Matching Items (8)
Filtering by
- All Subjects: management
- Genre: Doctoral Dissertation
- Creators: Sullivan, Kenneth
Description
Using experience, observations, data, current research, and writings in the field of volunteer management, it was determined there was a need to study the effects of leadership/management practices on the productivity outcomes of a volunteer construction workforce. A simple wood bench that would be tiled and painted was designed to test the areas of Time, Waste, Quality, Safety, and Satisfaction of different volunteer groups. The challenge was bolstered by giving the teams no power tools and limited available resources. A simple design of experiment model was used to test highs and lows in the three management techniques of Instruction, Help, and Encouragement. Each scenario was tested multiple times. Data was collected, normalized and analyzed using statistical analysis software. A few significant findings were discovered. The first; the research showed that there was no significant correlation between the management practices of the leader and the satisfaction of the volunteers. The second; the research also showed when further analyzed into specific realistic scenarios that the organizations would be better to focus on high amounts of Help and Encouragement in order to maximize the productivity of their volunteer construction workforce. This is significant as it allows NPO's and governments to focus their attention where best suited to produce results. The results were shared and the study was further validated as "significant" by conducting interviews with experts in the construction nonprofit sector.
ContributorsPrigge, Diedrich (Author) / Sullivan, Kenneth (Thesis advisor) / Wiezel, Avi (Committee member) / Badger, William (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
This dissertation examines an analytical methodology that considers predictive maintenance on industrial facilities equipment to exceed world class availability standards with greater understanding for organizational participation impacts. The research for this study was performed at one of the world's largest semiconductor facilities, with the intent of understanding one possible cause for a noticeable behavior in technical work routines. Semiconductor manufacturing disruption poses significant potential revenue loss on a scale easily quantified in millions of dollars per hour. These instances are commonly referred to as "Interruption to production" (ITP). ITP is a standardized metric used across Company ABC's worldwide factory network to track frequency of occurrence and duration of manufacturing downtime. ITP, the key quantifiable indicator in this dissertation, will be the primary analytical measurement to identify the effectiveness of maintenance personnel's work routines as they relate to unscheduled downtime with facilities systems. This dissertation examines the process used to obtain change in an industrial facilities organization and the associated reactions of individual organizational members. To give the reader background orientation on the methodology for testing, measuring and ultimately assessing the benefits and risks associated with integrating a predictive equipment failure methodology, this dissertation will examine analytical findings associated with the statement of purpose as it pertains to ITP reduction. However, the focus will be the exploration of behavioral findings within the organization and the development of an improved industry standard for predictive ITP reduction process implementation. Specifically, findings associated with organizational participation and learning development trends found within the work group.
ContributorsMcDonald, Douglas Kirk (Author) / Sullivan, Kenneth (Thesis advisor) / Badger, William (Committee member) / Verdini, William (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Recent studies have identified that contractors in the Saudi construction industry are not the main party that cause risks as owners and other parties have the major share of causing risks. However, with the identification that risks out of contractors’ control are a leading cause of low performance, there is a lack of efficient risk mitigation practices in Saudi to manage these risks. The main aim of this dissertation is to assess the current practices applied by contractors to minimize risk out of their control and develop a risk mitigation model to manage these risks. The main objectives of the study are: investigating the risks that are out of contractors’ control, assessing the contractors’ current risk mitigation and performance measurement practices, and finally developing and validating a risk mitigation model to minimize risks out of contractors’ control and measure performance of involved project parties. To achieve the study aim, a mixed methodological approach was adopted. Theoretical approaches were utilized to review previous research and to develop a conceptual risk mitigation framework followed by a practical approach that is considered with collecting data from contractors. The quantitative method was mainly used to meet the study objectives through distributing a survey in the form of a questionnaire. As a consolidation of the study findings, the top ranked risks that are out of contractors’ control were identified. Furthermore, the results identified that the contractors’ current risk management and performance measurement practices are not effective in minimizing projects risks caused by other parties and ineffective in measuring performance of all parties. The developed model focuses on increasing accountability of project parties through mitigating project parties’ activities and risks with measuring the deviations and identifying sources of deviations. Transparency is utilized in the model through sharing weekly updates of the activities and risks combined with updated information of performance measurements of all project parties. The study results showed that project risks can be minimized and projects’ performance can be increased if contractors shift their focus using the developed model from only managing their own activities and risks to managing all project parties’ activities and risks.
ContributorsAlgahtany, Mohammed (Author) / Sullivan, Kenneth (Thesis advisor) / Kashiwagi, Dean (Committee member) / Badger, William (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
The construction industry is performing poorly regarding project management and service delivery. On average, global projects are over-budget, delayed, and met with unsatisfactory results according to buyers. To mitigate poor performance, the project management career path has been heavily researched and continually developed over the last century. Despite the published advances in project management approaches and tools, project performance continues to suffer. This research seeks to conduct an exploratory analysis of current project management and other approaches and determine how they affect project performance. Through a detailed literature search, the researcher identified a procurement model that is more heavily documented as high performing than all other approaches. The researcher proposed that this model may be a solution to assist project managers with the delivery of high performing services. The model is called the Best Value Approach (BVA). The BVA focuses on leadership, non-technical communication, quality assurance, and transparent project execution. To test the effectiveness of its practices, the researcher modified and adapted the BVA into a project management approach and tested it on a large-scale government project. During the case study test, the researcher observed that there were two primary project management roles in the supply chain; the buyer’s and vendor’s project managers. The case study resulted in the large government organization receiving more work and increased their satisfaction of the work received by 22 percent from the previous year. To further test the project management adapted BVA, the researcher conducted a classroom case-study in which students learned and implemented the BVA practices on real-time, small-scale industry projects. Results include cost savings of $100,000 for 10 companies over 24 projects, cost avoidance of over $4.5M, and a 9.8/10 customer satisfaction [in terms of the companies’ satisfaction with the deliverables produced on each project]. These results suggest that the BVA practices may effectively improve the performance of project delivery, and may be a viable new project management approach to train future project managers. Out of the two project manager roles, it is proposed that the buyer’s project manager may receive the most benefit. Additional research is needed on the other approaches to compare quantitative project performance, and run repeated testing on the potential new project management approach.
ContributorsRivera, Alfredo Octavio (Author) / Badger, William (Thesis advisor) / Sullivan, Kenneth (Thesis advisor) / Kashiwagi, Jacob S (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
ABSTRACT
The objective of this dissertation is to identify a recommended balance between
leadership and management activities of a project manager who aims to rehabilitate a distressed construction project.
The data for this research was collected from 338 construction project professionals belonging to fifteen large construction companies who participated in leadership seminars originated by professors from Arizona State University. The seminars contained various leadership games and exercises that were designed specifically to collect data about leadership and management actions taken by the project managers.
The data from one of the games, called “Project from Hell” (PFH), was used in this research. The PFH game presents the participants with a set of fifty-two actions cards written on a deck of game cards and asks them to select the ten action cards they perceive as being most effective for turning a troubled construction project around. Each suit of the deck represents a different category of actions, focusing on either Traditional Leadership (Hearts), Best Value Leadership (Diamonds), Traditional Management (Spades), or Micro- Management (Clubs).
Statistical analysis of the results revealed that only sixteen of the fifty-two actions cards were selected with statistically significant consistency. Of these sixteen actions, six actions were form Traditional Management actions, five were Traditional Leadership actions, and five were Best Value Leadership actions. This rendered a recommended balance of 62% leadership activities vs. 38% management activities for project managers to rehabilitate distressed construction projects. It was also found that the same balance is recommended for the normal condition construction projects. The calculated weighted
i
scores for ranking the sixteen effective leadership and management actions revealed that the five Traditional Management actions are the top-most effective actions. This demonstrates the importance of stand still management actions in rehabilitating in trouble construction projects
The findings were converted into easy to implement guidelines about how project managers can change habits to increase their effectiveness by focusing on the right type of actions.
A generalization of the methodology for interpreting the results of any study based on selection of activities, was also developed.
The objective of this dissertation is to identify a recommended balance between
leadership and management activities of a project manager who aims to rehabilitate a distressed construction project.
The data for this research was collected from 338 construction project professionals belonging to fifteen large construction companies who participated in leadership seminars originated by professors from Arizona State University. The seminars contained various leadership games and exercises that were designed specifically to collect data about leadership and management actions taken by the project managers.
The data from one of the games, called “Project from Hell” (PFH), was used in this research. The PFH game presents the participants with a set of fifty-two actions cards written on a deck of game cards and asks them to select the ten action cards they perceive as being most effective for turning a troubled construction project around. Each suit of the deck represents a different category of actions, focusing on either Traditional Leadership (Hearts), Best Value Leadership (Diamonds), Traditional Management (Spades), or Micro- Management (Clubs).
Statistical analysis of the results revealed that only sixteen of the fifty-two actions cards were selected with statistically significant consistency. Of these sixteen actions, six actions were form Traditional Management actions, five were Traditional Leadership actions, and five were Best Value Leadership actions. This rendered a recommended balance of 62% leadership activities vs. 38% management activities for project managers to rehabilitate distressed construction projects. It was also found that the same balance is recommended for the normal condition construction projects. The calculated weighted
i
scores for ranking the sixteen effective leadership and management actions revealed that the five Traditional Management actions are the top-most effective actions. This demonstrates the importance of stand still management actions in rehabilitating in trouble construction projects
The findings were converted into easy to implement guidelines about how project managers can change habits to increase their effectiveness by focusing on the right type of actions.
A generalization of the methodology for interpreting the results of any study based on selection of activities, was also developed.
ContributorsBehzad, Navid (Author) / Wiezel, Avi (Thesis advisor) / Gibson, Jr., G. Edward (Committee member) / Sullivan, Kenneth (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
The workforce demographics in the United States are rapidly changing. According to census information, 35% of working adults are project to retire within the next 20 years. The construction is being particularly affected by this demographic shift as fewer employees are entering into the industry. This shift is especially bad among project professionals within the industry. The response to these changing demographics depends on how companies manage their talent and plan for successions. In order to investigate this workforce problem in the construction industry, the author has partnered with an expert panel of human resource executives from various companies in the construction industry. This research seeks to investigate methods in which construction companies can identify high potential project leaders early on in their careers through quantitative methodologies. The author first validated the research problem by gathering demographic data from six U.S. construction companies varying in size and industry expertise. As a result of analyzing information from 2,294 construction employees in the project management career path, the authors have found that 58% of these individuals are projected to retire within the next 12 years. The author also conducted a detailed literature review and six company interviews to investigate current succession planning practices in the industry. The results show that very few companies have contingency plans for early to mid-level employees. Lastly, the author conducted 76 employee psychological evaluations to measure personality and behavior traits. These traits were then compared to supervisory performance reviews of these employees. The results of this comparison suggest that high potential employees tend to showcase previous leadership experience and also tend to be more outspoken and are also able to separate their emotional bias from business decisions. Using these findings, the author provides an interview tool that employers can use to expand their talent pool in order to identify high potential candidates that may have been previously overlooked. The author recommends additional research in further developing the use of quantitative tools to evaluate early-career employees in order to more efficiently align resources within the shrinking talent pool.
ContributorsGunnoe, Jake Alan (Author) / Sullivan, Kenneth (Thesis advisor) / Wiezel, Avi (Thesis advisor) / Kashiwagi, Dean T. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
ABSTRACT
The current Saudi Arabian (SA) procurement system leads to many losses in money and benefits in projects. Also, the use of the traditional procurement system in SA has been identified as one of the causes for poor performance in the delivery of construction and the major risk to the SA government. A questionnaire has been developed and carefully designed based on literature review. The purpose of the survey was to identify the validity of the recent claims that the procurement system in SA is broken and to improve the current SA procurement system. The questionnaire was sent out to 1,396 participants including included 867 engineers, 256 consultants, 93 contractors, 35 owners and 132 architects and 13 academics.
All participants have been registered and licensed professionals at the SA Council for professional engineers, who work in both private and public sectors. The participants are interested in the SA procurement and contracts system with experience ranging from one to more than twenty-five years with the majority of twenty-five years of experience in common construction sectors such as; residential and commercial buildings, healthcare buildings, industrial building and heavy civil construction.
Most of the participants from both private and public sectors agreed with the survey questions subject matter regarding: zone price proposals, contractors' evaluation, risks, planning, projects' scope, owners concern and weekly risks reports (WRR). The survey results showed that the procurement system is the major risk to projects, affects construction projects negatively and is in need of improvement.
Based on the survey and literature review, a model, called Saudi government performance procurement model (SGPPM), has been developed in which the most expert contractor is chosen through four phases: submittals& education, vendors selection, illustration and execution. The resulting model is easy to implement by SA government and does not require special skills or backgrounds.
The current Saudi Arabian (SA) procurement system leads to many losses in money and benefits in projects. Also, the use of the traditional procurement system in SA has been identified as one of the causes for poor performance in the delivery of construction and the major risk to the SA government. A questionnaire has been developed and carefully designed based on literature review. The purpose of the survey was to identify the validity of the recent claims that the procurement system in SA is broken and to improve the current SA procurement system. The questionnaire was sent out to 1,396 participants including included 867 engineers, 256 consultants, 93 contractors, 35 owners and 132 architects and 13 academics.
All participants have been registered and licensed professionals at the SA Council for professional engineers, who work in both private and public sectors. The participants are interested in the SA procurement and contracts system with experience ranging from one to more than twenty-five years with the majority of twenty-five years of experience in common construction sectors such as; residential and commercial buildings, healthcare buildings, industrial building and heavy civil construction.
Most of the participants from both private and public sectors agreed with the survey questions subject matter regarding: zone price proposals, contractors' evaluation, risks, planning, projects' scope, owners concern and weekly risks reports (WRR). The survey results showed that the procurement system is the major risk to projects, affects construction projects negatively and is in need of improvement.
Based on the survey and literature review, a model, called Saudi government performance procurement model (SGPPM), has been developed in which the most expert contractor is chosen through four phases: submittals& education, vendors selection, illustration and execution. The resulting model is easy to implement by SA government and does not require special skills or backgrounds.
ContributorsAlofi, Ahmed Abdulrahman (Author) / Kashiwagi, Dean (Thesis advisor) / Sullivan, Kenneth (Committee member) / Kashiwagi, Jacob (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
The practice of Facility Condition Assessments (FCA’s) has received academic attention with over 20 condition assessment methodologies to date, focusing on condition gradients and scale ratings. However, little attention has been brought to the life cycle of an FCA, specifically how building owners and managers plan and conduct an FCA. FCA methodologies in academic research are complex, sophisticated and require time for implementation that a typical facility manager does not have. This work showcases the need for simpler, more practical planning variables for a facility manager to begin the process of planning for an FCA in their management of a facilities portfolio. This research is a compilation of two national studies, the creation of an FCA project lifecycle analytical framework, and the creation of an organizational FCA maturity self-assessment model. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews from facility managers and facility condition assessment service providers to gain in-depth insight and understanding of the current practice of facility condition assessments in the facility management profession. This data was used to develop national surveys for both facility owners/managers and FCA service providers. An FCA project delivery model was developed through a Delphi study, representing an FCA project lifecycle. The development of a multi-phased FCA project delivery method provides a relative position and sequence of phases representing an FCA project lifecycle. An organizational FCA maturity self-assessment model was created as the first step for organizations to measure their current state of FCA awareness, FCA practice, state of reliability, asset knowledge posture and historical capital spending. The resulting research makes two distinct contributions to the literature. The first contribution is the sequencing of FCA project phases provides an analytic framework for understanding an FCA project lifecycle, providing owners, FCA practitioners and researchers to acknowledge that an FCA project represents a lifecycle model. The second contribution is an FCA planning tool for building owners and managers that allows an organization to bring to light the current state of FCA awareness and help communicate the value proposition FCA’s can afford to an organization. Recommendations for future research on the role of an FCA are provided.
ContributorsHillestad, Derek (Author) / Sullivan, Kenneth (Thesis advisor) / Ayer, Steven (Committee member) / Hurtado, Kristen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022