Construction Management: Teamwork, Leadership, Motivation & Methods

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of management practices within the construction sector, emphasizing the critical roles of teamwork, leadership, and motivation in achieving project success and customer satisfaction. It explores the dynamics of teamwork, highlighting its importance in ensuring safety, clarity, and efficiency, while also discussing strategies for improvement through team-building exercises and target setting. The essay differentiates between management and leadership, focusing on how effective leaders utilize resources, planning, and evaluation to drive projects towards successful completion. Furthermore, it examines the concept of motivation, illustrating how leaders can leverage positive attitudes and clear communication to enhance employee performance. The essay also delves into modern methods of construction, such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Cross Laminated Timber, showcasing their potential to increase quality, efficiency, and sustainability. Ultimately, the essay concludes that a combination of strong teamwork, effective leadership, and the adoption of modern construction methods is essential for delivering successful projects and ensuring customer satisfaction.

Management in Modern Construction Projects:
Introduction:
The construction sector is one of the largest sectors of the UK economy. It contributes nearly
£90 billion to the UK economy (ONS Annual Business Survey, 2017), integrates more than
280,000 businesses and creates more than 3 million jobs (BIS Analysis of ONS, 2018), this is
around 10% of total UK employment. Therefore, management in construction is crucial for
the project to be undertaken to a good level, plus for the client or customer to be satisfied.
Management is the administration of an organization; it is effectively directing a group of
people or an organization to achieve its business objectives efficiently. The problems that
arise during construction that involve management are the management and differentiation
between design and construction, the sourcing of construction materials and equipment. Then
most significantly how to challenge climate change and create energy efficient places.
This essay will outline the importance of teamwork, leadership and motivation, and how
management plays a pivotal role in the customer satisfaction. The essay will also highlight
the different methods of construction and how they can be used to achieve customer
satisfaction.
Teamwork:
Teamwork is the act of where a group of people with complementary skills each conduct a
separate part of work representing personal prominence. This separate part of work is then
incorporated into the whole work, the team members hold themselves equally accountable for
the status of the final product. Teamwork allows work or a job to be conducted efficiently
and effectively, it is also key to customer satisfaction in construction. Teamwork is vital in
the Construction sector as it ensures safety through the delegation process, it also gives
clarity to construction workers which allows for efficiency. Construction is a collaborative
activity that involves various different stages such as designing and building different parts of
a building at different times.
It also involves a variety of people with different skills, such as construction workers,
designers, architects, surveyors and many more. This is where a project manager gets
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involved to ensure that in this high stress environment the right activity is taking place at the
right time, this ensures productivity. In order for project managers to be successful and
complete a construction project to the customers satisfaction, they will require skills such as
active-listening, problem solving and decision making. This skillset will also ensure the
successful completion of a construction project. Teamwork in Construction can be improved
though, through team building exercises and creating targets which are to be achieved. Team
building exercises bring a team together, they give the opportunity for different employees to
get to know each other in a relaxed fashion. This also allows employees to gain a better
understanding of the project and improves the team’s ability to work cohesively together. The
creation of targets allows the team to view the project as a whole, rather than their own
specific contributions. It also improves efficiency and decreases conflict as the team will
understand what is being achieved.
Leadership:
Often Leadership is described to as Management, however the two are different. Management
is the allocation of resources to achieve a goal, whereas Leadership is a process of influence
by one or a small group of people, which maximises the efforts of those under their influence
to achieve the goal effectively. Leadership creates the purpose of the goal and directs the
employees towards achieving this goal. A leader is a person who is able to motivate their
employees to achieve a common goal, through a clear vision and direction. Clarity is
extremely important to the construction sector as it guides the architects, surveyors and
construction workers to successfully completing the project to customer satisfaction.
A leader should have the subsequent features; utilize resources, planning and evaluation. The
utilization of resources includes being able to complete the project using what is available.
For instance, people are a resource as they have knowledge and skills, the leader must be able
to appoint the right people to the right job. This is achieved through the leader understanding
the project and the people. Planning is a fundamental part to construction, it involves
understanding the project, the objective and the resources available. The right plan will lead
to time and cost efficiency, it’s also a major factor in successfully completing a construction
project.
Evaluation can be seen as a learning curve in construction, it measures the performance and
quality of the main participants in the construction project. It also analyses what could have

been done more effectively, through identifying the successes and issues to the leader. This
shows the leader what to improve on for the next construction project, and how maximum
success and customer satisfaction can be achieved on the next construction project.
Motivation:
Motivation is the process that guides goal-oriented behaviour. The process starts when an
individual initiates a want or desire, this unsatisfied want creates tension which stimulates the
individual to take action. This action will lead the individual to being rewarded with the
achievement of their goal, this then satisfies the want and reduces the tension. The goal can
be financially motivated or non-financially motivated through seeing a project being
successfully completed. Motivation involves the emotional, social and psychological forces
that will determine an individual’s behaviour, through persistence and determination to
complete a job.
Motivation is elemental in the construction sector, as a construction worker that is motivated
will try their best to complete their job to the highest standard, this will subsequently lead to a
successful construction project. However, it’s the role of the leader or the project manager to
utilize this concept and motivate their employees to achieve maximum success on the
construction project. The leader or project manager can motivate the construction workers
through showing a positive and optimistic attitude. They can regularly recognize good output
from their employees, this will give their employees a feeling of self-fulfilment and self-
respect. Leaders should also provide a clear explanation of the entire construction project,
giving construction workers a clear understanding of the bigger picture. This will allow
employees to understand how to complete their job and what the expectations are.

Modern Methods of Construction:
Modern methods of construction have the potential to introduce greater quality and efficiency
into the construction industry, through the use of software and environmental resources. The
implementation of these methods has taken the construction industry into a new era, making
it a more cost and time efficient process. This innovation has also led to a reduction in risks
and uncertainty in the construction process.
Building Information Modelling (BIM):
Building Information Modelling is a process where a digital representation of physical and
functional characteristics is designed using different tools, software and 3-D modelling.
Building Information Modelling is used to design and document a building design, every
specific detail of a building can be designed using BIM. The 3-D modelling software can also
be used to analyse the buildings energy efficiency. Building Information Modelling can also
be used as an analytical tool to discover design features and create visualizations. This will
benefit all participants involved, it will allow designers to identify design issues, construction
workers will have reliable information which will allow them to plan what resources they will
need and customers to have a 3-D image of what their building will look like.
The key features of BIM include the ability to create design-to-build templates, 3-D
modelling which offers a visualization of what the building will look like and also 3-D
physical definition which will allow construction workers to identify what equipment should
be used. BIM also has an information management feature, which manages all types of data
including contracts, requirements, construction processes and most importantly costs.
There are many competitive advantages to using Building Modelling Information, it increases
the speed of the delivery of the construction project, as it identifies individual roles and
outlines a clear plan for the participants of the construction process to follow. BIM minimizes
errors, as it allows architects and designers to identify issues during the planning process,
plus it allows them to visualize different design concepts. BIM is also cost efficient and that
is heavily due to the fact that it allows the main participants in the construction project to
identify issues and draw a clear plan. This allows the main participants to save money and
increase productivity.

Cross Laminated Timber:
Cross Laminated Timber is a structural, prefabricated panel which is used to construct
environmentally sustainable walls, roofs and floors. Cross Laminated Timber consist of three
cross-bounded panels of timber, ranging in thickness between 20mm and 45mm. The timber
is strengthened together through a glued press, which deploys pressure over the entire surface
area of the panel. Cross Laminated Timber panels have an odd number of layers, which are of
differing thickness, these layers are then arranged symmetrically around the middle layer.
The configuration of the Cross Laminated Timber panels involves the transverse planks being
laid on top of the longitudinal planks at 90-degree right angle, as the number of layers is odd
it ranges from three, five or seven depending on the structural requirements.
There are three visual qualities of Cross Laminated Timber, they are non-visual, industrial
visual and high-grade visual. The Non-visual cross laminated timber is designed as a
plasterboard base, whereas industrial and high-grade visual cross laminated timber are
purpose built to be exposed and used as actual flooring. The visual grade cross laminated
timber is made from a good quality, strong timber, it’s then sanded into the walls, floors and
ceilings.
There are many advantages to cross laminated timber, as it’s a renewable material, it stores
carbon throughout its usable lifespan keeping it out of the atmosphere. The renewable benefit
also makes cross laminated timber a manageable natural resource. Another major
environmental benefit of using cross laminated timber is unlike structural concrete or steel,
wood uses less fossil fuels to manufacture. Construction with cross laminated timber is
accurate and both time and cost efficient, as it’s a simple natural resource. This will allow the
major participants in the construction project stay motivated, as they will have a clear
understanding of the bigger picture. This will also lead to customer satisfaction as the
construction project is being carried out efficiently and successfully.
Conclusion
To conclude teamwork and motivation are vital for success in any construction project.
Leadership is then the pivotal point in the construction project, as it directs the construction
team. Modern Methods of Construction have been a turning point for efficiency in the
construction sector they’ve also allowed the main participants in the construction project
analyse the risks and issues ahead.

This has then allowed construction projects to be more cost and time efficient, plus has
allowed for new ideas to come to become a reality. There has also been an increase in the
usage of sustainable construction materials, such as cross laminated timber which is a
renewable material. The utilization of modern methods of construction combined with
teamwork, motivation and a strong clear leadership, will lead to customer satisfaction. This is
because it allows the customer to gain an understanding of the entire project before
completion, allowing them to understand the time and costs required.
References:
Succar, B., 2009. Building information modelling framework: A research and delivery
foundation for industry stakeholders. Automation in construction, 18(3), pp.357-375.
Rose, T. and Manley, K., 2011. Motivation toward financial incentive goals on construction
projects. Journal of Business Research, 64(7), pp.765-773.
Ofori, G., 2008. Leadership for future construction industry: Agenda for authentic
leadership. International Journal of Project Management, 26(6), pp.620-630.
Autodesk. 3D Design, Engineering & Entertainment Software. 2020.
Retrieved from: https://www.autodesk.co.uk/
BIM. 2012. What is Building Information Modelling?
Retrieved from: www.precisedraftinginc.com/bim.html.