Towards a Model That Sees Human Resources as a Key Element for Competitiveness in Construction Management

Abstract

The construction industry is continuously affected by external and internal agents that modify and define its competitiveness. Changing markets, currency fluctuations, and tremendous competition have made the issue of competitiveness increasingly important. The literature highlights factors that determine the competitiveness of construction firms, including easy-to-measure elements, such as financial, sales, return on investment, etc., while other elements are not as easily measurable, such as customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, loyalty, and leadership, among many others. Within these factors, Human Resources (HR) has occupied a central place in the last decade, due to the enormous impact that labor has on project execution. This research mainly focuses on the study of HR and its components to reach a deeper understanding of the impact that HR has on the competitiveness of construction companies. After defining the most relevant variables, an interrelationships model was proposed with the Partial Least Square (PLS) technique. These HR variables impact the competitiveness variables: cost, utility, time, quality, Staff retention, and Health & Safety. The PSL analyses met the evaluation criteria using the structural model, confirming its viability. It was found that there are three important variables related to competitiveness: (i) leadership, (ii) innovation, and (iii) competitiveness.