The emerging methodologies of 'soft operational research' have been developed for the purposes of structuring multi-perspective problems characterized by uncertainty, ambiguity and conflict. A participative research project is reported that sought to propagate the three most established 'soft'...

Age-dependent failure in the construction industry is explored over two 11-year periods (1973-1983 and 1984-1994) by analysing the age distribution of failed construction companies in each year and computing age-specific failure probabilities over a 10 year period (1985-1994). The conflicting...

A method is presented for non-results-based effectiveness indexing of construction site managers (CSMs). The 52 competence element index is based on previous research on construction-specific competency elements and stakeholder assessment systems. The method was qualitatively assessed through...

One of the most perplexing issues facing organizations in the construction industry is their inability to become quality focused. As a result sub-standard products and services often emanate, which inadvertently result in rework. Typically, rework is caused by errors made during the design...

Risk management is fundamental to the success of a major project. However, the variations in using risk management practices are considerable and are dependent on numerous factors such as the industry sector, the size of the project, and the stage in the project life cycle. One of the major...

Recent investigations concerning the productivity of the UK construction industry and its performance compared with other European and world-wide nations have reported conflicting findings. These investigations have utilized various methodologies in attempting to measure and compare productivity...

The duration of Australian construction has been modelled by a time-cost formula expressed in the form of T=KCB, where T is the actual construction time in working days, C is the final cost of contract in millions, K is a constant characteristic of building time performance, and B is a constant...

A survey is described which examines the current risk handling practices in evaluating capital development projects (transmission, generation and distribution) within the electricity supply industry world-wide. As risk perception is an important aspect of risk management, the attitudes towards...

OECD purchasing power parities (PPPs) are used regularly in strategic governmental policy papers to compare the performance of construction industries among countries. These PPPs suggest that the relative competitiveness of the Dutch construction sector is fairly weak compared with surrounding...

The environment has been perceived as an international issue, and ways of attaining sustainability are becoming important for countries seeking sustainable development. The international community has been active in developing policy frameworks towards achieving the sustainability, such as an...