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Description
The construction industry has accepted the uncertainty that is included with every project that is initiated. Because of the existing uncertainty, best practices with risk management are commonly recommended and educated to industry participants. However, the current status of the construction industry's ability to manage risk was found to be limited, unstructured, and inadequate. Furthermore, many barriers block organizations from implementing and improving risk management practices. A significant barrier with improving risk management methods is the lack of evidence that clearly demonstrates the need to improve risk management practices. Logical explanations of the benefits of risk management doesn't provide the necessary justification or motivation needed for many organizations to dedicate resources towards improving risk management.
Nevertheless, some organizations understand the importance of risk management practices and have begun to measure their risk maturity in order to identify weaknesses and improve risk management practices. Risk maturity measures the organization's ability and perceptions towards risk management. It is possible that many of the barriers to improving risk management would not exist if increased risk maturity was found to have a positive correlation with successful project performance.
The comprehensive hypothesis of the research is that increased risk maturity improves project performance. An exploratory study was conducted on data collected to identify measurable benefits with risk management. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected on 266 construction projects over a seven year period. Multiple statistical analyses were performed on the data and found a positive correlations between risk maturity and project performance. A positive correlations was found between customer satisfaction and contractors risk maturity. Additional findings from the recorded data included the increased ability to predict risks during construction projects within an organization. These findings provide clear reasoning for organizations to devote additional resources in which improve their risk management practices.
Nevertheless, some organizations understand the importance of risk management practices and have begun to measure their risk maturity in order to identify weaknesses and improve risk management practices. Risk maturity measures the organization's ability and perceptions towards risk management. It is possible that many of the barriers to improving risk management would not exist if increased risk maturity was found to have a positive correlation with successful project performance.
The comprehensive hypothesis of the research is that increased risk maturity improves project performance. An exploratory study was conducted on data collected to identify measurable benefits with risk management. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected on 266 construction projects over a seven year period. Multiple statistical analyses were performed on the data and found a positive correlations between risk maturity and project performance. A positive correlations was found between customer satisfaction and contractors risk maturity. Additional findings from the recorded data included the increased ability to predict risks during construction projects within an organization. These findings provide clear reasoning for organizations to devote additional resources in which improve their risk management practices.
ContributorsPerrenoud, Anthony (Author) / Sullivan, Kenneth T. (Thesis advisor) / Weizel, Avi (Committee member) / Badger, William (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Owner organizations in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry are presented with a wide variety of project delivery approaches. Implementation of these approaches, while enticing due to their potential to save money, reduce schedule delays, or improve quality, is extremely difficult to accomplish and requires a concerted change management effort. Research in the field of organizational behavior cautions that perhaps more than half of all organizational change efforts fail to accomplish their intended objectives. This study utilizes an action research approach to analyze change message delivery within owner organizations, model owner project team readiness and adoption of change, and identify the most frequently encountered types of resistance from lead project members. The analysis methodology included Spearman's rank order correlation, variable selection testing via three methods of hierarchical linear regression, relative weight analysis, and one-way ANOVA. Key findings from this study include recommendations for communicating the change message within owner organizations, empirical validation of critical predictors for change readiness and change adoption among project teams, and identification of the most frequently encountered resistive behaviors within change implementation in the AEC industry. A key contribution of this research is the recommendation of change management strategies for use by change practitioners.
ContributorsLines, Brian (Author) / Sullivan, Kenneth (Thesis advisor) / Wiezel, Avi (Committee member) / Badger, William (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
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
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 success or failure of projects is not determined only by procedures, tasks, and technologies, but also by the project team and its effectiveness. In order to lead project teams towards successful outcomes, project managers must maintain high quality relationships in the workplace. When looking at employees’ relationships in the workplace, Social Exchange Theory introduces two types of exchanges: employee-organization and leader-member exchanges. While both types of exchanges focus exclusively on the employee’s longitudinal relationships, the interpersonal relationships among the team members are usually overlooked.
This research presents the results of a quantitative study of the interpersonal relationships of 327 project managers and assistant project managers in their workplace. Specifically, the study investigates if the quality of the relationship with particular stakeholders, such as one’s immediate supervisor (boss), peers, or subordinates, drives the individual’s quality of the relationship with other stakeholders.
Contrary to the expectations, in strictly hierarchical organizations (one direct supervisor), there is no significant correlation between the quality of relationships with the boss and the overall quality of the individual’s relationships. However, in the case of matrix organizations (two or three bosses), there are significant correlations between several variables such as the quality of the relationship, perceived importance and the time spent with each stakeholder, as well the inclination of the participant towards leadership actions. The driving relationship in matrix organizations is the one with “the most important peer”.
This research presents the results of a quantitative study of the interpersonal relationships of 327 project managers and assistant project managers in their workplace. Specifically, the study investigates if the quality of the relationship with particular stakeholders, such as one’s immediate supervisor (boss), peers, or subordinates, drives the individual’s quality of the relationship with other stakeholders.
Contrary to the expectations, in strictly hierarchical organizations (one direct supervisor), there is no significant correlation between the quality of relationships with the boss and the overall quality of the individual’s relationships. However, in the case of matrix organizations (two or three bosses), there are significant correlations between several variables such as the quality of the relationship, perceived importance and the time spent with each stakeholder, as well the inclination of the participant towards leadership actions. The driving relationship in matrix organizations is the one with “the most important peer”.
ContributorsK. Jamali, M. Hossein (Author) / Wiezel, Avi (Thesis advisor) / Sullivan, Kenneth T. (Committee member) / Badger, William (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
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 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
Description
The objective of the study was to examine the impact construction document deficiencies have on heavy/civil low-bid infrastructure projects. It encompasses the expertise of 202 heavy/civil construction professionals comprised of contactors and public project owners. The study was designed to determine the frequency and timing of when a contractor discovers construction document deficiencies on heavy/civil low bid projects. The information was correlated with further study data of when a contractor ultimately reports the discovered construction document deficiencies to the public project owner. This research data was compiled and analyzed to determine if contractors are withholding construction document deficiencies from public owners until after the project contract has been executed. The withholding of document deficiencies can benefit contractors by resulting in additional owner incurred costs and potential justification for project time extensions. As a result, further research was required to examine the impact construction document deficiencies have on project cost and schedule. Based on the study findings, it has led to the development of a Contractor Document Review Assessment. The Contractor Document Review Assessment is a risk mitigation device in which contractors and public project owners can identify construction document deficiencies on heavy/civil low-bid construction projects before the project contract has been executed.
ContributorsPesek, Anthony Edward (Author) / Sullivan, Kenneth (Thesis advisor) / Badger, William (Committee member) / Bingham, Evan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Front End Planning (FEP) is a critical process for uncovering project unknowns, while developing adequate scope definition following a structured approach for the project execution process. FEP for infrastructure projects assists in identifying and mitigating issues such as right-of-way concerns, utility adjustments, environmental hazards, logistic problems, and permitting requirements. This thesis describes a novel and effective risk management tool that has been developed by the Construction Industry Institute (CII) called the Project Definition Rating Index (PDRI) for infrastructure projects. Input from industry professionals from over 30 companies was used in the tool development which is specifically focused on FEP. Data from actual projects are given showing the efficacy of the tool. Critical success factors for FEP of infrastructure projects are shared. The research shows that a finite and specific list of issues related to scope definition of infrastructure projects can be developed. The thesis also concludes that the PDRI score indicates the current level of scope definition and corresponds to project performance. Infrastructure projects with low PDRI scores outperform projects with high PDRI scores.
ContributorsBingham, Evan Dale (Author) / Gibson Jr., G. Edward (Thesis advisor) / Badger, William (Committee member) / Ariaratnam, Samuel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2010