Client Representatives Research Articles

Whole Life Critical Factors Influencing Construction Project Performance for Different Objectives: Evidence from Thailand

This study aimed to identify the critical factors (CFs) influencing project performance and analyze their relative importance across multidimensional criteria throughout the project life cycle. Based on a literature review, 179 individual factors were categorized into nine performance criteria. A questionnaire survey was conducted with client representatives, consultants, and contractors in Thailand. The statistical analysis of 93 subjects showed that the significance levels of the performance criteria and CFs changed depending on the considered phase in the project’s life cycle. The analysis identified the three criteria (client satisfaction, quality, time) that were most frequently used to measure the success of a project. Furthermore, the findings revealed the top 10 CFs for each performance category throughout the life cycle. Notably, these findings provide compelling evidence of the following most important CFs across the performance measures: competence of project participants, adequate experience of project participants, the availability of competent staff, positive personal attitudes among project participants, participation in environmental initiatives by management, competent supervisors, effective project planning and control, the need for collaboration, and the professionalism of the project team’s services. This research provides insights into the factors that influence project success and have managerial implications for project stakeholders, facilitating informed decision making throughout the life cycle. Through establishing novel perspectives, this study enhances the knowledge base in the construction management domain.

Towards data-informed shared decision making: what do we need?

Background:The increasing availability of data offers new possibilities for supporting quality of care in long-term care (LTC) for older adults, also for dementia care units in nursing homes. Examples are quantitative data in electronic health records (i.e. medication), data collected by technological devices such as sensors and wearables (i.e. data related to psychical and mental health including for example heart rate and sleeping patterns), but also qualitative data stored in texts (e.g. transcribed conversations about perceived quality of life). LTC organisations currently lack tools to interpret and integrate the data in the shared decision-making (SDM) process. This project investigates the necessities for data-informed SDM.Methods:The study was conducted in co-design with the knowledge group ‘Data Science’ residing in the Living Lab in Ageing and Long-Term Care, Maastricht. A focus group-setting, in which a diverse set of stakeholders, including data/ICT-specialists, care managers and client representatives, took place to discuss bottlenecks, possibilities and solutions related to data-informed SDM.Results:In total, representatives (n=18) from 7 care organisations participated in three separated focus groups. This resulted in several themes that were deemed necessary for data-informed SDM: 1) an organisational vision on data and data-informed SDM, 2) investment in data-driven care SDM, 3) the instalment of multidisciplinary teams, including clients, informal and formal caregivers, 4) a planned implementation process is needed, and 5) the use of living lab constructions.Conclusion:A well-thought-out, integral learning process, including a vision statement on data and the installation of multidisciplinary teams working on data-problems, is deemed necessary in order for LTC organisations to accomplish data-informed SDM. A concrete step-by-step plan, which can provide LTC organizations with tools to embed data in the current SDM process, is suggested to help organisations in their quest to data-informed personal care.

Development and content of a community-based reablement programme (I-MANAGE): a co-creation study

ObjectivesAs age increases, people generally start experiencing problems related to independent living, resulting in an increased need for long-term care services. Investing in sustainable solutions to promote independent living is...

Defining practice variation and exploring influencing factors on needs assessment in home care nursing: A Delphi study.

To describe a Delphi study regarding practice variation in needs assessment by Dutch home care nurses, to define practice variation in home care nursing and explore which factors may have a role in this needs assessment. A Delphi study was conducted with the participation of home care representatives. A Delphi questionnaire was developed, preceded by literature research and an expert meeting. The Delphi study took place between December 2020 and February 2021. The goal was to achieve a consensus level of at least 70%. After three rounds, 32 experts reached a consensus about definitions regarding variation in needs assessment, warranted and unwarranted variation. In total, 59 factors were determined related to (1) the client and health, (2) the clients' context, (3) nurses and (4) the nurses' context. Thirty-four factors scored warranted of influence and 18 (of 34) were client related. Most of the factors that scored unwarranted influencing needs assessment (17 of 26) were related to the home care nurses' context. Having a consensus about the definition of practice variation in needs assessment and possible influencing factors support the professionals to discuss and improve the unity and quality of their decision-making process in home care. This may contribute to more righteous care for clients in need of home care. Since 2015, home care nurses in the Netherlands are responsible for determining the amount, type and duration of care for clients in need of home care. This so-called needs assessment legitimizes the payment by health insurers. Signals of practice variation in needs assessment are heard in home care field. Although practice variation may be justified, it can lead to over or underuse of care, which may affect clients' outcomes. If we can identify influencing factors and find patterns that contribute to practice variation, we might gain a better understanding of the process and improve home care. In this study, there was no patient or public involvement. Client representatives were included in this research as experts in the home care field, and they participated in three rounds of the Delphi study. They contributed by sharing their expert opinion on the definitions presented and the factors possibly influencing needs assessment.

Factors predisposing public tertiary education building projects to risks

The studies show that risks occur during the construction of projects and affect performance in terms of cost, time, and quality. However, with the growing evidence of cost and time overruns associated with public tertiary education building projects, this paper assessed factors predisposing these building projects to risks. Using the survey method, four hundred fifty-two questionnaires were administered to consultants, contractors, and client representatives across five tertiary education institutions. The research instrument’s reliability value was 0.763 via the Cronbach alpha test. Therefore, of 452 questionnaires administered to the respondents, 279 were retrieved, representing 61.73% return rate, and analysed. Furthermore, the top three factors include financial constraints, location of the project, and project type. In contrast, economic requirements, special and legal conditions, and building use are the minor predisposing factors. The respondents had convergent views on eight out of eleven factors except for project duration, economic requirements, and building use. Besides, the eleven factors presented in the study were significant and recorded high mean scores, implying suitable parameters for measuring factors predisposing public tertiary education building projects to risks. Based on the preceding, the study provided information on the factors that could enhance the performance of public tertiary education building projects.

How to establish workplace learning in long-term care: results from a World Café dialogue

BackgroundAs long-term care continues to change, the traditional way of learning for work purposes is no longer sufficient. Long-term care organisations need to become ‘learning organisations’ and facilitate workplace learning for nursing staff teams. Therefore, insight is needed into what conditions are important for establishing workplace learning. The aim and objective of this article is to gain insight into necessary individual, team and organisational conditions for nursing staff to enhance workplace learning in long-term care settings.MethodsThis study is a qualitative explorative study. A World Café method was used to host group dialogues in which participants (n = 42) discussed certain questions. Group dialogues were held for the nursing home and community care setting separately due to organisational differences. Nursing staff, experts in workplace learning, educational staff, client representatives and experts in the field of work and organisation in healthcare organisations were invited to a Dutch long-term care organisation to discuss questions of interest. Data were analysed using theme-based content analysis.ResultsOverall themes concerning individual, team and organisational conditions for workplace learning included: facilitating characteristics (e.g. to be given time and room for [team] development); behavioural characteristics (e.g. an open attitude); context and culture (e.g. feeling safe); cooperation and communication (e.g. giving/receiving feedback); and knowledge and skills (e.g. acquiring knowledge from each other). No major differences were found between settings.ConclusionsBy assessing the themes at the individual, team and organisational level regarding nursing staff, the current workplace learning situation, and its possible improvements, can be detected.

Plenary Sessions in a Paradigm of Presumptive and Virtual Mediation

The traditional mediation model contemplates a preliminary discussion with counsel to address logistics including setting a mediation date, ensuing submission of mediation statements and key documents to orient the mediator, and ultimately a formal session attended by client representatives kicked off with a plenary joint session potentially followed by private alternating caucuses.

Experiential expertise in the co-development of social and health-care services: Self-promotion and self-dismissal as interactional strategies.

Increasing client involvement in the development of social and health‐care services has resulted in clients being invited to present their experiential knowledge in service co‐development groups. Nevertheless, research has shown that their opportunities to really contribute to actual decision‐making are limited. This article investigates how client representatives initiate turns‐at‐talk in the decision‐making context and the way in which professionals respond to them. Using conversation analysis, we analyzed 15 h of recorded interactions in five co‐development workshops. Our data exhibited a systematic pattern that linked client representatives’ self‐promoting and self‐dismissive turns‐at‐talk to specific types of responses from professionals. When the client representatives highlighted the relevance of their experiential knowledge for making decisions, the professionals disregarded their contributions. However, if instead, the client representatives cast their experiential knowledge as irrelevant to the decision‐making activity at hand, the professionals subsequently appreciated this knowledge. Thus, paradoxically, in order to establish the relevance of their views, client representatives diminished their positions as experiential experts.

Developing a Reablement Program Aimed at Preventing Unnecessary Care Transitions After Geriatric Rehabilitation

Patients returning home after geriatric rehabilitation may encounter several challenges related to daily functioning, which only manifest after returned home due to the large difference in environment and amount of support provided in both settings. This study aimed to develop an intervention preventing transitional care. A co-creation design was used, including literature research, observations, interviews, and working groups including a variety of stakeholders (n=13), including care professionals, policymakers of the municipality, client representatives, and an expert in the field of geriatric rehabilitation. Results indicated four main causes for transitional care problems: lack of communication between patients and professionals, coordination and continuity of care, patients’ limited self-management skills, and insufficient preparation. To solve these problems, an intervention was developed consisting of six intervention components aiming to increase self-management during meaningful daily activities, narrow the gap between the rehabilitation and home setting, and enhance communication and coordination.

Outdoor living wall systems in a developing economy: A prospect for supplementary urban food production?

Green wall systems have greatly advanced over the past few decades and hold important potential for the future in light of predicted urban population growth, densification, and climate change. This article provides a brief background to living walls, followed by a summary of the advantages and disadvantages of the four types of systems that are currently available in South Africa. It makes use of a case study review of three recently implemented edible living walls in Gauteng to reflect on the challenges currently experienced and the future potential benefits, with specific focus on system resilience, economic feasibility, and edible plant possibilities. Interviews were conducted with clients and client representatives, contractors and/or designers on each project. The findings suggest that living walls have indirect commercial value through customer experience and satisfaction, as well as educational value. Should the scale, economic feasibility and resilience of living wall systems be enhanced, they can improve urban food production. The article concludes that this could be achieved in the Global South by using simplistic technologies with lower cost living wall infrastructure systems. When deployed on a large scale, with climate-tolerant indigenous and edible plants in exterior systems, productivity will be improved.

Success criteria-based impacts of risk factors on education building projects in southwestern Nigeria

PurposeDespite the huge capital outlay in tertiary education building projects (TEBP), these projects undoubtedly failed in meeting the set objectives of cost, time and quality, among others. Therefore, rather than the impacts of risks on the overall project performance, which is common in the construction management literature, the purpose of this study is to assess the impacts of risk factors on the criteria for measuring the success of public TEBP.Design/methodology/approachThe paper adopted a quantitative research method where the data collection was via a questionnaire survey. The researcher administered 452 questionnaires to the client representatives, consultants and contractors involved in building projects across five public tertiary education institutions in Ondo State, Nigeria. Of 452 questionnaires, 279 were retrieved and suitable for the analysis, translating to a 61.73% response rate. The reliability analysis of the research instrument showed 0.965 and 0.807, via Cronbach’s alpha test, indicating high reliability of the instrument used for data collection.FindingsThe study found different risk factors affecting the criteria for measuring the success of TEBP. For instance, the environmental risk factor significantly impacted completion to cost, while financial and political risk factors significantly impacted completion to time. In addition, while environmental, legal and management risks significantly impacted end-user satisfaction, safety performance was significantly impacted by logistic, legal, design, construction, political and management risks. Besides, the logistic, legal, design, construction, financial, political and management risk factors impacted profit. However, despite profit being one of the criteria for measuring the success of building projects, it recorded the highest risk impacts amounting to 41% variance.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings are limited to the public tertiary education building projects procured via competitive tendering; therefore, the results might differ when considering other procurement methods.Practical implicationsThe practical implication is that rather than focusing on all risk factors, the project stakeholders could give adequate attention to the significant risk factors impacting each of the parameters for measuring the success of education building projects.Originality/valueThe study revealed specific risk factors impacting the criteria for measuring the success of TEBP, which extend beyond the use of the overall project performance approach.

Stakeholder identification methods used in private organisations’ projects in Nigeria

PurposeThe purpose of the study is to examine the stakeholder identification (SI) methods used in building projects procured by private corporate organisations in Southwestern Nigeria to draw a correlation between methods used for SI and project performance in the study area, thereby enhancing project performance.Design/methodology/approachThe study used a census survey to purposively select 30 projects managers (who indicated from a first-stage questionnaire) that they have participated in structured stakeholder management (SM) from a list of 106 project managers and client representatives who have been involved in SM of building projects procured by private corporate organisations between 2008 and 2017 in the study area. A second-stage questionnaire was designed to elicit information from the respondents. The quantitative data that were collected were analysed using mean score (MS) analysis and Analysis of variance (ANOVA).FindingsThe study found that brainstorming in group meetings (MS = 4.33), interviews with the expert (MS = 3.20) and identification by other stakeholders (MS = 3.00) are the most frequently used SI methods in the study area. It was also found that the use of a questionnaire (MS = 0.87), Delphi method (MS = 0.80) and public hearing (MS = 0.57) was rare for SI in the study area. A further result showed that there was no significant difference in the opinion of project managers on 85% of methods used for SI in the study area irrespective of the procurement method employed.Practical implicationsThe study examined the methods project managers used for SI on building projects procured by private corporate organisations to advocate for more robust and all-inclusive SI methods.Originality/valueThe study empirically examined methods used for SI and correlated them to project performance.

Are the public tertiary education building projects devoid of risks in the Nigerian construction context?

PurposeThe non-performance of construction projects in meeting the set objectives has continued to draw researchers worldwide. Despite this, little attention is accorded to public tertiary education building projects in Nigeria. Therefore, on this background, this study aims to assess the perceptions of stakeholders on the level of occurrence of risk factors in the public tertiary education building projects (TEBP) to enhance the performance of these projects.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopted a quantitative method of data collection via a questionnaire survey. In total, 452 questionnaires were administered to the respondents comprising client representatives, consultants (quantity surveyors, architects, services and structural engineers and builders) and the contractor. The respondents were involved in the conception and execution of TEBP across five public tertiary education institutions in Ondo State, Nigeria. Of 452 questionnaires, 279 were retrieved and found suitable for analysis, indicating a 61.73% response rate. The reliability analysis for the research instrument was 0.965 via the Cronbach α test, indicating the high reliability of the instrument used for the data collection. Moreover, the clusters of risk factors also had reliability values that ranged between 0.719 and 0.875.FindingsThe study found inflation, delayed payments in contracts, high competition bids, delay in work progress and occurrence of variations are the most frequently occurring risk factors in public TEBP. By contrast, difficulty to access the site, environmental factors and pollution were found to be low-weighted risks with the least likelihood of occurrence. The results of this study indicated the existence of significant differences in some of the risk factors in terms of the level of risk occurrence in TEBP. The risk factors were eventually clustered into eight major groups for TEBP. The post hoc comparisons using the least significant difference test also indicated differences between the contractors and consultants in the ranking of risks occurrence in TEBP, but no significant differences between clients/contractors and clients/consultants.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings in this study are limited to the public TEBP procured via competitive tendering; therefore, the results might not be applicable when other procurement methods are being considered. Besides, the study classified the project participants based on organizations and not on the different ownership status of the projects, such as federal or state government-owned TEBP. However, the literature shows that likelihood of risk occurrence could vary due to the degree of project ownership.Practical implicationsThe information provided with respect to the most frequently occurring risk factors would enhance the performance of public TEBP.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the existing body of knowledge on the subject within a previously unexplored context where insights were provided on the most frequently occurring risk factors on the public TEBP.

Extent of stakeholder management practices in building projects procured by private corporate organisations in Nigeria

PurposeStudies on stakeholder management (SM) in developing countries have largely focused on public projects. However, projects of private organisations also need much improvement. The purpose of the study was to examine the extent of SM practices in building projects procured by private corporate organisations.Design/methodology/approachPurposive sampling technique was used to select project managers (PMs) and client representatives (CRs) who have been involved in projects procured by private corporate organisations between 2008 and 2017 in Southwestern Nigeria. The PMs are comprised of executive and non-executive PMs as well as contract administrators. Both the PMs and CRs were requested to provide information on one building project in which they were involved within the period under consideration. The data collected were analysed using mean score (MS) analysis, t-test, and analysis of variance.FindingsThe results showed that structured SM processes were followed in only 30.65% of building projects procured by private corporate organisations in the study area. Results further showed on a five-point scale 5-max scale that SM practice was highest with an MS of 3.92 on projects where executive PMs were appointed and lowest (MS = 2.85) on projects where PMs were appointed as contract administrators. Furthermore, it was found that respondents placed the highest premium (MS = 3.73) on stakeholder identification while they placed the lowest premium (MS = 3.45) on developing implementation strategies and stakeholder classification.Practical implicationsThe study examines the status quo regarding SM practice in the study area in order to devise a means of refinement.Originality/valueThe study is an attempt to evaluate the premium placed on different components of SM practices by differing categories of project managers.

Factors Influencing Stakeholder Management in Building Projects Procured by Private Corporate Organisations

Abstract Stakeholder management (SM) is of utmost importance in ensuring timely project delivery, delivery within budget, to the right quality level and to client’s satisfaction. Private corporate organizations have limited resources and so could not afford project cost or time overrun and other issues that could impact project success. While studies are available that examined factors impacting stakeholder management in public building projects, there is a paucity of research on factors influencing stakeholder management in building projects procured by private corporate organizations; hence this study. The objective of the reported study is to assess the factors influencing SM in building projects procured by private corporate organizations in Southwestern Nigeria with a view to enhancing project delivery. The data for the study were collected using a structured questionnaire survey. Purposive sampling technique was used to select project managers (PMs) and client representatives (CRs) that were involved in the management of building projects procured by private corporate organizations between 2008 and 2017. A total of 106 questionnaires were received from PMs and CRs that responded to the questionnaire survey. The data collected were analysed using mean score (MS) analysis, Student’s t-test and factor analysis. The result shows that the most important factors influencing SM comprise of ‘maintaining good relationships with stakeholders’, ‘addressing stakeholders’ concerns and needs’ and ‘avenue for communicating project impacts’. The further result using factor analysis shows that the factors influencing SM could be categorized into six component groupings of - project relationship, information input, stakeholder estimation, decision-making, sustainable support and external project relationship awareness. The study concluded that project managers need to pay attention to the identified topranking factors in order to achieve improved project delivery.

Advokatska tajna

The role of the lawyer is characterized by a focus on counseling, advocacy and conciliation. A lawyer advises a client on legal issues, considers the possibilities of resolving the dispute amicably and certainly advocates in a legal proceedings if this occurs. In order the previously mentioned activities between the client and lawyer to be achieved, it is necessary to establish a mutual connection. Talking about a lawyer`s capability of fulfilling the role of a counsel and client's representative, he/she must be independent in his/her work, especially having professional independence in relation to courts, state bodies, but also in relation to his/her own interests. It is this independence that represents a significant foundation in gaining trust in the client-lawyer relationship. Achieving trust is not easy, although it is a priori expected. In order to gain trust and to be able to access an adequate representation in a legal proceedings, the lawyer's obligation is to keep the lawyer's secret and not to disclose confidential information. A lawyer's secret can be considered from several aspects, from the moral, contractual, ethical... In this research, certain important theoretical frameworks will be considered, with the focus on presenting and reviewing the international, primarily European legislative regulation of the issue of legal secrecy. This paper will certainly include the aspect of domestic legislation too. In addition to the above, some important positions of the European Court of Human Rights will be pointed out. Before presenting the conclusions emerged from this research, a special attention will be paid to the circumstances when a lawyer can reveal a secret.

Developing a perceptual distance monitor for client-contractor collaborations

Purpose This study aims to propose a tool for conceptualizing and operationalizing perceptual distance in client-contractor collaborations: the perceptual distance monitor (PDM). This paper explains how this monitor was developed and used to examine the impact of perceptual distance on project outcomes. Design/methodology/approach This paper developed the PDM by gathering quantitative survey data from client and contractor representatives. Structural equation modeling tested the predictive validity of perceptual distance on project outcomes. Findings The PDM enables a valid and reliable assessment of the perceptual distance between client and contractor in projects. Moreover, the PDM shows that project outcomes suffer if parties have different perceptions of project objectives, project managers’ competences and the level of trust in the collaboration. These findings confirm the predictive validity of the PDM. Research limitations/implications The study builds on survey data representing dyadic perceptions from 38 measurements in collaborative projects. This paper may not have identified all the effects of perceptual distance on project outcomes, as the analyses were conducted at the project level. This research underlines the importance of gathering dyadic data for studies in interorganizational settings. Practical implications Perceptual distance can be expected between clients and contractors, and higher perceptual distance is generally associated with lower project outcomes. Using the PDM, project managers can concretize, discuss and monitor this perceptual distance over time. The PDM provides project managers with a useful tool to prevent the escalation of conflicts and project failure. Originality/value Based on agency theory and social identity theory, this study provides a unique and validated conceptualization and operationalization of perceptual distance between client and contractor in interorganizational collaborations and supply chains.

Analyzing User-Level Privacy Attack Against Federated Learning

Federated learning has emerged as an advanced privacy-preserving learning technique for mobile edge computing, where the model is trained in a decentralized manner by the clients, preventing the server from directly accessing those private data from the clients. This learning mechanism significantly challenges the attack from the server side. Although the state-of-the-art attacking techniques that incorporated the advance of Generative adversarial networks (GANs) could construct class representatives of the global data distribution among all clients, it is still challenging to distinguishably attack a specific client (i.e., user-level privacy leakage), which is a stronger privacy threat to precisely recover the private data from a specific client. To analyze the privacy leakage of federated learning, this paper gives the first attempt to explore user-level privacy leakage by the attack from a malicious server. We propose a framework incorporating GAN with a multi-task discriminator, called multi-task GAN - Auxiliary Identification (mGAN-AI), which simultaneously discriminates category, reality, and client identity of input samples. The novel discrimination on client identity enables the generator to recover user specified private data. Unlike existing works interfering the federated learning process, the proposed method works “invisibly” on the server side. Furthermore, considering the anonymization strategy for mitigating mGAN-AI, we propose a beforehand linkability attack which re-identifies the anonymized updates by associating the client representatives. A novel siamese network fusing the identification and verification models is developed for measuring the similarity of representatives. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches and the superior to the state-of-the-art.

Decision-making in home care package spending.

ObjectiveTo understand the motivations and drivers of spending decisions made by home care package recipients, in the context of high levels of unspent funds.MethodsQualitative study using 30 semi‐structured interviews with 38 home care package clients and/or client representatives in rural and urban Victoria conducted between December 2018 and March 2019. Interview transcripts were analysed to determine themes.ResultsSpending decisions were influenced by assessment and entry experiences, knowledge and understanding of package funds, availability and acceptability of services, and attitudes to spending.ConclusionClients need confidence in their individual funds and their use in order to maximise the potential benefits. Clear, consistent communication at all stages, and additional supports to build consumer capability, will enable clients to better understand packages and their application. This in turn will optimise the capacity of home care package recipients to maximise their health and well‐being.

Clients Versus Consultants Assessment of Project Success in Nigeria

The effectiveness of project delivery depends largely on the collaboration of the project actors. Yet the perception of success might be subjective and dependent on the individual’s opinion. This study assessed project success from clients versus consultants’ perspective. A cross-sectional survey of One hundred and two (N=102) project participants on recently completed building projects in Nigeria was sought. From the result, the client representatives ranked success level far lower than the consultant’s counterparts. These differences were observed with respect to the dimensions of the project success considered in varying magnitude. Particularly, the level of inconsistency in the project success assessment was found to be significantly different in terms of the project meeting functional requirements, client satisfaction, quality and absence of conflict. The overall success shows significant differences in the ranking of the project success among the two groups. This study provided evidence that differences exist in between client and consultants as regards project success judgement. Hence, the paper concludes that the establishment of clear project goals and aspirations among the key project actors right at the commencement of a project could help the success of the project management.