Jacobsson and Linderoth explore users’ general perceptions of ICT impacts in the post-adoption stage and analyse the implications for construction management practice. Using a mixed methods approach (a web-based survey, interviews and meeting observations) they show how differences in perceptions among occupational groups can be explained in relation to contextual aspects involving the nature of the employees work tasks. One example that they put forward is that the use of ICT by higher level managers focuses on control of project performance, whereas planners and estimators use ICT as an indispensable computing and planning tool in their daily work. The authors consider how this influences perceptions of ICT systems. Another interesting aspect is that, on the one hand, the employees perceived that a further development of ICT systems would increase the company’s competitiveness, but on the other hand, they did not want to increase their own use of ICT; they basically think that ‘it is fine, just as it is’. Accordingly, a challenge in construction management is to develop and adapt prevailing ICT systems so they can support the work of different occupational groups to a higher degree than they do now. This also raises the question of how contemporary ICT is used in general and this is discussed in relations to the fact that ICT historically has been developed for control and computing purposes. A concern from a managerial perspective is that there might be inadequate use of existing technology and that current ICT is not well adapted to the industry’s conditions. Therefore, a future challenge in construction management is to investigate these opinions more deeply to discover the deficiencies of the prevailing ICT and how it can be developed in order to increase the competitiveness of construction companies.
Choy, Ho and Mak utilize a quantile regression model to estimate the implicit price for housing attributes across the distribution of real estate prices, allowing specific percentiles of prices to be more influenced by certain housing attributes when compared to other percentiles. This model is considered as a complement to the Ordinary Least Squares that gives a constant estimated coefficient for each housing attribute. The authors find that apartment size, age and floor level command different prices at different quantiles. With the use of this approach, the efficiency of the mortgage markets is enhanced by offering more accurate prediction of real estate prices at the lower and upper price distribution.
Lingard, Cooke and Blismas present a detailed investigation of design decisions that impacted the occupational health and safety (OHS) of construction workers in an Australian case study construction project. Through four vignettes, they describe how decisions ‘unfolded’ through a complex web of interaction between human actors and material actants. Particularly striking in this analysis is the way in which physical aspects of the facility under construction were not passive objects, but actively shaped design decisions. The authors explain that their analysis highlights difficulties in standard OHS risk management methods, which assume that hazards inherent in a design can be identified at specific ‘hold-points’ following which, a building design is stable. The dynamic and emergent nature of construction design work revealed by this analysis suggests that a more sophisticated approach to managing OHS is needed.
Driven by the desire to differentiate the uses of target costing within manufacturing and construction, Zimina, Ballard and Pasquire introduce ‘Target Value Design’ for construction. They report results derived from action research, through which a ‘target costing’ technique from manufacturing industries was adapted to the needs of the construction industry. They carried out 12 such experiments in the project environment in the USA, demonstrating that Target Value Design leads to significant improvement of project performance (on average the final cost was 15% less than market cost), helping to overcome traditional industry problems of adversarial relationships and uncertainty in terms of cost, quality and time. The authors focus on the comparison of the Target Value Design with the cost and contract management practices in use today and conclude that it differs radically from the latter. Target Value Design is positioned as a recommendable practice that offers a more reliable route to successful outcomes for all project types except those that are fully pre-designed and simple in nature.
Complex engineering projects typically face unique challenges that demand both exploring various options and exploiting existing capabilities. However, it is difficult to manage both exploitation and exploration in the same organizational unit due to different organizational support required for each. The solutions to managing the tension include separating the two approaches into separate organizational units (structural separation), by time (temporal separation), or by creating an organizational context that empowers employees to pursue both. Structural separation may not work because of the predominant need for integration at project level due to the fragmented nature of the construction industry and the co-location of project team. Instead, temporal separation could be an effective mechanism of separation. Creating an appropriate project context could also facilitate project ambidexterity. Extant studies on ambidexterity focus on the organizational level, which may not be appropriate for the project level. Liu, Wang and Sheng examine the effects of the three antecedents to ambidexterity through a case study of the Sutong bridge project -- the longest suspension bridge in the world. Based on interviews, project reports, observations and in-depth analysis, the case demonstrates that ambidexterity can be achieved during the limited life-span of a complex engineering project through: (1) partitioning the two approaches in different project phases and then integrating the two; (2) implementing policies and financial support aiming at facilitating contextual ambidexterity at both project and above project levels. For practitioners, there are two important takeaway messages: (1) planning the transition between exploration and exploitation as well as integration of the two are critical to project success; (2) creating a context that encourages the balance of exploration and exploitation through policy and incentives plays important roles in project success.