Effects of contract strategy on interpersonal relations and project outcomes of public-sector construction contracts in Australia

© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers. Hitherto, it is not known if the integration of relationship concepts into traditional public-sector construction contracts would improve project performance. This study hence examines the effects of contract strategies on project outcomes and relationship quality in the context of public-sector construction projects in Sydney, Australia. It also identifies the relational contracting (RC) practices that are in place when certain contract strategies are adopted. Using a two-pronged research design, data were first collected from public owners and private contractors and consultants through a questionnaire survey. The data were analyzed and the results were then validated by interviews. Correlation analysis shows that cost performance, client satisfaction, and relationship quality among contracting parties are significantly correlated with contract strategies. The findings indicate the important role that contract strategies play in project outcomes and interpersonal relationship. Among the 20 RC practices that are significantly correlated with contract strategies, 16 of them are related to clients and consultants, suggesting their important role in setting the tone of the relationship in a project

Incorporating BIM in the final semester undergraduate project of construction management — a case study in Fuzhou University

This pedagogical study presents building information modeling (BIM) education in the final semester construction management (CM) program. The case study conducted in Fuzhou University extends BIM education from a single BIM course in earlier undergraduate years to the senior year’s final semester project, which was designed to enable BIM utilization in multiple construction tasks (e.g., 3D site planning). This study consists of two major parts. The first part starts with the newly designed course of the final semester project of CM students. Students’ final semester project work is demonstrated depending on their selected deliverable type, which includes full BIM application group work, two partial BIM application types (i.e., construction planning/scheduling, and take-off estimate), and a research dissertation. The second part starts from the research hypothesis of whether the different deliverable type selected by students would affect their perceptions towards the final project and their professional career. Based on a follow-up questionnaire survey to the whole CM student sample aiming to test the hypotheses with statistical analyses (e.g., analysis of variance and the post-hoc analysis), it was indicated that all the four different deliverable types (i.e., subgroups) could lead to consistent perceptions of the final semester project towards their career development. However, subgroup differences were found. For example, students from the subgroup of full BIM application perceived that they had the highest level of hands-on skill enhancement throughout the project, possibly due to the fact that they linked BIM software tools to virtual reality (VR) hardware. Suggestions were provided to update the future BIM pedagogy in the final semester project, such as proper guide of CM students to opt their project deliverable type depending on their career interests, motivations in BIM utilization, and skill development needs. This current study provides insights in BIM education in terms that: 1) BIM education could be enhanced from a single course level to the senior year project in the CM program level; 2) different options offered in the final stage project within the CM curriculum might affect students’ perceptions towards BIM or their career development; and 3) the experience learned from this case study could be shared in the global community of construction education to update the curriculum incorporating information and communication technologies (e.g., BIM and VR). Future educational work in BIM could continue adopting existing educational theories (e.g., Bloom’s Taxonomy) by addressing the various levels of student learning, and viewing BIM in the bigger picture of digital construction

Managerial Skills for Managing Construction Safety

Previous research has suggested that self-awareness, visioning, and sincerity are foundational managerial skills for delivering positive safety outcomes in construction projects. This paper aims to verify this finding and to suggest learning approaches for developing these skills in practice. Interviews with experienced construction practitioners were analysed thematically to find common themes. The thematic analysis confirms the necessity of the mana­gerial skills identified in the previous research for managing construction safety and provides directions for construction organisations to improve safety learning. Existing approaches, which mainly adopt the cognitivism learning philosophy, may not be sufficient because the nature of learning in practice aligns with social constructivism, showing that learning occurs informally through interactions with people and artefacts at work instead of in a classroom-structured environment. Furthermore, although learning methods to develop safety skills have been suggested, there remains a need for better statistical evidence of the effectiveness of these methods in delivering safety outcomes

Positive and Negative Factors Influencing the Implementation of Relational Contracting in Public Construction Projects in Australia

Despite relational contracting (RC) having been used increasingly in public funded construction projects in some countries such as Australia, there are different perspectives and concerns about RC. This research aims to understand the perceptions of what makes RC attractive or otherwise as a contracting strategy for public construction projects using Australia for data collection. Literature review was used to identify relevant factors, which were incorporated into the survey questionnaire. An online questionnaire survey technique was used for primary data collection from the greater Sydney region. The survey response data was subjected to descriptive statistical analysis using SPSS software. The research results show that RC is perceived as attractive in terms of positive factors including “Improve design”, “Improve quality of project”, “Build up closer relationship with contracting parties”, “Reduce time in delivering the project” and “Enhance the organization’s reputation in the industry”. The most negative aspects and factors included “Public sector accountability concerns”, “Lack of training and guidance in relational arrangement”, “Stringent public rules, regulations and laws”, “Conservative industry culture inhibits changes and encourages preservation of the status quo”, and “Concerns about opportunistic behaviour of other contracting parties”. These negative factors may make RC arrangement less attractive. As the delivery of public facilities and services is exhibiting more RC behavioural patterns, this research suggests that at the early stage of preparing a business case, a clear and common understanding of the positive and negative factors surrounding RC by the parties involved, would provide a more informed basis for decision making

Environmental Health Valuation Through Real Estate Prices

Environmental health studies are a really central topic in the debate about territorial development. Territorial transformation was sometimes characterized by interesting phenomena of enhancement and requalification, sometimes by speculative tensions inattentive to the quality of life systems and to the sustainability of processes by territory itself. This kind of attitude has often caused an environmental health decay and a significant decrease in human quality life. The main obstacle to the possibility of orienting the transformation initiatives of the territory in the perspective of sustainability is to be found in the scarce ability to understand the intrinsic economic value that these operations incorporate. We are now used to thinking exclusively in terms of market and income, so territorial interventions are almost guided exclusively by economic evaluations of and speculative ones. In a transdisciplinary perspective, the appraisal analysis can provide an important interpretation key in the analysis of territorial dynamics, intended to guide urban development policies in the logic of sustainability. This paper intends to study some environmental feedbacks in coastal areas and to demonstrate how real estate prices can be used as a marker of environmental health, examining relationships between real estate prices and environmental variables through the use of the Hedonic Model. The hypothesis has been validated by the application of the proposed methodology to a case study in Fuscaldo, in the south of Italy. The results show a correlation between environmental health and real estate prices, proving that an excessive urbanization and a poor attention to environmental issues lead to a decrease in human quality life

Sources of Risk and Related Effects in the Malaysian Construction Industry

Construction projects nowadays have higher complexities, calling for increased awareness, assessment and management of the risks involved. Key construction risks need to be identified, assessed and methods on risk mitigation need to be mapped out to better managed the potential of undesirables events within projects. The aim of the study was to provide a compilation of risk and its effects to be used as risk data for the Malaysian construction industry. Data was collected by conducting structured questionnaire surveys and distributing it to professionals involved in the construction industry. The overall discussion would focus on the sources of risk related to each specific group; the direct effects of these risks, and also the correlation between the sources and effects. It is hopeful that through this research, a proper knowledge or risk retention centre can ultimately be created to aid future effective qualitative and quantitative risk analysis for all construction projects