Relationship between Project Managers Personality and Small Public Construction Project Success in Malaysia

In the field of project management, particularly the construction industry in Malaysia, there are two key factors in determining the progress of a project, namely technical and non-technical skills. Accordingly, this study aims to explore the personality (non-technical skills) among Malaysian project managers on the success of small public construction projects. Using the Five Factor Theory (FFT) as a basis, this study uses two sets of measuring instruments for examining project manager’s personality and project success, the Big Five Inventory (BFI) and the Project Success Achieved (PSA). The questionnaire was distributed to two major organizations in Malaysia, the Implementation Coordination Unit, Prime Minister’s Department (ICU JPM) and Ministry of Rural Development (KPLB), which involved 137 project managers. The obtained data were analyzed using PLS-SEM and results indicate that the project manager’s personality has a significant impact on the success of SPCP where Conscientiousness (CT) and Agreeableness (AG) had a more prominent influence compared to other traits. This study provides theoretically meaningful relationships and valuable insights into construction management via personality element to ensure that national development objectives are achieved

Investigation Study towards Consumer Behavior and Purchasing Decisions

Studies of purchase choice dealt with buyers as consumers through several activities such as selecting, purchasing and benefiting from the products. Most of the studies defined the buyers as consumers and focused on purchase decision making. Several studies reported that purchasing decisions always respond to questions related to how, where, when and why consumers buy their products. This paper explains the consumer behavior theory through explaining different literature review then explaining the meaning of decision- making process and defining the basic factors influencing purchasing decision-making

Strategies to Minimise the Impact of COVID-19 on the Construction Industry: A Case Study of Construction Site Clusters in Malaysia

Malaysia has seen the third wave of infection since the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic, with approximately 103 construction sites involving over 14,667 workers reported from April 2020 to February 2021. This has led to limited progress in construction projects or a complete halt, resulting in late project delivery. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors influencing the spread of COVID-19 and the strategies taken by the affected construction sites to mitigate the spread of the outbreak. The researchers adopted a case study approach with a multiple-case design and discusses the use of an in-depth interviewing method to collect rich data on the studied phenomenon. Data were collected from three construction sites. The sites were mixed development projects in nature and provided in-depth, rigorous, and robust information. Based on the results, two categories of factors influencing the spread of COVID-19 were established. These are primary and secondary factors, such as workers’ mobilisation, uncontrolled movement of workers, and the limited practice of social distancing. Furthermore, evidence suggests that the strategies adopted to control the effects of the pandemic were a combination of government enforcement and initiatives taken by construction companies. This paper concludes that an early identification of the causes of the spread will enable appropriate implementation strategies to control the outbreak. This study is an attempt to present the experiences of one developing country as an example of a means of dealing with unexpected pandemics or other intractable diseases that can affect project delivery

The Roles, Challenges & Improvement of Project Manager in Project Financial Management in Building Development in Penang, Malaysia

Project Manager holds roles and responsibilities to ensure the success of construction projects for his organisation. And one of the roles is to ensure the well-management of Project Financial Management in his organisation. Recent research has identified project cost overrun has been a major issue in construction industry. These project cost overrun cases have been repeating and have reduced the profit and revenues of the project owners. Therefore, it comes across the researchers mind of what the project managers who work for developer companies have been doing in order to overcome repeated cost overrun cases in the near future project developments. Hence, the set objectives of the research are: 1) To identify the important roles of Project Manager in Financial Management in building project development in Malaysia, 2) To identify challenges faced by Project Manager in Financial Management of building project development in Malaysia. 3) To identity solutions to overcome such challenges faced in Financial Management in building project development in Malaysia. However, due to time constraint, this research is limited and carried out in Penang, which is the second-smallest state in Malaysia, with strong population growth and has undertaken numerous construction projects in Malaysia. The research methodology used for this study is qualitative approach. Semi-structured interviews are used as research instrument for the data collection for this research. An overall of six interviews had been conducted with highly experienced Project Managers in Penang construction industry who has the knowledge and experiences in the Financial Management of building development. The data from the successful interviews are then been analysed using content analysis method in which the data collected are categorized into groups in table forms. From the findings, the respondents had defined the Project Financial Management relating to three main aspects. Four (4) out of six (6) respondents are having moderate involvement and two (2) respondents are having high involvement in the Financial Management in building development in Penang. The research findings had also identified five (5) major roles of project manager in Project Financial Management. Furthermore, five (5) major challenges of project manager in Project Financial Management were also identified. Finally, research findings also identified four (4) major solutions to overcome the challenges faced by project manager in Project Financial Management. Ultimately, this research is anticipated to create awareness of the important roles of Project Manager in Project Financial Management to mitigate the cost overrun issues in construction projects

The adoption of IOT in the Malaysian construction industry: Towards construction 4.0

The construction industry is one of the most significant sectors in Malaysia, specifically in terms of its contribution to the Malaysian Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and facilitation of other industries to enhance their productivity outcome by constructing buildings and facilities for them. However, the process of constructing buildings and facilities will take a long period of time if done according to conventional practices. Due to this circumstance, the establishment of the Internet of Things (IoT) in construction development is beneficial to improve productivity levels and reduce the construction time as well as the cost. Hence, this paper intends to review the adoption of IoT in Malaysia’s construction industry towards Construction 4.0. In conjunction with that, the use of IoT in terms of construction technology such as BIM, smart communication, sensor, big data, augmented reality, location services and remote operation during the construction process has made a massive impact on the monitoring of the construction process, especially in reducing the risk of construction error, defects, and avoiding construction delay. The proper adoption of IoT in the Malaysian construction industry will give a huge positive impact to the construction industry and encourage it to grow and compete with other developing countries. This paper is noteworthy to the Malaysian construction industry, especially for the key players in the construction industry to raise their awareness regarding the benefits of adopting IoT for their future projects

Main challenges to concrete recycling in practice

While concrete recycling is crucial to protecting the environment, its implementation in practice is low in many countries. This study aims to highlight challenges to concrete recycling. To achieve that aim, the study objectives are (1) to identify the main challenges to concrete recycling in construction projects; (2) to compare the main challenges between small–medium enterprises (SMEs) and large enterprises (LEs); and (3) to determine the underlying groups among the main challenges. Potential challenges were identified through a systematic literature review of journal articles and semi-structured interviews with fifteen industry practitioners. Then, the identified challenges were inserted into a questionnaire survey and distributed to industry practitioners. Eighty-nine valid responses were collected and analyzed using the mean score ranking, normalization, agreement analysis, and factor analysis techniques. The analyses show thirteen main challenges to concrete recycling. The main challenges include increased project duration, lack of national programs, lack of comprehensive rules and regulations, increased project cost, low demand for recycled concrete, low cost-effectiveness of concrete recycling, and increased transportation cost. However, there is no consensus on the criticality between SMEs and LEs. For example, increased project cost is the main challenge for SMEs but is only middlingly ranked for LEs. Finally, the main challenges can be categorized into three interrelated groups: people and technical, legal and environmental, and economic challenges. This study contributes to the literature by analyzing challenges that hinder concrete recycling in practice. The findings allow researchers and practitioners to develop strategies to reduce concrete recycling rejection

The Adoption of IOT in the Malaysian Construction Industry: Towards Construction 4.0

The construction industry is one of the most significant sectors in Malaysia, specifically in terms of its contribution to the Malaysian Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and facilitation of other industries to enhance their productivity outcome by constructing buildings and facilities for them. However, the process of constructing buildings and facilities will take a long period of time if done according to conventional practices.  Due to this circumstance, the establishment of the Internet of Things (IoT) in construction development is beneficial to improve productivity levels and reduce the construction time as well as the cost. Hence, this paper intends to review the adoption of IoT in Malaysia’s construction industry towards Construction 4.0. In conjunction with that, the use of IoT in terms of construction technology such as BIM, smart communication, sensor, big data, augmented reality, location services and remote operation during the construction process has made a massive impact on the monitoring of the construction process, especially in reducing the risk of construction error, defects, and avoiding construction delay. The proper adoption of IoT in the Malaysian construction industry will give a huge positive impact to the construction industry, and encourage it to grow and compete with other developing countries. This paper is noteworthy to the Malaysian construction industry, especially for the key players in the construction industry to raise their awareness regarding the benefits of adopting IoT for their future projects

Issues and challenges encountered by project managers towards small public construction project success in Malaysia - A literature synthesis

A growingly competitive landscape and demands for better quality government services have characterised new issues and challenges arising from various factors in construction project management. The balance and progress of a country based on project development. It can be observed through every budget allocation that focuses heavily on high impact and touch points projects to the people. This applies to the management of a small public construction project, where the project manager is an important factor in determining the success of a project in the field. Therefore, the failure to manage public project development will have a major impact on the effectiveness of national development. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the issues of managing small public construction projects towards achieving project success which often executed in different perspectives governing the work by project managers. The data for this study were supported by previous studies are reported in the journal; statistic report from CIDB; ICU JPM; KKLW; book and internet sources. As such, the analysis and synthesis of the literature on issues and challenges of the small public construction project is utilized as the basis of future research to establish a general guideline that provides information on managing the small public construction project for Malaysian project managers successfully

Factors affecting BIM implementation: evidence from countries with different income levels

Purpose: This study aims to empirically analyze the symmetries and asymmetries among the critical factors affecting building information modeling (BIM) implementation between countries with different income levels. To achieve that aim, the study objectives are to identify: critical factors affecting BIM implementation in low-, lower-middle-, upper-middle- and high-income countries; overlapping critical factors between countries with different income levels; and agreements on the critical factors between countries with different income levels