework for the successful deployment of Six Sigma contributes to knowledge which is underpinned by robust literature review.

Investigating the multi-causal and complex nature of the accident causal influence of construction project features

Construction project features (CPFs) are organisational, physical and operational attributes that characterise construction projects. Although previous studies have examined the accident causal influence of CPFs, the multi-causal attribute of this causal phenomenon still remain elusive and thus requires further investigation. Aiming to shed light on this facet of the accident causal phenomenon of CPFs, this study examines relevant literature and crystallises the attained insight of the multi-causal attribute by a graphical model which is subsequently operationalised by a derived mathematical risk expression that offers a systematic approach for evaluating the potential of CPFs to cause harm and consequently their health and safety (H&S) risk implications. The graphical model and the risk expression put forth by the study thus advance current understanding of the accident causal phenomenon of CPFs and they present an opportunity for project participants to manage the H&S risk associated with CPFs from the early stages of project procurement.

The health and safety impact of construction project features

Purpose – Despite the established significance of underlying accident causes to health and safety (HSand the de...

Overcoming the Challenges facing Lean Construction Practice in the UK Contracting Organizations

Despite the benefits realized from Lean construction practice over the past two decades, the uptake of the Lean concept in the UK seems to be sparse. The UK contracting organizations engaged in Lean construction practice are faced with challenges that need to be addressed to facilitate wider application of Lean concepts so as to gain its benefits. The purpose of the study is to investigate the challenges facing the application of Lean principles in the UK construction industry with a view to proposing solutions that could be used to address the challenges. A qualitative research approach was adopted and semi-structured interviews were conducted with Lean construction practitioners working with 10 contracting organizations in the UK. The study identified 10 dierent challenges across the organizations that participated in the research and discovered 13 strategies that could be used to overcome the challenges. Findings from this study will lead to a better understanding of the challenges facing Lean construction practice in the UK so that further research could be done on how each challenge could be addressed. The findings could also help practitioners in addressing the dierent challenges

Do Building Information Modelling Applications Benefit Design Teams in Achieving BREEAM Accreditation

Using building information modelling (BIM) within a design team allows for integration of sustainability analysis such as daylighting analysis, water harvesting, and thermal assessment whilst capturing the data which can be used for BREEAM assessment. Therefore, the availability of data compared to traditional methods can be used to design teams, stakeholders, and environmental assessment bodies’ advantage. Since BIM boasts extensive building performance analysis capabilities, design teams should be provided with standard methodologies and guidance into successfully achieving certain BREEAM criteria. This paper highlights gaps in the existing theory to develop a solid understanding for further research in order to achieve BIM integrated BREEAM design team protocol. Further to this and running parallel to the protocol and guidance, an internal conceptual framework existing within BIM software could be instigated from future research. This will require detailed and innovative solutions to link the credits with the software both from an IT and from a software coding perspective; also, there is great merit into analysing design teams’ cultural and behavioural factors towards sustainable design through the BIM model.

The Role of Building Energy and Environmental Assessment in Facilitating Office Building Energy-Efficiency

Ten years ago, the primary author developed the Building Energy-Efficient Hive (BEEHive) concept in order to demonstrate in theory that environmental design – which is aimed at addressing environmental parameters – can support the design and operation of energy-efficient office buildings. This was a result of his analysis of the spheroid form’s efficiency in nature, and his development of a spheroid-like energy-efficient office built form. The BEEHive incorporates environmental design principles such as: site considerations; built form; ventilation strategy; daylighting strategy; and services strategy. Furthermore, several notable environmental design advocates and practitioners have made significant contributions in order to improve building performance. However, in practice environmental design has had limited success in the attainment of balance and optimisation in all aspects of energy use; hence there is typically a gap between predicted and actual office building energy use. The primary author’s previous study established the impacts of contributory factors in the gap between predicted and actual office building energy use. It has contributed to this current study, which is also a part of the primary author’s doctor of philosophy (Ph.D) research, and it has established the role of a key contributory factor, that is, the role of building energy and environmental assessment in facilitating office building energy-efficiency. It involved a combination of literature reviews, multiple case study research and comparative studies in order to build theory. It also established the methods and tool to be used in the primary author’s Ph.D research for multiple case studies and simulation studies of office building energy-efficiency. Analysis of the literature revealed that the role of building energy and environmental assessment involves assessment of the impacts of environmental design principles, and the impacts of factors that contribute to office building energy use gap decreases, for example: solar gain minimisation orientations; energy-efficient strategies for built forms, ventilation, lighting and services; and decreases in hours of operation and occupancy. Its role also involves assessment of the impacts of factors that contribute to office building energy use gap increases, for example: weather variation and microclimates; and increases in hours of operation and occupancy. There are three key types of building energy and environmental assessment, and these are: building energy use audit method; building energy simulation analysis method and tools; and building energy and environmental assessment rating method and tools. Their respective roles include: tracking building energy use over time; predicting future building energy use within multiple environmental design scenarios and parameters; and assessing, rating, and certifying building energy and environmental efficiency. However, limitations of building energy and environmental assessment, and impacts of factors that contribute to office building energy use gap increases need to be addressed in order to achieve: optimum building energy use assessments and predictions; optimum environmental design principles; and building energy use gap decreases for improved energy performance. This study has contributed to ideas for the development of a Building Management System (BMS-Optimum) for Bridging the Gap, which is comprised of optimum conditions and considerations such as: optimum environmental design principles; optimum weather and microclimate considerations; accessibility to reliable office building energy use data; optimum building energy and environmental assessment; optimum hours of operation; and optimum level and nature of occupancy. Future work will include further development of BMS-Optimum, using methods such as: multiple case study research supported by building energy use audits, observations, questionnaire surveys, interviews, benchmarking and comparative studies; building energy simulations within multiple scenarios, parameters and variables, and supported by benchmarking and comparative studies; and peer reviews and focus group sessions. These will also help establish and validate a Framework for Improved Environmental Design and Energy Performance (FEDEP).

The Impacts of Contributory Factors in the Gap between Predicted and Actual Office Building Energy Use

Ten years ago, the primary author developed the Building Energy-Efficient Hive (BEEHive) concept in order to demonstrate in theory that environmental design – which is aimed at addressing environmental parameters – can support the design and operation of energy-efficient office buildings. This was a result of his analysis of the spheroid form’s efficiency in nature, and his development of a spheroid-like energy-efficient office built form that encloses and shades the most volume of office space with the least surface area possible. The BEEHive concept also incorporates several other aspects of the environmental design philosophy, including: site considerations (location and weather, microclimate, site layout and orientation); built form (shape, thermal response, insulation and windows/glazing); ventilation strategy; daylighting strategy; and services strategy (plants and controls, fuels and metering). Furthermore, several notable environmental design advocates and practitioners have made significant contributions in order to improve building performance. However, in practice environmental design has had limited success in the attainment of balance and optimisation in all aspects of energy use; hence there is typically a gap between predicted and actual office building energy use. This study has established the impacts of contributory factors in the gap between predicted and actual office building energy use, and it is a part of the primary author’s doctor of philosophy (Ph.D) research. It involved a combination of literature reviews, multiple case study research and comparative studies in order to build theory, and it established the reasons for the gap, as well as the best ways to bridge it for improved office building environmental design and energy performance. Analysis of the literature revealed two types of gaps, and these are a gap increase and a gap decrease, which are among the impacts attributable to contributory factors in the gap between predicted and actual office building energy use such as: the nature of environmental design measures implemented; weather variation and microclimates; unavailability of reliable building energy use data; limitations of building energy simulation software; level of hours of operation; and level and nature of occupancy. Amongst these, the key contributors to gap increases are increases in hours of operation and occupancy, and weather variation and microclimates. Their respective major impacts are discrepancy between predicted and actual hours of operation and increased energy use, increased heat output and uncertainties, and variable heating and cooling requirements. The key contributors to gap decreases are environmental design measures such as the use of: natural ventilation strategies; daylighting strategies; solar photovoltaic systems; and spheroid-like built forms. Their respective major impacts are: the production of more energy than an office building uses; and energy uses that are below, for instance, Energy Consumption Guide 19 typical and good practice energy use for office type 4, and relevant ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers) standards. This study has contributed to ideas for the development of a Building Management System for Bridging the Gap, otherwise known as ‘BMS-Optimum’, which is comprised of optimum conditions and considerations such as: optimum environmental design principles; optimum weather and microclimate considerations; accessibility to reliable office building energy use data; optimum building energy and environmental assessment; optimum hours of operation; and optimum level and nature of occupancy. Future work will include further development of BMS-Optimum, using methods such as: multiple case study research supported by building energy use audits, observations, questionnaire surveys, interviews, benchmarking and comparative studies; building energy simulations within multiple scenarios, parameters and variables, and supported by benchmarking and comparative studies; and peer reviews and focus group sessions. These will also help establish and validate a Framework for Improved Environmental Design and Energy Performance (FEDEP).

THE APPLICATION OF LEAN CONSTRUCTION TOOLS IN UNITED KINGDOM CONSTRUCTION ORGANISATIONS: FINDINGS FROM A QUALITATIVE INQUIRY

1. School of Technology, University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, WV1 1LY, United Kingdom. Email: abubakar.bashir2@wlv.ac.uk 2. School of Technology, University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, WV1 1LY, United Kingdom. Email: s.subashini@wlv.ac.uk 3. School of Technology, University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, WV1 1LY, United Kingdom. Email: d.a.oloke@wlv.ac.uk 4. Faculty of Environment and Technology, University of the West of England, Bristol, BS16 1QY, United Kingdom. Email: david.proverbs@uwe.ac.uk 5. School of the Built Environment, University of Salford, Greater Manchester, M5 4WT, United Kingdom. Email: r.gameson@salford.ac.uk

The impacts of monetary rewards on public sector employees in construction

Purpose Literature indicates that monetary reward or compensation impacts on the level of attraction, motivation, job satisfaction and retention of employees. The elements of compensation include salary, bonuses (allowances), gratuity and pension. The purpose of this study is to investigate how these four elements of compensation specifically influence the attraction, motivation, job satisfaction and retention of public sector construction employees of Jigawa State of Nigeria to inform how their employer can raise the current levels of satisfaction and retention of employees. Design/methodology/approach The Positivist paradigm guided the empirical research where a questionnaire was developed, pilot-tested and administered to 265 people using stratified random sampling. A total of 260 questionnaires were collected, representing a response rate of 98 per cent. The data obtained were analyzed using both descriptive statistics and structural equation modelling. Findings The results established that construction employees in Jigawa State’s public sector were motivated by allowances and gratuity, attracted to the job by salary, pension and gratuity and remained in their jobs through the influences of gratuity and pension. Gratuity played a major role, as it impacted on all the four variables studied. Practical implications These findings are applicable to Jigawa State of Nigeria but can be extrapolated to other public sector construction employees in the whole country. The findings could also be generalized in other states where the pay scales are different within the ministries. Originality/value The impacts of four elements of monetary rewards on four employees’ variables were studied. The specifics of which elements of compensation influence the employees of Jigawa State’s Ministry of Works and Transport have been identified. The findings from this study showed that gratuity played a primary role, as it impacted highly on all the four variables of job attraction, motivation, satisfaction and retention. Pension also played a high role, as it impacted heavily on job attraction, satisfaction and retention. Comparatively salary and allowances had high impact on one variable each: job attraction and motivation, respectively.

The impacts of monetary rewards on public sector employees: a case of Jigawa State in Nigeria

Purpose Literature indicates that monetary reward or compensation impacts on the level of attraction, motivation, job satisfaction and retention of employees. The elements of compensation include salary, bonuses (allowances), gratuity and pension. The purpose of this study is to investigate how these four elements of compensation specifically influence the attraction, motivation, job satisfaction and retention of public sector construction employees of Jigawa State of Nigeria to inform how their employer can raise the current levels of satisfaction and retention of employees. Design/methodology/approach The Positivist paradigm guided the empirical research where a questionnaire was developed, pilot-tested and administered to 265 people using stratified random sampling. A total of 260 questionnaires were collected, representing a response rate of 98 per cent. The data obtained were analyzed using both descriptive statistics and structural equation modelling. Findings The results established that construction employees in Jigawa State’s public sector were motivated by allowances and gratuity, attracted to the job by salary, pension and gratuity and remained in their jobs through the influences of gratuity and pension. Gratuity played a major role, as it impacted on all the four variables studied. Practical implications These findings are applicable to Jigawa State of Nigeria but can be extrapolated to other public sector construction employees in the whole country. The findings could also be generalized in other states where the pay scales are different within the ministries. Originality/value The impacts of four elements of monetary rewards on four employees’ variables were studied. The specifics of which elements of compensation influence the employees of Jigawa State’s Ministry of Works and Transport have been identified. The findings from this study showed that gratuity played a primary role, as it impacted highly on all the four variables of job attraction, motivation, satisfaction and retention. Pension also played a high role, as it impacted heavily on job attraction, satisfaction and retention. Comparatively salary and allowances had high impact on one variable each: job attraction and motivation, respectively.