Construction project manager ways to cope with stress at workplace

Health and safety issues at workplaces need to be addressed in ensuring the construction sector in our country is free from health and safety problems. Safety issues are often being trumpeted however health issues have been less emphasized even though these issues actually are more significant and could have large impact on the construction industry. Only a handful of workers know that health issues could result in various negative effects to themselves and organization. One of the health issues that can result in various problems is stress at workplace. Stress could result in various health problems and if being kept long enough it could cause death. Therefore, a study on workplace stress among the construction project manager was conducted to examine the ways they cope with the stress at workplace. The primary data had been collected from the questionnaire surveys on the project managers within the construction industry. The data then were analyzed using the percentage score, average index analysis and the diagram such as bar chart had been be used to visualize the results from the analysis. From the findings, many project managers thought stress at workplace exist, however this issue is being marginalized and only 30% of respondents acknowledged experience stress in their workplace. This problem existed in the Malaysian construction industry however lack of awareness on this issue has resulted in no action taken. Organizational factor was the main factor that causes these problems in our construction industry. Weakness in planning within organization was the sub factor that triggers the stress problem among project manager. Finally, the survey indicated that there were three ways often being practiced by the project manager to handle stress which were good planning in organization, effective communication between employee and always thinking positively

Cost of compliance with health and safety management system among contractor in construction industry

Accidents and injury statistic in construction industry were among the highest compared to the other sector every year. One of the main reasons that contribute to this problem was due to the insufficient amount allocated for occupational health and safety management. The aim of this study was to identify the contractors approach towards safety and health management system compliance by investigating the cost and benefit of that approach. This study was conducted using questionnaire surveys around the District of Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia. The respondents were made of supervisor, engineer and project manager that work with main contractor which the project values worth from RM 1 to 25 million. The data were collected using questionnaire forms and frequency analysis was being used to analyze the data gathered. Overall, this study had identified the different approaches taken by contractor in implementing health and safety management system within organization such as recorded work-related accidents but few for illhealth and most of contractors undertook basic elements but very few of them implemented performance measurement. Cost implication was still is the biggest barrier to implement formal OHSMS. Thus, such implementation was legally driven. This study also manages to highlight what are the nature of expenditure and impact of the implementation to the organization. The cost of compliance varies from minimum 0.15% to 1.08% with average of 0.41% from project value. Most respondents perceived benefits outweighed cost compare to those who thought cost outweighed benefits

Behaviour of a Kinetic Energy Projectile on Angular Impact

Experiments of high velocity impact have been carried out with 30 mm armoured piercing projectiles on 55 mm thick hard steel plate. Angle of impact has been varied from 10" to 90". Damage inflicted on target with varying angle of impact has been reported and discussed in this paper. Comparative behaviour with 20 mm APP shot has also been discussed

Assessing the level of understanding of contractors regarding the workers' productivity in construction industry

Productivity of workers is important to enhance the completion of the project within the required time and quality. Majority of the project elements and activities are based on labour performance. Construction activities are recognized as labour-intensive as it rely more on human efforts. Contractors have duties to handle the work in it best way for increasing the quality and decreasing time and also cost. Frequently, at construction sites it is observed that contractors do not pay attention to the productivity of workers and its effect on the overall productivity. Usually they do not measure labour productivity in the construction projects and also they cannot compare productivity rates in the construction sites. The aim of this study is to assess the level of understanding of contractors regarding the workers’ productivity in construction industry of Iran. The data is collected through questionnaires and interviews. The data is analysed using Average Index and SPSS. From the study, the level of understanding of contractors regarding the workers’ productivity in construction industry is “Understand”. The contractors understand the impact of productivity on cost, time and quality

Maintenance organization at Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM)

Proper maintenance of buildings is to extend the life span of buildings [1]. In order to maintain the buildings, apart from maintenance work, is the organization aspect, one of the important elements in building maintenance [3]. The organization will have to be carefully structured and designed so that the staff can function efficiently [8,9,10,11,13]. The staff will have to be given training from time to time so that they are acquainted with the current technology and to tackle the challenges [6,12]. The objectives of this study are to examine the current maintenance organizational structure, to identify the main problems faced by the maintenance staff, to evaluate the level of job satisfaction and to identify the types of training to be provided to the maintenance staff. The study is carried through questionnaires and interviews. A total of fifty (50) questionnaires are distributed to the respondents consisting of engineers, technical assistants and technicians. The data is analyzed using average index. From the study, it was found that the type of organization structure of the maintenance department in UTHM is of line and staff

Safety climate among contractors’ organizations

Understanding the safety climate of the contractor‟s organization with regard to safety and risk in the workplace will provide an overview of the current safety culture of that organization. The perceptions and attitudes of the workforce are the important factors in assessing the safety needs in order to facilitate workplace safety improvement. Safety performance may fail if the organization does not take into account these current attitudes and perceptions. The aim of this study is to examine the factors and assessment of safety climate in the contractors‟ organizations. This study is carried out through questionnaire survey to gauge employee attitudes and perceptions using several attitudes dimensions. The full employee attitude survey questionnaire was divided into two sections which consists of 49 statements. The responses of this study were quite encouraging with 60% participants responded. However, only 38 valid sets of questionnaires were subjected to analysis. The findings indicated that there were many factors and indicators of safety climate that had been found from the literature review. In fact, the numbers of factors required in the safety climate measurements, or which factors were the most effective were always subjected to argument. From the review of safety climate factors, the most frequently measured dimensions were related to management, safety systems and risk, followed by work pressure, competence and rules or procedures. On the assessment of the contractors‟ safety climate, the total average scores for all dimensions were in levels of satisfaction with a score ranging from 6.48 to 8.04. Also, all the safety climate dimensions showed scores in the satisfactory values with a score above six (6) for the system interfaces of the contractor organizations using the safety climate matrix. Hence, the contractor‟s organizations surveyed had the positive safety climate toward safety in their workplace

Maintenance Organization at Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM)

Abstract: Proper maintenance of buildings is to extend the life span of building

Maintenance Organization at Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM)

Abstract: Proper maintenance of buildings is to extend the life span of building

Hazards at Construction Sites

Statistic has shown that the number of fatality and permanent disablement cases due to accident at the Malaysia construction sites is one of the highest as compared to the other sector. Even though the number of industrial accidents decreasing but the benefits paid to the accidents victims are ever increasing. Hence, there is an urgent need to mitigate this problem. There are three basic steps that should be taken namely identifying the hazard, assessing the risk and controlling the risk to ensure a safe and conducive working condition. Implementation of effective hazards control methods may require different approaches due to changing of working environment at the construction sites. Latest technology employed at site had wiped out traditional method of construction and consequently introduce new types of hazard to the industry. Therefore, this paper is intended to identify and highlights the hazards that are most commonly found at our construction sites today. The data collection was being carried out through site investigation using a structured questionnaires forms regarding hazards in construction. The sites vary from infrastructure works, high rise building, housing development, industry building and institutional building. The study determine twelve (12) major groups of hazards in relation to works at construction sites such as power access equipment, ladder, roof work, manual handling, plant and machinery, excavation, fire and emergency, hazardous substances, noise, protective clothing and protection to public. The study was conducted on 140 construction sites and the results showed that the most common hazards for the project around the study area are associated with the protective clothing, noise and fire and emergency

Causes of accidents at construction sites

The statistic of accidents at construction sites give us a picture that Malaysian construction industry is one of the critical sectors that need a huge and fast overhaul from the current site safety practices. Accident don’t just happen, they are caused by unsafe acts, unsafe conditions or both. Most accidents result from a combination of contributing causes and one or more unsafe acts and unsafe condition. In order to improve the overall safety performance we need to investigate the root causes of construction accidents. That knowledge could be utilised in formulating more conducive working conditions and environments at construction sites. Therefore, a study has been conducted to identify the causes of accident at construction sites. This study was started out by reviewing literature from journals, books and web pages. Then reported accidents cases kept by the Department of Occupational Safety and Health Malaysia (DOSH) were examined to investigate causes of accidents. Surveys using questionnaire forms were carried out to obtain data from respondents who are mainly contractors and the rest are developers and consultants firms all around countries that are well versed with the construction safety. The finding of this study reveals that accidents are the result of many contributing factors, causes, and sub causes. Some of the critical factors are unsafe method, human element, unsafe equipment, job site conditions, management, and unique nature of the industry. The causes of accidents in Malaysia were found to be similar to that mentioned in literature review. However, some of the causes are low in frequency of occurrence. The main cause of construction accidents found are the workers’ negligence, failure of workers to obey work procedures, work at high elevation, operating equipment without safety devices, poor site management, harsh work operation, low knowledge and skill level of workers, failure to use personal protective equipments and poor workers attitude about safet