Human resource development in construction organisations: an example of a 'chaordic' learning organisation?

Purpose/ Methodology/Approach The concept of the Learning Organisation (LO) is associated with an advanced approach to Human Resource Development (HRD) characterised by an ethos of self-responsibility and self-development. The learning climate that this engenders is supported by temporary organisational structures responsive to environmental change. This paper presents case study research of the HRD strategy, policy and practice of a large UK-based construction contractor in relation to the concept of LO. Findings The analysis suggests that the organisational project-based structure and informal culture combine to form a ‘chaordic LO’. A ‘Chaordic enterprise’ comprises a complex organisation that operates in a non-linear dynamic environment. However, it appears that this approach has evolved unintentionally rather than as a result of targeted Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) policies, which in turn reflects a genuine commitment to advanced HRD. Originality/value of paper The findings render previous assertions that the industry fails to invest in its employees highly questionable. They suggest a need for further research to reveal how such approaches can be captured in replicate in the future

Psychological contract expectations of construction project managers

The past 20 years have seen a period of fundamental change for many construction businesses as they have restructured, downsized, de-layered, merged and de-merged to survive turbulent markets and rapidly changing demand cycles. Such change places significant new pressures, challenges and constraints on the employer/employee relationship. This paper argues that these changes are likely to have reconstituted employee expectations of the less formal aspects of the employment relationship, known collectively as the psychological contract. Explores this inductive research which examines the psychological contract of 30 construction project managers

Current barriers and possible solutions to effective project team formation and deployment within a large construction organisation

The characteristics of the construction industry present an extremely challenging context for effective human resource management (HRM). The dynamic project-based nature of the industry results in extreme fluctuations in organisations’ workloads and requires teams to form, develop and disband relatively quickly. Thus, the importance of efficient management of employee resourcing activities cannot be understated. This paper reports on the findings of research which explored employee resourcing practices within large UK construction firms. The results suggest that managers currently attempt to carry out some strategic planning with regards to employee resourcing, but that this does not necessarily translate into effective operational practice which simultaneously takes account of organisational, project and individual employee needs. A new approach for more effective employee resourcing decision-making, based on encouraging the involvement of the employees in the deployment process, is put forward as a management tool which informs effective team formation and deployment. However, this will require the acceptance of both decision-support technology and of employee input into what is currently a tacit, management-oriented decision process

Incorporating employee resourcing requirements into deployment decision making

Employee resourcing refers to the process of matching human resource capabilities to the strategic and operational needs of the organization. This is exceptionally problematic in project-based organizations due to the competing priorities of the project, the individual employee and the wider succession needs of the organization. This paper presents the findings of research which set out to develop an innovative approach to project resourcing which balances organizational, project and individual employee requirements. Based on a synthesis of successful practices utilized by leading construction organizations, it develops a new approach to capturing and integrating knowledge on employees‟ abilities and aspirations into the project resource allocation decision making process

Constructing resilience through security and surveillance: The politics, practices and tensions of security-driven resilience

This article illuminates how, since 9/11, security policy has gradually become more central to a range of resilience discourses and practices. As this process draws a wider range of security infrastructures, organizations and approaches into the enactment of resilience, security practices are enabled through more palatable and legitimizing discourses of resilience. This article charts the emergence and proliferation of security-driven resilience logics, deployed at different spatial scales, which exist in tension with each other. We exemplify such tensions in practice through a detailed case study from Birmingham, UK: ‘Project Champion’ an attempt to install over 200 high-resolution surveillance cameras, often invisibly, around neighbourhoods with a predominantly Muslim population. Here, practices of security-driven resilience came into conflict with other policy priorities focused upon community-centred social cohesion, posing a series of questions about social control, surveillance and the ability of national agencies to construct community resilience in local areas amidst state attempts to label the same spaces as ‘dangerous’. It is argued that security-driven logics of resilience generate conflicts in how resilience is operationalized, and produce and reproduce new hierarchical arrangements which, in turn, may work to subvert some of the founding aspirations and principles of resilience logic itself

Towards methodological adventure in cost overrun research : linking process and product

The continued adoption of singular paradigms in the study of construction phenomena has elicited dialectical debates in scholarly literature. Calls have been made for more adventurous research methods, beyond the positivist versus interpretivist philosophical divide traditionally embraced by the industry. This study analyses the extensive scholarly debates, advancing and advocating philosophical positions to understand construction phenomena, and further narrows down the argument to within the specific domain of cost overrun research. A systematic and chronological literature review of the methodological/philosophical underpinnings of 41 papers was carried out. The papers were selected by following a staged exclusion criterion. The study outcome reveals that similar dialectical debates and methodological conservatism are still evident, with the predominance of mono-paradigm studies in the bulk of the empirical literature. Most of the empirical literature either provides interpretivist theoretical explanations from qualitative data or positivistically analyses quantitative data to provide technical explanations. To this end, mixed paradigm examples are spotlighted, demonstrating the relevance of linking process and product via methodological adventure in cost overrun research. Transcending the paradigmic divide is necessary to develop a more useful and contextually anchored view of practice, essential to mitigate and provide a holistic understanding of what drives cost overruns in public projects