Construction Industry Challenges and Solutions

This assignment delves into the multifaceted challenges confronting the construction industry. It requires an in-depth analysis of current issues such as productivity bottlenecks, sustainability concerns, technological integration, stakeholder management, and risk mitigation. Furthermore, students are expected to propose innovative solutions to these challenges, considering their potential impact on project efficiency, environmental responsibility, safety, and overall success.

Running head: MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES IN CONSTRUCTION ENVIRONMENT
Management Principles in Construction Environment
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES IN CONSTRUCTION ENVIRONMENT
Executive Summary:
This report aims at specifying the principles used to establish management in the construction
and built environment. The working and management principles used in construction sites by
various engineering firms. Analysis has been provided regarding the type of management
utilized in the construction environment. Evidences are discussed to support the analysis. Quality
and risk controlling mechanisms are also discussed in this report. The techniques adapted by the
construction firms to procure materials have been evaluated.

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MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES IN CONSTRUCTION ENVIRONMENT
Table of Contents
Introduction:........................................................................................................................3
Analysis of Construction and Built Environment Sector:...................................................3
Extension of Northern Line:............................................................................................3
Influence of Human Resource on Team Performance:....................................................4
Management Techniques in Construction and Built Environment:....................................5
Structure and Activities of the Construction and Built Environment Sector:.................5
Organizational Structures and Approaches Used in the Construction Industry:.............6
Influence of Scale and Size on the Construction Business Operations:..........................6
Methods of Procurement and Contracting in Construction and Built Environment:..........8
Planning in the Management of Construction Projects:..................................................8
Managing Procurement Scheduling and Control:............................................................8
Quality Control and Risk Management:..........................................................................8
Implementation of Procurement and Contracting in the Construction and Built
Environment:...................................................................................................................................9
Evaluation of Procurement Methods in Construction and Built Industry:......................9
Use of Contracts in Managing the Construction Projects:.............................................10
Impact of Procurement Techniques:..............................................................................10
Conclusion:........................................................................................................................11
References:........................................................................................................................12

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MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES IN CONSTRUCTION ENVIRONMENT
Introduction:
Principles of Management was introduced by Henri Fayol, who was a mining engineer,
executive and also an author. He expressed fourteen principles to be followed by organizations to
maintain a motivating management environment. In construction industry, maintaining effective
management is necessary and therefore, the management authorities of a construction and
building firm have a big role to play in asserting efficient production (Casterline and Snyder
2014). There are several construction projects in London and among them, the extension of
Northern Line is chosen. The projects follow a modular approach, which consists of different
subsets of the entire project carried out by the appropriate and skilled employees. While
performing the jobs, authorities must make sure to validate the work procedures and this
validation is done to check whether the work proceedings are according to the specified
requirements or not. The rate and duration allocated to the projects need to be verified by the
managers (Kobersy et al. 2015). Managers are responsible for taking care of designing of how
the work strategies should be planned and they are very much responsible for monitoring the
overall operations of the firm.
Analysis of Construction and Built Environment Sector:
Extension of Northern Line:
The underground line that connects the south-west region of London to the north, is
called the Northern Line and it was sanctioned in the year 2014 that the Northern line requires
extension. The contract was set at worth of £600 million and the cost was expected to rise due to
the redesigning operations (Matters 2017). Within 2017, the tunnels are said to be finished with a

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certain expectation of delay. In 2009, the station fitting will be completed as per the contract and
the total construction with testing will be finished in 2020. The Battersea and Nine Elms are
supposed to get two new stations on account of this extension. Despite the glitches, the focus will
be on meeting all the targets (Matters 2017). Sadiq Khan, mayor of London has been warned
over the fact that project cost increase and delay can have a serious negative effect on the future
construction projects in London.
Influence of Human Resource on Team Performance:
In the northern extension project, the timeline has been estimated to be less than expected
and therefore, performance is the essential factor that cannot be compromised in order to meet
the targets. It is required to have employees provide their maximum performance capabilities to
ensure efficient productivity (Han, Han and Brass 2014). There are some factors that can lead to
employee motivation and satisfaction or dissatisfaction, which will be directly related to the firm
productivity. Now, this enhancement of the employees is taken care of by the Human Resource
Management in a company. Human resource is a category of management, which is
implemented to address the goals of the organization and effectively play a big part in it
(Albrecht et al. 2015). The managers involved in the Human Resource management team are
responsible for operations like recruiting employees, providing training facilities, arranging
development programs, enabling reward techniques to motivate employees, employee appraisal,
determining salary etc. The principles adapted by the human resource management and the tasks
performed by them can be directly related to the employee performance (Barrick et al. 2015).
Human resource is also responsible for evaluating the policies and various strategies to help
employees enhance their performance. To encourage motivating environment for employees in
an organization, it is important to provide benefits to the employees and this is handled by the
human resource team; they plan and handle the incentives, rewards. Thus, the managers of

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human resources team effectively establish the motivation in the employees and by advertising
these benefits can attract future employees to join the firm (Fulford and Standing 2014). This
increases the will to work in employees and significantly raises the productivity rate.
Appropriate management by the human resource team can reduce conflicts within the
organization. To keep the teams in an organization well managed, it is required to eradicate
conflict possibilities. There should be analysis of the team execution flow and dynamics to
establish a clear understanding of the areas that need managing and development.
Management Techniques in Construction and Built Environment:
Structure and Activities of the Construction and Built Environment Sector:
In the United Kingdom, Construction and Build industry is the largest industry judging
by the size parameter. Lucrative growth opportunities have attracted many employees to join and
contribute to the construction industry. There are specific activities undertaken by the
construction industry and they are mentioned below:
 Civil Engineering, Building and Specialized Construction
 Construction material manufacturing
 Production of materials, tool management, selling of materials etc.
The responsibilities are quite identifiable. The engineering and construction parts perform
the building procedures to develop the infrastructures. The team members are responsible for
gathering materials and other requirements for executing projects with quality. The
manufacturing portion generally provides materials for selling purposes. These materials are sold
in markets to help industries acquire requirements (Ly et al. 2015). The next sector evaluates the

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industry specified needs and accordingly production of the materials are performed which may
include various categories of selling and management of the products.
Organizational Structures and Approaches Used in the Construction Industry:
In a construction company, it is important to create a friendly, helpful environment for
the employees to help them be more creative and lead a stress-free workflow. Maintaining the
build quality is the ultimate focus of the construction industry. Quality assurance, customer
satisfaction, maintaining employee safety and a secure environment are included in the
construction project life cycle. Companies are to ensure that the activities are following the life
cycle approach, which is the only way to gain popularity.
Jennings is a company of the Civil Engineering and Construction industry, which is
situated in North Wales. Established back in 1984, the company has quite significant experience
in providing high productivity and customer satisfaction. They focus on the client requirements
and provide quality accordingly (Fan, Wong and Zhang 2013). The environment at Jennings is
extremely developed and maintained. Jennings focuses on developing new technologies and
plans to provide excellence in projects. The communication is outstanding within Jennings
leading to effective teamwork. The materials and resources used for projects are sustainable and
waste management is handled with great care.
Influence of Scale and Size on the Construction Business Operations:
Scale and size properties highly affect the construction business. It is the size that can
create complications in determining the time limit of a project. Another aspect is imposed on
project specifications is the priority value. In the construction industry, projects are identified
with priority values and these values can be low or high. Based on these priority values, the

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projects are scheduled (Relling et al. 2016). There are basically three major categories of
contracts, which are categorized in terms of cost, fixation and time.
Contracts dealing with costs include flexible cost mechanisms that include generation of
invoice from the construction site. The project costs are variable and this is why it is possible for
the parties accepting a contract to incur loss in terms of higher expenditure.
Contracts following a fixed nature focus on estimation of project costs and no variable
factors are available. It is very profitable feature for a construction company.
Contracts that follow the basic timing structure provide a satisfactory situation for both
the parties included in the contract formalities (Xue et al. 2016). The utmost important
responsibility is to provide full clarification of the projects. However, miscalculations in
estimating the costs of the projects can lead to hampering customer loyalty by damaging the
profitability of the customer.
Traditional method of contracting can be adapted; it is a very common method, which
ensures the certainty of cost and time prediction. Projects that require high pace execution rate,
this method can provide help greatly. In this case, the teams are allotted tasks regarding
documentation and engineering drawings (Nenonen, Airaksinen and Vainio 2014). Following is
the task to approach the responsible contractors for building to initiate the project.
Contracting by means of management is a modern approach adapted by various industries
today. This contracting method deals with the execution of the overall project; the management
and design aspects of the projects are also handled by the management contracting.

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Methods of Procurement and Contracting in Construction and Built Environment:
Planning in the Management of Construction Projects:
Planning process in construction industry follows two separate ways. The first one
involves the cost of the project and the other one handles with the scheduling of the project.
Planning is a necessary tool, which is used to maximize the utilization of the resources and to
mitigate potential threats faced in a project execution (Mok, Shen and Yang 2015). However,
majority of the industry follows the scheduling of the project. The term called Critical Path is
well managed by scheduling project execution and it contributes in time-cost management for a
project. The possible collisions and conflicts are efficiently avoided using scheduling.
Managing Procurement Scheduling and Control:
In the northern line extension project and in any construction firm, a project is initiated
with Procurement Scheduling and this includes the requirement gathering. Generating profit and
assuring quality control are the essential aspects of procurement scheduling management. Delay
in the process of procurement can damage the workflow of the project. Purchase and supply of
materials are the processes dealt with in this section (Dave et al. 2016). In Jennings, proper
mapping mechanisms are provided to effectively maintain workflow. In a periodic manner,
control and systematic analysis are performed to keep track of the delays and losses. Through the
analysis, factors that make impact on the overall process of construction project can be handled
by minimizing the possibility of the impact.
Quality Control and Risk Management:
Total Quality Management (TQM) is a method that provides mechanisms to maintain
quality control of a construction project. Generally, the quality delivered in the project workflow
is determined by means of methods based on statistics. There is a method of testing named X-

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MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES IN CONSTRUCTION ENVIRONMENT
Ray Testing and with this technique, the intended quality of a project is analyzed. The way the
project is implemented determines the quality of the project. Implementations of ways to manage
quality can be done by specifying benchmark on a particular project (Flyvbjerg 2013). The
benchmark qualifies the determined quality of a project and identification of issues in the project
is done in a periodic manner.
In a construction project, the risk management is related to the safety of the employees
associated in a project. Specific plans and training programs are held to ensure workplace safety.
Various strategies are adapted such as establishing medical assistance at the construction
site to examine the health status of the employees.
Implementation of Procurement and Contracting in the Construction and Built
Environment:
Evaluation of Procurement Methods in Construction and Built Industry:
Acquiring materials for the construction project is the focus of the procurement process.
As in the project of Northern Line extension, the materials are identified before proceeding with
the procurement process. Procurement is all about the requirement gathering which ultimately
will lead to initiation of the building responsibility. To ensure that the ultimate stage of
requirement gathering is done, numerous activities are available (Lehtiranta et al. 2014). The
methods employed in the process of procurement contain risks and there are aspects having
certain advantages and disadvantages.
The method in which the construction execution is performed and the design is
implemented determines the accuracy of the procurement process. When the contract for a
project is distributed, it should be made sure that all the important information regarding the

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MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES IN CONSTRUCTION ENVIRONMENT
materials are available. To understand the quality of the method, risks in the method have to be
analyzed.
To select an appropriate contractor, there are several ways:
 Selective Competition is the method through which a construction firm chooses
the potential firms that have good enough reputation to successfully support a
project.
 Open Competition is a way in which proper consultation takes place to
determine the appropriate firm tendering the project.
 Negotiated Contracts are the means to determine procurement while the
competition is absent. Whenever, there is disagreement amongst the contracting
parties, negotiation is utilized to solve the crisis.
Use of Contracts in Managing the Construction Projects:
Contracts are generally used to manage the workflow and execution flow of a
construction project. The utility of the contractors is the assistance they provide during the entire
construction work. Inclusion of effective plans can reduce issues and provide a clearer goal.
Impact of Procurement Techniques:
The various techniques of procurement are different in certain aspects and therefore, the
impacts can be of different forms. The impacts are quite evident in the multi-disciplinary teams
of the construction companies. Depending on the type of inputs and project demands, various
new members can be hired to carry on with the execution (Ruparathna and Hewage 2015). The
government also plays a part in the procurement techniques and the sustainability contexts are
considered.

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MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES IN CONSTRUCTION ENVIRONMENT
Whatever techniques are undertaken, the teamwork is the single most important aspect to
guide the process and a poor teamwork will eventually lead to inefficient results. Fragmented
mentality can lead to hampering of construction quality. Process in procuring materials can affect
the execution of the project, in which case, efficient strategies are to be developed in order to
sustain the construction quality.
Conclusion:
With the developed strategies and great analyzing methods, it can be clearly established
that Jennings is a well-maintained and profitable firm in the construction industry. In this report,
various sections of the construction industry have been scrutinized and discussed. The project of
Northern Line extension is presented in this report to illustrate the management procedures
generally used in construction environments. The management principles, the influences of the
management activities, the human resource strategies, the structure of the project execution and
teams are analyzed to understand the working principles of the construction firm and the
environment. Several Approaches have been discussed regarding the procurement processes and
assuring quality in the construction projects. Effective methods to manage risks and the
importance of risk management are discussed which will help in evaluating the quality of the
project. The essence of contracting has also been analyzed to address sustainability in the
construction projects. There are issues that arise with the environment need to be dealt with and
proper strategies should be adapted to scrutinize employee safety as it directly affects
productivity of the company.

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organizational engagement: Linking motivational antecedents, strategic implementation, and
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Han, J., Han, J. and Brass, D.J., 2014. Human capital diversity in the creation of social capital for
team creativity. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 35(1), pp.54-71.
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