Productivity improvements: understand the workforce perceptions of productivity first

Abstract

PurposeTo establish the differences between the perceptions of white‐collar managers and blue‐collar workers with respect to the factors that affect construction labour productivity, and to show that integrating the differences could lead to productivity improvements.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire survey administered to a purposive sample of 400 project managers and a convenience sample of 152 construction workers, eliciting current trends of their perceptions towards 59 factors that were extracted from an extensive literature review and exploratory study. This was followed by the identification of good practice examples from site observations across two project sites.FindingsThe study found distinct differences between the two groups, with white‐collar managers being more concerned with resource planning issues and the blue‐collar workers placing more value on the utilisation of resources. Furthermore, the site observations demonstrated that integrating these differences through employee involvement could lead to productivity improvements.Originality/valueThe study should extend previous productivity research, which had hitherto focussed on shorter‐term work content and work environment factors from a managerial perspective, with relatively lesser focus on the perspective of the general workforce.

Comparison of Labor Productivity Perspectives of Project Managers and Craft Workers in Turkish Construction Industry

“…The results revealed that, control and quality requirements are the most important factors for project managers and craft workers, respectively. In this paper, a similar research to Chan and Kaka [10] was conducted for Turkey. For this purpose, via a questionnaire 37 factors grouped under 4 categories were evaluated by project managers and craft workers, and statistically analyzed.…”

“…Therefore in this study both of the participant groups emphasized on similar factors which were lack of construction equipment, materials and tools, and engineering drawings [7]. Finally, Chan and Kaka [10] conducted a research in UK to compare the labor productivity perspectives of project managers and craft workers. Similar to other studies a questionnaire was applied to both of these participant groups.…”

Productivity in Construction-A Critical Review of Research

“…The research interest in the application of concept of worker involvement, integration of perspectives of workers and managers on productivity in the construction industry is still at the nascent stage since Chan (2006Chan ( , 2007 rekindled it to the research agenda. The possibility of widening the worker integration to encompass social relationship is also investigated.…”

“…These studies are separately looking into two aspects of productivity; namely areas where productivity improvement is possible (eg. Arditi,1985; Arditi and Mochtar,1996) and productivity improvement techniques (Cottrell, 2006;Chan and Kaka, 2007;Han et al2008, Minchin et al2008. It is striking to note that follow up studies have not been conducted to empirically verify the validity of claims and promises made in productivity improvement studies.…”

“…The growing interest in sustainable construction, rapid technological improvements and increasing labour costs should provide opportunities for OSP to serve sustainable projects (Baba et al, 2008). According to Chan and Kaka (2007), past productivity studies bore a strong positivistic tradition, often maintaining the managerial perspective. In view of ever changing construction project environment the adequacy of existing research paradigm is questionable.…”