3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item An investigation of construction professionals’ perceptions of construction managers’ soft skills in complex construction projects in South Africa(2019) Sekhu, Madimetja SolomonPurpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate construction professionals’ perceptions of construction managers’ soft skills in complex construction projects in South Africa. Design/methodology: The survey and interviews were conducted in Gauteng Province (South Africa), which is the economic hub of the country. The study used a concurrent triangulation (mixed method) approach, where both quantitative and qualitative approaches were applied. The questionnaires were based on a list of 23 soft skills and training strategies extracted from previous research papers. The instruments for data collection were survey questionnaires and interviews. Findings: Statistical Package for Social Science Software (SPSS) version 25 was used to perform descriptive statistics, mean, standard deviation, and Relative Importance Indices (RII). The findings reveal 15 soft skills that are very important, with mean scores of between 4 and 4.63; and eight important soft skills, with mean scores of between 3 and 95. The overall results indicate that communications skills are considered very important, with a mean score of 4.63. Research limitation: The sample was drawn from a limited number of respondents from construction professionals based in Gauteng Province (South Africa). It would therefore not be appropriate to generalise the effects of the study to other provinces without considering their unique skills in managing complex projects. Practical implications: Understanding project complexity and its contributing factors helps construction professionals and construction managers to understand the challenges, dynamics, and complex nature of the construction industry. This highlights the importance of construction managers’ proficiency in soft skills. Originality/Value: This study proposes a list of soft skills and training needs, and their importance for construction managers in complex projects. The study also emphasises the importance of the ability of construction managers’ soft skills in complex projects. Therefore, construction organisations would be encouraged to look beyond traditional skills-based training.Item Construction progress reporting methods and project outcomes(2018) Ngomana, NtsakoThe construction industry is commonly known for project delays and cost overruns in various parts of the world. Developing countries such as South Africa have experienced their fair share of these negative outcomes as outlined in existing literature. The causative factors identified, which relate to poor construction project management, include poor project control and poor progress monitoring and reporting by building contractors. This research was aimed at determining and evaluating the effectiveness of current progress monitoring and reporting methods and their linkage with undesirable project outcomes. The research methodological approach was essentially phenomenological, using a review of relevant literature, which was complemented with a phased field investigation. The field investigation used a mix of both quantitative and qualitative data. Semi-structured interviews were conducted for qualitative data and a survey by questionnaire was used for quantitative data collection. The data was collected from professionals working in the greater Johannesburg area, and hence, the findings could be interpreted to only affect construction projects in Johannesburg; while limiting the generalizability to the Construction industry in South Africa. Therefore, in regulating the impact of the limitation, the sources from which data was collected, intentionally consisted of experienced professionals who have worked on different types of projects of varying complexities. Results from the 80 questionnaire surveys and 15 interviews suggest the existence of appreciable gaps in the accuracy, or quality, in the monitoring and reporting of construction projects progress. Furthermore, the findings revealed that construction inexperience, the lack in project information and the poor allocation of project resources, were perceived to be the most influential factors of undesirable project outcomes. Therefore, the results from this study can be used as a guideline for construction stakeholders to ascertain the importance of implementing adequate progress monitoring and reporting systems to improve poor project outcomes. Building contractors can also use the findings from this study to evaluate their current projects and check the most influential causes of negative outcomes, and how these can be remedied.Item An investigation into the implementation of in-house versus outsourcing protect management firms in South Africa(2018) Tseki, AhakaThe face of construction is changing globally and with the growing complexity and dynamic nature of construction projects, stakeholders are increasingly under pressure to ensure the successful delivery of projects to their clients. The construction industry has responded to the increasing demands placed on it, with increased specialisation of the services provided by stakeholders, making the management of construction projects increasingly important competencies to ensure that the input of the various contributors on a project is implemented for maximum efficiency. With the increasingly important role construction project management plays in the successful delivery of construction projects, strategic sourcing and organisational boundary decisions have become significant topics of discussion, focusing on the internal organisational issues of project, and the subsequent management of resources and processes. While the fundamental “make or buy” decision has been researched and explored by various researchers in a number of different fields. Research into the boundary decision in the field of construction project management services, particularly the factors influencing large property development firms in making the boundary decision, has been found incomplete and this research aims to add to this body of knowledge. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to explore the factors/ considerations that influence clients, specifically large property development firms, in making the choice between retaining project management services in-house sourcing the same services externally from the market. To investigate the above, a qualitative research strategy was applied using two case studies. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews as the primary method and using a questionnaire survey as a supplementary, secondary method. Where respondents both the interviews and questionnaire survey were selected using a non-probabilistic purposeful sampling strategy. The research found trust and ognanisational capabilities were the two most important factors for large property development firms when making this boundary decision. Where trust and ognanisational capabilities were found to have an inversely proportional and directly proportional relationship respectively with the likelihood of a large property development firm retaining construction project management services in-house, rather than outsourcing the same services. It is anticipated that the results of the research will provide a better understanding of not only the advantages and disadvantages of implementing either sourcing option but perhaps more importantly, insight into the reasons why either sourcing option chosen.Item Joint decoding of parallel power line communication and visible light communication systems(2018) Onwuatuelo, Daniel ObinnaMany indoor applications operate at narrow band (3kHz148.5kHz) speed and for such applications, power line communication (PLC) and visible light communication (VLC) networks can be naturally connected and adapted to complement each other in order to gain more overall system performance in terms of bit error rate (BER) and computational complexity. In this research,the joint decoding of parallel PLC and VLC systems is proposed and its BER performance is compared to that of the PLCa nd the VLC systems. The joint decoding is applied either at the inner (Viterbi) or at the outer (Reed-Solomon) decoder. The proposed system is adopted according to the PLC G3 physical layer specification but direct current optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing OFDM (DCO-OFDM) is used in the VLC system to ensure that only positive (unipolar) signals are transmitted. A realistic VLC channel model is adopted in this research by considering the VLC channel as an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel affected by attenuation in terms of angle of orientation between the source and the receiver and effective surface area of the receiver. Furthermore, the PLC channel is modeled as an AWGN channel with background and impulsive noise generated using Middleton Class Anoisedistributionmodel. Itisshownthroughsimulationresultsandanalysisthatthe proposed joint decoded system outperforms the PLC and the VLC systems in terms of BERperformancedependingonthedistanceofseparationbetweenthesourceandthe receiver. Key words: Power line communication (PLC), Visible light communication (VLC), Bit error rate (BER), Joint decoding, Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), DCopticalOFDM(DCO-OFDM),AdditivewhiteGaussiannoise(AWGN).Item An assessment of factors influencing inadequate implementation of risk control and monitoring techniques(2018) Mlalazi, Bokani NqobaItem Factors influencing clients' choice of standard form construction contracts: a case study of three metropolitan municipalities in South Africa(2017) Ndlovu, Hosana HossainIn the public sector, the decision as to which form of construction contract to select, remains a challenging and difficult task for many clients of construction projects. Selecting the most appropriate form of construction contract is one of many important decisions that a client has to make in a project, and such a decision may lead to project success. The factors that influence clients to make selections of construction contracts are not clearly understood. There is a lack of distinction or structured guidelines as to how forms of construction contracts are to be selected or by what process; however there are consequences for selecting inappropriate forms of construction contracts. The aim of this study was to determine the factors that influence clients’ choice of forms of construction contracts when implementing construction projects. Through the use of qualitative research methodology, a case-study of the three metropolitan municipalities in the South African Province of Gauteng; namely, the City of Tshwane, the City of Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality was conducted. The study population consisted of built environment professionals (engineers, architects, project managers, programme managers, construction managers and investment managers). Data was collected through structured interviews with specific questions relating to how forms of construction contracts are selected, what factors influence such choices and who the key drivers of such contract selection decisions are. The results have shown that the leading factors, according to respondents, that influence clients to select the forms of construction contracts they use for their projects are the influence of their consultant and familiarity. The suitability of forms of construction contracts was the least factor. The study further demonstrates that the most commonly used form of construction contract in the three metropolitan municipalities is the General Conditions of Contract (GCC 2010/2015) and the key drivers of such decisions are consultants, who are seen as the experts. It is recommended that clients need to be more involved in all construction management processes and rely less on consultants. The outcome of this research will help the industry to best deal with the problem of random selection of forms of construction contracts without proper analysis.Item Women in construction: hindrances that shorten the professional working life of female site engineers on construction sites in South Africa(2015-05-05) Sangweni, NondumisoThe issues relating to women in construction exist internationally and, over the years they have been analysed from affirmative action Piper (2002) to cultural beliefs Hopkins & McManus (1998) job satisfaction and development Dabke (2008) and perception and professional acceptance Perreault (1992) & Enshassia (2008). In South Africa, following studies have been analysed, Verway (2005) looked at comparative analysis between SA and USA women entrepreneurs in construction, Mjolo-Mncube (2005) analysed opportunities for women in housing and construction, Mahlobo (2006) looked at challenges faced by women contractors in housing construction. However, not much emphasis has been put around hindrances that shorten the professional working life of female site engineers on construction sites in South Africa. The study adopted qualitative research method. Fifteen female site engineers currently working on construction sites for different construction companies were selected for questionnaires and open ended interview questions. Major findings identified discrimination, construction culture, work-conflict, glass ceiling, under representation of women and impact of cultural beliefs to be the hindrances that shorten the professional working life of female site engineers on construction sites. To retain female site engineers in the construction industry, it is recommended that employers introduce flexible work schedule; introduce mentorship programs and give them the same opportunities as their male counterparts in order to create more diversity in the sector thus increasing creativity and efficiency. Keywords: construction, site, engineers, work-life balance, hindrances, women, culture.Item The investment of time and professional skill at risk in the Built Environment in South Africa: an exploratory study(2015-04-30) Ndlovu, PrideFor a long period of time, most built private sector clients in South Africa have been procuring the services of built professional consultants at risk. The concept of working at risk is also referred to as speculative work. It is not known and clear when the practice started or how it originated in South Africa but the practice takes place and appears to becoming increasing prevalent. This study is an exploratory study that investigates the concept of working at risk in detail and establishes the relationship between non-remuneration, motivation and performance when working at risk. The study was motivated by the fact that limited academic research has been done locally on the early phase of project delivery, which is considered a key stage of a project. Attention is generally drawn to the implementation phase and conclusions are drawn from this stage which could possibly impact on the early phase of the project. This study examines the general understanding of the concept by respondents and determines the relationship between payment, time and performance. Largely the academic research conducted on the implementation stage shows that the non-remuneration or non-payment of contractors affects their performance and existence. Similarities in general can be drawn from this. However, this study does not explore this approach as initial academic data on the subject is not readily available. The study is an exploratory study that collects qualitative data from experienced professionals that undertake risk work for their clients. Interviews conducted with the professionals produced valuable qualitative data on the concept and key findings were drawn from this input. The greater understanding of the practice can lead to a better understanding between parties, regulation of the practise, support for smaller firms and assist in building the economy of South Africa. The findings reveal that there is a common understanding of the concept and the non-payment of professionals over long periods whilst undertaking risk work does affect motivation levels and impedes performance, thereby supporting the findings of the literature.Item Constructing education: Newtown's construction training centre(2009-06-19T10:04:49Z) Hadjimichael, EvageliaNo abstractItem The motivational factors that affect the productivity of the workers on a construction site(2008-04-10T11:14:06Z) Mokobane, Mmaphuti OnismusThe construction industry is labour intensive in nature. People often work long hours in relatively disagreeable environments, far from their families. Even if workers are not happy to be working in a particular environment they find themselves obliged to work. Fearing reprimands from their superiors, they often find it difficult to express their ideas. It is therefore difficult for management to identify the factors of motivation that affect their workers productivity in a work environment. The aim of this study was to identify and evaluate motivational factors that affect the productivity of workers on construction sites in South Africa, focusing on skilled workers. For this, the scientific management approach and quantitative research methods were used. The findings from this study revealed that the motivational theories apply to construction sites, and management needs to apply these theories wisely in order to achieve improved productivity.