Measures for Curbing Unethical Practices among Construction Industry Professionals: Quantity Surveyors’ Perspective

Unethical practices have been a reoccurring menace in the construction industry globally, with its negative impact reported in existing studies. While several studies have explored issues touching on ethics, ethics compliance and unethical practices within the construction industry, the problems persist especially in developing countries. It is based on this notion that this study assessed the possible measures that could help curb unethical practices in the construction industry with specific reference to Quantity Surveyors (QS). The study adopted a quantitative approach with structured questionnaires used to garner information from registered QS in Nigeria. Data analysis was done using relevant descriptive and multivariate analysis. The reliability of the instrument used was also tested using Cronbach alpha test. The findings revealed that while QS are no strangers to unethical practices, most cases are not reported to the appropriate authorities. The most prevalent of these practices are payment-related and contract-related. To curb these practices, random inspections and development of ethical compliance, ensuring a good reporting and punishment system, and increase ethical awareness through QS organised programmes are needed. The findings of this study would assist the professional bodies and organisations within the industry to effectively enforce ethical conduct among their members and staff

Management support as a Critical Success Factor (CSF) for changing worker’s safety behaviour: a case of the Nigerian construction industry

Work-related deaths, injuries, and diseases are still prevalent among workers in the construction industry especially in developing countries due to due several factors that encourage poor safety practices on site. The study appraised workers perception of management engagement as a critical success factor for the improvement of Nigerian construction worker’s safety attitude using Nordic Occupational Safety Climate Questionnaire (NOSACQ-50). Findings from the study reveal small and medium scale firms dominate the industry, and a sizable number (20.4%) of the study participants are between 18-27 years of age with majority (74.7%) having work experience of 1-10 years. Management safety priority, commitment, and competence and management safety empowerment was found to have strong positive correlation (r =.739, n = 292, p <.001). However, management safety commitment disparity existed between management of public and private construction projects [F (1,391) = 12.04, p <.001]. To advance positive safety behaviour and attitude across the construction industry in Nigeria, management commitment should be prioritised, while further study on workplace safety measures and worker’s safety engagement should be considered

Developing a model for vision-based progress measurement and visualisation of as-built construction operations

Traditional ways of capturing the progress of work on construction sites rely on manual means. This often involves subjectivity and is therefore prone to error. In addition, the timing of this manual approach is usually too infrequent to allow for prompt control actions. This study is about automating the process of measuring work in progress and integrating that with design, planning, and as-built documentation of progress information. The work reported in this study is a subset of an EPSRC funded project that aims to investigate applications of computer vision techniques to the measurement of work in progress. The key issues addressed are the conceptual design of the entire system and the computer implementation of a model for documenting as-built pro information.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Effects of Organisational Characteristics on Contractors’ Construction Cash Flow Forecasting Capabilities

Inadequate cash resources resulting from poor cash flows have been among the fundamental causes of construction project failures. Despite the panoply of cash flow forecasting (CFF) tools, the cash flow performance of many construction firms have been reported to be poor due weak Cash flow forecasting (CFF) process capabilities influenced by a couple of organisational characteristics. Although these organisational characteristics have been reported to significantly influence firms’ CFF process capabilities, the underlying mechanisms of how these organisational features and characteristics exhibit their specific influences on the cash flow forecasting capabilities of construction firms still remains underexplored. Therefore, this study aims at empirically exploring the influence of some organisation characteristics on the CFF process capabilities of construction firms. Best practices in CFF identified from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Cash Flow Forecasting (CFF) guide were used to develop an assessment criteria used to assess the CFF capabilities of construction firms. The assessment was conducted through a questionnaire survey involving contracting organisations involved in both building and civil engineering works in Nigeria. The key best practices in CFF were ranked based on arithmetic mean value scores and averages were also determined for each of the four CFF components assessed (Knowledge and understanding CFF concepts and principles, Practical application, Practical considerations, and other Managerial issues). Hierarchical regression analysis was then used to examine the relationships between contractors’’ CFF process capabilities and some organisational characteristics. Results of the study reveals that organisational characteristics are strongly associated to firms’ abilities to prudently manage cash flows. The results of this study could serve as a basis for the strategic planning and improvement of Cash Flow Forecasting process by contractors in Nigeria

Framework for a generic work breakdown structure for building projects

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework for the standardisation of the work breakdown structure (WBS) for building projects. This is based on the premise that buildings in general retain basic elemental options, and that there is a commonality of activities in the procurement of building projects. Design/methodology/approach – To achieve the objective, the general practice of developing the WBS is investigated. This is achieved by means of an industry-wide questionnaire survey designed to identify the most widely used criteria among UK construction organisations in segregating building works into packages. The survey also investigates the sequencing of these criteria across the WBS hierarchy. Findings – The findings reveal that the most frequently used decomposition criteria in the formulation of WBS for building projects are elements, work sections, physical location and construction aids. The proposed framework is presented as a hierarchical decomposition of a building project based on these criteria. It allows for flexibility in level of detail while maintaining a rigid sequencing of the criteria based on their frequency of use. Originality/value – This paper reports on a specific part of an EPSRC funded project that aims to investigate the application of computer vision techniques to the on-site measurement of construction progress. The part reported in this paper addresses planning issues that will lead to automatic generation of work packages. Previous studies have focused on automating the planning aspect by associating individual components with schedule information. However, large construction projects usually consist of thousands of components. Planning and tracking progress at the level of the component is unrealistic in these instances. The standardisation framework reported in this paper will form the basis for automating the formulation of work packages, thus providing a uniform basis for tracking progress (based on computer vision) during project executio

As-built Documentation of Construction Sequence by Integrating Virtual Reality with Time-lapse Movies

Previous research in the documentation and visualization of as-built construction sequences focused on time-lapse movies. However, a major drawback associated with this approach is the difficulty of interacting with the scene in the image. This does not aid comprehension and interpretation of the job site. In order to address this issue, this research proposes the integration of time-lapse movies with 4D virtual reality (VR) models in a complementary fashion. The VR model provides users with the functionality of interacting and exploring the scene, thereby improving comprehension of the job site. The paper presents the development and implementation of a model for documenting as-built construction operations by integrating time-lapse movies with 4D virtual reality models. First, the conceptual model is developed. Based on this, a Windows-based prototype is developed using Visual Basic.Net as a programming interface. The prototype was implemented and tested on a new postgraduate building at Heriot Watt University. The integrated model adequately captures the as-built sequence of construction and provides a quick and effective means of searching for images in an image database. The system has the potential to support education, claims investigation and dispute resolution

Improvement of extreme weather safety adaptation strategy and awareness.

Improvement of extreme weather safety adaptation strategy and awareness.</p