Integrated Model for the Stressors and Stresses of Construction Project Managers in Hong Kong

Construction projects involve multistakeholders (e.g., architects, structural engineers, surveyors, contractors, suppliers, etc.) completing a large number of unpredictable tasks in a complex process within a limited period of time. Construction project managers (C-PMs) are the key persons in achieving project success throughout the construction process, as they are responsible for planning the construction program, organizing human resources, controlling operations and the budget, and forecasting probable difficulties. Hence, C-PMs always encounter a great deal of stress in construction projects. Apart from the subjective feelings experienced by individual C-PMs, C-PMs may also feel objective stress due to the deviation between their actual abilities and their expected abilities on tasks or projects. To understand the integrated relationships between the various stressors and stresses of C-PMs, a survey was conducted of 108 C-PMs in Hong Kong. This paper attempts to investigate the causal relationships between stressors and stresses (both subjective and objective). The study reveals seven stressors of C-PMs in the industry. Based on the results of a correlation coefficient, an optimized stressor–stress structural equation model is established. Four critical stressors were found to have significant impact on both the subjective and the objective stresses of C-PMs, including work overload, poor interpersonal relationships, poor work environment, and poor nonwork environment. A number of recommendations were made for both construction companies and individual C-PMs in their offices and at home in order to optimize their work performance in the real world.     

Relational Selection for Collaborative Working Arrangements

Procurement arrangements for collaborative working arrangements (CWAs) should arguably provide suitable protocols under which different project partners can interact effectively and maintain harmonious relationships and mobilize their collective efforts towards common project objectives. Technical abilities of different project partners for carrying out the works are important. Also critical are their “soft” or “relational” qualities to work jointly and synergistically in the project team. The aims of the reported study are to examine the importance of a single set of different factors for selecting consultants, contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, and clients for CWAs; and to assess the relative importance of various factors and strategies for building CWAs. Data were collected internationally from 17 countries through a questionnaire survey and statistical analyses were conducted. Results attribute varying degrees of importance to various factors for selecting different project partners and suggest an interrelated and consolidated selection approach in general, except for “selecting” clients. The study confirms that trust and business ethics related factors and strategies are more helpful for CWAs than some others. Outcomes of this study are expected to benefit both industry practitioners and researchers, in exploring, designing, and implementing suitable CWAs and selecting appropriate project partners.     

Reconstructing Cultures for Relational Contracting

Although previous research has pointed to potential performance gains through relational contracting (RC), reservations remain as to its value and viability. Even those who wish to use RC need guidelines for introducing it, especially where it clashes with prevalent project cultures. A study was launched from Hong Kong to identify the critical factors which promote RC and team building in the context of specific cultures. This paper consolidates the perceptions of 60 respondents to a questionnaire survey in Singapore, in relation to the hypothesized 24 factors facilitating RC, and 28 factors impeding/deterring RC. It indicates the evident readiness of the Singaporean contracting industry to embrace collaborative working practices. On the whole: (1) all the 24 factors facilitating RC, and 23 of the 28 factors deterring RC, are significant; (2) these two sets of factors could be represented by six and seven “broad factors,” respectively; and (3) except in a few cases, respondents from large and medium companies, as well as with and without experience in RC, have similar perceptions of the importance of different factors. It was perceived that trust should be at the core of RC approaches to construction procurement, but also seen that the current level of trust is low. Identifying the principal “facilitators” and “impediments”/ deterrents to RC, provides pointers to building relationally integrated teams to boost performance to much higher levels, as are now expected from the industry. The literature indicates that the outcome of the survey in Singapore reflects the trends in many countries that are moving toward RC. This research model and approach may be conveniently replicated in other contractual regimes, in order to reinforce these observations.     

Achieving Partnering Success through an Incentive Agreement: Lessons Learned from an Underground Railway Extension Project in Hong Kong

Over the years, it has been observed that partnering has been ineffectively implemented in the public sector of Hong Kong. Contributing factors to this lack of success are nature and the large size of bureaucratic organizations and commercial pressure compromising the partnering attitude. The Mass Transit Railway Corporation Limited (MTRCL), one of the prominent pioneers in adopting project partnering in the infrastructure sector of Hong Kong since 1999, however, implemented the partnering principle with significant success. This paper, based on a recently completed research project funded by the Construction Industry Institute?Hong Kong in late 2004 and a followup in-depth interview meeting with senior executives of MTRCL in early June 2005, analyzes the rationale behind the successful development of partnering culture in the infrastructure sector of Hong Kong through a case study—the Tseung Kwan O Railway Extension (TKE) Contract 654—platform screen doors. The project comprises the supply and installation of platform screen doors along the whole MTRCL’s TKE with five stations. This project was analyzed by means of the project documentation and face-to-face interviews with the project representatives, comparisons with another five partnering case studies, and a followup in-depth interview meeting with another two senior executives of MTRCL. After the analysis, it was found that the implementation of partnering together with an incentive agreement (IA), a kind of target cost (TC) contract, underpinned the partnering success of this project. Therefore, it is recommended that partnering together with TC contracts, such as IA, greatly assists in the achievement of construction excellence, and can provide a workable model for enhancing overall project performance in electrical and mechanical projects.     

Relational Contracting and Teambuilding: Assessing Potential Contractual and Noncontractual Incentives

Integration in construction projects implies alignment of both structural arrangements and operational mechanisms, in order to effectively coordinate and streamline the combined efforts of various interacting parties, for improved project outcomes. Appropriate use of relational contracting (RC) principles may help achieve such integration. As such, the aims of the reported study are to examine the relative usefulness of various potential strategies and factors, to provide suitable contractual and noncontractual incentives, for building a RC culture, and nurturing effective teamwork in construction. Results from statistical analyses of 83 questionnaire responses from Hong Kong are presented. These results attribute various degrees of importance to different factors and strategies, both for RC and teamworking. The outcomes also suggest the need for a highly interactive and consolidated approach, both for propagating RC and building integrated project teams. It is observed that trust and trust based operational and contractual arrangements can effectively provide the required incentives, for implementing various RC-based working arrangements in construction. These should extend to assessing “relational” attributes during team selection, under cliental initiative and top management support. Outcomes of this study are expected to benefit both industry practitioners and researchers, in exploring, designing, and implementing suitable RC-based working arrangements.     

Interorganizational Teamwork in the Construction Industry

Interorganizational teamwork has attracted considerable attention over the years and is one of the characteristics of the construction industry. However, most of the research has just focused on the factors necessary for team success, rather than investigating human perceptions of interorganizational teamwork and what factors affect the individual’s perception that they are working in a team. Building on a modified model, the effects of cultural and context factors (individualism and power distance) and employee attitudes (task interdependence and trust) on team orientation (the individual’s perception of working in a team) were investigated in this research. Data were collected via questionnaire surveys from a sample of construction practitioners working in interorganizational project teams in Hong Kong. Using correlation and multiple regression analyses, the findings indicated that, as hypothesized, there were positive relationships between team orientation and contractual trust, competence trust and task interdependence, but there was a negative relationship between team orientation and opportunism. The results further suggested that the influence of team orientation was moderated to a certain extent by individualism and power distance in some employees’ attitudes.     

Integrated Construction Preventive Maintenance System

The maintenance of heavy construction equipment is a vital function for many construction contractors. A regular, structured preventive maintenance program can be a worthwhile investment for several reasons: Reduced field breakdowns; more efficient equipment and operator utilization; elimination of unnecessary parts damage and reductions in inventory requirements; preservation of warranties; more productive mechanics; and longer‐lasting repairs. This article discusses an integrated preventive maintenance system developed for a large, multi‐site quarrying operation. The physical and personnel requirements are briefly presented, and the management control aspects discussed in detail. Implementation considerations are related and the substantial improvements achieved in overall fleet availability are documented. Finally, the integration of this system to the company's other accounting modules is outlined.     

Modeling the Heterogeneity in Contractors’ Mark-Up Behavior

Individual contractors exhibit different bidding behaviors when confronted with a given set of project decision environment factors, i.e., heterogeneity in the population of contractors. In examining the tenability of the bidder homogeneity assumption, a linear mixed modeling approach is applied to two data sets obtained from Hong Kong and Singapore contractors via a bidding experiment. Two linear mixed models were developed by relating the contractors’ mark-up decision to four project decision environment factors, namely, (1) market conditions; (2) number of bidders; (3) project type; and (4) project size. The results show that not only is there a significant heterogeneity between the Hong Kong and the Singapore contractors in terms of both their preferences (intercepts) and responses (slopes) to the project decision environment factors that affect their mark-up decision, but also that the individual Hong Kong and Singapore contractors have different degrees of sensitivity toward the project decision environment factors (which is reflected in the varying individual-specific intercepts and slopes). These individual-specific parameter estimates have implications for managerial action in formulating a firm’s competitive strategies.     

Component-Based Framework for Implementing Integrated Architectural/Engineering/Construction Project Systems

Current practices and integration trends in the architectural/engineering/construction (A/E/C) industry are increasing the demands for the implementation and deployment of integrated project systems. Much of the research throughout the last decade was driven by the need to develop integrated project systems and standard industry-wide data models to support their development. This paper presents a multitier component-based framework that aims to facilitate the implementation of modular and distributed integrated project systems that would support multidisciplinary project processes throughout the project life cycle. The framework addresses the specific requirements of A/E/C projects, and highlights the required functionality and approach to develop integrated project systems. The framework defines a three-tier architecture: Applications tier, common domain-services tier, and project data-repository tier. The applications tier includes a set of function-specific software tools that interact with the domain-services-tier components via a set of adapters. Adapters map the applications’ internal proprietary-data models to and from a standard integrated data model. The domain-services-tier components implement a number of generic services, such as data management, transactions management, document management, and workflow management. The data-repository tier represents a centralized shared storage of all relevant project information. The paper also discusses the implementation of a prototype software system that demonstrates the use of the framework’s reusable components and the industry foundation classes data model in typical building projects.     

Development and Application of the Specialist Task Organization Procurement Approach

The study focuses on the development of an innovative procurement method in order to improve owners’ contracting strategies. The aim of this paper is to develop a procurement system that improves the overall project implementation process, in order to meet the project objectives of time, cost, and quality. The Specialist Task Organization (STO) approach is suggested based on a constructive research approach, where extensive theoretical development of the STO concept is developed. The analogical validation was carried out through the review of four case study examples in order to find the analogies between the positive outcomes of four case studies and the elements of the STO route. The proposed task-oriented approach utilizes integrated product (task) development, integrated management, and fragmented execution via task organizations. The merits of the STO approach include, the shifting of competition from only single design and cost based to multiple designs, life-cycle costs, alternative materials, and maintainability implications. The STO approach assumes a modular approach to design, and allows experts knowledge in design and construction through their involvement from preconstruction through project starts up. The suggested STO route is a potential tool in realizing complete sustainability in construction in terms of environmental and social sustainability, as well as economic sustainability.     

Exploring Critical Success Factors for Partnering in Construction Projects

The construction industry is a very competitive high-risk business. Many problems, such as little cooperation, lack of trust, and ineffective communication resulting in adversarial relationships between contracting parties, are facing the construction industry. Partnering is perhaps one of the most innovative developments in delivering a project efficiently and reducing construction disputes. It provides a sound basis for a “win-win” climate and synergistic teamwork. Project partnering in the Hong Kong construction industry has gained in popularity since 1994. A number of potential factors contributing to partnering success have emerged and deserve further study. This paper presents a review of the development of the partnering concept in general and identifies critical success factors for partnering projects from the Hong Kong perspective in particular. Through a postal questionnaire survey geared toward project participants with hands-on partnering experience, the opinions of various parties—clients, consultants, and contractors were sought and evaluated in relation to partnering success factors. The relationship between the perception of partnering success and a set of success factors hypothesized in the study was derived using factor analysis and multiple regression. The results indicated that certain requirements must be met for partnering to succeed. In particular, the establishment and communication of a conflict resolution strategy, a willingness to share resources among project participants, a clear definition of responsibilities, a commitment to a win-win attitude, and regular monitoring of partnering process were believed to be the significant underlying factors for partnering success. Such an identification of success factors could well formulate effective strategies for minimizing construction conflicts and improving project performance.     

Heterogeneous Approach to Modeling Contractors' Decision-to-Bid Strategies

This research is based on the premise that there is heterogeneity in the population of contractors, i.e., that individual contractors exhibit different bidding behavior when confronted with a given set of bidding variables. Random-coefficients logistic model is used to explicitly measure the heterogeneity across contractors in terms of their (1) intrinsic bid/no-bid preferences and (2) responses to four bidding variables, i.e., number of bidders, market conditions, project type, and size. The binary bid/no-bid decisions were assumed to arise from a logistic model, but with the model parameters that varied between contractors. Data were gathered using a bidding experiment involving Hong Kong and Singapore contractors. The results show that there is significant heterogeneity across the contractors in which Hong Kong contractors can be clustered into four groups of identical (statistical) behavior in response to the four bidding variables, whereas in Singapore, there are only three groups as determined by the underlying heterogeneity distribution. This probabilistic classification of contractors has implications for contractors’ competitive strategies by targeting different groups of competitors toward maximum competitiveness.     

Building Integrated Architecture/Engineering/Construction Systems Using Smart Objects: Methodology and Implementation

Integrated project systems hold the promise for improving the quality while reducing the time and cost of architecture/engineering/construction (AEC) projects. A fundamental requirement of such systems is to support the modeling and management of the design and construction information and to allow the exchange of such information among different project disciplines in an effective and efficient manner. This paper presents a methodology to implement integrated project systems through the use of a model-based approach that involves developing integrated “smart AEC objects.” Smart AEC objects are an evolutionary step that builds upon past research and experience in AEC product modeling, geometric modeling, intelligent CAD systems, and knowledge-based design methods. Smart objects are 3D parametric entities that combine the capability to represent various aspects of project information required to support multidisciplinary views of the objects, and the capability to encapsulate “intelligence” by representing behavioral aspects, design constraints, and life-cycle data management features into the objects. An example implementation of smart objects to support integrated design of falsework systems is presented. The paper also discusses the requirements for extending existing standard data models, specifically the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC), to support the modeling of smart AEC objects.     

Contributors to Construction Debris from Electrical and Mechanical Work in Hong Kong Infrastructure Projects

The crucial problem of construction debris is of increasing concern in Hong Kong. In the construction industry, the electrical and mechanical (E&M) installations in the infrastructure, for example, buildings, tunnels, or dams, are some of the major and usually complex components. Difficulty in coordinating the various trades affects productivity in general, and has a major impact on the quantity of construction debris. By identifying the sources of waste at each stage of E&M engineering work, some of the construction debris can be eliminated at the source during production. This paper investigates the critical production shortcomings in the E&M sector in Hong Kong. The study is based on a survey that includes a preliminary questionnaire survey, brainstorming exercises with a focus group, structured interviews with experienced frontline supervisors, and a second focus group exercise to test findings and proposed measures. The principal findings are that “poor coordination” and “design changes and/or errors” are major contributors to variations or change orders and rework, which in turn result in a high volume of construction debris. The results also indicate that construction debris can be minimized in the E&M sector of the construction industry, if the material wastes from incidental work are reduced and also controlled better in a new work process flow pattern through recommended construction project management improvements for reducing critical production shortcomings.     

How Relational are Construction Contracts?

For many years, the construction industry has relied on formal contracts to define and enforce the obligations and rights of contracting parties. Legal scholars have suggested that, based on their transaction characteristics, there are three different forms of contracts: classical, neoclassical, and relational. Of these, which form is more appropriate for use in construction projects? With increasing awareness of the importance of teamwork in construction, there is clear evidence of a rising trend in adopting a partnering approach to construction project delivery. For projects that seek to achieve a partnering relationship, relational contracts that value relationships, trust, and communication appear to be the appropriate form of contract. This paper discusses the application of relational contracts in construction by examining the fundamental question “How relational are construction contracts?” The degree of relationalism is assessed using a relational index comprising eight factors: cooperation, organizational culture, risk, trust, good faith, flexibility, the use of alternative dispute resolution, and contract duration. It was found that in the traditional design–bid–build form of delivery, the main contract and domestic subcontract forms are more relational than those of the nominated subcontract and the direct labor contract. The study was conducted in Hong Kong.     

Influences of Personality on the Adoption of Conflict-Handling Styles and Conflict Outcomes for Facility Managers

Although conflict can be both functional and dysfunctional, unresolved conflict results in dissatisfaction and stress, thus reducing efficiency and productivity. However, personality affects the ability to handle conflict. The relationships of personal traits (extraversion and agreeableness), conflict-handling styles, and functional/dysfunctional conflicts are examined from a sample of facility managers in Hong Kong by using Rahim’s conflict style model and the Big Five personality traits of extraversion and agreeableness. In this study, extraversion shows positive correlation with the integrating and compromising styles, which are conducive to functional conflict incidents. The integrating style is the most commonly adopted style among facility managers in Hong Kong. Dysfunctional conflict is associated with the three styles of obliging, dominating, and avoiding; in particular, the avoiding style is a significant predicting variable of dysfunctional conflict incidents. Although conflict is inevitable, it is suggested that personality is an important variable in selecting project team members, as the combined traits of high extraversion and low agreeableness encourage the integrating style, which is conducive to functional conflict outcome.     

Contractor as Trust Initiator in Construction Partnering—Prisoner’s Dilemma Perspective

Partnering has been advocated for use in construction as a project-delivery approach to curb dispute and enable a cooperative contracting environment. Successful construction partnering is perceived to derive benefits to both developers and contractors. In view of significant implications to successful project delivery, there has been a surge of research and studies on construction partnering. These studies typically focus on the partnering process as well as the identification of critical success factors. Among the various success factors that underpin partnering success, establishing trust among partners is considered the most important. Moreover, skeptics have been swift to point out that establishing trust in construction is daunting. A better understanding of the role of trust and its manifestation in partnering efforts is therefore of both academic and practical value. In this study, motivating trust in construction partnering is described within the classic framework of “the prisoner’s dilemma,” which suggests the trust cycle can be kick-started if construction partners put cooperation before competition and self-interest. This paper reports a study that is designed to suggest a suitable candidate for the trust initiator. As such, the critical trust factors for two groups of construction partners in Hong Kong—developers/consultants and contractors—are first identified. It is found that “performance” and “permeability” of partners are the two most critical trust factors. “Performance” describes the partner’s competence and problem-solving ability as perceived by their counterpart. “Permeability” reflects the partner’s openness in sharing information. The result of a multiple-regression analysis further suggests that the contractor is in a position to initiate trust through competent performance and maintaining effective communication with the client. In this manner, the trust cycle can expand with reciprocal trustworthiness from the client.     

Quality Culture Auditing for Engineering Consultants

Design is one of the most important aspects in the engineering project cycle. To improve the quality of engineering consulting firms, various quality techniques and practices have been proposed by researchers. Most researchers agree that the successful implementation of such quality practices depends on the quality culture of the consultant organization. Therefore, a thorough understanding of the overall quality culture that exists in a consultant organization is essential. The purpose of this paper is to develop a pragmatic tool, a quality culture auditing (QCA) questionnaire, which enables engineering consulting firms to measure the quality culture quantitatively through a scoring system. The responses obtained from 30 engineering consulting firms that participated in the QCA show that the scores obtained can be a good indicator of a consultant organization’s current quality culture. Using these results as the basis, benchmarking exercises and parametric studies can also be conducted. Through the use of QCA, an engineering consultant can pinpoint areas of weakness so that more effort can be put into these areas for future improvement.     

Structural Equation Model of Trust and Partnering Success

The establishment of trust has been identified as the most critical factor that facilitates partnering success. As such, management should direct their efforts and energy to enhance trust effectively and systematically. It is hypothesized that partners’ trust level is positively related to their performance, permeability, and relational bonding and can be system based. This paper reports the use of the structural equation modeling technique to test this hypothesis. Project-based data on partnering success and the relative importance of the four trust factors were collected through a questionnaire survey, and the level of partnering success was assessed by the achievement of the preset project targets. The findings of the study support the hypothesized positive relationship between the partners’ trust level and partnering success. In addition, performance, permeability, and relational bonding were found to make significant contributions toward parties’ trust level.     

Empirical Study of the Risks and Difficulties in Implementing Guaranteed Maximum Price and Target Cost Contracts in Construction

Over the past few decades, both the guaranteed maximum price (GMP) and target cost contracting (TCC) arrangements have been regarded as alternative integrated procurement strategies for clients to mitigate risks, minimize claims, integrate the diverse interests of a complex construction project, and offer incentives to provide value-added services. However, the adoption of GMP/TCC contracts may also generate significant risks and difficulties that merit considerable attention. This paper aims to provide a concise review of the potential pitfalls of the GMP/TCC scheme in general and identifies the key risk factors and potential difficulties associated with GMP/TCC in comparison with other procurement strategies in construction in particular via an empirical survey of clients, contractors, and consultants in Hong Kong. The survey data gleaned from 45 valid replies were analyzed using the mean score ranking technique, Kendall’s concordance test, and Spearman’s rank correlation test. The survey results indicated that “involvement of inexperienced or claim-conscious contractors in a project procured by a GMP/TCC contract” was considered to be the most significant risk factor; while “design development must keep pace with main contractor’s program for tendering the domestic subcontractors’ works packages” as the major difficulty in implementing GMP/TCC projects. The research findings derived from this study are particularly essential in assisting the contracting parties to mitigate the detriments brought about by potential risks or difficulties when embarking on GMP/TCC contracts. It has also generated valuable insights into developing effective recommendations for alleviating the barriers to GMP/TCC success for future construction projects.