Measuring Performance to Engage the Extended Project Team in Construction

In construction, stakeholders of extended project team play a key role in the overall project performance. Successful integration of stakeholders demands for good management practices at strategic, operational and project levels. Targets and measures to improve the stakeholder performance encourage the creativity and willingness of stakeholders of extended project team to develop the better ways to achieve the project objectives. This paper presents a generic descriptive method, showing how stakeholder's ability and influence impacts on project performance in the construction sector. The findings of a series of interviews with key informants are presented and the following main conclusion is drawn: improving project performance through stakeholder's contribution and measuring their performance can strengthen the project performance. This innovative approach which redefines the process of improving the project performance in construction projects will be of interest to those who intend to manage the projects in practice as well as to those who interested in advancing theory

The Role of Real Estate in Sustainable Development in Developing Countries: The Case of the Kingdom of Bahrain

The construction of real estate has the potential to advance sustainability in terms of meeting economic and social criteria—the Business Case and the Societal Case. This is a crucial aspect in the stated visions and plans in many developing countries. Hence, it is important to understand how real estate can best contribute. Semi-structured interviews with a number of decision-makers involved in the real estate sector in the Kingdom of Bahrain were undertaken to explore perceptions of how the sector could best contribute to sustainable development. The decision-makers came from government bodies, investment banks, real estate developers, investors, constructors, project consultants and auditors. The interviews highlight the importance of having a stated vision and strategy which is highly visible and shared by all stakeholders. In the case of Bahrain this is Vision 2030 and the National Economic Strategy. It is important to ensure that any plans that are put in place to achieve the vision/strategy are adaptable to reflect changes in the external environment. The decision-makers identified three areas of focus in terms of the content of policy in order to meet the economic and social-related sustainability criteria as set out in Vision 2030 and the National Economic Strategy. These are: infrastructure, affordable housing and tourism/leisure. Within these three areas, that of infrastructure is also the key enabler for developments in the other two areas to be realized. In terms of a method of governance, the use of public-private-partnerships (PPPs) was identified as being highly appropriate. Such partnerships are not only useful to leverage private sector investment into specific development projects but also to ensure that such development harnesses innovative and efficient methods

Agility in humanitarian supply chain: an organizational information processing perspective and relational view

Humanitarian organizations are increasingly facing challenges in terms of improving the efficiency and the effectiveness of their disaster relief efforts. These challenges often arise due to a lack of trust, poor collaboration and an inability to respond to disaster affected areas in a timely manner. Our study attempts to understand how these challenges are overcome by seeking answers to questions related to the topics of swift-trust, collaboration and agility in humanitarian supply chains. For instance, in our study we have attempted to examine how information sharing and supply chain visibility in humanitarian supply chains improve the swift-trust among the humanitarian actors engaged in disaster relief operations. Further, we attempt to understand how-swift trust, commitment and collaboration among the humanitarian actors improve the agility in humanitarian supply chains. In our study we provide both theoretical and data-driven answers to our stated research gaps. Our theoretical model is firmly grounded in organizational information process theory and relational view. We tested our research hypotheses using variance based structural equation modelling with survey data collected using a web based pre-tested instrument from 147 NGOs respondents drawn from the National Disaster Management Authority database. Our results help to advance the theoretical debates surrounding “swift-trust”, “collaboration” and “agility” in humanitarian settings. We further provide direction to managers engaged in disaster relief operations. The humanitarian actors engaged in disaster relief often fail to understand how to build swift-trust. Moreover, how swift-trust further affects commitment and collaboration which in turn further affect agility in humanitarian supply chains. Thus humanitarian organizations must understand how information sharing and supply chain visibility is key to swift-trust among humanitarian actors and agility in humanitarian supply chains. Finally, we outline the limitations of our study and offer some future research directions for investigation

Lean Project Management as a facilitator of Organisational Learning

The utility and impact of lean principles remains a point of contention (Staats et al, 2011) and few research studies have attempted to link lean project management (LPM) thinking with overall learning and knowledge success from a behavioural perspective (Hines et al, 2004). Those who have done so, have used lean project management principles to highlight singular process-related, task-driven systems and identify barriers in improving operational procedures (Spear, 2005; Poksinska, 2010; Staats et al, 2011) rather than investigating the potential link between desired outcomes and behaviours (Nidumolu & Subramani, 2003). Such studies have limited the progress of LPM as a viable change initiative in solution-focused environments. In this paper, we explore the utility of lean project management against a background of complexity and uncertainty and consider if, and how, LPM can facilitate learning within organisations to establish and sustain improvements for economic success

Leaders, conflict, and team coordination: a relational leadership approach in temporary organisations

Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 8: Decent work and economic growthSupplemental material is available online at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09537287.2024.2313518#supplemental-material-section .This study explores how the level of relational leadership of team leaders influences team members’ conflict-handling style and team coordination in temporary organisations (TOs). Leaning upon Socio-Psychological and relational leadership theories, the research also evaluates how the cultural background of leaders moderates the nature of the association between relational leadership and project team performance. This contribution is unique by engaging with three moderating cultural groups while drawing on data from 126 teams in TOs using PLS path modelling. The results explain that relational leadership influences team members’ cooperative and conflict-avoiding styles, which are, in turn, positively associated with team coordination and team performance. The judicious and considered use of conflict-avoiding should be recognised as a thoughtful style in multicultural team contexts and as a consequence of relational leadership. Team coordination and performance, however, are related more to relational leadership with the sample of leaders from a specific within-nationality cultural background.Universiti Sains Malaysia for providing the RUI Grant [No. 1001/PPBGN/816283]

How frugal innovation shape global sustainable supply chains during the pandemic crisis: Lessons from the COVID-19

Purpose- The COVID‐19 crisis has created enormous strain in global supply chains. The disruption has caused severe shortages of critical items, including Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) (e.g. face masks), ventilators, and diagnostics. The failure of industry to meet the sudden demand for these necessary items has caused a severe humanitarian crisis. These situations, resulting from the COVID19, crisis have led to the informal growth of frugal innovation in sustainable global supply chains. In this paper we provide a detailed overview of drivers of frugal-oriented sustainable global supply chains, following lessons acquired from emerging countries' attempt to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/Methodology/Approach- We utilized a focused group approach to identify the drivers and we further validated them using existing literature published in international peer-reviewed journals and reports. We adopted total interpretive structural modeling (TISM) to analyze the complex relationships among identified drivers. Findings- We present a theoretical framework to explain how the drivers are interlinked. We have developed our framework through a synthesis of the TISM modeling and MICMAC analysis. We observed that government financial support, policies & regulations, under the mediating effect of leadership and the moderating effect of national culture and international rules & regulations, has a significant effect on the adoption of emerging technology, volunteering initiatives, and values & ethics. Further, emerging technology, volunteering initiative, and values & ethics have a significant effect on supply chain talent and frugal engineering. These results provide some useful theoretical insights that may help in further investigating the role of frugal innovations in other contexts. Originality/ value- We find that outcomes of the methodical contributions and the resulting managerial insights can be categorized into four levels. Industry and researchers alike can use our study in order to develop the decision-support systems guiding frugal-oriented sustainable global supply chains amid the COVID-19 pandemic and in recovering them thereafter. Suggestions for future research directions are offered and discussed

Developing autonomous learning in first year university students using perspectives from positive psychology

Autonomous learning is a commonly occurring learning outcome from university study, and it is argued that students require confidence in their own abilities to achieve this. Using approaches from positive psychology, this study aimed to develop confidence in first‐year university students to facilitate autonomous learning. Psychological character strengths were assessed in 214 students on day one at university. Two weeks later their top three strengths were given to them in study skills modules as part of a psycho‐educational intervention designed to increase their self‐efficacy and self‐esteem. The impact of the intervention was assessed against a control group of 40 students who had not received the intervention. The results suggested that students were more confident after the intervention, and that levels of autonomous learning increased significantly compared to the controls. Character strengths were found to be associated with self‐efficacy, self‐esteem and autonomous learning in ways that were theoretically meaningful