Perspectives Of Consultants Research Articles

Effect of change orders on rework in highway projects in Palestine

PurposeThis study aims at identifying the main causes of change orders in highway construction projects, determining the factors that affect rework in highway construction projects, examining the relationship between change orders and rework and at developing a predictive model that will determine the impact of change orders on rework in highway construction projects in Palestine.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire survey was used to identify the main change order causes and rework causes from the perspectives of contractors and consultants. The questionnaire contained 16 causes of change orders and 19 causes of rework which had been identified from the literature reviewed. The study also identifies the impact of change orders on rework based on data comprising 22 highway construction projects implemented in Palestine. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used in analyzing the data.FindingsThe study concluded that the five most common causes of change orders can be identified as: change of project scope by owner (additional – enhancement), lack of coordination between construction parties; owner’s financial difficulties, change in materials, and errors and omissions in design. The study has also established that among the various factors that causes rework, non-conformance with specification requirements, scope changes, late design changes, lack of labor experience, lack of labor skills and improper subcontractor selection top the list. Using regression analysis, the results reveal a significant relationship between change orders and rework cost in highway construction projects in Palestine.Practical implicationsBy ranking the various change orders causes and rework causes from the perspectives of consultants and contractors, the study provides a fresh perspective on an old chronic problem in the construction sector. This study has provided evidence on the most significant change orders causes and rework causes in the Palestinian highway construction, as well as the impact of change orders or rework on constructions sites. Finally, although this study is specific to the country of Palestine, its results can be applicable to other developing countries facing similar problems in their public construction sectors.Originality/valueThe results address the common causes of change orders and reworks in highway construction projects in Palestine. The results also address the relation between change orders and rework cost based on data collected from highway construction projects implemented in the West Bank in Palestine. This study is the first study conducted in the West Bank in Palestine to identify the change orders and reworks causes in highway construction projects.

Planning and Designing Academic Library Learning Spaces: Expert Perspectives of Architects, Librarians, and Library Consultants

This paper identifies approaches, challenges, and best practices related to planning and designing today’s academic library learning spaces. As part of the Project Information Literacy (PIL) Practitioner Series, qualitative data is presented from 49 interviews conducted with a sample of academic librarians, architects, and library consultants. These participants were at the forefront of the same 22 recent library learning space projects on college and university campuses in the US and Canada between 2011 and 2016. Most library projects had allocated space for supporting at least one of these four types of academic learning activities: collaborative, individual study, tutoring by campus learning partners, or occasional classes taught by campus instructors. Successful collaboration between the architect and the librarian was fostered by their shared commitment to meeting users’ needs, though few stakeholders systematically collected input from users beyond standard usage statistics and gate counts. Most interviewees reported facing some common challenges during their project planning and implementations. One challenge was translating design goals into tangible designs while trying to resolve issues of noise mitigation, shared space allocations, and providing enough electrical power for IT devices. Another challenge was ensuring effective communication practices with planning teams as well as campus-wide constituents throughout projects. Additional challenges included building consensus, compensating for project interruption and inadequate knowledge about both architecture and library IT issues, and having too few a priori evaluation metrics for linking learning outcomes to goals of the library space projects. Taken together, the success of library learning space projects depends upon shared knowledge and understanding of the sweeping learning, pedagogical, and research changes facing the academy. Librarians and architects need to work together to apply that knowledge and understanding to the unique environment and learning and teaching needs of their specific institution.

The Practice of Sport Psychology: A Youth Coaches' Perspective

This research qualitatively documents youth sport coaches' perspectives of sport psychology and sport psychology consultants (SPCs) in the United Kingdom. Youth coaches are a unique population yet to be examined, despite their significance to the development of athletes. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight coaches who held a minimum of ten years experience with youth performers of a county to national level. Participants represented American football, hockey, soccer, and track and field. Inductive analysis identified twenty-four higher order themes, resulting in eight general dimensions: Role of sport psychology and SPCs, a sport psychologist's clientele, perceived work for sport psychologists, perception of where sport psychology belongs, expected characteristics of SPCs, professional accountability, and the facilitators and barriers of sport psychology. Results indicate youth coaches' support for the field of sport psychology, but the barriers SPCs face within youth sport are discussed. Consequently this article offers practitioners with applied solutions to overcome potential obstacles and improve current practices.

Risk management in the Alaska Arctic offshore: wicked problems require new paradigms

The Alaska Arctic offshore is a “wicked” project environment because it is unique, socially and technically complex, has changing requirements and constraints to solutions, and involves multiple stakeholders who have different views and values about project risks related to resource development. Analysis of stakeholder conceptual approaches to risk, risk attitudes and data sources explain how and why risk perceptions vary. The data are 22 presentations from a seminar series on defining risk in Arctic offshore resource development, including perspectives of regulatory agencies, oil companies, consultants, local governments, environmental NGOs and academics. Discussion addresses the limitations of traditional risk management for complex projects, provides a case study of the Alaska Arctic offshore and suggests a unique combination of strategies for navigating wicked projects, including systems thinking, risk leadership, participatory process, problem structuring and norms and practices of high reliability organizations.

Management consultants and the United States’ public sector

Management consultants provide strategic advice to public sector agencies and departments throughout the US, contributing to what some scholars call the “hollowing out of the state.” What ideational frameworks underlie these public -private relationships? Findings from a survey of management consultant show that they believe that they are contracted because they provide knowledge that is unavailable inside the public sector and that their ideas are more innovative. This study helps to explain management consultants’ perceptions of their services contracted by US public sector. By gauging the perspectives of management consultants, this research will potentially help academics and practitioners to better understand public agencies’ contracting of management consultants. This article provides preliminary steps towards better understanding and analyzing the use of management consultants by different levels of the US public sector.

Perspectives of Consultants on Health and Safety Provisions in the Labour Act: A Study into Theory and Practicals

The construction industry has been seen as one of the hazardous industries. This is because the industry has a poor health and safety performance record compared to other industries all over the world. The Labour Act provides that it is the duty of an employer to ensure that every worker employed by him or her works under satisfactory, safe and healthy conditions. The objective of this study is to identify how clauses in the Labour Act 651 addressing appropriate health and safety standards are used in construction sites and identify possible challenges facing the adaptation of the requirements of Health and Safety in the Labour Act. Using convenience and snowball sampling techniques, 200 questionnaires were distributed to architects, quantity surveyors, site and structural engineers. One hundred and twenty-one were retrieved representing a response rate of 61.5%. The data was analysed using descriptive statistics, and Relative Important Index ranking. The findings indicate that clauses in the Labour Act 651 addressing appropriate health and safety standards are poorly adhered to. The findings also indicate that the key challenges facing the adaptation of the Labour Act are; inadequate training, poor risk assessment, cost, reporting shortfalls ,lack of H&S professionals, inadequate H&S policies, data collection shortfalls, lack of H&S education, communication shortfalls and workers attitudes towards Health and Safety.

Fatores Críticos para Implantação de Projetos de Melhoria Contínua segundo Líderes e Consultores Industriais

Plan the use of factors related to the implementation of continuous improvement projects increases the potential for success and effectiveness of them. The objective of this paper is to analyze factors for the implementation of projects in the shop floor environment. This research involves perspectives of consultants and project leaders in different organizations. It is qualitative research and has two steps of data collection: (a) interviews (semi-structured questionnaires) with consultants and improvements project leaders in industries from various sectors (agricultural chemicals, automotive, machining, stamping and aerospace) and (b) questionnaire in three plants of a large chemical group with a tradition of research and development. This study is delimited to industrial and consulting firm specializing in continuous improvement projects. Critical factors as top management commitment, leadership, projects aligned with business goals, culture of continuous improvement, goals, leader’s behaviour highlighted.

A Call To Action In Consultation Training

To the editor: We applaud the authors of ‘‘How to Give a Consultation and How to Get a Consultation’’ for bringing communication issues between specialists to the attention of the emergency medicine community. The communication skills that inform a consultation are defined by both the CanMEDS and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) competency frameworks. However, the educational science of a consultation is poorly studied. Hence, effective teaching strategies for both undergraduate and graduate medical education programs are potentially lacking. A very limited number of studies have addressed consultations involving emergency physicians (EPs). The available studies focus on consultation rates, problems arising from poor communication, and disposition of patients referred to other clinical services. However, new research is addressing this literature gap. A recent American-based study used qualitative methods to deconstruct the elements of communication between EPs and other clinical services. These elements inform a conceptual model termed the 5 Cs Consultation Model: contact, communication, core question, collaboration, and closing the loop. Similarly, two Canadian-based abstracts, presented at the 2011 Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians (CAEP) national meeting, used qualitative methods to describe an effective consultation process from the perspectives of EPs and consultants, as well as their residents. The key global elements of a consultation from the Canadianbased research include preparation, identification of physicians and the patient, clinical questions for or from the consultants, urgency of the consultation, and feedback and followup. However, there were significant differences in communication priorities between residents and attending physicians as well as between clinical specialties. These evidence-based models may serve to standardize an effective consultation process. Our hope is that future studies will look at how these communication models can affect medical student and resident education, emergency department operations, and patient outcomes.

Industry and government perspectives on First Nations' participation in the British Columbia environmental assessment process

Research was conducted with West Moberly First Nations, Halfway First Nation and the Treaty 8 Tribal Association (located in northeastern British Columbia, Canada) on effective engagement in environmental assessment processes. As part of this research, we examined the perspectives of a subset of resource industry proponents and their consultants, as well as staff from the British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office on their experiences with the requirement to consult with Canada's indigenous peoples. Research into the perspectives of industry proponents and consultants is almost non-existent, yet industry and governments are key participants within environmental assessments. This research found that industry proponents were disenfranchised by the British Columbia environmental assessment process and its mechanisms for consulting with First Nations, and that they sought changes to that process. Their concerns and their implications are documented and some recommendations are offered for addressing those concerns. Understanding industry and government views on First Nations engagement could suggest not only potential improvements in EA processes that facilitate all parties but provide common grounds for mutually engaging to resolve challenges.

Ethical Challenges Within Veterans Administration Healthcare Facilities: Perspectives of Managers, Clinicians, Patients, and Ethics Committee Chairpersons

To promote ethical practices, healthcare managers must understand the ethical challenges encountered by key stakeholders. To characterize ethical challenges in Veterans Administration (VA) facilities from the perspectives of managers, clinicians, patients, and ethics consultants. We conducted focus groups with patients (n = 32) and managers (n = 38); semi-structured interviews with managers (n = 31), clinicians (n = 55), and ethics committee chairpersons (n = 21). Data were analyzed using content analysis. Managers reported that the greatest ethical challenge was fairly distributing resources across programs and services, whereas clinicians identified the effect of resource constraints on patient care. Ethics committee chairpersons identified end-of-life care as the greatest ethical challenge, whereas patients identified obtaining fair, respectful, and caring treatment. Perspectives on ethical challenges varied depending on the respondent's role. Understanding these differences can help managers take practical steps to address these challenges. Further, ethics committees seemingly, are not addressing the range of ethical challenges within their institutions.

An Empirical Study on the Problems of Running Design and Build Projects in Construction

The drawbacks of the traditional design-bid-build procurement system (design then build) have led project participants in the construction industry to opt for alternative procurement systems, like design-build (D&B) (design and build) to deliver their projects. Previous research reported the better time performance of the D&B method and the benefits of the single-point contact from the contractor. While D&B has been popularly used in some western countries, the identification of problems in running D&B projects can arouse the concern of project stakeholders, namely, clients, contractors and consultants, especially in countries where D&B is at a germinating stage. This paper presents the empirical findings on the problems of running D&B projects from the perspectives of clients, contractors and consultants. Inter-group comparisons reveal that there is generous consensus in problem ranking in the client-consultant and contractor-consultant groups, while significant differences exist between the clients and the contractors on the ranking exercise. Based on a better understanding of the problems faced by the major participants in running D&B projects, the authors suggest further research on identifying the critical success factors for D&B projects in order to enhance the well being of the construction industry at large.

Clinical supervision in the emergency department: a critical incident study

Objectives: To identify the key features of effective clinical supervision in the emergency department (ED) from the perspectives of enthusiastic consultants and specialist registrars. To highlight the importance of clinical...

Psychiatric outpatient consultation for seniors. Perspectives of family physicians, consultants, and patients / family: A descriptive study

BackgroundFamily practitioners take care of large numbers of seniors with increasingly complex mental health problems. Varying levels of input may be necessary from psychiatric consultants. This study examines patients'/family, family practitioners', and psychiatrists' perceptions of the bi-directional pathway between such primary care doctors and consultants.MethodsAn 18 month survey was conducted in an out-patient psychogeriatric clinic of a Montreal university-affiliated community hospital. Cognitively intact seniors referred by family practitioners for assessment completed a satisfaction and expectation survey following their visits with the psychiatric consultants. The latter completed a self-administered process of care questionnaire at the end of the visit, while family doctors responded to a similar survey by telephone after the consultants' reports had been received. Responses of the 3 groups were compared.Results101 seniors, referred from 63 family practitioners, met the study entry criteria for assessment by 1 of 3 psychogeriatricians. Both psychiatrists and family doctors agreed that help with management was the most common reason for referral. Family physicians were accepting of care of elderly with mental health problems, but preferred that the psychiatrists assume the initial treatment; the consultants preferred direct return of the patient; and almost 1/2 of patients did not know what to expect from the consultation visit. The rates of discordance in expectations were high when each unique patient-family doctor-psychiatrist triad was examined.ConclusionGaps in expectations exist amongst family doctors, psychiatrists, and patients/family in the shared mental health care of seniors. Goals and anticipated outcomes of psychogeriatric consultation require better definition.

Teacher Expectations for Female and Male School-Based Consultants

Recent research has identified characteristics of effective consultants from the perspectives of consultants and trainers of consultants (Knoff, McKenna, & Riser, 1991). This study used these same effectiveness dimensions to investigate teacher expectations for female and male school-based consultants. Consultant gender was explored as a mediating variable. Results from 265 elementary and middle school teachers suggested a high degree of agreement between what teachers expected of consultants and what consultants viewed as important for effective consultation. Discrepancies between teacher expectations and effectiveness dimensions are discussed. The hypothesis that the gender of the consultant would mediate teacher expectations was not supported by the data.

The management of secondary consequences in dam projects: The case of drawdown agriculture in Indonesia

The creation of drawdown areas in dam projects illustrates the secondary consequences of development projects. These secondary consequences can have major potential benefits for local and regional development. Management plans for drawdown areas, however, are usually absent from dam project planning. Even in cases where management of the drawdown area is planned, implementation of the plan may be impeded by: project managers' decisions; the perspectives of planners and consultants which overlook the economic importance of drawdown cultivation; and failure of officials to recognize the sound ecological knowledge and practices of the local people in utilizing the drawdown habitat.