A construction project requires a multitude of people with different skills and interests and the coordination of a wide range of disparate, yet interrelated, activities. Such complexity is further compounded by the unique characteristics of a project and many other external uncertainties. As a result, construction is subject to more risk than other business activities. In a risky situation, individuals or organizations perceive the situation in their own ways and behave differently to meet their own interests. Many researchers have asserted that divergent risk attitudes are sources of mismatched risk perceptions and inconsistent behaviors among project participants in different organizations, which can disturb proactive and consistent organizational activities. The research on risk attitude has, therefore, been advocated to exploring ways to consistently arouse people‘s cognition, affection, and behavior among stakeholders. However, previous research has been a widely misunderstood concept and remains a fragmented focus in the construction field. Evidence on the construction of risk attitude and how it manifests itself is unavailable. To date, prior researchers have suffered from an issue-oriented focus that has resulted in simplified models by studying single level of antecedents of risk attitude and consequences of management performance, rather than multi-level. Moreover, previous studies only focused on the direct relationship between risk attitude and management performance instead of providing a profound conceptualization of the indirect relationship between risk attitude and management performance or empirically exploring risk attitude‘s antecedents and consequences. The current study seeks to bridge this research gap. Triangulation research is employed as an appropriate research methodology in which both qualitative and quantitative data collection are used to test the research propositions. The research plan draws upon ontology and methodological pluralism. By adopting the Critical Incident Technique (CIT), coupled with an intensive literature review, one can explore the manifestation of risk attitude and its antecedents by analyzing critical incidents derived from preliminary interviews. Cognitive Motivation Theory (CMT) and Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) provide rationales to combine a processed view of risk attitude and the antecedents and management performance of individuals and organizations into a multi-level model of risk attitude. Responses to a questionnaire survey of 239 individuals nested in 61organizations were analyzed with a blend of Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) to establish and examine the hypothesized relationships in the theoretical model. To capture the practical manifestation of risk attitude and its influence on management performance, case studies of two ongoing construction projects were performed. The findings summarized from both qualitative and quantitative studies indicated that risk attitude diverged due to the multi-level influences of its antecedents on project participants, resulting in inconsistent risk perception and risk inclinations. Risk attitude has two levels of manifestation – an individual and organization level. Individual risk attitude manifests itself as cognition, affection, and behavioral inclination, while organizational risk attitude mainly shows up as managerial trust, formalization, an ambiguity of goals and objectives, and a merit system. The findings confirmed that motivated individuals tend to present more consistent risk attitude and be more willing to and capable of exhibiting good management performance. The motivation behind this study is beyond the traditional motivational means. It extends from internal motivation with its locus of control and self-efficacy to external motivation with its interpersonal exchanges, external controls, and observational learning. The risk attitudes of motivated people to evoke better management performance, especially in the process of integrating risk management into a safety management system and the outcome performance of a stakeholder‘s satisfaction and potential to organizations. The research attempts to advance risk attitude theory by re-conceptualizing the antecedents of risk attitude and the consequences of management performance make the underlying theorizing mechanism explicit and testable. This study also provides practical indications of concrete interventions by managers to make risk attitudes converge and then strengthen safety risk management. The thesis contributes to multi-level analysis in the management research field and differentiates the different levels of participants in construction projects. Methodological pluralism and blended qualitative and quantitative research methods will be addressed to demonstrate the different and complementary perspectives of research. Due to limited samples, the generalizability of the findings in the different project types or across other levels needs to be further verified. / published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Construction project organisation is a complex human system. Despite the formal governance structure of project, construction works and activities still rely primarily on informal personal contacts of the participants. It is the “here-andnow” interactions and mutual adjustment of project participants that underpins daily construction operations. From the perspective of social learning theory, human interactions in project organization involve learning. In this context, the social nature of learning comes to prominence. Learning embodies the accommodation and adjustment of the project participants’ expectation and tacit nuances prevalent in the interactions among participants. As a human system, the organization of project participants in a project forms a social network. The relational links of participants embedded within the network act as an important resource. This resource, especially the goodwill engendered among the participants, can be used to facilitate actions. Such goodwill is referred to as social capital. The combination of these two perspectives enables the construction of a model of the project team. Social capital engendered in the project organization can be appropriated to facilitate positive actions. In this line of conception, the network of relationships among the project participants may offer mutual support for the cultivation of reflective practices and learning in terms of adaptation, integration, and cooperation. Because social capital is the primordial form of social phenomenon, it is postulated that social capital provides the conditions necessary for learning to take place, and learning, in turn, contributes to project success – that is, project learning mediates the impact of social capital on project success. To test this hypothesis and a series of other related propositions, empirical studies had been carried out within the Hong Kong construction industry. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were adopted in the empirical studies – questionnaire survey and case studies were conducted. Findings reveal that a more integrative procurement arrangement, management commitment, project team appraisal system that emphasises team working, participants’ intensive interactions, positive personality all contribute to the formation of project social capital, while multiple managerial hierarchies, subcontractor-induced problems, government transparency requirement, goals mismatch, and bureaucratic contract administration all impede its formation. In project organisation, the overlapping of both formal and informal organisational structures occupied by personnel with both technical and managerial capabilities improves project organising efficiency. Indeed, with the mediational thesis generally supported – the impact of social capital on project performance is mediated through learning - and the emergence of a new personal dimension, social capital is a critical antecedent to project organising. However, because social capital and learning affect the soft rather than hard success criteria, other factors need to be considered for overall project performance. These other factors are the capabilities of all project parties and the adoption of relational contracting norms and behaviours. It is the combination of all these factors with social capital as the substrate of participants’ interactions that are most likely to lead to overall project performance. / published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

M.Ing. (Engineering Management) / The triple constraint considerations in construction projects determine failure or success of projects. The key reasons of a winning project comprise of identification, monitoring, control and management of projects risks. Projects, over the years, failed to be completed within the contracted triple constraints. The persistent failure of construction projects in South Africa contributes to lack of development in skills and infrastructure. It is hypothesized that a deeper comprehension of the triple constraint and strategic management may supplement success of construction projects. It is difficult to complete projects within the stipulated triple constraint elements due to the high degree of unforeseen circumstances. Although the success of construction projects is confined to the triple constraint, the projects successes can also be influenced by other external factors and intra-management of the triple constraint including trade-offs. The ever escalating societal demand makes it a necessity to keep up through intensive investigation into construction projects. Communication breakdown is one of the sources of errors and is therefore essential for practicality of the survey in the investigation. A questionnaire was chosen for the survey. The collected data was organised into qualifications and experience and was presented in a tabular and graphical formats. Due to the anticipated reluctance to participation, a larger number of people were engaged. Contrary to the contextual information, the fieldwork survey indicates that projects are successful relative to the triple constraint elements. The success or failure of projects is largely founded on the triple constraint elements except for contractors who in addition to the triple constraint cite other factors. The scarcity of engineering and construction skills in South African government is hurting success of construction projects and therefore infrastructure and skills development and sustainability. In conclusion, both the contextual and fieldwork survey attribute failure of construction projects to lack of understanding and poor management of the triple constraint elements and trade-offs. These conclusions are however limited to failure to survey all project management data, sample size, ability to address questions and honesty of participants. A further study into a bigger sample of this specific study is proposed.

With a desire to increase the chance of success of major infrastructure and construction (MIC) projects, it is increasingly common to invite the public participating in the planning and design processes. Public participation requires the involvement of individuals and groups who are positively or negatively affected by a proposed intervention (e.g. a project, a program, a plan, a policy). An effective public participation program can be beneficial to the parties involved (i.e. the decision makers and general public) in many ways. As a result, a number of participatory approaches have been developed by various sectors to drive the process of agenda-setting, decision-making, and policy-forming. Many research studies focusing on various aspects of participation in policy-making in general have been conducted, but few have looked into its application in the construction and infrastructure industry in particular. On the other hand, the decision making process of contemporary MIC projects is becoming ever more complicated especially with the increasing number of stakeholders involved and their growing tendency to defend their own interests. Failing to address and meet the concerns and expectations of stakeholders may result in project failures. To avoid this necessitates a systematic participatory approach to facilitate the decision making and evaluation. This research, therefore, aims to develop a multi-stakeholder multi-objective decision making and evaluation model to help resulting in consensus and increasing the satisfaction among various stakeholders (or stakeholder groups) in MIC projects. In this research, an extensive literature review was first carried out to examine the salient elements of public participation in MIC projects and to identify the barriers to effective public participation in project decision making in different countries (e.g. Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, United States, South Africa, etc.). China being a developing country was selected for in-depth case study analysis. Through a series of interviews, the underlying reasons for ineffective participatory practice in China were revealed. A questionnaire survey was then conducted to unveil those stakeholder concerns pertinent to MIC projects at the conceptual stages through the degree of consensus and/or conflict involved. Finally, a multi-stakeholder multi-objective decision model and a multi-factor hierarchical comprehensive evaluation model were developed. These two models were founded on the decision rule approach and the fuzzy techniques respectively. Another round of interview was conducted to investigate the (i) influence of different stakeholder groups in making decisions related to MIC projects during their conceptual stages; and (ii) relationship between the satisfaction of a single stakeholder group and that of the stakeholders overall. The application of the two models was demonstrated by two cases in Hong Kong and their validity was confirmed through validation interviews. The results indicated that the two models are objective, reliable and practical enough to cope with real world problems. The research findings are therefore valuable to the government and construction industry at large for successful implementation of public participation in MIC schemes locally and internationally in future, especially when the construction industry is becoming increasingly globalized and the trend of cultural integration between the East and West is ever growing. / published_or_final_version / Civil Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

A more rapid and widespread use and implementation of technology in construction often fails since its benefits and limitations remain somewhat unclear. Project control is one of the most variable and time consuming task of construction project managers and superintendents, and yet continues to be mostly a manual task. Controlling tasks such as tracking and updating project schedules can be assisted through remotely operating technology such as hi-resolution cameras that can provide construction management and other users with imaging feeds of job site activities. Although construction cameras have been around for many years the costs, benefits, and barriers of their use have not been investigated nor quantified in detail. Subsequently, definitions and understanding vary widely, making it difficult for decision makers at the organizational level to decide on the investment in camera technology. This thesis reviews the status of hi-resolution cameras and their present use in construction. Results of a multi-phased survey to industry professionals were collected in order to identify benefits and barriers and develop a cost-benefit model that can be used for implementation technology in construction.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This research report was conducted to critically review the methodologies and best practices prescribed by world class cost engineering experts and institutions, in order to develop a cost estimating model which organisations could use as a guideline for their cost estimates on large capital intensive projects. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie navorsingsverslag is gedoen om ‘n kritiese oorsig te doen op die metodes en beste praktyke voorgeskryf deur wereldklas koste ingenieur deskundiges en instansies, om sodoende ‘n koste beramings model te ontwikkel wat gebruik kan word deur organisasies as handleiding gedurende die koste beraming van hulle kapitale intensiewe projekte.

Thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of M.Sc. Building to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, School of Construction Economics and Management at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2017 / Project management is no longer seen as just a management based approach but as a profession in its own right. It is, however, still common that individuals practice project management without, necessarily, being registered with the profession creating a crossing of professional jurisdiction. Existing literature or lack thereof indicates shallow investigation into project management registration and its impact on project performance. This report compares the project performance of registered and non-registered construction project managers in the South African built environment. A mix method approach was applied where the quantitative data was collected and complimented by qualitative data that aimed to solicit perceived factors that may influence improved project performance. Using a cross-sectional survey interview consisting of a semistructured questionnaire, data were collected from project management practitioners and professionals with the relevant knowledge and experience. The survey solicited 578 responses, with only 402 being regarded as complete survey responses. There respondents were sourced from the various professional councils that fall under the South African Built Environment. The results indicate no significant differentiation between the project performance of registered construction project managers and those who are not registered as construction project managers. On the job experience is considered a vital factor influencing project performance from a project manager’s perspective. Responses also indicate a variance in the perceived importance of construction project management registration. Despite the primary motivation behind registration having been expressed as “competitive advantage”, registration was considered most effective when used in combination with education, training and the understanding of project management knowledge areas. / XL2018

Thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of Master of Science in Building (Project Management in Construction) to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, School of Construction Economics and Management at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2017 / There is a noticeable prevalence of public resistance when implementing mega public sector projects in South Africa. This resistance is indicative of a lack of communication between implementers and the general populace. The aim of the study was to assess the regulatory framework of public consultation in mega projects in South Africa. A cross-sectional survey design of consulting engineers, project managers, and municipality staff, using structured questionnaire was adopted. This was followed by case analyses of three mega projects in South Africa. The main finding of the study is that there has to be operationalizable regulatory framework which could be utilized to inculcate public consultation, its coordination should be articulated within the three spheres of government, this has to be monitored systematically. As such thereis the need to improve on the provisions and implementation of the existing regulatory framework among the spheres of government for better coordination and monitoring with the public. / MT 2018

Risk management (RM) should be seen as one of the most important functions in the South African built environment. Without the effective management of the risks associated with the industry, the noble vision of a sector that is efficient, profitable, and sustainable cannot be achieved. By embracing tried and tested policies that successfully mitigate risk, industry stakeholders will achieve many project successes, and will outlast any competitors that choose to ignore, or are ignorant of the fact, that the negative impact risk has on projects is inversely proportional to the level of RM employed. Construction Project Management (CPM) practices, realising that there are excellent business opportunities across South Africa’s borders, and faced with a competitive South African market, are engaging with developers and government entities involved in cross border projects in the hope of securing these potentially lucrative African projects. With this move into Africa comes increased uncertainty and risk for these CPM practices, and other project stakeholders. Similarly, CPM practices that have made the strategic decision to remain operational only within South Africa’s borders, are faced with a competitive and complex built environment and industry, made increasingly challenging by a weakening economy, exacerbated by industrial strikes, infrastructure deficiencies and a decrease in industry skill levels. This study reports on Project Managers’ (PMs’) perceptions of project failures and inefficiencies resulting from inadequate RM on projects, including the RM methodologies currently being employed. The study focused on perceptions of PMs who operate within South Africa’s borders, PMs that operate across border into other African countries, as well as PMs who operate exclusively within South Africa’s built environment framework. A study was undertaken incorporating qualitative methodologies via a normative survey. The survey was split into three main phases. Phase one employed the use of a pilot survey executed with the objective of further investigating the main sub-problems to gain more insight into the related issues and challenges. For the pilot survey, PMs were selected based on their engagement in CPM activities within South Africa as well as across South Africa’s borders into other African countries. Phase two of the main survey, with the sample stratum being the Association of Construction Project Managers (ACPM), was aimed at PMs within the ACPM who have engaged, or are engaging, in CPM activities both within South Africa’s borders as well as across South Africa’s borders into other African countries. Phase 3 of the main survey, with the sample stratum being the ACPM, was aimed at PMs within the ACPM who have engaged, or are engaging, in CPM activities within South Africa’s borders only and have not engaged in cross border activities. Survey findings identified the commercial sector and value of the projects undertaken by the practices, the level of risk associated with different client typologies, the link between inadequate RM and project inefficiency and failure, and the importance of RM on projects. Findings also identified that RM methodologies are employed by CPM practices, and that CPM practices generally endeavour to create a culture of risk awareness amongst employees. Further findings indicated that CPM practices may not always understand the risks associated with new industry sectors, regions or countries that they are considering operating within, and that that there is room for improvement regarding the effectiveness of current RM systems. Survey findings also indicated that risk is not always transferred to the correct project stakeholder most suited to managing the risk, and CPM practices are not always able to accurately quantify the costs associated with project risk. Furthermore, it was identified that CPM practices do not always undertaken risk assessments (RAs) at the correct project stage resulting in inadequate risk contingencies allowances, regular risk reviews are not always undertaken for projects, project pre-mortems are seen as valuable tools by CPM practices as a method to reduce future risk, and project post-mortems relative to ‘lessons learnt’ are not always undertaken. Conclusions outline the link between effective RM, project inefficiencies and project failure, as well as the increase or decrease in risk relative to ineffective or effective use of risk identification and management methodologies for time, cost, and quality factors respectively. Conclusions also outline the fact that although CPM practices generally understand the link between RM and project success, they are not always able to fully comprehend the risks associated with new industry sectors, regions or cross border countries. This indicates that without the adequate identification of risk, the RM process or steps that follow the qualitative risk identification process will have little or no value. This is indicative of the requirement for professional associations to consolidate risk data for industry activities with the aim of improving the level of RM industry wide. Recommendations highlight the importance of the compiling of sector specific risk registers, compiled by the South African Council for the Project and Construction Management Professions (SACPCMP) with registered member input, made available to all PMs via the SACPCMPs online database. Further recommendations include: the engendering, by senior management of CPM practices; a healthy ‘risk aware’ culture, by promoting RM practices aligned with best practice methodologies; the implementation of well balanced and formal RM systems throughout the CPM practice, with the aim of achieving effective RM without overburdening PMs with unnecessary documentation or ‘paperwork’; the attendance of risk conferences and workshops by all CPM practices, aimed at specifically identifying challenges that exist with RM and methods that can be employed to improve the status quo; the attendance of formal risk training courses, by all CPM practices, aimed at improving the knowledge base of PMs relative to effective RM, and the appointment of risk professionals, driven by the monetary value and risk levels of the project, to undertake the RM process and unburden PMs from the task, allowing PMs to concentrate on the other project knowledge areas.

M.Ing. / The research is based on the complexity of project management and risk management fields and how applying each field on its own can be problematic. This poses an everyday challenge to project managers when implemented simultaneously and such a problem predominantly exists in the engineering construction field.The challenge faced by project managers is approached throughout the research study by introducing a commonly used six order matrix framework with a high success rate in analysing and dissecting complex fields into small fragments. The framework is known as the Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture. However this is only done once a thorough literature review of both project and risk management as well as the limitations of the Zachman Framework have been well documented.Once the Zachman Framework for Construction adaptation is complete, it is then applied to an inner city construction case study. The results of the case study are used to determine if throughout the project lifecycle it has been possible to analyse and implement all project and risk management requirements simultaneously with little or no correction of project constraints.Using a developed integrated risk management tool which graphically tracks aggregate risk( s) in cost and time together with the Zachman Framework for Construction, the case study results reveal that it is possible to increase the ability to simultaneously manage risk and normal activities by concluding that the project constraints (i.e. cost) are accurately estimated and accomplished. In conclusion the research study,discussion and recommendations are made in order to implement all cells within the Zachman Framework for Construction therefore increasing the success of any project and risk management construction field.