The influence of personal characteristics on effectiveness of construction site managers

It has been suggested that construction site managers' career progression may be affected because of the existence of certain personal characteristics that conform to industry stereotypes. These stereotypes need to be identified and examined in a systematic manner to ensure that the rationality of human resource management policy is indeed justifiable. A set of 26 personal characteristics believed to influence the effectiveness of construction site managers is identified by senior construction managers using the nominal group technique. These characteristics are tested for correlation with effectiveness using a non-results-based effectiveness index. A questionnaire survey was completed by 61 site managers for this purpose. The results suggest that of 26 identified personal factors believed to be important the only ones which may actually be related to effectiveness are: involvement in continuing professional development, number of firms worked for, use of addictive substances, education level, membership of professional bodies, job satisfaction, motivation level, career aspiration, stress level, leadership style and the need to work. The findings will assist those recruiting, retaining or promoting site managers to make a more informed judgement of key factors influencing effectiveness.     

建筑企业管理者情绪智力与领导行为研究

情绪智力是指管理者在工作和交往过程中表现出来的理解、驾驭情绪及与情绪相关的心理和行为能力。通过对情绪智力模型和领导理论与领导行为的介绍,研究了如何从情绪智力角度提升建筑企业管理者的领导力,从而进一步提高建筑企业的社会经济效益。     

Leadership for future construction industry: Agenda for authentic leadership

Research in the construction industry is beginning to pay more attention to project leadership. Current perception of construction project leaders is largely built around power, authority, and task-orientation. This is due to the traditional focus of the construction industry on technical and managerial features of construction projects. However, greater challenges of modern times and increasingly different business environment necessitate a renewed vision for leadership research and call for a change in traditional perception and mindset about leadership in the construction industry. Globalization and fast changing nature of construction have necessitated a need for project managers to have and apply different leadership behaviors, competencies and styles. To highlight the need for a new breed of construction project leaders, this paper discusses the recent construct of “authentic leadership” in the context of construction projects. Authentic project leaders possess positive values, lead from the heart, set highest levels of ethics and morality, and go beyond their personal interests for well-being of their followers. They capitalize on the environment of trust and are able to motivate people and accomplish challenging tasks. Authentic leadership possesses high potential for development as well as veritable performance of construction project leaders. Proposal made in this paper highlights benefits of authentic leadership development in construction professionals and discusses the relevant practical and research implications. An agenda for research on authentic leadership in the construction industry is also discussed in detail.     

Critical stressors influencing construction estimators in Hong Kong

The main task of contractors' estimators is to predict the likely costs involved in executing a future project. This is an onerous job as any errors made can undermine project success and ultimately reduce the contractors' profit margins. The inherent uncertainty of most construction work, however, together with the often very short time periods involved, make errors unavoidable. Unsurprisingly, therefore, estimation is considered to be a very stressful business. To identify the nature of the stress involved, a survey of construction estimators in Hong Kong was conducted. Using correlation analysis, regression analysis and structural equation modelling, the relationships amongst the causes (stressors or stress factors) and effects (stress) were examined and a causal structural model developed. The results indicate work overload, role conflict, job ambiguity, and working environment to be the most critical stressors, with work underload and distrust being the main indirectly influencing factors. These results are similar to those of a previous study with site managers, suggesting that job ambiguity and work overload are the common problem in the construction industry. The study of the manageability of stress is expected to inspire other similar research involving other professionals in the construction industry. This is expected to be of particular significance in the long‐term development of stress management in the industry in general.     

建筑业项目经理领导有效性研究

关于领导有效性的研究较多,但对建筑业这一特定行业的研究却很少。本文针对建筑业项目经理这一特定群体选取适当的绩效指标,从关心员工和关心任务这两个领导行为的基本维度研究其领导有效性。研究发现,领导行为对项目绩效有显著影响,“高关心员工、高关心任务”的领导类型最为有效,而任务导向型和员工导向型项目经理的领导有效性会因评价指标选取的不同而存在差异。本研究可为项目经理调整领导行为、提高领导有效性提供参考。     

Social identity in the construction industry: implications for safety perception and behaviour

The construction industry has one of the highest frequency levels and rates of work-related injuries, yet the evidence for successful attempts to reduce injuries is generally lacking. The motivational and (safety) behavioural implications of social identification and social categorization among construction labourer work crews were investigated to ascertain how their interactions are affected by the social structure and organization of work. Semi-structured group interviews and mini interviews during work were carried out with 13 concrete work crews (totalling 53 persons) at five large construction sites. The organization of work fosters social identification within a crew, resulting in distancing from and social categorization of site management. Social identification influences safety behaviour in the crews, where worksite safety rules may meet resistance. Future safety initiatives at large construction sites should take into account the dynamics of social identification and categorization in the implementation of safety measures, e.g. by creating an alternative organization of work, thus making it easier for a work crew to identify themselves with the site management. Site/crew managers should consider how safety can become a salient and valued group norm by altering the social structure at the sites and/or fostering dual social identity.     

Enriching the concept of authentic leadership in project-based organisations through the lens of life-stories and self-identities

The tendency to present authentic leadership as a set of project manager attributes (e.g., characteristics, behaviours, competencies) limits the potential of this concept to help address the challenges of contemporary projects. Using the lens of self-identity and drawing on life-story interviews with Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of public project-based organisations in the UK construction industry, this paper offers an enrichment of the authentic leadership concept that takes into account situated nuances and struggles encountered in the lived experiences of leaders. The findings reveal a dialogical process between more coherent narratives and personalised stories articulated by the leaders, continued interweaving stories of self and the context, and ongoing efforts to cope with relational anxieties, authenticity and self-identity struggles. It is shown that these processes are situated in cultural values, roles, institutionalised views of leadership and the broader context, and shape the contextual conditions for project work.     

A qualifications trap in the German construction industry: changing the production model and the consequences for the training system in the German construction industry

German construction companies traditionally rely on qualified workers. This has influenced both their production model (work organization on site) and their policy towards training and education. Due to the massive inflow of workers from countries with low labour costs, firms may fundamentally change this model to a new one which is distinguished by the combination of less qualified workers with a larger number of managers for instruction, supervision and control. This change is initially likely to have a considerable knock-on effect on the training system. However, what is even worse is that the new model is not likely to work in the long run. To date the construction industry has acquired its site managers and supervisors directly from the pool of qualified workers. By reducing training it produces a shortage of the very resource inevitably needed to be able to reduce training. The industry will fall into a qualifications trap. What is more significant is that this trap is shown as a first step towards lowering corporate image, quality of human resources, productivity and, in the end, competitiveness.     

Occupational stress and job demand,control and support factors among construction project consultants

Occupational stress affects the health and wellbeing of people who work, and the construction industry is recognized as a high-stress working environment. The relationship between job demands, job control, workplace support, and experiences of stress in the South African construction context is investigated, using hierarchical regression, factor analysis and structural equation modeling to explore the strength of thirteen factor relationships with perceived stress. Data were gathered from an on-line questionnaire survey response sample of 676 architects, civil engineers, quantity surveyors, and project and construction managers. Predictors displaying a significant relationship with occupational stress are the presence of work–life imbalance, the need to ‘prove’ oneself, hours worked per week, working to tight deadlines, and support from line managers in difficult situations at work. Existing theories of occupational stress are confirmed but not completely supported. The construction industry should give attention to how the need to work long hours is justified. Organizations should look to improving managerial and collegial support for construction professionals, but be careful in engaging in socializing and project team-building activities. Further research will need to focus more deeply on construction-specific job demand factors; explore why women professionals appear to experience more stress than men; and aim to develop reliable early-warning detection techniques for construction professionals.     

Site managers’ daily work and the uses of building information modelling in construction site management

The use of building information modelling (BIM) and related software tools is increasingly expanding in the work of site managers in construction projects. The early uses of BIM in the actual tasks of site managers are explored by examining the utilization of BIM in their work and the challenges in the deployment of the new digital tools for traditional project collaboration. The ethnographic method of the study consists of shadowing the site managers’ work. The site managers actively used BIM and found it beneficial for their daily work. However, the use of BIM in construction sites is still limited because only a few managers have the competence to use BIM software tools, mobile tools are lacking, and the information content of the models needed for construction work is insufficient.     

Transformational leadership in a project-based environment: a comparative study of the leadership styles of project managers and line managers

Leadership is widely considered to be an important aspect of project-based organising and there are several reasons to suggest that transformational leadership is of particular relevance in this context. However, there is a dearth of both theoretical and empirical work on leadership in project-based organisations. The aim of this paper is to report the findings of an empirical study comparing the relationship between transformational leadership style and employee motivation, commitment and stress for employees reporting to either project or line managers. The results show that although project managers are not perceived as less transformational, the relationships between transformational leadership and outcomes tend to be less strong for employees reporting to project managers than for those reporting to line managers. Implications for future research on leadership in the project context are explored.     

Work-family conflicts experienced by project managers in the Chinese construction industry

Project managers in the construction industry, play an important role in achieving project objectives. Construction involves a demanding work environment with considerable potential to interfere with their family life in the way of time, strain and behavior. It is therefore important to understand the relationship between work and family life of construction project managers. The purpose of the study is to find out whether the respondents experienced all forms of work-to-family conflict greater than in the direction from family-to-work conflict. Using a validated multi-item construct-based questionnaire, a survey was carried out on a sample of construction project managers in China. The findings showed that Chinese project managers experienced different time-based and strain-based conflicts between the work interference with family conflict (WIFC) direction and the family interference with work conflict (FIWC) direction, but the same behavior-based conflict between the WIFC direction and the FIWC direction.     

IT based system for construction safety management and monitoring: C-RTICS2

In North America, thousands of construction workers get injured and dozens die, on a yearly basis, due to work related injuries and illnesses. This reality prevailed from year 2000 to 2012 without a significant decrease. It seems that advanced health and safety regulations failed to make a positive impact. However, the use of information and communication technologies to improve safety is limited in the construction industry. This paper describes a system that transmits safety related information of multiple construction projects into a centralized database, where real-time safety indicators are generated. The system provides safety indicators related to an individual project or industry-wide figures. On site managers can use such real-time information for informed decisions in work sites. The system can also be accessed by the general public, research institutions, and regulating bodies, to formulate industry-wide safety standards and policies. The proposed system was pilot tested with positive and encouraging results.     

Queer eye on a ‘straight’ life: deconstructing masculinities in construction

The male-ness or masculine nature of the construction industry has often been blamed for the problems of equality and diversity in the sector. Yet, what constitutes masculinity in construction is rarely problematized. Conventionally, masculinity in construction tended to be associated with the subordination and harassment of minority groups (e.g. women, non-heterosexuals), and the ideals of keeping fit in order to meet the tough, physical demands of construction work. Therefore an attempt was made to expand the conceptualization of alternative masculinities in construction. By deploying queer theory, the life stories of nine non-heterosexuals working in trade and professional occupations in the construction industry were analysed to explore how a range of different masculinities played out in the social interactions in their personal and working lives. The findings suggest that conventional hegemonic masculinity, while present, is not the only form of masculinity that subordinates minority groups in construction. Rather, other non-hegemonic forms of masculinity (e.g. found in homo-social contexts) also serve to exclude both men and women. Nevertheless, examples were also identified of minorities countering such exclusionary forms of masculinity through, for instance, ‘friendship’ alliances at work, which could offer possibilities for building a more inclusive workplace in construction.     

The interplay between leadership and organizational culture in the Turkish construction sector

Organizational culture and leadership are purported to be deeply integrated and intertwined within an organization. Although there is a substantial amount of research demonstrating the importance of the interplay of culture and leadership, there exist few empirical examinations of the nature of this link. To examine this link, based on Cameron and Quinn's Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument and Hofstede's Values Survey Module, a questionnaire survey was conducted. The sample consists of 499 managerial personnel out of 107 contracting firms. With the aim of achieving a better understanding of how leadership style is influenced by organizational culture, Multinomial Logistic Regression was used. The findings demonstrate that managers in the contracting companies with different cultural characteristics tend to adopt different leadership styles to lead their employees to succeed in their business. Information contained in this paper will feed into country-specific understanding of leadership and organizational culture within the construction industry.     

上海城市立体绿化网格空间建设管理探讨

立体绿化作为高密度城区绿化建设的重要构成,在降低热岛效应、改善环境质量及增加市民绿化感受度等方面具有诸多积极作用。本文简要介绍了近年来上海立体绿化发展背景、历程及现状,立足行业管理,聚焦工作实际,归纳与总结组织领导、规划布局、政策扶持、项目建设、宣传发动等方面的措施成效,为上海城市立体绿化网格空间建设效益再提升提供参考与借鉴。     

Project managers and career models: An exploratory comparative study

Prior research has paid little attention to the careers and career models of project managers. This is troublesome for at least two reasons. First, project managers are becoming an increasingly important category of managers and today they constitute a major part of many organizations' leadership capability. Second, traditional literature on careers generally does not address project-based careers as a specific case in point, although this kind of career is unique in the sense that it is based on temporary assignments and lack of formal positions. The research presented in this paper identifies and explains patterns of similarities and differences among applied career models in ten large, mature project-intensive firms in Sweden. The paper identifies a number of factors that seem to be critical for the design of career models for project managers, including the number of levels, the complexity of assignments, and the degree of formal requirements. The paper also outlines two archetypes of career models applied by the firms under study: the competence strategy model and the talent management model.     

The role of line managers in creating and maintaining healthy work environments on project construction sites

The focus of this article is healthy work environments in project-based construction work, and particularly a sub-element of the work environment, the food environment. Although it is well accepted that stressful work environments negatively impact on organisational and individual health indices and project construction produces some of the most severe work environments in the modern industrial landscape, the role of line managers in creating these environments is largely unknown. Healthy work environments are explored in this article because they contribute to the development of many ‘behavioral’ diseases such as Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, both of which are known problems amongst construction workers. Qualitative data were collected from eighty project-based construction workers and mangers on six large civil engineering construction projects in Brisbane, Australia. Unanimous views were expressed by all interviewees that managers should not and do not influence food choices on-site. However, results also revealed clear examples of managers making decisions about food environments, work and time pressures and permitted and discouraged behaviours on-site that impact on food choices. These findings indicate limited awareness of healthy work environments in construction with the impact of management actions being largely unrecognised and unintended. It suggests with more informed management decision-making, eating habits in construction are likely to improve.     

Construction site safety in Hong Kong

The structural characteristics of the Hong Kong construction industry, most notably its elaborate system of subcontracting and the casual basis on which labour is employed, pose serious problems for safety managers. By international standards, Hong Kong's construction industry performs very badly in the area of safety. Recent work in the UK and Finland highlights the effectiveness of behavioural techniques to improve safety performance on construction sites. Work is currently under way to test these techniques in the Hong Kong construction setting. The structural properties of the Hong Kong construction industry have been taken into consideration and labour commitments to the group and to the organization have been identified for additional consideration in research. It is expected that these variables will intervene in the application of behavioural techniques to determine their effectiveness. This paper investigates the theoretical background to commitment at the group and organizational level and presents a site level research model which is illustrative of the possible effects that group and organization level commitment may be found to have on the use of behavioural techniques.