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Current information on successful leadership and management practices is contradictory and inconsistent, which makes difficult to understand what successful business practices are and what are not. The purpose of this study is to identify a simple process that quickly and logically identifies consistent and inconsistent leadership and management criteria. The

Current information on successful leadership and management practices is contradictory and inconsistent, which makes difficult to understand what successful business practices are and what are not. The purpose of this study is to identify a simple process that quickly and logically identifies consistent and inconsistent leadership and management criteria. The hypothesis proposed is that Information Measurement Theory (IMT) along with the Kashiwagi Solution Model (KSM) is a methodology than can differentiate between accurate and inaccurate principles the initial part of the study about authors in these areas show how information is conflictive, and also served to establish an initial baseline of recommended practices aligned with IMT. The one author that excels in comparison to the rest suits the "Initial Baseline Matrix from Deming" which composes the first model. The second model is denominated the "Full Extended KSM-Matrix" composed of all the LS characteristics found among all authors and IMT. Both models were tested-out for accuracy. The second part of the study was directed to evaluate the perception of individuals on these principles. Two different groups were evaluated, one group of people that had prior training and knowledge of IMT; another group of people without any knowledge of IMT. The results of the survey showed more confusion in the group of people without knowledge to IMT and improved consistency and less variation in the group of people with knowledge in IMT. The third part of the study, the analysis of case studies of success and failure, identified principles as contributors, and categorized them into LS/type "A" characteristics and RS/type "C" characteristics, by applying the KSM. The results validated the initial proposal and led to the conclusion that practices that fall into the LS side of the KSM will lead to success, while practices that fall into the RS of the KSM will lead to failure. The comparison and testing of both models indicated a dominant support of the IMT concepts as contributors to success; while the KSM model has a higher accuracy of prediction.
ContributorsReynolds, Harry (Author) / Kashiwagi, Dean (Thesis advisor) / Sullivan, Kenneth (Committee member) / Badger, William (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
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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

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
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Description
The Performance Based Studies Research Group (PBSRG) has developed industry-tested leadership and management techniques that have been proven to increase organizational performance. The Leadership Society of Arizona (LSA) has worked closely with PBSRG to develop an educational framework that introduces these leadership concepts to college students. LSA is now endeavoring

The Performance Based Studies Research Group (PBSRG) has developed industry-tested leadership and management techniques that have been proven to increase organizational performance. The Leadership Society of Arizona (LSA) has worked closely with PBSRG to develop an educational framework that introduces these leadership concepts to college students. LSA is now endeavoring to make this curriculum more accessible for K-12 students and educators. As part of a thesis creative project, the author has developed a strategy to connect with and enable local high schools, teachers, and students to engage with the professional industry and higher education. This strategy will allow LSA to connect with up to 150 high school students over the summer of 2016. By making this education easily accessible, the author has accomplished a milestone in the larger effort encompassed by LSA. The course chosen to present to high school students is an abridged variation of the Barrett Honors College course "Deductive Logic: Leadership and Management Techniques". The class framework is designed to instantiate a self-sustaining program for future summer school courses. The summer school course will allow high school students to learn, understand, and apply college level concepts into their education, work, and personal lives. The development of the framework for the program encompasses networking/partnering efforts, marketing package creation, and the delivery of the summer school course over the months of June and July in 2016.
ContributorsDunn, Melissa Anne (Author) / Kashiwagi, Dean (Thesis director) / Kashiwagi, Jacob (Committee member) / Industrial, Systems (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
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Description
Saudi Arabia has been having many issues with large construction projects such as delays, low performance and high cost. Some studies show that around 70% of the public projects in Saudi Arabia are delayed. These issues have resulted from many factors. One of the factors believed to be delaying projects

Saudi Arabia has been having many issues with large construction projects such as delays, low performance and high cost. Some studies show that around 70% of the public projects in Saudi Arabia are delayed. These issues have resulted from many factors. One of the factors believed to be delaying projects is the Saudi procurement system. The Saudi procurement system only selects contracts based on the lowest bid price offered. However, the Saudi procurement system has been found to not only produce delayed low quality projects, but also has resulted in higher costs.

This paper shows how to modify the Saudi procurement system by implementing a clarification phase, which is the most important phase in the Performance Information Procurement System (PIPS). The clarification phase requires the bid’s winning contractor to submit a project scope, a project schedule, to identify risks that not their responsibility, performance measurements and a milestone schedule. The PIPS system has been one of the most successful systems around the world and has shown a 98% success rate in six different countries with risks and cost reductions up to 30%.

This research conducted a survey of 157 engineers, 33 consultants, 9 owners, 5 vendors, 13 academics, and 28 architects to develop the public procurement system in Saudi Arabia. The participants work in government sectors with an interest in the Saudi Arabian procurement system. 80.61 % of participants believe that the traditional Saudi procurement system consistently selects poor performing contractors. Moreover, 95.97% of participants think that the selection of contractors based only on the lowest price criterion affects projects negatively. Also, 96.20% of participants in the survey feel that there needs to be a change in the traditional Saudi Arabian procurement system. 88.7% of participants agree to require the contractor to identify risks, and 96.03 % of participants agree that the contractors must have a plan. Moreover, 95.45% of participants agree to require a contractor review the scope of a project and verify that it is correct. Finally, 82.18% of participants agree to require a contractor to resolve all owner concerns before signing a contract to improve construction projects performance. The paper shows the need to change the Saudi procurement system and a solution to this growing problem.
ContributorsAlofi, Ahmed Abdulrahman (Author) / Kashiwagi, Dean (Thesis advisor) / Sullivan, Kenneth (Committee member) / Kashiwagi, Jacob (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
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Description
Research has shown that construction projects in Saudi Arabia have had a perceived poor performance for the past three decades, from 1970-2016. The Saudi construction industry relies on a Contractor Classification System (CCS) to determine contractors’ capabilities, and prevent underperformance. Through this study, a survey was conducted among

Research has shown that construction projects in Saudi Arabia have had a perceived poor performance for the past three decades, from 1970-2016. The Saudi construction industry relies on a Contractor Classification System (CCS) to determine contractors’ capabilities, and prevent underperformance. Through this study, a survey was conducted among persons involved in the Saudi Arabian construction industry to identify the perception of the performance of the Saudi Arabian construction industry, and the satisfaction with the CCS. The results of the survey showed that 71.59% of the participants agreed that the CCS does not accurately assess contractors’ capabilities for projects they are allowed to work on. A critical review of the CCS is presented through a case study and comparisons are made from worldwide CCSs found in a literature review. All the parts of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s CCS, including the work flow and the evaluation criteria were reviewed. Several observations of the CCS include a lack of transparency in the process, no performance feedback, complexity of the system, the system being outdated in relation to the worldwide systems, and no continuous performance measurements. To develop an appropriate continuous performance measurement model and benchmarking, other worldwide performance measurement models and benchmarking models were reviewed and discussed. Through these findings, a modified version of the current CCS was developed. A test was performed on the financial assessment portion of the developed model using 5,751 contractors who were classified at the time of this study. The results showed that only 14% of the 5,751 contractors are financially capable in their respective CCS grades. The proposed new CCS model which is outlined in this study includes two major modifications. The first modification is on existing components, which will improve the transparency, simplicity, and speed of the CCS process. The second modification is the addition of a new component, which will continually track contractor performance over time and motivate contractors to improve their performance.
ContributorsAlmutairi, Saud (Author) / Kashiwagi, Dean (Thesis advisor) / Kashiwagi, Jacob (Committee member) / Sullivan, Kenneth (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
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Description
Public construction projects in Saudi Arabia have been experiencing performance issues for the past 30 years. There have been many research efforts and publications identifying the problem and potential causes, however, there have been minimal efforts identifying how to mitigate the problem and testing to validate proposed solutions. A literature

Public construction projects in Saudi Arabia have been experiencing performance issues for the past 30 years. There have been many research efforts and publications identifying the problem and potential causes, however, there have been minimal efforts identifying how to mitigate the problem and testing to validate proposed solutions. A literature search has shown that the academic research has had minimal impact in assisting the construction industry to improve its performance. This dissertation aimed to evaluate the impact of construction management research in Saudi construction industry (SCI), and to investigate barriers that hinder the diffusion of implementing the research outcomes in the construction sector in order to develop a research roadmap to bridge the gap between academic research and practice, using the experience of other organizations that have a successful experience in developing the impact of construction management research in the construction industry. In order to achieve the aim of the study, five main objectives were set up which are: evaluate the impact of construction management research in SCI, identify the barriers that affect the implementation of construction management research in SCI, develop a research roadmap to bridge the gap between the research and practice, validating the proposed solution, and proposed implementation plan and review the result from the implementation. A literature research was performed, using 5 academic databases, identifying the impact that R&D has had on the SCI. A questionnaire was also created surveying both researchers and industry professionals. The results show evidence that the current R&D process in Saudi Arabia is not helping the SCI to increase their performance, and needs to be improved. This study provides a potential solution, and an action plan that mirrors one of the most successful research and development programs in the construction industry in the world [+1915 tests, six different countries, 31 states in the U.S. and 98% customer satisfaction]. The solution proposed in this dissertation is unique to the strengths and weaknesses of the research and development programs at universities and research centers in Saudi Arabia. This study is the first study of its kind in Saudi Arabia.
ContributorsAlhammadi, Yasir (Author) / Kashiwagi, Dean (Thesis advisor) / Badger, William (Committee member) / Sullivan, Kenneth (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
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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

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.
ContributorsAlofi, Ahmed Abdulrahman (Author) / Kashiwagi, Dean (Thesis advisor) / Sullivan, Kenneth (Committee member) / Kashiwagi, Jacob (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017