Causes of delay in the construction phase of oil and gas projects in Malaysia

The drop-in oil price in recent years has seen the oil and gas projects affected negatively. Thus, most Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) companies are opting to optimise the project especially in terms of mitigating delays in construction to achieve the project expectation. Delay causes threat to a project objectives in terms of time, cost and quality. It is also a crucial element in deviating from the client's expectation in terms of productivity, safety and standards. This paper aims at examining the causes of delay in the construction phase of oil and gas projects in Malaysia. A comprehensive literature review from various sources through books, conference proceedings, the internet, project management journals as well as oil and gas industry journals was made to materialise this paper. There were a few studies that related to this problem and shared a similar view with general construction projects, yet only a fraction of the factors was accepted due to the differences between the two industries. Other variances of the papers included on regional basis or on specific countries. The factors of these attributes were still accepted since it was still applicable to the oil and gas industry and there were not any major variances between countries. The paper has found that there are several significant factors that cause delays in the construction phase of oil and gas projects in Malaysia. The similarity of these delay factors can be grouped into six major groups, namely client, contractor, engineering, external, project and resources. This initial study is based purely on literature review, comparison of similar cases, cross referencing and critical judging. The causes of delay specific to the construction phase in oil and gas projects in Malaysia should be further researched with focus only in the Malaysian projects and industry players

Effect of idealised influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualised consideration on service sector employees’ performance in Karachi, Pakistan

Transformational leaders motivate their employees in such a way that employees start adopting the vision of the organisation as their own vision. Precisely research concerning relationship between transformational leadership and employee’s performance has been conducted by many researchers as well as in leading sectors and industries of Pakistan. However, there is a dearth of researches that investigates the effect of four dimensions of transformational leadership on employee’s performance in services sector. Therefore, this study was carried out to assess the relationship between transformational leadership and its four dimensions on the performance of employees considering services sector in Karachi, Pakistan. Snowball sampling was utilised and participants were selected among the service sector employees in Karachi, Pakistan. Hypotheses were tested by utilising Smart-PLS. The findings revealed that individualised consideration and idealised influence significantly contributes towards enhanced performance of employees. Contrary to expectation, intellectual stimulation and inspirational motivation was found to be not significant with employee performances’. It is suggested that management of service sector organisations’ should acknowledge the importance of the dimensions of transformational leadership on employees’ performance, which will eventually will lead to the achievement of the strategic goals and tasks defined by the service sector organisation

Determinants of debt behavior. A quantitative study among generation Y individuals in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

The aim of this paper was to examine the determinants of debt behavior by generation Y. Despite various studies done on savings and debt behavior of students, the relationship between financial education, debt attitude, peer influence and power prestige towards debt behavior among generation Y in Uzbekistan is still unclear. There is a dearth of studies relating to the debt behavior of generation Y individuals in Uzbekistan. This quantitative research collected primary data using self-administered questionnaires, which were sent to generation Yindividuals in Uzbekistan. Data collected from 107 respondents was analyzed using SPSS statistical tool. Based on multiple regression analysis, it was found that only power prestige had a significant impact on debt behavior of generation Y individuals. Financial education, debt attitude and peer influence did not show a significant influence on debt behavior. The findings shed further light on the role of financial education, attitude, peer influence and power prestige in debt behavior. The information provided by this research can help authorities to develop measures to address the rising level of debt. This is the first study of its kind to examine debt behavior among Generation Y individuals in Uzbekistan