Pakistani Construction Industry Research Articles

Effect of Construction Manager's Political Skills on Relationship between Quality Management Practices and Inter-Organizational Project Success

This study aims to explore the impact of construction managers' political skills on the relationship between quality management practices and the success of inter-organizational construction projects in Pakistan. Objectively, it examines how project managers' political acumen influences the effectiveness of quality management strategies and, consequently, project success. Employing a survey-based methodology, the research encompasses a broad spectrum of professionals involved in various construction projects across Pakistan. Through this analysis, the study identifies key challenges to project success and assesses the correlation between managerial political skills and the effective implementation of quality management practices. The findings reveal a notable positive relationship between these elements, highlighting the critical role of skills such as communication, stakeholder management, and conflict resolution. Additionally, the research underscores the interconnected nature of managerial competencies and identifies key factors impacting project success through advanced statistical techniques like principal component analysis and median absolute deviation. Significantly, this research provides novel insights into the role of human factors in the Pakistani construction industry's project management, proposing actionable strategies for skill enhancement and offering a comprehensive overview of factors influencing project success. These findings not only show the current skills and practices landscape but also lay the groundwork for future research and strategy implementation to boost industry-wide success. Doi: 10.28991/CEJ-2024-010-01-019 Full Text: PDF

The Key Barrier to Digital Transformation in Pakistan's Construction Sector

Digitalization has become a global trend and the Pakistani construction industry is no exception. Digitalization has faced many challenges over the years. The objective of this study is to uncover the obstacles preventing the adoption of digitalization within the Pakistani construction industry. Additionally, it aims to analyze the advantages that digitalization offers in enhancing productivity within this sector. The results show that the main barriers to digitalization are barriers related to the use of technology, the high cost of technology, lack of energy, ease of replacement, and unavailability of digital equipment. Stakeholders' awareness of the benefits of digitalization needs to be increased.

Relationship between Job Satisfaction and Employee Performance in the Construction Industry of Pakistan

Organizations focus on human resources to improve performance as a result of high global competition and a dynamic business environment. In today’s competitive environment, employee performance and job satisfaction are critical to the achievement of a company’s goals. Job satisfaction is an organization’s unnoticed success. Employee performance and job satisfaction are powerful tools that help in continuously developing and improving organizational performance to achieve strategic objectives. Job satisfaction is critical to the overall productivity of any given industry. Job satisfaction is important for both the employer and the employee. According to studies, employers greatly benefit from satisfied employees because they are more productive. One of the most important goals of a company is to maximize employee performance to achieve those goals. As a result, the focus of this study was on identifying the factors of job satisfaction and employee performance. It also evaluated the relationship between job satisfaction and employee performance in Pakistani construction projects. A detailed literature review was used to identify various factors, which were then shortlisted based on their relevance to the Pakistani construction industry by interviewing ten experienced practitioners. Totals of 11 job satisfaction and eight employee performance parameters were discovered. In total, 85 samples were collected as part of the data collection process via a questionnaire survey and statistically analyzed using multiple regression analysis. According to the results, all of the models have a high ability to compute the increase in employee performance criteria via the predicting variables. The overall models are significant because a value less than 0.05 indicates that they are. The study’s findings will assist practitioners in understanding the critical criteria that will increase employer satisfaction and improve performance.

Structural model of cost overrun factors affecting Pakistani construction projects

Cost overruns are a global challenge to successfully completing construction projects. Cost overrun has a substantial impact resulting in most construction projects failing to be completed. Several factors have contributed significantly to the industry's decline. The factors were discovered in the literature, assessed, and applied to the construction industry in Pakistan. This study scrutinized and identified the relationships between the factors causing cost overruns in the Pakistani construction industry using the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) approach. The structural model was created and tested with Smart-PLS software using data from a questionnaire survey of 131 construction practitioners. Six constructs were used to categorise the factors. The model identifies 21 critical factors in Pakistani construction projects, with resource management ranking first. Contract management issues can also contribute significantly to project cost overruns. Model assessment results indicate that the developed model has a substantial power of explaining the factors of cost performance while R2 value showed that 45.7% variance is explained by the model. The model developed model will serve as a jumping-off point for academics, researchers, and practitioners in developing a cost-control system. It is suggested that establishing an efficient and effective contract management protocol among stakeholders throughout the design and supervision stages is extremely beneficial for improving project cost performance and significantly reducing time overruns.

The impact of public infrastructure project delays on sustainable community development.

Over the years, public infrastructure projects have generated substantial attention as they take the initiative to enrich sustainable community development. This paper looks to identify if the delays in public projects significantly impact the sustainable community development. A questionnaire survey approach is used to collect data. This study employed the partial least square structural equation modeling to examine the hypothesized model. Data obtained from 325 project experts in the Pakistani construction industry provided empirical support for the study. The outcome of the statistical analysis showed that project delay significantly influences sustainable community development. Based on the findings, this study suggests valuable insights to project management planners and executors to improve strategic planning for project executions through proper sustainability approaches.

Barriers to Incident Reporting in the Pakistani Construction Industry: An Exploratory Factor Analysis Approach

The construction industry is among the most hazardous industries, with workers routinely involved in critical accidents. Following proper safety procedures can help reduce these accidents. Incident reporting is widely regarded as an effective approach to improving worker safety on construction sites, as it allows relevant stakeholders to learn from past events. Despite the acknowledged significance of incident reporting in reducing accident rates, several researchers have reported that the construction industry still lacks effective reporting and investigation practices. This study aims to explore the barriers that inhibit the reporting of incidents in the Pakistani construction industry. Through a detailed literature review, 29 barriers that inhibit effective incident reporting were identified. A questionnaire survey was then carried out to include the perspective of construction industry professionals on the identified barriers. A total of 214 responses were collected. Further, for dimension reduction, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was utilised and resultantly, four components were revealed and discussed. These components include organisational, individual, environmental and technical. The findings of this study will help the relevant stakeholders in the construction industry improve safety performance by mitigating these reporting challenges at the construction sites, resulting in a better working environment for workers with fewer risks and accidents.

The Nexus of Management Innovation, Performance Management, and Organizational Performance in the Pakistani Construction Industry

Purpose: The construction industry in Pakistan faces a turbulent environment and multiple challenges to achieve its targets. In such situations, the interest in innovation grows, especially in management innovation, and the conviction about its significant role in boosting organizational performance gains researchers’ interest. Accordingly, this article examines the mediating role of performance management in the relationship between management innovation and organizational performance. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected through a survey based method from 281 managerial rank employees working in the construction industry of Pakistan. The data were analyzed using PROCESS macro. Findings: The results reveal that management innovation and performance management directly influence organizational performance, while we also confirmed the mediating role of performance management. Implication: The association between management innovation and performance may seem palpable, but the recent literature asks for a reinvestigation. In tough competition and uncertain market situations, management innovation fosters knowledge creation and helps organizations adapt and drive them to higher performance. Originality/value: The study results enrich the scholarship about the role of management innovation in stimulating organizational performance and performance management.

Impact of Sustainable Supply Chain Management in the Construction Industry

This paper aims to introduce the impact of sustainable supply chain management in the Pakistani construction industry and how it helps with the performance and Development of the construction industry. It aims to elaborate on and emphasize how a sustainable supply chain will be more effective the traditional construction management and its supply chains. A quantitative research method with a deductive approach was used to test research hypotheses. A sample of 154 respondents using a questionnaire responded for data analysis. In Pakistan, the market for a construction company is primarily local based and highly volatile. The assessment is carried out to determine the level of significance and degree of impact of supply chain management (SCM) and sustainability on the construction industry's performance. The results derived from the test show that SCM has a moderate impact leading to leading to increased performance. The lack of time and budget limited the focus to Karachi-based construction businesses, leaving other construction businesses in Pakistan as not relevant. The paper primarily focused on the Pakistan-based construction industry, and the articles that are a source for this study generated knowledge regarding various issues and opportunities associated with supply chain management in the Karachi-based construction industry.

The role of trust, opportunism and adaptation in coordination and contract cooperation: evidence from construction projects

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of clients' trust, opportunism and adaptation on contractual (non)cooperation with a mediating role of coordination in the construction industry.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire was used to collect data from employees of the Pakistani construction industry. Smart partial least square (SmartPLS) has been used for analyzing the data of 270 respondents from construction projects.FindingsThe results of the SmartPLS indicate that (1) Trust and contract coordination positively while opportunism negatively influence contractor's contractual cooperation. (2) Contract adaptation and contract coordination positively influence the noncontractual cooperation of the contractor. (3) Moreover, contract coordination positively mediates the relationship between trust and noncontractual cooperation, but negatively mediates the relationship between opportunism and contract adaptation and noncontractual cooperation.Practical implicationsThe findings of this research suggest several policy implications for administrative authorities, project managers and policymakers. These authorities need to focus on clients' trust, opportunism and adaptation because these factors significantly influence contract coordination and cooperation in the construction industry. Emphasizing these factors will enable project managers to gain economies of scale and mitigate project failure.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ search and knowledge, they did not find any study examining the mediating role of coordination between trust, opportunism, adaptation and cooperation in the construction industry. Hence, the present study advances their understanding in the field of project management and construction business.

Quantification and benchmarking of construction waste and its impact on cost – a case of Pakistan

PurposeThe construction industry struggles in environmental and economic performance due to waste generation. Several studies have measured this waste in the construction industry of developing countries like India, Brazil, China, Nigeria and Iran, and proposed strategies to enhance the overall efficiency. But no such work exists in Pakistan's context. The construction industry of Pakistan contributes significantly to the country's gross domestic product (GDP). And with several mega projects in progress to overcome the energy crises and improve the infrastructure of the country, the absence of proper waste management policies and plans calls for empirical research. Therefore, this study quantifies and benchmarks material waste in the local context, its impact on project cost and the effect of multiple subcontracting arrangements on waste generation. It also proposes a conceptual waste management plan (WMP) for local conditions which can be generalized for developing countries.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses a mixed research approach by leveraging Saunders's research onion model. To benchmark the current wastage practices, quantitative data of material waste in the Pakistani construction industry are gathered through document review of accounting systems, inventory and payment records of 40 completed building projects. Using the data, the waste rate of different materials is measured along with their impact on cost. Additionally, the role of subcontracting arrangements in waste generation is also investigated. Also, semi-structured interviews are conducted with project managers of high- and low-performing construction organizations to propose a conceptual WMP for the local industry and developing countries.FindingsThe highest wasteful materials by quantity are wood, sand and concrete blocks, and those by cost are wood, bricks and steel. By quantity, 123% more material was used on average than the actual productive work. Also, the labor only (L-O) subcontracting arrangement causes maximum waste. Moreover, the difference between the highest (155%) and lowest wasting company (104%) is 51%, highlighting the proactive and resistive waste management culture and approach by the worst- and best-performing companies. Further, the impact of waste quantities is more than 2% of the project cost. Finally, a conceptual model consisting of measures at the project, industry and national levels is also proposed as a guide for developing countries.Practical implicationsThe findings of this benchmarking study can help improve the project planning, execution and monitoring, and control practices by providing a better understanding of the material waste potential. This will help economize the construction industry and improve its sustainability.Originality/valueThis is the first benchmarking study that quantitatively measures material waste in the construction industry of Pakistan. It highlights that costly as well as sustainability-implicating materials are frequently wasted in the local construction projects. Also, this study correlates the wastage with subcontracting arrangements. Additionally, an original conceptual WMP is proposed that could help the industry improve its performance. The findings could help the construction professionals identify the loopholes in their material management practices and not only save money but also ensure better sustainability.

CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF DELAY IN CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS OF MALAKAND DIVISION, KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA PAKISTAN

In construction projects delay is a global experience and the same issue persists in Pakistani construction industry as well. This study has its major focus on recognizing the factors of delay in government funded construction projects in Malakand division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan. Construction delay and its effects have been studied separately by many researchers. The current study has jointly analyzed the causes and effects of delay in government funded construction projects of Malakand division, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan. A questionnaire assessment was executed to investigate the factors which cause delay, and their effects by considering the three main stakeholders of construction industry i.e., Contractors, Clients and Consultants. Accordingly, 50 respondents from various districts of Malakand division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province participated in the survey. The ten most important causes of time overrun were identified by the current study from a list of 64 causes and in the same way six effects of delay were identified. The identified 10 major causes are: i. Funding for project/Financial position of constructor, ii. Delayed final inspection and third-party certification iii. Weather conditions, iv. Terrorist activities in construction area, v. Delay in bills payment vi. Flood, earthquake or other natural calamities, vii. Suspension and postponement of work activities, viii. Shortage of construction materials in market, ix. Disagreements in implementation schedule of sub-contractors, x. Late approval and finalization of drawings. Similarly, the 6 major effects identified are: i. Time Overrun, ii. Disputes iii. Cost Overrun, iv. Arbitration, v. Abandonment and vi. Lawsuit. An empirical relationship between causes and effects has been developed by this study. Keywords: Time Overrun, Construction Industry, Factors, Contractor, Consultant, Client, Construction delay.

Modeling the Factors Enhancing the Implementation of Green Procurement in the Pakistani Construction Industry

This paper adds to the existing body of knowledge on green procurement approaches and sustainability theories for procurement management. It provides practical factors that can directly help the practitioners in implementing green procurement in construction projects. Green procurement is a new era in the construction industry of Pakistan. Thus, this paper aims to quantify the factors improving the adoption of green procurement in construction projects. A detailed literature review has been conducted to design and develop a conceptual model for green procurement. The study intricates the perception of 77 experienced practitioners involved in handling construction projects. The model was analyzed and validated with a partial least squares structural equation modeling technique with SmartPLS V3 software. The model results indicate that market factors and techniques play an essential role in enhancing green procurement acceptance and adoption. This study highlights the gap in achieving sustainability and controlling the environmental impacts caused by construction activities. It assists the construction practitioners to implement the green procurement for better environmental and sustainable performance.

Impact of Occupational Health & Safety Management on Risk Existing At Construction Sites of Karachi

The assessment of OHSM is the mostcrucial element in a Pakistani construction industry. In Pakistan, the industryrelated to the constructionis the biggest industry as compared to another industry and it is considered as the industry containing the greater numberof hazards. This quantitative study reveals that thenegative relationship between occupational health and safety management and risk existsat the construction site. This research paper is aimed at evaluating and examining the health and safety administration framework present in differentfirms operating in the construction sector of Karachi and suggests the measures to promote and effectively employ theusage of work-relatedsafety and healthadministration framework in the construction firms located in Karachi. An observational examination was embraced to recognize the related health and safety in different construction industries inKarachi. Review information was gathered from eight different construction industries of Karachi, Pakistan, through interview and physical survey. The collected data was analyzed by utilizing SPSS software. The regression and Pearson correlation analysis wereused for an assessment of relation between OHSM & risk. Results revealed that the health and safety condition of Construction industries of Karachi were not met with national and international health and safety legal, laws and policies. This reflects that the system regarding OHSMwere not legitimately completed. Along these lines,Pakistani Construction industries need to give careful consideration towards appropriate execution of health and safety management (OHSM) system

Project control and forecast assessment of building projects in Pakistan using earned value management

PurposeEarned Value Management (EVM) is widely used as a project performance measurement and forecasting technique. Nonetheless, it has not been fully explored in Pakistani construction industry; where conventional progress reporting methodology (CPRM) is being followed having certain confines. It reports only the financial progress of a project, expresses feeble association between the duration and cost of activities, and forecasts flawed schedule and completion cost. This research implements EVM on under-construction building projects in Pakistan, and compares its upshots with the projects' actual records and with the outcomes of CPRM.Design/methodology/approachTo assess the implementation of EVM on building projects, a set of specific criteria was established. Work Breakdown Structure, Organization Breakdown Structure and Control Points were established. The study has compared the EVM metrics with CPRM outcomes on three under-study building projects, and has deliberated on their mutual differences as well as their relationship with actual cost and schedule performance. Monthly figures of actual spending and completed activities were periodically recorded and compared with planned values for status indication. The graphs were generated to observe the correlation between the results of EVM and CPRM. The data was then extrapolated to forecast the schedule and cost values at completion.FindingsThe study discovered that trends of EVM in quantifying the project's cost and schedule performance were strongly correlated and were closer to the actual progress. It has also verified the EVM's soundness in forecasting the cost and schedule, required for project's completion. Contrarily, CPRM metrics could not precisely visualize the current and future, cost and schedule performance.Originality/valueThe case study concludes that EVM's incorporation in progress reporting regime can revolutionize the assessment procedures in Pakistan by rightly indicating the project's current status as well as visualizing the future performance. The study's methodology can also be extrapolated in other countries having similar work environment and economic conditions.

A Construct Validation Approach for Exploring Sustainability Adoption in Pakistani Construction Projects

Sustainable Project Management (SPM) is a novel theme in construction industries of developing countries and very little is known (so far) about the sustainability performance of construction projects in those settings. Accordingly, the quantitative measurement of SPM as a higher-order construct is not well established and lacks a holistic approach and homogenous taxonomy of indicators. This study explores the SPM practices of construction firms by validating SPM as a second-order construct in the Pakistani construction industry. Data were obtained from 146 construction firms, which were then analyzed using partial least square structure equation modeling. Results of the first and second level measurement model assessments showed that construction firms practice SPM, with varying degrees of attention paid to three sustainability aspects. Environmental dimension surfaced as the most important, in-terms of practice and social sustainability as least. The analysis of the second-order measurement model yielded significant results, thus, validating the higher-order structure of SPM. This study contributes to the field by presenting one of the first studies of its kind by focusing on the sustainability practices of construction firms by using a higher-order design of SPM construct within the context of developing countries.

Impact of Delays on Cost of Construction Project- A Cross Sectional Study of Pakistani Construction Industry

It is widely believed that construction sector helps developing aggregate economy and reducing unemployment. Currently, Pakistan is experiencing a major transformational phase in the back drop of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). CPEC is valued at US$ 62 Billion. The present study is undertaken to ascertain the impact of time overrun of projects on their cost, the correlation between stakeholders and to predict the effect of delays on cost overruns. Causes of delays are identified by stakeholders of the construction industry of Pakistan. Two models for projects that had delay less and greater than 100 days are developed. Structured questionnaires and personal interviews are carried out to extract primary data for the study. Relative Importance Index (RII) was utilized for ranking of delay causes, and Pearson’s correlation to formulate correlation between causes of delays and cost of construction projects from the perspective of client, contractors and consultants. For predicting the impact of delays on cost of projects Linear Regression technique has been used. The results reveal that the causes of delay related to design, procurement and on-site has significant impact on delays. Pearson’s result indicates strong covenant between client and contractor. Whereas, there is a weak degree of association between consultant and contractor. Results from linear regression concluded that there is a significant effect of delay on cost of the project.

Competitiveness in the construction industry: A contractor’s perspective on barriers to improving the construction industry performance

Competitiveness is a complex domain with multiple perspectives and a vast range of definitions, meanings, and measures. Therefore, it is challenging to create an appropriate framework to evaluate the competitiveness of an ever-changing and evolving construction industry. This study captures the contractor’s perspectives about the competitiveness of the Pakistani construction industry, underlines the key factors affecting its performance, and proposes a framework for enhancing competitiveness. The proposed framework identifies the areas for improvement and contributes to the development ofstrategies for adoption. To achieve this, a qualitative approach is adopted which captures the opinion of contractors about the competitiveness and its perception and analyzes it through the fuzzy approach. The results based on 25 expert interviews highlight that the recruitment of well-trained human resource and cutting-edge technologies, the collaboration between academia and industry, investment in R&D projects, and a stable business environment contribute to enhancing the competitiveness of the construction industry and should be adopted to enhance the current state of practice. The study has perks for both academia and industry and requires active participation from both counterparts as well as supply chain actors and regulatory bodies to achieve the holistic goals.

Extrinsic psychosocial stressors and workers’ productivity: impact of employee age and industry experience

ABSTRACT This paper aims to explore the impact of employee age and industrial experience on extrinsic psychosocial stressors that may influence the productivity of workers. Using an integrated theoretical approach, this study examines four extrinsic psychosocial stressors, i.e. work environment, infrastructure, economy and country environment. The data were collected from Pakistani construction industry through a questionnaire survey approach. The study’s findings show that workers having diverse ages did not agree over several work environments and economy-related psychosocial stressors, whereas workers having diverse industrial experiences were in disagreement over numerous country environment and economy-related psychosocial stressors. The study concludes that firms need to mitigate the work environment related psychosocial stressors in young workers, such as, over congestion and inaccessibility to different tools, high temperature and workspace atmosphere. Moreover, organizational and governmental support are direly needed to overcome the country environment-related psychosocial stressors of less experienced workers who are more susceptible to these stressors due to the complex organizational culture, occurrence of natural disasters and unfavourable economic and political state of the country.

Occupational health & safety implementation framework for pakistani construction industry in Sindh province

Occupational health & safety implementation framework for pakistani construction industry in Sindh province

Modeling the Relationship between Safety Climate and Safety Performance in a Developing Construction Industry: A Cross-Cultural Validation Study.

This study attempts to validate a safety performance (SP) measurement model in the cross-cultural setting of a developing country. In addition, it highlights the variations in investigating the relationship between safety climate (SC) factors and SP indicators. The data were collected from forty under-construction multi-storey building projects in Pakistan. Based on the results of exploratory factor analysis, a SP measurement model was hypothesized. It was tested and validated by conducting confirmatory factor analysis on calibration and validation sub-samples respectively. The study confirmed the significant positive impact of SC on safety compliance and safety participation, and negative impact on number of self-reported accidents/injuries. However, number of near-misses could not be retained in the final SP model because it attained a lower standardized path coefficient value. Moreover, instead of safety participation, safety compliance established a stronger impact on SP. The study uncovered safety enforcement and promotion as a novel SC factor, whereas safety rules and work practices was identified as the most neglected factor. The study contributed to the body of knowledge by unveiling the deviations in existing dimensions of SC and SP. The refined model is expected to concisely measure the SP in the Pakistani construction industry, however, caution must be exercised while generalizing the study results to other developing countries.