No abstract

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) construction industry is an essential part of the country's economy. It provides a significant contribution to employment, housing, commercial buildings and infrastructure. The aim was to study various risks and risk factors related to success of UAE construction projects. An in-depth interview approach involving clients, contractors and consultants was used. It was noted that the differing perspectives of the three main categories of clients, contractors and consultants were critical to success, with communication factors amongst the three identified as playing a most critical role in success. A large of cultural difference was also noted within the workers in UAE industry. There was a lack of understanding of the effects and mechanisms of the risks associated with cultural diversity, including optimal ways to deal with issues and risks. Specifically, this paper identifies the major cultural and economic risks factors that impact the success of large projects.

The project management literature extensively documents project failures and observes that increases in project complexity have played a role in such failures. Additionally, the literature expresses concern that prescribed industry risk management standards are not sufficiently robust to assist in the management of risk and uncertainty, especially in complex projects. Yet, the management of risk and uncertainty is the cornerstone of the project manager's role. There is limited evidence in the literature of empirical research focused primarily on the management of risk and uncertainty with complex projects. This paper aims to investigate the practices used by project managers to address risk and uncertainty and to critically analyse the success of these methods in complex projects. The findings of this paper is contribute to addressing practical challenges, issues and concerns facing project managers in relation to the management of risk and uncertainty in complex project environments. Risk and uncertainty are vital elements of projects and this paper will act as a guide for the improvement of risk management and uncertainty practices and further contribute to the collection of empirical research relating to this topic.

Industrial risk management is an area of interest in business and management research. Construction is a risky and dynamic industry that is particularly prone to a variety of risks and uncertainties. The nature of these risks may depend on particular projects and can significantly vary from country to country. Therefore, the essential goal of research in identifying and characterising risks in construction is twofold , involving (1) the identification and characterisation of any general trends, risks and mitigating strategies that are common in different countries and extend over a variety of construction projects in one or more countries; and (2) the identification and characterisation of any particular construction risk in a given country or even for a given project and understanding any variability of risks for different projects or countries. The detailed analysis of risks and risk factors associated with both these aims is essential for the successful development of the construction industries that constitute a significant part of the world economy. The major focus of this paper is the analysis and characterization of cultural risks in the construction industry in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The unprecedented construction boom in the UAE since 1971 has caused rapid and extensive growth in its construction industry. However, this rapid growth and its sustainability are threatened by a variety of factors including significant cultural issues associated with the traditional Arabic culture and the unprecedented diversity of the workforce in the UAE, as more than 80% of workers are expatriates from different parts of the world. This creates a unique business environment in the country whose successful development largely underpins the economic progress in the Middle East and elsewhere. The analysis of cultural risks in the UAE construction industry was conducted using a specially designed and validated survey instrument. There were 237 participants of the study, all holding senior engineering or managerial positions in companies associated with the construction industry in the UAE. The analysis was based on the identification and quantitative characterization of the constructs associated with the cultural risk factors and generalized structural equation modelling to characterize the direct and indirect effects of these constructs on the success of construction projects. All outcomes were adjusted to socioeconomic and company variables. Among the mediating constructs, External Risks (involving corruption, government regulations, market demand and differences between stakeholders) and Communication (involving communication issues between the parties to the contract, employers and employees) dominated Internal Risks, which were generally perceived as less important. The cultural factors produced significant impacts on these mediating constructs that, in turn, affected project success. Only two UAE cultural aspects were found to have positive impact on project success. These were differences in educational backgr...

Every day people are faced with decisions because of the various issues that are inevitable in day-to-day life. In the same breath, during the choices, there is numerous information on a given phenomenon; information that cannot be comprehended in full and used in making the decisions. This paper seeks to look at the limitations of the market and how they have influences on the different choices that humans make. Moreover, the first part of the paper will address behaviour science and the concept of bounded rationality. The next phase will offer a theoretical glimpse and by so doing compare rationality theory and the critique offered through bounded rationality. Based on the above understanding the paper will then go into detail and look at different concepts related to the subject matters of this paper. The concepts will be decision making in times of uncertainty and risk, the responses of humans when faced with different alternatives and what shapes the choices and how they are shaped.