The Essentials of Construction Project Management - Literature review Example

Introduction Today both the public and private sectors are recognizing the construction management services as an effective and efficient method for the successful completion of construction projects. “Construction management is a professional services discipline applied to the planning, design and construction process” (Construction Management Association of America (Owner’s Guide), 5). According to CMAA “Construction Managers (CM) address the needs of projects and owners by providing management services and expertise tailored to project needs and independent of the chosen contract format or project delivery method. CMs apply and integrate comprehensive project controls to help manage the critical issues of time, cost, scope, quality and safety. The construction manager can be a firm, a team of firms, or an individual” (Owner’s Guide, p 5-7). Review of Literature Attempts have been made by various researchers to study the various aspects of Construction Management. A brief review of literature has been done with a view to provide a synoptic view of their methodologies and findings. All the studies have been placed in chronological order. Managing Construction Projects The site manager or project manager plays a crucial role in the construction industry. Site manager not only monitors the progress of project but also oversee the administrative matters. A great deal of coordination, planning, and monitoring on the part of project manager is necessary in order to manage the goals of cost, quality and safety. The project manager must be aware of the changes within a project. Different studies have been carried out to know the factors influencing the performance of construction project managers. The findings of some of the relevant studies have been mentioned below: Mustapha & Naoum (1998) “identified the factors that influence the effectiveness of site managers. The study examined the effect of personal variables, job conditions, project characteristics and organizational variables on the effectiveness of site managers. The study suggested that managerial effectiveness is mostly associated with the personal variables and job conditions. The research did not provide enough evidence to support the proposition that project characteristics such as building type, complexity and project duration have significant impact on managerial effectiveness”. Edum- Fotwe & McCaffer (2000) examined “how construction project managers can maintain their professional skills in a changing construction business environment. The study identified the general knowledge and skill as key elements for developing project management competency”. Smithers and Walker (2000) investigated “the effect of the workplace environment on construction professionals. The study supported the hypothesis that the environment of a construction site does affect motivation and demotivation levels of site personnel. Specifically, several variables were significantly linked to this result, including long hours, chaos, non-recognition for work done and colleagues' aggressive management style”. Odusami et al (2003) studied “the effect of project leadership and team composition on performance of construction projects. The study led to the conclusion that the project leader's professional qualification, his leadership style and team composition has significant effect on the project performance”. Styhre ( 2006) concluded that “the role of site manager should not be regarded as ‘‘creative’’ and ‘‘innovative’’ but the work of the site manager has been substantially redefined and today includes the responsibility for a significant amount of paperwork that site managers are only modestly interested in dealing with. The study suggested that a more critical view of project management practices would help to overcome this viewpoint”. Pheng & Chuan (2006) identified “the factors that affect a project manager’s performance in construction industry. The study examined the importance of working environment variables like working hours, physical condition of project site, complexity of project, material and supplies, project size, duration of project and time availability on the performance of the project manager”. People Management in Construction Projects As construction industry is labor intensive so management of people is one of the important aspects of construction project management. It is important to manage people effectively to improve the efficiency of construction projects. Various studies have carried out to find out the strategies to manage people effectively in construction industry. Jaafari (1996) examined “the challenges of applying the principles of total quality management to construction projects, particularly from the stand point of the human factor. The study revealed the quality plans typically developed and used in the construction industry have a client-compliance focus only and workers are reluctant to adopt TQM-based construction practices. Quality plans fail to achieve the motive of cost effectiveness as that these do not tap into the body of experience held within the rank and file, and fail to convince the core opinion within the workforce of the perceived value of TQM and continuous improvement in general”. Yankov and Kleiner (2001) concluded “that principles of human resource management can be applied to handle the shortage of skilled employees in construction industry. The study concluded that through the practice of strategic human resource management, it is possible to develop a high level of consistency between organizational and individual needs”. Risk Management & Frameworks for Risk Analysis Risk management is an important part of construction management. Proper risk identification and risk analysis is required in order to mitigate the risk. Many projects in construction industry fail to meet deadlines. Cost targets are also not met and there is no appropriate method of dealing with these risks. Most of the risks are dealt by simply adding some percentage of contingency in the estimated cost of a project. Poor risk management results in escalation of project costs and also result in delays. There is considerable number of academic studies dealing with risk management. Below are the findings of some of the important studies: Moselhi (1993) examined the methods “to quantify the risk associated with construction. The study proposed a risk pricing algorithm using fuzzy set theory to assist contractors in deciding the bid price of a construction project”. Akintoye and MacLeod (1997) examined the “construction industry's perception of risk associated with its activities and the extent to which the industry uses risk analysis and management techniques. The study concluded that risk management is essential to construction activities in minimizing losses and enhancing profitability. Although risk management techniques have been used in other industries for a long time, the construction industry has approached risk management in terms of individual intuition, judgement and experience gained from previous contracts. Formal risk analysis and management techniques are rarely used by project managers due to a lack of knowledge and to doubts on the suitability of these techniques for construction industry activities. Some of the respondents identified project time constraint as one of the major reasons for not using risk analysis and management techniques”. Smith & Bohn (1999) examined “the use of contingency in smaller construction firms. The study concluded that contractors had no knowledge of formal modeling techniques published on risk models. Where contingency was included in contracts the construction managers used a percentage of the total cost approach based on their intuition and previous contract knowledge”. Mills (2001) concluded that “there is need for systematic risk management approach to control risks in construction projects. The study emphasized that systematic risk management approach is a simple, practical method of identifying, assessing, monitoring and managing risk in an informed and structured way. It provides guidance for implementing a risk control strategy that is appropriate to control construction projects at all levels. The paper reviewed systematic management approaches to risk. It also discussed the allocation of risk and suggested that risk needs to be identified and managed early in the procurement process”. CMAA (2006) described a “framework for performing risk analysis for construction capital projects. The report placed emphasis on the role of CM and how best CM can conduct the risk analysis process. The study concluded that the risk analysis process can be performed by following the 5 steps: 1.Cost and schedule validation 2.Identification of risk factors 3.Quantification of risk factors 4.Risk mitigation 5.Implementation of risk mitigation measures. It was suggested that quantitative methods like sensitivity analysis, deterministic and probabilistic assessment methods of risk measurement can provide more precise results”. Safety Management & Frameworks for Safety Management Safety management in the construction industry is still a major problem. The cost of project increases substantially due to high rate of accidents on construction sites. The following studies deal with state of safety on construction sites and possible frameworks for managing safety on construction sites: Laufer (1987) established “that uninsured accident costs in construction industry are very high. The study emphasized that in construction also the involvement of management is important to improve the safety. The higher cost of accidents is one of crucial factor that can induce top management to get involved in safety measures”. Helander (1991) analyzed the “statistics of fatalities and injuries in construction work. The study revealed that most accidents involve falls of persons and occur during work on roofs, scaffolds and ladders. Collapse of structures and falling materials also account for many fatalities. Many of these accidents can be avoided by the establishment of procedures and regulations to enhance safety. Many of the safety hazards are specific to the different job classification, and typically construction workers underestimate the hazards in their own work. This affects the motivation for adopting safe work procedures. The cost of construction accidents amounts to about 6% of total building costs. There are hence forceful monetary incentives in construction safety”. Jannadi (1995) concluded that human relations can play a pivotal role in improving safety on construction sites. The study revealed that “if construction companies are more considerate to their workers and pay more attention to human relations within their organizations then an effective use of human relations would improve safety programs and make safe behavior a habit for workers. Workers who had a good relationship with their coworkers and superiors, and had a sense of belonging to their organizations, had better safety records”. Lingard (1997) suggested “behavior-based safety management approach in construction industry. The study concluded that behavior-based safety techniques were highly effective in bringing about improved performance in site housekeeping”. Gyi et al (1999) conducted “a feasibility study using in-depth interviews with senior managers to explore the quality of accident and health data of nine large, high profile companies from the engineering construction sector. The study concluded that there was serious under reporting, particularly of minor injuries and near miss events and this undermines the validity of accident statistics as a measure of safety. Besides this there were failure to collate and effective analysis of data collected and there is little to encourage a high reporting rate for accidents because this can work against a company when tendering for contracts. The study suggested that a consistent and integrated approach for the measurement of health and safety performance is needed”. Sawacha et. al. (1999) discussed “the factors influencing safety on construction sites. The impacts of the historical, economical, psychological, technical, procedural, organizational and the environmental issues were considered in terms of how these factors are linked with the level of site safety. Results of the factor analysis suggested that variables related to the ‘organization policy' are the most dominant group of factors influencing safety performance in the United Kingdom Construction Industry. The top five important issues found to be associated with site safety were: (1) management talk on safety; (2) provision of safety booklets; (3) provision of safety equipment; (4) providing safety environment and (5) appointing a trained safety representative on site”. Mohamed (2002) examined “the relationship between the safety climate and safe work behavior in construction site environments. The study emphasized the role of management commitment, communication, workers' involvement, attitudes, competence, as well as supportive and supervisory environments, in achieving a positive safety climate”. Behm (2005) studied “the usefulness of design for construction safety concept. The study defined design for construction safety concept as the consideration of construction site safety in the design of a project. The research established a clear link between construction fatalities and the design for construction safety concept. Two-hundred and twenty-four fatality investigation reports were reviewed and a link to the design for construction safety concept was determined and 42% of fatalities reviewed were linked to the concept. The results showed that the incident would have been reduced or eliminated, had the design for construction safety concept been utilized”. Teo et al (2005) proposed a framework for managing safety on construction sites. The study concluded that “Policy, Process, Personnel and Incentive” framework can be used by site managers to maintain safety on sites. The framework was tested on the construction site of Singapore. “It was found that site accidents are more likely to happen when there are inadequate company policies, unsafe practices, poor attitudes of construction personnel, poor management commitment and insufficient safety knowledge and training of workers”. Langford et al (2008) identified “the critical factors that influence the attitudes of construction workers towards safe behavior on construction sites”. The study revealed five factors that influence safety management. These five factors are: “1. organizing for safety supervision 2.Equipment management3. Industry norms and culture 4. Attitudes to risk taking 5. Management”. Quality Management & Frameworks for Quality Management In the construction industry, “quality can be defined as meeting the requirements of the designer, constructor and regulatory agencies as well as the owner” (Arditi and Gunaydin, 235). Quality has long been a challenging area in construction industry. Various researchers have studied the quality management procedures to ensure quality in for construction industry. Below are findings of some important studies: Ireland (1985) undertook a study to know “the effects of managerial actions on the objectives of reducing time, reducing cost and increasing quality. The study concluded that increases in construction planning during design and co-ordination across the design-construction interface have very strong effects on reducing construction time and reducing the cost of the building”. Burati et al (1991) “examined the effective quality-management systems in the construction industry and the role of TQM technique for achieving quality in construction projects. The study emphasized that Total Quality Management Technique (TQM) is highly effective in achieving improvements in quality in the construction industry”. Sommerville (1994) studied “the total quality management (TQM) approach to manage quality in construction industry. The study concluded that Quality assurance (QA) has long been applied in construction industry but TQM approach is still in its infancy. The study also revealed hindrances in implementation of TQM approach in construction industry. The study outlined five factors that influence TQM in construction industry i.e. “Product differentiation, (2) Organizational stability (3) Change (4) Contractual relationships and (5) Teamwork and management behavior”. Arditi and Gunaydin (1997) examined that “Total quality management (TQM) techniques can also be applied to the construction industry. The study concluded that if TQM is to be achieved in construction industry then an integrated effort is needed. There is need to focus on process improvement, customer and supplier involvement, teamwork, and training and education in an effort to achieve customer satisfaction, cost effectiveness, and defect-free work. Project managers and company administrators should consider the points like management commitment to quality, continuous quality improvement, importance of quality training, teamwork (through partnering arrangements) and using statistical methods in developing their quality systems”. Kanji and Wong (1998) concluded “that in order to successfully apply the technique of TQM it should be applied to the whole supply chain. As construction industry heavily depends on the working together of various parties so project partnering is essential to achieve quality”. Questionnaire 1. What are the primary project factors that are managed by Construction Manager? 1. Time 2. Cost 3. Quality 4. All of the Above 2. Which of the following define project delivery method? 1. Design-Bid-Build (DBB) 2. DBB with CM 3. Design- Build 4. All of the Above 3. Which of the following are primary sectors of the construction industry? 1. Residential 2. Commercial 3. Industrial 4. All of the Above 4. Which of the following factors make each construction project as a unique project? 1. Each project is carried out on different site. 2. The construction process takes place outside 3. Construction industry is highly labor intensive 4. All of the Above 5. What are the stages of the construction management process? 1 Pre-construction 2. Procurement 3 Construction 4 All of the Above 6. What are the factors that can reduce productivity on construction sites? 1. Bad weather conditions 2. Crowded work spaces 3. Changes in the work plan 4. All of the Above 7. What are the causes of accidents on construction sites? 1. Falls 2. Electrical shocks 3. Being struck by an object 4. All of the Above 8. Contracting formats can be 1. Fixed price 2. Guaranteed maximum price 3. Cost plus fixed or variable fee 4. All of the Above 9. Is there any difference between Quality Assurance and Quality Control------Yes/ No 10. 'Fast-Tracking' is Overlapping of design and construction ------------Yes/ No 11. ‘Project Partnering’ is Teamwork between different parties of a project ………Yes/No 12. A construction estimate is estimation of quantities and costs to complete a project -----Yes/ No 13. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is responsible for establishing safety standards in construction industry-----------Yes/No 14. “Safety and health training” is one of the primary components of an effective safety management plan------------Yes/No 15. An MSDS is a Material Safety Data Sheet, obtained and maintained for every chemical product that is located on the construction site-----------Yes/No 16. ASC stands for Associated Schools of Construction--------------Yes/No 17. Engineering News Record (ENR), is related to construction industry --------Yes/No 18. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) establishes standards for building’s environmental performance …………Yes/No 19. Construction Management Association of America (CMAA) offers voluntary certification programs for construction managers………….Yes/No 20. Total Quality Management (TQM) approach can be applied in construction industry --------Yes/No 21. Construction management can be used irrespective of all contracting formats and delivery methods………. Yes/No 22. What are the basic steps included in the project control? 23. Define project delivery method. 24. Define Contracting Format. 25. How agency CM is different from at-risk CM? 26. What are the seven functions of Construction Management as defined by the Construction Management Association of America? References Akintoye, A.S and MacLeod, M.J. (1997) Risk Analysis and Management in Construction, International Journal of Project Management 15(1) pp. 31-38 Arditi, D. and Gunaydin, H.M. (1997) Total Quality Management in the Construction Process, International Journal of Project Management, 15(4) pp. 235-243 Behm, M. (2005) Linking Construction Fatalities to the Design for Construction Safety Concept, Safety Science, 43(8) Burati, J. L., Matthews, M.F. and Kalidindi, S.N. (1991), Quality Management in Construction Industry, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 117(2) pp. 341-359 CMAA (2006) Owners Risk Reduction Techniques Using a CM, Report Construction Management Association of America Viewed on Jan 12, 2009 Available at CMAA (2002) An Owner’s Guide to Construction Management, Construction Management Association of America Viewed on Jan 12, 2009 Available at Edum-Fotwe, F. T and McCaffer, R. (2000) Developing Project Management Competency: Perspectives from the Construction Industry, International Journal of Project Management, 18(2) pp. 111-124 Gyi, D., Gibb, A., & Haslam, R. (1999). The Quality of Accident and Health Data in the Construction Industry: Interviews with Senior Managers. Construction Management & Economics, 17(2) Retrieved on January 14, 2009 From Business Source Complete Database. Helander, M.G. (1991) Safety Hazards and Motivation for Safe Work in the Construction Industry, International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, 8(3) Ireland V. (1985), The Role of Managerial Actions In The Cost, Time And Quality Performance of High-Rise Commercial Building Projects, Construction Management and Economics, 3(1) Jaafari, A. (1996) Human Factors in the Australian Construction Industry: Towards Total Quality Management, Australian Journal of Management, 21(2) Jannadi, M.O., (1995), Impact of Human Relations on the Safety of Construction Workers, International Journal of Project Management, 13(6) Kanji, G. K. and Wong, A., (1998) Quality Culture in the Construction Industry, Total Quality Management, 9(4/5), pp.133-140 Langford, D., Rowlinson, S & Sawacha, E., (2008) Safety Behaviour and Safety Management: Its Influence on the Attitudes of Workers in the UK Construction Industry, Engineering Construction and Architectural Management 7(2) Laufer, A. (1987) Construction Safety: Economics, Information and Management Involvement, Construction Management & Economics 5(1), pp.73-90 Lingard, H. and Rowlinson, S. (1997) Behavior-Based Safety Management in Hong Kong's Construction Industry, Journal of Safety Research, 28(4), pp. 243-256 Mills, A. (2001) A Systematic Approach to Risk Management for Construction, Structural Survey, 19 (5), pp. 245-252 Mohamed, S. (2002) Safety Climate in Construction Site Environments, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 128(5) pp. 375-384 Moselhi, O.1995. Pricing Construction Risk: Fuzzy Set Application. Journal of Construction Engineering & Management 121(1), Retrieved on January 14, 2009 From Business Source Complete Database Mustapha, F.H. & Naoum, S. (1998), Factors Influencing the Effectiveness of Construction Site Managers, International Journal of Project Management, 16(1) pp. 1-8 Odusami, K. T., Iyagba, R. R. O and Omirin, M. M. (2003) The Relationship Between Project Leadership, Team Composition and Construction Project Performance in Nigeria, International Journal of Project Management, 21(7), pp.519-527 Pheng, L. S. and Chuan, Q.T. (2006) Environmental Factors and Work Performance of Project Managers in the Construction Industry, International Journal of Project Management, 24(1) Sawacha, E., Naoum S.and Fong, D. (1999) Factors Affecting Safety Performance on Construction Sites, International Journal of Project Management, 17(5) Smith, G.R. and Bohn, C.M. (1999) Small to Medium Contractor Contingency and Assumption of Risk, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management 125 (2) pp. 101-108 Smithers, G. L. and Walker, D. H. T. (2000), The Effect of The Workplace on Motivation and Demotivation of Construction Professionals, Construction Management & Economics, 18(7) pp 833-841 Sommerville, J. (1994) Multivariate Barriers to Total Quality Management within the Construction Industry, Total Quality Management 5(5) Styhre, A. (2006) The Bureaucratization of the Project Manager Function: The Case of the Construction Industry, International Journal of Project Management, 24 (3) pp. 271–276 Teo, E.A.L., Ling, F.Y.Y.,and Chong,A.F.W.( 2005) Framework for Project Managers to Manage Construction Safety, International Journal of Project Management, 23(4) Yankov,L. Kleiner, B.H. (2001) Human Resources Issues in the Construction Industry, Management Research News, 24(3/4) pp. 101-105 Read More