Hogarth and Gambin, using evidence from a series of employer case studies conducted between 1995 and 2011, indicate the important role of public funding in ensuring that construction employers invest in apprenticeships. Historically, the share of employers and young people entering apprenticeships in England has been relatively low, compared with those countries with established apprenticeship systems. With the creation of a publicly-funded apprenticeship programme in 1994, successive Governments have sought to increase the number of young people and employers engaging in this form of training. The evidence demonstrates that by end of the apprenticeship training period, in the publicly-funded system, construction employers are substantially in deficit. Although they are able to recoup their training costs over two to three years after the end of the apprenticeship, this is dependent upon them being able to retain the services of their former apprentices. This is not always straightforward in a sector with relatively weak internal labour markets. Provision of public funding for apprenticeships thereby assists construction employers manage the risk related to training an apprentice. In other words, it helps them deal with the uncertainties attached to: (a) retaining the apprentice once trained; and (b) recouping their training costs. Reform of publicly-funded apprenticeship may see the employer bear a larger share of the overall cost. This may affect levels of employer participation. This is important from a public policy perspective because apprenticeships in construction skills provide an important bridge for young people making the transition between school and relatively well-paid, high-skilled employment. And apprenticeships also assist the construction sector in avoiding costly skill shortages.
How can it that innovative, better performing construction products are not immediately taken up by builders, even in cases where these products only have a marginally higher cost and are easy to integrate into established methods and procedures for building? In a case-study of innovation in Norwegian house building, Orstavik has analysed this question. Choosing as his topic the slow uptake of a novel wet room board in an industry beset by extensive and consequential wet room damages, he found that it was necessary to look back several decades to understand some of the fundamental reasons why this could be the case. Behaviour that, at first sight, appeared to be irrational conservatism and a lack of willingness to learn from errors, turned out to be based on sensible decisions and rational action. Economic incentives for improving long-term performance of wet rooms are generally weak, while potential consequences of not adhering to established routines and norms are considerable. Established methods are endorsed by the leading building research institute in Norway and encoded in the institutionalized system for house building. Not relying on them would transgress not only informal norms, but act against the interests of large and influential stakeholders in the sector. Specifically, having played a pioneering role in the creation of an innovative system of house building throughout the post-World War II era in Norway, the leading building research institute in Norway was such an incumbent stakeholder. Clearly, having been a very important innovation broker at one stage, and in some specific contexts, does not warrant playing a similar role at a later stage, and in other contexts. For practitioners and would-be innovators in building products, the lessons from the study are twofold. First, understanding the dynamics of competition and the structure of alliances in terms of technologies and institutionalized building methods is essential. Second, a leading research institute and a proven innovation broker can be a decisive factor in the struggle to realize an innovation, but such an institution has a memory and has loyalties, and should be approached by an ambitious entrepreneur with caution and intelligence.
Chia, Skitmore, Runeson and Bridge examine the relationships between construction productivity and economic development. They conducted an empirical analysis of the Malaysian construction industry and macroeconomic statistical data between 1970 and 2011 and found that there was a significant correlation between construction productivity and economic fluctuations. They conclude that average labour productivity is countercyclical. The underlying factors driving the change in construction productivity in the 1985–1998 cycle are associated with the supply side of the economy i.e. amplified construction activity and increased construction employment. However, the change in construction productivity in the 1998–2009 cycle was energized mainly by the demand side. In order to overcome the ‘boom-bust’ nature of the construction business cycle, the authors recommend that practitioners or policy-makers should adopt long-range planning techniques for managing productivity, improving the visibility and transparency of future orders. They suggest government agencies should work together to formulate long-term and integrated development plans to reap the benefit of productive efficiency.
With rapidly and continually improving technologies, it is increasingly difficult for a firm to be self-sufficient in developing products and conducting business. Firms need to collaborate in pursuing the goals of business success. Therefore, inter-organizational relationships are an important strategic asset. One key indicator of the state of health of inter-organizational relationships is behavioural commitment. Behavioural commitment is a key dimension of commitment, the other being attitudinal commitment. Existing research in these areas reveals a strong focus on the latter, with the former being under-researched. Shiu, Jiang and Zaefarian have conducted an in-depth study into behavioural commitment. They conducted a survey of 636 UK construction firms. Their theoretical model indicates that trust, reliance and dependence are the three major antecedents of behavioural commitment. One of these implications of this research is that trust is the most important antecedent of behavioural commitment. Therefore, firms should focus on establishing strategies for enhancing trust between firms.
Rose and Manley explore the obstacles to product innovation diffusion on Australian road infrastructure projects. The performance of this sector seems to be constrained by low levels of product innovation. Despite the benefits of innovation on such projects, successful diffusion across complex road construction supply chains is a challenging task. In the light of these challenges, Rose and Manley propose a conceptual framework. They identify some contextual characteristics that influence the decision to adopt new products. They carried out a survey of 212 practitioners from both manufacturing and project-based organizations. The findings from this survey helped with integrating the contextual characteristics into an innovation-diffusion process model. This is used to analyse the obstacles to product innovation. Examples of these obstacles are an overemphasis on up-front project costs during tender assessment; disagreement over who carries the risk of new product failure; and adversarial contract relations that inhibit the effective sharing of knowledge about innovations.
Lingard, Pirzadeh, Blismas, Wakefield and Kleiner examine the relationship between constructors’ input into project decision-making and the efficacy of health and safety risk control. They are particularly interested in the pre-construction phase. It is generally accepted that health and safety should be considered in this early stage. However, in spite of legislative requirements to consider safety in project planning and design, the best way to achieve optimal health and safety outcomes is not well understood. The authors posit that if decisions are informed by knowledge of construction processes, they are likely to produce better health and safety for construction workers. Data were collected from case study construction projects in Australia and New Zealand. Project participants were interviewed about decisions that were made that impacted on health and safety and the flow of communication that occurred during the course of making these decisions. Social network analysis was used to visualize and understand project communication networks. Using a rating system based on the hierarchy of control, the authors compared communication networks for cases with health and safety outcomes that were above and below the average. The authors report that, in cases with high quality health and safety outcomes, the construction contractor played a more prominent role in project decision-making, particularly in the pre-construction stages. This was evidenced by a higher volume and frequency of information flowing from the constructor to other project participants when key decisions were being made. The authors conclude that engaging construction contractors early in the life of projects and involving them in planning and design decision-making can produce improved health and safety outcomes.
Akhavan Tabassi, Ramli, Roufechaei and Akhavan Tabassi focus on team development and performance. Based on their analysis, team development is seen as a hierarchical, reflective construct. Successful organizations that make use of teamwork structures put into action compensation systems as one of the central project orchestrating mechanisms. Therefore, the authors evaluated the impact of employees’ compensation methods on the relationship between team development and team performance. Their results reveal that one third of the total influence of team development on team performance was attained through the compensation methods. The authors assert that design teams achieved better performance when leaders adapted group compensation methods, as opposed to individual compensations, consistent with the team development practices.