Quality and satisfaction of house owners for industrialised building system and conventional building system

This research was carried out to identify the relationship between quality and satisfaction of house owners for construction systems. Two construction systems will become the dependant variables which is Industrialised Building System (IBS) and conventional system. Additionally, the differences toward quality across years of existence of selected housing areas are taken into consideration. The aim of this study is to collect data by using sets of questionnaires. Then, the correlation analysis are carried out by using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software and the difference analysis is by using Independent Samples T-Test. The results shows that house owners for both construction systems is highly satisfied with their houses and there is no significant relationship between quality and house owners' satisfaction except for the mechanical and electrical aspect for both construction systems. However, there is a significant relationship between quality across years of existence of selected housing areas. Last but not least, findings from this research may benefited to government agencies such as Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) and other researchers 377$ especially on development of low cost housing scheme

A construction manager's technical knowledge competency model for the Malaysian construction industry / Hairuddin Mohammad

Malaysian construction industry (MCI) is regarded as one of the significant industry that drives the country forward. Although having recorded 7.4% of positive growth in 2016, the progression of MCI was hampered by a considerable number of recurring problems such as delays, wastages, cost overruns, and disputes. Consequently, contractors' faults are to be blamed, through their incompetent construction manager (CM) to deliver construction projects. Even though there are provisions of education and training for CM, continuous critiques on its ineffectiveness were reported. Eventually, it was observed that lack of term of reference on the technical knowledge competency for CM is became the major setback. Therefore, the research aims to establish generic technical knowledge competency model for CM through three objectives that were outlined by the research, namely; (1) to identify the generic technical knowledge competency of Malaysia's construction managers, (2) to analyse the importance of the generic technical knowledge competency of construction managers towards categories and grades of Malaysia's contractors, and (3) to analyse the corroboration level of the existing CM education and training offered compared to the generic technical knowledge competency. Pragmatic mixed methods research was selected by employing qualitative and quantitative approaches. In short, multi-layered thematic (MLT) analysis was embedded into literature analysis to maintain reliability, before proceeded to validity as in semistructured interviews towards related academicians and practitioners in construction. Later, to analyse, validate and generalise the findings to the masses, questionnaire surveys were distributed to contractors around the peninsular of Malaysia

Challenges in Education and Training to Develop Malaysian Construction Workforce

Education and training have been central to the development of the Malaysian construction workforce. Notwithstanding the various initiatives introduced to promote education and training, critics are arguing that these have been ineffective. This paper critically reviews the phenomenon and identifies the causal factors. Throughout three key areas; (i) the context of the industry, (ii) the education and training provisions offered, and (iii) the challenges, meta-data analysis of literature was undertaken grounded on the concepts of strategic management ecosystems. Since it is crucial to ties several variable clusters in order to reach a comprehensive finding, the analysis was helped by the multi-layered thematic processes. The findings show that nine key factors at the construction industry level (external ecosystem), and two key factors in the education and training provisions (internal ecosystem) that are interrelated to each other have significantly affected the effectiveness of the education and training to develop the Malaysian construction workforce. These factors need to be addressed in a holistic and integrated manner to improve the predicament which resides in a public strategic management field. Aside from the context-centric findings, the paper posits for subsequent empirical exploration as validation is of concerned. However, it may open up education and training literature to recognised possible multidisciplinary research, education, and practice while addressing challenges such as law, government policy, and standards’ development

Construction manager’s technical competencies in Malaysian construction projects

Problems of Malaysian construction industry have often been associated, in part to incompetent construction manager (CM) when managing the construction projects. Although various education and training provisions have been introduced, critics argue that the provisions have not been effective. Central in the debate on the adequacy of the CM education and training offered is the answer to the question of “what constitutes the technical competency of the CM?” The purpose of this paper is to present the study that identifies the technical competencies required by the CM to address the question. Design/methodology/approach – Multi-layered thematic analysis of literature was first carried out to identify the technical competency elements. Then, interviews were undertaken to confirm the elements of competencies. It was followed with questionnaire surveys to test the validity of the technical competencies against different contractors’ category and grade/size. Findings – The findings suggest that the technical competencies of CM are generic, regardless of the size of construction organisation or the types of projects they undertake. A total of 16 CM technical competencies were identified which include the ability to manage: staff, materials, labour, plant, sub-contractors, safety, money, quality, time, environment, site administration, pre-construction activities, project closeout and handover, third parties, computer literacy, and construction contract. Originality/value – The findings suggest that generic education and training is possible to develop technically competent CM. It also provides insights to the CM technical competencies which the industry is expecting

Preventive measures of struck-by accidents at the construction site: Perspectives from construction personnel in Johor

Struck-by accidents are among the main contributor to fatality number in the Malaysian construction industry. From the standpoint of construction safety professionals, this study explores the main preventive measures for struck-by accidents at the construction site. The data for this study was gathered through the questionnaire distributed to construction site safety workers in Johor, Malaysia, and about 116 answered questionnaires were received. Data were analyzed using the Relative Importance Index (RII) and Spearman’s rank correlation. The main preventive measure factor identified was related to training. This study provides eye-opening findings in terms of the weak correlational relation between the views of safety personnel and the most effective preventive strategy. This research raises awareness of the problem, and more action should be made to lower the fatality rate in struck-by-object accidents

The analysis of struck-by accidents at construction sites in Johor

Malaysia’s construction industry has been categorized as the most hazardous industry due to its high risk in causing construction accidents compared to the other industry. Among the various reported accident fatality cases to the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) from the year 2010 to 2018, ‘struck-by object’ is among the most accounted fatal accident types. This study aims to analyse the struck-by accidents at construction sites in Johor and investigate the significant contributing factors of this type of accident. It was carried out by computing the contributing factors of struck-by accidents from the DOSH website, which was later designed as questionnaire questions. The questionnaire was distributed to 150 respondents that comprise of safety personnel who are working at construction sites, and about 116 answered questionnaires were received. From the questionnaire survey, the most significant contributing factor to struck-by object accidents is due to lack of training. Whereas for the analysis of the real cases, the significant contributing factor to struck-by object accidents is due to inadequate safe operating procedures. Using Spearman’s rank correlation, it was found that there is a variation in the respondents’ perceptions with the real fatal cases reported in the DOSH website. This results from this study create major eye-opening on the weak correlational relationship between the safety personnel’s perceptions and what actually the cause is. This study provides awareness on the issue and further actions should be taken to ensure the fatality rate of struck-by object accidents could be reduced

Assessing the Level of Competence in Automated Trading Among Malaysian Traders

 In today's technology world, financial trading instrument such as stock, currencies, futures, and acts is now done electronically via the internet due to technological improvements. Financial market trading traders apply technical and fundamental analyses to forecast the best price when buying or selling the finance instrument, and they develop their trading tactics and strategies with technical analysis tools. The objective of this research is to figure out the level of competence that Malaysian retail traders have in Automated or Algorithmic Trading (AT) focusing on currency trading. The searches were conducted on a sample of Malaysian retail traders. The viewpoints of retail traders were investigated using a questionnaire designed specifically for this purpose. The data was analyzed using statistical software (SPSS). The findings of this study reveal that Malaysian traders have an excellent comprehension of AT. This study is useful for traders and researchers who want to design their own AT systems in the future

Factors Affecting Quality in Construction Project Life Cycle (CPLC)

Quality is among the critical element in managing a construction project. Unfortunately, according to several established documents, issues related to quality in the Malaysian construction project are still rampant. Therefore, to delve deeper into the predicament, understanding the factors affecting construction quality was deemed essential. This even more vital given the minimal number of manuscripts looking into the matter accordingly with the generic construction project life cycle (CPLC). Thus, to operationalise the initial research, a mixed methodology endeavour was selected. This by carrying out a Multi-layered Thematic Analysis (MLTA) to determine factors affecting the quality in the CPLC and questionnaire survey to validate each factor's agreement. Through the MLTA, the results show several similarities in factors, especially in the off-site phases. Whereby in the on-site phases, factors related to 4 M's (money, material, manpower, and machinery) were found to be common. Then, through the questionnaire survey, each factor's mean and median values indicate that the majority of respondents were agreed (scale of 4 to 5) with the dedicated phase of each factor. To sum up, there is evidence that different CPLC has different factors affecting construction quality. In the current form, the findings are valuable as a basis for subsequent research undertaking, e.g. focusing on the micro perspective of quality within each phase and parties involved in the construction project

The tribal dispute resolution mechanism in Yemen

Purpose - This study was aimed to contribute to literature and has practical significance in the sense that it could assist the legislators to modernize the arbitration system in Yemen.Also, introduce the foreign investor of the tribal dispute resolution mechanism in Yemen (TADRM). The tribal dispute resolution mechanism in Yemen is primarily considered in this research.The tribes are considered as an important part of the Yemeni society.It is hard to separate the tribes from the society (McCune, 2012), since they play a significant role in the Yemeni society (Manea, 1996).The tribes do multiple tasks such as protecting their members, maintaining security, stabilizing thecommunities, negotiating with the state regarding various matters that are important to the tribes (Hanzawy, 2009), settling disputes among members of the communities 80% of disputes are settled by applying tribal customary laws (Al- Zwaini, 2006). The people prefer tribal customary laws in their daily transactions (Alkhatai, 2008). Tribal arbitrators utilizes tribal arbitral awards to settle disputes among members of the society (Al- Muwadda). According to Tribalism Index Scores 2009, Republic of Yemen is ranked number 7 out of 160 countries in the world, figure 1 is considered as the highest rate, while figure 160 is considered as the lowest (Jacobson, 2012). Yemen’s ranking at number 7 shows that tribalism is high the country and this factor may adversely affect the growth of the Yemeni national economy as well as the performance of government institutions. The Yemeni law allowed the disputing parties to settle their differences in civil cases through arbitration and settlements outside the formal justice system based on section 45 of Yemeni Arbitration (Act, 22) 1992 (YAA). Section 21 of the code of criminal procedure limited litigation in criminal cases to formal justice which the public prosecution only has jurisdiction.However, TADRM can be used for all type of disputes whether civil cases, commercial cases, criminal cases, or family matters (Gaston, 2014)

The tribalism impediment on the enforcement of international arbitral awards in Yemen

Tribal influence on the ability of the courts to enforce international arbitral awards (IAA) in Yemen is primarily considered in this research. Especially, Yemen is categorized as one of the worst countries suffering from tribalism worldwide. The study employed a doctrinal approach and socio-legal research method by applying data collected through library while the doctrinal legal research applies legal case studies. Additionally, the study collects data through face to face semi-structured interviews with experts. The data were analysed by using critical analysis. It was found that tribalism is a big obstacle to the enforcement of IIA in Yemen because tribal leaders interfere in the judicial process to protect people from their own tribes. This study helps to legislate stricter laws to combat the tribal interference in the affairs of the judiciary and coerce the tribes to comply with court orders. Also, it contributes to the knowledge of the extent of the tribalism influence on enforcement of IAA as the researcher has not found previous studies focusing on the impact of tribalism