House Building Projects Research Articles

Model for Predicting the Performance of Project Managers at the Construction Phase of Mass House Building Projects

The need to match project managers’ (PMs) performance measures onto projects of both unique and similar characteristics has long since been acknowledged by researchers. The need for these measures to reflect the various phases of the project life cycle has also been contended in the recent past. Here, a competency-based multidimensional conceptual model is proposed for mass house building projects (MHBPs). The model reflects both performance behaviors and outcome in predicting the PMs’ performances at the conceptual, planning, design, tender, construction, and operational phases of the project life cycle. Adopting a positivist approach, data elicited for the construction phase is analyzed using multiple regression techniques (stepwise selection). Out of a broad range of behavioral metrics identified as the independent variables, the findings suggest the best predictors of PMs’ performances in MHBPs at the construction phase are: job knowledge in site layout techniques for repetitive construction works; de...

Towards developing competency-based measures for construction project managers: Should contextual behaviours be distinguished from task behaviours?

Competency-based measures are increasingly being recognised as the most viable option for engendering the continuing professional development (CPD) of construction project managers (CPMs). Presently, an emerging view from the HRM genre is that, a somewhat robust approach for developing a more rigorous understanding of these measures is to distinguish contextual performance behaviours from task performance behaviours. The contention is that, the contextual–task framework allows for a more fine-grained analysis of managerial behaviour, its effects and measurement. Stimulated by the need to develop performance measures for CPMs in the context of a developing country, the framework has recently been replicated in identifying and developing competency profiles for project managers (PMs) in mass house building projects (MHBPs) in Ghana. Drawing from a positivist-based research approach, structured questionnaires were used to elicit the relevant data from property developers (homebuilders) who belong to the Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA). The findings presented potentially reasonable evidence that the contextual–task model has empirical relevance for application in project-based sectors of the construction industry. Subsequently, here, we proposed that the contextual–task framework could be adopted across geographical and project-based sectors by construction management researchers who are in need of an alternative methodology that can further an in-depth understanding of the competency profile of CPMs.

Critical success criteria for mass house building projects in developing countries

Project success is a complex and often illusory construct. Nonetheless, it is crucially contingent towards enabling appropriate and effective allocation of resources in project management practice. Mass house building projects (MHBPs) represent one of the largest and most established project-based sectors of the construction industry in most developing economies. Above all, the management skills required on these projects differ significantly from the one-off projects often encountered in the construction industry. While some success criteria may be common across project types, there is no denying the fact that some determinants of success are likely to be unique to projects of specific characteristics. This research sets out to address what constitutes the determinants of success in MHBPs. A questionnaire survey is used to establish property developers’ perception of critical success criteria in MHBPs in Ghana. Data analysis (involving one-sample t-test) reveals some interesting findings in regard to how property developers perceive the importance of the project success criteria. Factors analysis reveals four underlying clusters named in order of their significance as environmental-impact, customer satisfaction, quality and cost and time. This systematic approach towards understanding the taxonomy of the success dimension in MHBPs is important for re-enforcing effective project management practices in this significant sector of the construction industry.

The interorganizational innovation processes of sustainable building: A Dutch case of joint building innovation in sustainability

This article's subject is the cooperation process between organizations that develop and implement innovations in sustainable building. Its main research question is how governmental and commercial organizations organize and structure their joint activities to develop innovations in sustainability. In the search for answers to this question the cooperative activities of innovating organizations are modelled as an interorganizational innovation process. The case study research method is used to investigate the development of interorganizational innovation patterns in sustainability in seven house-building projects in the Dutch residential building sector. The empirical research findings are discussed by means of a comparison with the theoretical framework that includes five complementary stage models of interorganizational innovation processes. The main conclusions of the research are that (1) governmental and commercial organizations that successfully innovate in sustainability go through eight consecutive stages of interorganizational innovation, and (2) perform twenty-two interaction patterns that are part of these stages.

Partnering practice and the delivery of construction projects for Housing Associations in the UK

PurposeHousing Associations in the UK are being encouraged to change the way in which they procure their building projects. This work aims to provide a snapshot of current practice in relation to the use of partnering as a procurement approach.Design/methodology/approachAccordingly a quantitative research design was used to capture data from a sample of 100 of the largest Housing Associations involved in the commissioning of new house building projects in 2003. Two administrations of the survey generated a 43 per cent response rate.FindingsThe findings of the study revealed that two differing types of partnering alliance could be identified. The types of partnering alliance identified were considered to have either a ”supply side” or ”demand side” focus. The results show that partnering practice, open‐book cost management, risk analysis and the use of standardised and pre‐fabricated components are now widespread and believed to deliver benefits in project costs, delivery times and quality levels.Research limitations/implicationsThe work is limited due to the size of the sample frame and the measuring instrument used which could not uncover reasons for the current practices that were revealed.Practical implicationsThe outcomes of the work provide practice with benchmarks that can be used to evaluate organisational approach and if necessary develop alternative approaches to the delivery of partnered projects.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the body of knowledge available on partnering practice in a client group that has been identified as being key in driving forward the post‐Egan agenda in the construction industry.

Local Perception of Public Goods: Recent Assessments of Willingness-to-pay for Endangered Species

I. INTRODUCTION Biological diversity has become a controversial issue in Orange County, California. Recent Endangered Species Act (ESA) critical habitat designations covering some 85,000 acres in the county have been subject several court cases. (1) Questions about both the direct and indirect costs of preserving endangered species are being raised, yet there has been little attention the benefits of biodiversity. This study offers contingent valuation estimates of local residents' willingness pay for several controversial species. It also provides estimates of the aggregate benefits from species protection for future policy discussion. The critical habitat for the Arroyo toad, (2) the Riverside fairy shrimp, the California gnatcatcher, and the tidewater goby (originally designated in 2000) covered a large swath of coastal sage scrub and other grasslands, vernal pools, rivers, and streams of southern California. Some areas overlap those relevant some of the other endangered species in Orange County, such as the Southern California steelhead trout, the Santa Ana sucker, the southwestern willow flycatcher, least Bell's vireo, and the Pacific pocket mouse, among others. Environmental organizations state that habitat designations are necessary prevent fragmented species habitat, severed wildlife corridors, damaged watersheds, and further urban sprawl. But clear opposition the designations has arisen from some landowners, developers, and tollway planners. They suggest housing or road building projects--which require federal permits--may be halted because the land in question, although private, is now critical habitat. This could reduce the number of newly constructed units and raise the price of permitted building. Additional consultation costs could follow. Broader debates about the future of the ESA are also emerging. The ESA, first passed in 1973, has aimed address the market failure of the underpriced social benefits of endangered species. The Act allows staff of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) or the National Marine Fisheries Service list an animal or plant species as endangered or threatened. Critical habitat designations are supposed follow promptly after listing (yet rarely do). These targeted species enjoy strong protections through the ESA's section 9 that prohibits any taking of the species; section 7 also requires federal agencies (or private parties obtaining federal permits) ensure that any action they authorize, fund, or carry out will not jeopardize the existence of the species or adversely modify its critical habitat. The FWS aims eventually delist endangered species through the implementation of recovery plans and restoration efforts written by scientists knowledgeable about species history, status, and threats. Currently, traditional cost-benefit analyses of listing or habitat decisions do not occur. A 1978 amendment the ESA requires some economic analysis at the critical habitat stage; areas may be excluded if the benefits of exclusion outweigh the benefits of specifying the area as habitat, unless the failure designate leads species extinction. Direct costs of species recovery appear quite modest in many of the published recovery plans. The recovery plans are vague regarding expensive private land acquisition with much of the cost secure pools and other lands to be determined. But the indirect (opportunity) costs of housing and transportation development opportunities forgone on critical habitat areas remain the largest source of controversy in the West. Changing land use designations represent a transfer of present producer/consumer surplus future generations, and calculation difficulties usually preclude including these opportunity costs in policy making. (3) Despite the press coverage of the spotted owl and Klamath River debates, little attention has been paid the potential benefits of species preservation in southern California and other areas of the West affected by the recent habitat designations. …

Cost vs. production: disparities in social housing construction in Britain and Germany

The nature of the labour process in the British construction industry is different from that in Germany. The rationale of the British system is based on controlling costs through overseeing contract relations, themselves circumscribing a range of narrow, clearly defined and priced tasks. The production process has become secondary and production expertise restricted. In contrast, in Germany cost aspects are incorporated into, rather than separated from, the production system, built on the interaction of capital and labour and on a high level of production expertise. Employment relations rather than contract relations predominate and circumscribe a set of skills drawn from the potential of the labour force and dependent on broad‐based vocational education. A detailed investigation of social housebuilding projects and the firms involved in Britain and Germany reveals the need for more skills, and a qualitatively different constellation of skills, professional and operative, in Britain.

Partnering in the house building sector: a subcontractor's view

Partnering can lead to house building projects being delivered quickly, efficiently and cost effectively. Indeed, research has shown that partnering arrangements can reduce construction time and can lead to efficiency on site. This is achieved by partnering a dedicated team of consultants, contractors and manufacturers, who develop their expertise over a series of projects. This paper examines how partnering impacts on the construction process and the effects of these arrangements on small construction enterprises (SCEs). It also outlines a recent case study investigating the impact of partnering on an SCE. The research involved a series of interviews with the managing director of a South Wales based subcontracting firm aimed at developing an understanding of how SCEs are treated within a partnering arrangement. Evidence from this study suggests that under its current guise partnering may not offer SCEs with many tangible benefits and often has a detrimental effect upon the contractor–subcontractor relationship.

Building Houses, Building Lives

This article uses a narrative format to describe situations in which immigrant families from a SoutheastAsian hill tribe, the Mienh, adapt to technological and cultural change within a California elementaryschool which sponsors a family literacy, school-community garden, and house building project. Muchhas been written about the ways in which immigrant families and personnel at their schools struggle tocommunicate. My thesis is that even in the case of immigrants experiencing huge cultural and techno-logicalchange, from an oral subsistence culture to an urban technological society, adjustments can becreative and empowering, if schools incorporate community "funds of knowledge" into their instruc-tionalplan. Real projects such as storytelling, gardening, and house building provide rich contexts forintercultural dialogues which enable teachers and Mienh parents to build a Mienh-American house,asymbolic construct in which both traditional and modern technologies are combined.

The strategic function of quality in the management of innovation

Quality management can be used to support strategically the management of innovation. Tools in strategic quality management can be useful in: creating the organizational conditions in which innovations can be developed; supervising and initiating innovation processes; producing innovation content; and implementing innovations in the primary processes of the organization. This conclusion is based on the results of a research project in the Dutch construction industry. In a large-scale house-building project the supportive use of quality tools in the management of innovation was studied. The study indicates that quality tools are used implicitly and sometimes explicitly to manage innovation processes.

The influence of uncertainty on house builder behaviour and residential land values

House builders are the interface between the land and housing markets, determining present land values by forecasting future house prices and construction costs. The literature establishes that land values are derived from house prices and construction costs but that this relationship may be altered by uncertainty, yet very little analysis has been provided to establish this empirically. A model of house builder behaviour is proposed and tested through detailed empirical analysis of a sample of private house building projects. Methods of estimating the development values and costs associated with individual sites are set out and rates of achieved profit are estimated. Using simulation methods, the paper demonstrates the effects of house builders' forecasting behaviour on land values, and evidence is presented that house builders' behaviour in the land and housing markets depresses the price of land. It is concluded that house builders tend to forecast conservatively with the result that land is undervalued.

The role of logistics in the materials flow control process

Frequently, the supply of building materials to the construction site is fraught with difficulties which can have a significant effect on productivity. Major productivity gains are possible, particularly if the building process is planned from a logistics perspective. The concept of logistics was developed initially within the manufacturing industry, and now constitutes an important management tool to ensure an overall strategic perspective on the flow of materials in the production process. This paper contends that logistics are relevant also to the construction industry, and describes the development of a logistics model to manage the flow of materials from suppliers to installation on-site and its application to a Danish house building project. The case study evidence suggests that the primary focus of the logistics concept in construction is to improve coordination and communication between project participants during the design and construction phases, particularly in the materials flow control process. The logistics concept requires accurate scheduling of materials to programmed delivery dates keyed to actual site layout and storage arrangements. The logistics approach also involves a new role for materials suppliers, including early involvement in the design phase and overall responsibility for the flow of information relating to materials.

Forecasting Population for Engineering Purposes

ENGINEERS and persons responsible for the management of engineering projects have a common interest in problems of forecasting population growth and market demands. The soundness of engineering projects depends upon their capacity to fulfil a real demand. Unsoundness or even failure may result from planning and designing engineering projects without regard to industrial and population trends. Similarly city planning, housing and home building projects, educational and social programs of various kinds, ordinarily should be based upon the number of people to be served at some future date and their economic and social characteristics.