Ross, Bowen and Lincoln assess nine sustainable housing projects to determine the application of seven principles of sustainable construction within a developing country context. The authors argue that, more than a decade after the successful transition to democracy, South Africa is plagued by a housing backlog that continues to grow. The problem is exacerbated by ever increasing urbanization, resulting in rapid growth of slums and unauthorized settlements, overcrowding and neglect of the environment. The authors reveal that successful sustainability practices were found to include energy and water efficient systems, the reuse of old buildings, the use of non‐toxic products, the preservation of natural vegetation, and the provision of settlements that are dense and well located. Impediments to the implementation of sustainable practices were identified as low levels of user support, initial high costs of certain sustainable measures, and political factors. The results provide encouragement in the quest to address the housing needs of the poor employing a comprehensive sustainability approach.
Tuuli, Rowlinson and Koh examine the underlying drivers and consequences of the exercise of control modes and mechanisms in five project teams involved in two construction projects in Hong Kong. They employ framework, category formation and cross‐case analysis techniques to analyse data collected through documentary analysis, passive observations and semi‐structured face‐to‐face interviews. A range of factors emanating from the individual, team, organization and project level were identified as drivers of control. The control modes and mechanisms examined also had performance‐related consequences for individuals, teams and organizations and were predominantly attributable to self‐based control mechanisms. Preliminary evidence of the important link between self‐control/empowerment and performance is provided which is instructive for the performance improvement agenda in the construction industry. The authors conclude that peculiar project and team conditions may warrant the development and implementation of team or project specific control mechanisms which may not be apparent to those being controlled.
Lingard, Francis and Turner examine positive interactions between work and family life among Australian construction workers. Their research is novel because most of the work‐family research undertaken in construction, and other industries, has focused on conflict between work and family life. They examine the relationship between various job resources, such as flexibility, supervisory support and control, and positive interactions between work and family. Job resources are linked to work‐to‐family enrichment through the development of workers’ perceptions of ‘fit’ between their work and family situations. These findings challenge the assumption of an inevitable conflict between work and family life and can guide future research into the positive side of the work‐family interface. This may also inform the design of jobs that will facilitate the development of perceptions of good work‐family ‘fit’, thereby helping to create conditions in which construction workers enjoy work‐to‐family enrichment rather than conflict.
Ness investigates some of the assumptions that lie behind the text of the ‘Respect for People’ reports which were developed as part of the ‘Egan agenda’ in the UK. Critical discourse analysis (CDA), a little‐used approach in construction management research, is mobilized to examine the concept of respect and the business case argument. The focus is on how discourses shape reality, as well as how particular interests shape discourse. Investigation of the structural, institutional, and discursive context of Respect for People reveals it to be a response to conditions at a particular historical moment: labour shortages, the advent of the new Labour government, the desire to forestall regulation, and changes in the prevailing discourse and attitudes. Ness suggests that, while the Respect for People discourse may be seen as a way of defusing potential critique by giving the impression that the industry is taking action voluntarily, it is also a discursive resource which can also be drawn on by those seeking to improve working conditions in the UK construction industry.
Marrero and Ramirez‐de‐Arellano seek to resolve the precise determination of the cost related to construction and demolition waste (C&D waste) management in building construction. Since the end of 2008 establishing a separate budget for these costs has been mandatory in Spain. In order to achieve this goal the authors present the Andalusia construction information classification system (ACICS). Using this system, all C&D waste cost is separated from other costs already defined in the system, the cost controlling variable is the waste final destination, and in order to control precision, the expected waste from a building project is defined using the bill of quantities. In order to determine correctly the waste quantities, the proposed model uses the original bill of quantities, applying three transformation coefficients that depend on the material or product original units, the percentage that becomes waste and the volume change when transformed into waste. The system, the authors argue, increases precision and generates an estimate independent from the general budget.
There has been a lot of research on factors influencing cost and time overruns in construction but not much research geared towards the difficulty of controlling these factors in practice. Olawale and Sun set out to discover the factors that prevent practitioners from effectively controlling the cost and time of the projects in the UK, with a view to developing mitigating measures. The authors conducted the research in two stages; a questionnaire survey followed by semi‐structured interviews. Cost and time overrun remains an important issue in the UK construction sector, despite the application of project controls by practitioners. The leading factors that inhibit their ability to control cost and time were discovered with a high measure of agreement between the factors that inhibit cost control and those that inhibit time control. Olawale and Sun developed 90 mitigating measures specifically for the top five inhibiting factors and noted that this can be used as a checklist of good practice and help project managers to improve the effectiveness of control of their projects resulting in improvement of the cost and time performance of their projects.
Noting an absence of previous studies in the area, Jarkas explores factors that affect the productivity of in situ reinforced concrete construction. His research focuses specifically on a labour intensive trade and activity of this type of construction; rebar fixing in beams. With labour productivity data from construction sites in Kuwait, he has isolated the net effect of: variability of beam sizes; rebar diameter; stirrups diameter; reinforcement quantity; beam dimensions; and span geometry, on labour productivity. The results show significant impacts of these factors, which can be used to provide designers with practical feedback on how well their designs influence the requirements of buildability principles, on the one hand, and furnish guidance to construction managers for effective activity planning and efficient labour utilization, on the other. Jarkas offers recommendations, which can improve the buildability of the activity, thus enhancing the performance of projects.