Superior–Subordinate Relationships in Korean Civil Engineering Companies

The Leader–Member Exchange (LMX) relationship quality between superiors and subordinates in Korean civil engineering companies were empirically examined for superiors’ feedback-seeking behaviors. The results showed that for superiors, affect, loyalty, and contribution toward subordinates were positively related to seeking negative as well as positive feedback from subordinates. From subordinates’ point of view, affect, contribution, and professional respect toward their superiors were positively related to superiors’ negative feedback seeking, but affect was negatively related to superiors’ positive feedback seeking. It was also found that superiors and subordinates were not consensual in LMX and superiors’ feedback-seeking behaviors. For example, for superiors, all of the four LMX dimensions were positively related to superiors’ asking subordinates directly for feedback, whereas for subordinates, none of the LMX dimensions were significantly related to superiors’ asking subordinates directly for feedback. These and other findings are discussed in detail, and implications for the findings are provided.     

Valence of and Satisfaction with Job Outcomes

Approximately 2,800 unionized construction workers were surveyed and responses were received from 703, representing all crafts except boilermakers. The workers were asked about the importance they attach to various job related factors and their satisfaction with each factor. The 28 individual factors were reduced to seven using a factor analysis technique. The most important set of factors were those relating to the intrinsic nature of the work: working like a craftsman, performing challenging work, etc. The set of factors with which the workers was most satisfied was that of performance level: high productivity; quantity; and doing your work in a craftsmanlike manner. Individual factors that require attention on the part of contractors to improve worker motivation and satisfaction were identified using a 2×2 matrix that allowed the combination of importance and satisfaction scores. Overall satisfaction with the job was measured and a multiple regression analysis revealed that satisfaction with intrinsic factors makes the greatest contribution to general job satisfaction.     

Demystifying Moderate Variables of the Interrelationships among Affective Commitment, Job Performance, and Job Satisfaction of Construction Professionals

Project goals expressed in terms of time, cost, and quality requirements are seldom disputed. However, it is not easy to ensure that the defined goals will be implemented by all parties involved in the implementation process as goal commitment is one of the key variables in project success and participant satisfaction in construction projects. In order to ensure professional commitment in the management process and optimize construction performance in the complex situation, it is necessary to identify the moderate variables and clarify the interactions among affective commitment, job performance, and job satisfaction of construction professionals. A questionnaire survey was conducted in Hong Kong. Both correlation analysis and hierarchical regression models were applied. The results revealed that both job acceptance/contribution and specificity/teamwork are moderate variables influencing the relationships between affective commitment and job performance and between job performance and job satisfaction. A series of conditional relationships is revealed in detail in this study and some suggestions, such as formal briefing sessions, regular formal meeting, and value engineering workshop, are recommended.     

Job Burnout among Construction Engineers Working within Consulting and Contracting Organizations

This research investigated and compared the experience of job burnout among 249 construction engineers working within consulting and contracting organizations in Hong Kong. The most widely recognized model of burnout, comprising emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and diminished professional efficacy was found to be valid. The sample in this study scored highest in all three dimensions of burnout among nine other occupations in national samples, with engineers working within contracting organizations reporting higher levels of burnout than their fellow engineers working within consulting organizations. The results of the study also showed that burnout attributed largely to stressors associated with job conditions and working environments. In particular, qualitative overload and lack of promotion prospects were found to be the major predictors of job burnout among engineers working within consulting organizations; whereas long working hours, role conflict, role ambiguity, and lack of job security accounted mostly for the burnout among engineers within contracting organizations. This suggested that intervention strategies targeting minimizing burnout, such as job redesign, should be devised with reference to the type of the engineering organizations.     

Management’s Perception of Key Behavioral Indicators for Construction

Human behavior varies with each individual and situation, but there are certain fundamental consistencies underlying the behavior of all individuals that can be identified. The goal of this research was to identify consistencies in the behavior of motivated, satisfied, committed, and loyal employees in the construction field since these are important characteristics in the workplace. A survey was developed and distributed within the construction industry and the results were used to generate key behavioral indicators for identifying motivated, satisfied, committed, and loyal construction workers. These behavioral indicators may be used by construction industry practitioners to better address employee performance. This will better enable managers to assess the outcomes of their human resource management decisions. In addition, this study provides evidence of successful qualitative research methodology and analysis within the construction industry. The statistically significant findings of this research further substantiate several previous behavioral studies and provide insight into several areas for future investigations.     

Job Performance Dimensions for Improving Final Project Outcomes

Job performance is argued to be substantially influential to project performance. However, existing construction management literature pays less attention to job performance issues, not to mention exploring the relationship between job performance and project performance. This study therefore aims at examining the effects of job performance on project performance. Four categories (task, behavior, management, and self) of job performance dimensions were extracted by means of an exploratory factor analysis. A hypothesized model is developed, which specifies the relationships between the four job performance categories (independent variables) and overall project performance (the dependent variable). The model was tested using path analysis. Results indicate that the task category of job performance (consisting of nine dimensions) is significantly related to final project outcomes. Specifically, for the success of a project, a construction company must consider how to ensure employees are equipped with such attributes as responsibility, quality of work, ability, job knowledge, experience, efficiency, accuracy, judgment, and initiative.     

Fundamental Analysis of Profitability of Large Engineering and Construction Firms

This research examines the strategic performance of sixty-one large international engineering and construction (E&C) firms from the regions of North America, Europe, and East Asia. The primary objective is to identify critical factors of corporate strategy that potentially affect the prospects of a large E&C firm. The research methodology relies on financial analysis and strategic management theories to draw meaningful conclusions. Statistical tests are selectively conducted to assess various aspects, including profitability, capital structure and asset liquidity. This paper documents the research findings for the first aspect—profitability. The first part of the findings suggests that there is no significant correlation between firm size and profitability. Large firms, which are endowed with greater resources and prowess, are not guaranteed to be more profitable. However, firm size has some influence on generic strategies, as large firms tend to adopt either a broadly targeted or a nonrelated diversification strategy. Regional trends of revenue growth of firms are subsequently presented. Despite strong forces of globalization experienced in many other industries, the growth trends suggest that the construction business remains largely localized in nature. Consequently, domestic and regional economic outlook, rather than global trends, should be given more weights in strategic planning.     

Determinants of International Architectural, Engineering, and Construction Firms’ Project Success in China

As China becomes a member of the World Trade Organization, many international architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) firms are undertaking or expected to undertake projects there. This study identifies the significant factors that contribute to the successful performance of projects undertaken by international AEC firms in China. Data were collected using structured questionnaires from foreign (non-Chinese) AEC firms that have completed projects in China. Personal interviews with 27 experts were also conducted to supplement and test the survey findings. The findings reveal that the variable that affects the most number of success measures is the AEC firm’s ability to understand the client’s requirement. Achieving this brings about good project quality performance and owner satisfaction. Furthermore, firms that have superior product or service quality would also achieve better project performance. The interviewees also exhorted the importance of having core competencies as a critical success factor for projects in China. Practitioners may use the findings to help them manage their projects in China, so as to achieve higher levels of success.     

Case for Drug Testing of Construction Workers

Drug use has been shown to have a negative affect on both job safety and productivity. Due to the high accident rates in the construction industry it is vital for management to take necessary steps to implement programs and procedures that will increase construction safety and worker productivity. While the effects of a drug-related jobsite accident can be catastrophic for individuals and companies, management should realize that drug use among employees can be damaging to moral, productivity, and quality even if it does not result in accidents. The level of teamwork required for excellent work is harder to achieve and efforts to improve project management by team building are hurt by the absenteeism and short-term employment typical of the employee that abuses drugs. Other areas where the project management of a construction company is compromised by worker drug use are recruitment and retention of human resources, career growth management, and safety. Drug testing construction workers is an effective method for reducing the number of impaired workers on a project site, increasing overall project safety, worker morale, productivity, and profits. There are ethical and legal questions on both sides of the issue and any such management initiative must be balanced with worker rights.     

Differentiation, Conformity, and Construction Firm Performance

Competitive strategy and neo-institutional scholars offer different views for studying a firm’s relationship with its environment. Competitive strategy scholars propose that a firm’s environment hosts competitive forces and that a firm’s performance is closely related with its ability to differentiate itself from its rivals. Neo-institutional scholars, on the other hand, propose that a firm’s environment hosts institutional forces and that a firm’s performance is closely related with its ability to conform to institutional norms. The research presented here builds on the premise that the propositions set forth by competitive strategy and neo-institutional scholars are complementary rather than contradictory. It empirically explores these propositions in the context of the U.S. construction industry. Research findings provide considerable empirical support for the competitive strategy scholars’ proposition that differentiation vis-à-vis rivals is positively related with a firm’s performance. On the other hand, research findings do not provide any empirical support to the neo-institutional scholars’ proposition that conformity to regulatory and societal expectations is positively related to a firm’s performance.     

Job Performance Evaluation for Construction Companies: An Analytic Network Process Approach

This paper aims at presenting a job performance evaluation process for construction companies. Human resource is a core economic asset. Organizations are responsible for helping their employees work at their optimal level. Job performance evaluations become an essential organizational activity, which can sustain employee performance. Existing literature has suggested that the construction industry does not pay attention to the importance of job performance evaluation. This paper presents the use of the analytic network process (ANP) to assign weights to a set of job performance criteria. It also describes a process for job performance evaluation. An example is demonstrated to illustrate how to construct the supermatrix for ANP.     

System Model for Analyzing Design Productivity

Many engineering design companies collect data such as person hours to manage projects. But the relationships between operational variables and performance are usually not thoroughly analyzed and interpreted. This paper proposes a system model and procedure to relate influence variables to project productivity. The model was tested by analyzing 190 projects of an engineering consulting company. The relationships between design productivity and various input and process variables were identified and interpreted. For example, project size has a negative relationship with productivity, while the effect of quality assurance/quality control on productivity is not clear. Based on documented data and derived information, this model can help companies gain operational insight and thus improve productivity and profitability.     

International Expansion Decision for Construction Companies

There exist several reasons for construction firms to expand their business into international markets. But the complex international environment is affected by diverse factors and creates risks that are not well understood by companies that are active mostly in domestic markets. It is therefore essential for construction companies to follow a disciplined and well-informed strategy when deciding whether to enter international markets. Company strengths relative to conducting business in international markets, the threats and opportunities associated with overseas work, and the costs and benefits of undertaking construction projects in specific countries need to be considered in this decision. The interactions between the complex factors can be structured in a model that can help one to make a rational judgment. The International Expansion Decision Model developed in this study is based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) improved by the addition of a Delphi survey. The main objective of this research study is to facilitate the entry decision into foreign markets and to highlight the importance of the factors involved in this decision. This study is of relevance to practitioners as it allows executives of construction companies to test if their company is ready for expansion into international markets in general and into a specific country in particular. It is also of relevance to researchers as it demonstrates the successful use of the combined Delphi and AHP methods.     

Design Fees, the State of the Profession, and a Time for Corrective Action

Abstract: There has been considerable consternation over the years about the disintegration of the status of civil engineers, as well as significant distress over the profitability of engineering firms in view of a continuing decline in the compensation of civil engineers relative to other professionals. This paper studies the impact of government agencies’ use of outdated percentage of construction fee schedules for determination of professional compensation. Research has found that, due to the application of stagnant fee curves without adjustment for the effects of inflation on project costs, fees over the last several decades have dropped on the order of 20% or more. Prior to the early 1970s, fee curves published by the professional societies were regularly updated to reflect inflationary trends in project costs. However, since that time, few government agencies have adopted any meaningful deviation from the fee curves of the pre-Justice Department antitrust settlement with the professional societies. The settlement agreement was that the professional societies would no longer publish minimum fee curves to establish appropriate compensation of their members. The paper discusses the erosive financial implications of these policies for the design professions’ compensation.     

The Role of Acceptance and Job Control in Mental Health, Job Satisfaction, and Work Performance.

Acceptance, the willingness to experience thoughts, feelings, and physiological sensations without having to control them or let them determine one's actions, is a major individual determinant of mental health and behavioral effectiveness in a more recent theory of psychopathology. This 2-wave panel study examined the ability of acceptance also to explain mental health, job satisfaction, and performance in the work domain. The authors hypothesized that acceptance would predict these 3 outcomes 1 year later in a sample of customer service center workers in the United Kingdom (N = 412). Results indicated that acceptance predicted mental health and an objective measure of performance over and above job control, negative affectivity, and locus of control. These beneficial effects of having more job control were enhanced when people had higher levels of acceptance. The authors discuss the theoretical and practical relevance of this individual characteristic to occupational health and performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats for Architectural, Engineering, and Construction Firms: Case Study of Vietnam

After Vietnam became a member of the World Trade Organization, Vietnamese architectural, engineering, and construction (A/E/C) firms face competition from not only their domestic competitors but also from foreign A/E/C firms. As most Vietnamese firms are used to operating under a protected setting, they may face difficulties competing in the globalized environment. This study undertakes a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis of Vietnamese A/E/C firms, investigates how they respond to opportunities and threats, and recommends how foreign A/E/C firms operating in Vietnam could respond. Using semistructured interview questions, face-to-face interviews were conducted with Vietnamese and foreign A/E/C firms. The SWOT analysis reveals that Vietnamese A/E/C firms are lagging behind foreign firms in financial capacity, experience in complex projects, knowledge in advanced design and construction technology, and management ability. Industry practitioners from outside Vietnam who are contemplating entering the Vietnamese market can leverage on Vietnamese firms’ strengths by forming joint ventures with strong and reputable private Vietnamese firms. To improve their competitive advantage, it is recommended that foreign A/E/C firms offer superior products and services and familiarize themselves with local culture and regulations. They should be mindful of corruption and set up surveillance systems to curb wasteful spending.     

Chinese Values and Stressors of Construction Professionals in Hong Kong

The construction industry has been recognized as a stressful industry, and a great deal of stress is placed on various construction professionals (CPs). However, due to the different “values” among CPs in Hong Kong, susceptibility to stressors varies from individual to individual. People who grow up and live in different cultural environments have different values and this leads to different perceptions of stressors. This study aims to investigate the impact of Chinese values on the stressors of CPs in Hong Kong, one of the main cities in China. To achieve this aim, factor analysis, Pearson correlation analysis, and structural equation modeling were applied based on the survey data collected from CPs in Hong Kong. Four types of Chinese values and eight stressors are identified. The results reveal that: (1) social conventions value alleviate role ambiguity and poor workgroup relationship; (2) value of disciplined work ethos triggers work overload, although it alleviate poor workgroup relationship and work underload; (3) value of conservative personality alleviates work overload; (4) interpersonal integration value has indirect impacts on the various stressors; and (5) the objective poor working environment stressor has significant impact on the poor workgroup relationships and role ambiguity of individual CPs.     

Framework for Competency and Capability Assessment for Resource Allocation

This paper proposes a decision process that engineering organizations can use to make human resource allocation decisions. This type of systematic approach will assist organizations in determining accurate predictions of their strengths and weaknesses and enable them to determine optimum resource allocations. In addition, identifying strategic core competencies followed by identification of organizational and individual capabilities necessary to fulfill the needs of these core competencies will optimize human resource allocations. The proposed framework can complement and improve on available methods for identifying sourcing strategies with a goal of “rightsizing” organizations. Assessment of organizational competencies and capabilities can provide the necessary rationale behind human resource allocation and outsourcing decisions. Using the proposed framework presented in this paper would, therefore, assist companies in optimizing human resource allocation decisions.     

Work and Family Sources of Burnout in the Australian Engineering Profession: Comparison of Respondents in Dual- and Single-Earner Couples, Parents, and Nonparents

A survey of practicing professional civil engineers in the Australian states of New South Wales and Victoria was conducted. The survey explored the engineers’ experience of work and family sources of burnout. Burnout was predicted by a combination of both work and family stressors. Regression analysis revealed that burnout was predicted by different variables among respondents in dual- compared to single-income households and among parents and nonparents. Family variables were more important sources of burnout among participants in dual-income households and parents. The writer concludes that preventive strategies for burnout in the engineering profession must extend beyond the work environment and deal with issues at the work-family interface. Also, sociodemographic characteristics of the workforce must be considered when devising preventive strategies.     

The Impact of Job Complexity and Performance Measurement on the Temporal Consistency, Stability, and Test-Retest Reliability of Employee Job Performance Ratings.

Although research has shown that individual job performance changes over time, the extent of such changes is unknown. In this article, the authors define and distinguish between the concepts of temporal consistency, stability, and test-retest reliability when considering individual job performance ratings over time. Furthermore, the authors examine measurement type (i.e., subjective and objective measures) and job complexity in relation to temporal consistency, stability, and test-retest reliability. On the basis of meta-analytic results, the authors found that the test-retest reliability of these ratings ranged from .83 for subjective measures in low-complexity jobs to .50 for objective measures in high-complexity jobs. The stability of these ratings over a 1-year time lag ranged from .85 to .67. The analyses also reveal that correlations between performance measures decreased as the time interval between performance measurements increased, but the estimates approached values greater than zero. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)