Modern Management Techniques - Essay Example

Modern Management Techniques Introduction In the construction industry, site management involves exercising authority, responsibility and delegation of duties in ensuring success and productivity of the daily operations of a project. The site managers are tasked to oversee the daily operations of a construction project, maintaining worker safety, proper time and budget management and ensuring that all operations adhere to the right quality standards. As is the case with the Boston Harbour Project, the construction management is tasked with preparation of a checklist that clearly outlines the role of the quality control program, developing the list of the equipments necessary, conducting, tracking and analysing the audits (Armstrong and Wallace Ralph, 2001). Site managers oversee either a whole sight or part of the many sights for larger schemes or they might be responsible for part of the project. Before the commencement of the project, the site management personnel are required to organise all the necessary facilities, prepare the sight, plan the work to be done and install the temporary work bases for workers (Johansen and Wilson, 2006). Most of the site managers are involved in the running of the project before the site development activities commences. Prior to the commencement of the project, the site managers are responsible for bridging communications between all the parties involved in the running of the project. They are required to enhance proper time management and ensure that all activities adhere to the set time scale once the project commences. They are required to be sufficiently flexible and able to manage any problems or delays that may be faced in the course of the project construction. Ranns and Ranns, (2005) assert that construction managers should also possess efficient skills to enable them set the right priorities for the job and employ the necessary measures required for planning for safe construction. They are also required to preside over the communication roles with the external stakeholders. Role of Site Management Johansen and Wilson (2006) assert that despite the recent Government initiatives and the increasing expectations of the society, the theoretical roles of a site manager remain the same. They suggest that satisfying the high expectations of the society requires the managers to enforce the required strategies necessary for converting the theoretical measures into practice (Johansen and Wilson, 2006: 1309). Some of the responsibilities include ordering of new construction materials, ensuring that the site has adequate workforce to complete the assigned task in time and preparation of reports and status updates for other senior managers. The site manager is also tasked with maintaining the safety of the work force through ensuring that all the safety measures are adhered to and all the accidents or incidents endangering personnel life are reported to the necessary authorities for action. The manager should apply his or her competencies and expertise in the built environment to understand when changes to the original plans are required or the necessity of the projected completion dates. According to Hartley (2006), all these responsibilities cannot be ardently achieved if the manager is not present on the site; implying that site manager should personally scrutinise and delegate all the daily operations of a site. However, Griffiths (2004) posits that the recent technology has changed the management process whereby the manager can scrutinise the daily operation of a construction site online. The site manager has the responsibility of showing commitment to his job through ensuring that all the functions adhere to safety rules, enforcing the standards required for enhanced performance, ensuring cooperation and team work and monitoring sub-contractors to ensure transparency. The client expects the site manager to update them regularly on the project progress. The site manager has an obligation of reviewing the cost estimates, schedules and negotiating revisions to avoid future complications that may compromise performance. To achieve the stipulated roles, the site manager should possess excellent communication skills, problem solving skills, and motivational, commercial awareness and portray team work (Griffiths, 2004). Successful implementation of result-based management requires effective delegation of duties (Roberts, 2011). The site managers are required to ensure clear delegation of duties in all project units and be accountable for the results. The major function of delegation is fostering more efficient use of resources and enhancing the overall performance of the work force. Safety rules and delegations should form an integrated part of the job rules. The managerial power should be extended to effective orientation of the new workers and making them understand that infringing the rules may lead to termination. The delegation role should also be extended to the foremen and other junior officers through reviewing their job exposures with work progress and revising their job procedures to ensure safety. According to Roberts (2011), maintenance of a safe and productive job procedure requires application of strategies such as on-job-training and use of the tool box meetings. Accountability cannot be achieved if the management does not commit to the combined goal of high productivity and high safety. The management is also required to portray transparency in budgeting through ensuring that all the resources allocated for the project are not mishandled. The site manager can avoid accountability issues through efficient planning. The costs of all the facilities and manpower required for the job completion should be assessed and the actual figures ascertained. Role of Quality Assurance Quality assurance is defined as the set of standards required in ensuring that activities and products produced attain the required standards or the final results meets or exceeds the required performance limits (Love and Scoble, 2006). Quality assurance in construction management requires that all the plans involved in incorporating the design changes and plans for construction be well developed. Early recognition and implementation of design changes lowers the process costs. Quality assurance strategies in construction should monitor the progress of the design management and changes in the management processes to ensure performance. According to Love and Scoble (2006), quality assurance is applied in all process stages such as planning, construction, execution and maintenance. Construction management is undertaken by various types of professionals and business people/suppliers with various skills and different educational levels. According to Quality assurance in the provision of library services in British Columbia case study by Seaborne (2000), quality assurance is applied in activities such as tendering, document control, procurement and record keeping. The adoption of quality assurance in construction is normally client-led. Quality assurance will always target understanding of the client’s needs and expectations and focus on the necessary measures suitable for satisfying the needs. When awarding contracts, the client possesses the utmost conviction that the contractor is capable of delivering in the first time through focusing on the philosophy of quality assurance. Some of the construction issues related to poor quality assurance include damage to the terrace roof surface, leakage through roof joints and brushings due to the discolorations, and drenching of the internal thermal insulation materials and leakages resulting from flakiness of the facade layer underneath (Johansen and Wilson, 2006). In a bid to improve the effectiveness of construction management through quality assurance, the modern management in the construction industry has embarked on employee training and nurturing of talents to promote performance. Training equips employees with the technological skills capable of improving performance in the modernised construction industry. Quality assurance is involved in measurement and auditing of the processes involved in construction. QA is also involved in the identification of the weaknesses associated with various activities to ensure application of the strategies that minimises those errors (Yuan, Fu and Raba, 2006). Some of the responsibilities of quality assurance includes; implementation and maintenance of an efficient quality control program, identification of quality challenges and recommending changes where necessary, verifying that the changes have been evaluated and corrected, conducting internal audits and conducting training programs to equip skills necessary for certification assurance. To ensure sustainability, the QA is involved in maintenance. The test lead and the analyst enhance the maintenance through provision of deliverables and the test execution if the test team is involved in the on-going maintenance. The rerun performance tests can be conducted by performance analyst if required. The project team is involved in the provision of the project deliverables while the test team is involved in the ongoing test processes. Theories of Management The built environment is encompassed of all the buildings, living spaces and the infrastructural facilities that are created and modified by people. The theories of management that can be applied by contractors in the Built Environment include the theory of scientific management, administrative management theory, behavioural theory of management (Hawthorne effect) and bureaucratic theory (French et al., 2009). Theory of Scientific Management The theory of scientific management (Taylor’s theory) aims at improving the efficiency, especially the labour productivity (Chartered Techno functional Institute, 2013). The theory focuses on worker remuneration as the basis of motivation. For the contractors to effectively incorporate the theory of scientific management in their daily activities, they should understand the manner in which jobs are performed and enact the new strategies that can be applied by the workers to improve their performance. They should teach, train and develop the work force and codify the new strategic methods into roles that should be followed by all the workers. The interest of the contractor, client and the workers should be harmonised to ensure satisfaction and understanding between the involved parties. The theory asserts that the contractor should establish the fair levels of performance and award the employees that show higher performance. Administrative Management Theory The administrative management theory (by Henri Fayol) provides a contractor the leeway to focus on various principles of management. Such principles include division of work, initiative, equity, discipline, stability of tenure, responsibility and authority, Esprit De Corps and subordination of the personal interests to the general interests (Chartered Techno functional Institute, 2013; French et al., 2009). Others include centralisation, unity of direction, and stability of tenure, remuneration and unity of command. Application of this theory in the construction industry improves performance because the principles cater for the needs of all the stakeholders involved in a project. For instance, work division negates work overload among workers, enhancing productivity. Bureaucratic Theory Application of the bureaucratic theory of management (by Max Weber) makes a distinction between authority and power. According to Chartered Techno functional Institute (2013), the theory identifies three forms of power in a management set-up; traditional power, charismatic and bureaucratic or legal power. According to this theory, the current management strategies being applied by modern contractors are bureaucratic in nature. Some of the features that indicate the application of bureaucracy include; the division of labour, managing by rules, the formal hierarchical structure, and selection based on the technical expertise and involvement of the formal and impersonal relations. The bureaucratic culture of management makes managers the agents of enactment of these rules. Most of the features of this culture are focused towards benefitting the project and the institutions being managed, with minimal focus on the welfare on the manpower. However, contractors may amend some of bureaucratic principles where necessary to enhance worker performance. Behavioural Theory The last theory is the Behavioural theory by Elton Mayor that asserts that a worker’s performance is enhanced by the psychological aspect of being recognised and considered contributors to the success of the company. The theory purports that workers are more motivated by any novel changes in their working conditions such as illumination and hygienic work stations (Chartered Techno functional Institute, 2013). Workers will always yearn to work hard because they know they are being watched. Conclusion The site manager is required to set the priorities on the job, orienting workers, planning for safe construction, building the work force and maintaining for an efficient safety net. Quality assurance is defined as the set of standards required in ensuring that activities and products produced attain the required standards or the final results meets or exceeds the required performance limits. The theories of management that can be applied by contractors in the Built Environment include the theory of scientific management, administrative management theory, behavioural theory of management (Hawthorne effect) and bureaucratic theory. The recent Government initiatives and the increasing expectations of the society require the government to adopt modern management techniques to improve performance. Table of Contents Modern Management Techniques 1 Introduction 1 Role of Site Management 2 Role of Quality Assurance 4 Theories of Management 5 Theory of Scientific Management 6 Administrative Management Theory 6 Bureaucratic Theory 7 Behavioural Theory 7 Conclusion 8 Table of Contents 9 References 10 References Armstrong, W.G. & Wallace, R.M. (2001) A case study of construction management on the Boston harbour project reflections at project completion, viewed 25 January 2013 . Chartered Techno functional Institute (2013) Management Theories: What do we mean by Management Theories? viewed 25 January 2013 . French, B., Thomas, L.H, Baker, P., Burton, C., Pennington, L. & Roddam, H. (2009) What can management theories offer, evidence-based practice? A comparative analysis of measurement tools for organisational context BioMed Central Ltd. Griffiths, R. (2004) ‘Knowledge production and the research-teaching nexus: the case of the built environment disciplines’ Studies in Higher Education, vol. 29, no. 6, pp. 709-726. Hartley, N.T. (2006) ‘Management history: An umbrella model’ Journal of Management History, vol. 12, no. 3, 2006, pp. 278-292(15). Johansen, E. & Wilson, B. (2006) ‘Investigating first planning in construction’ Construction Management & Economics, vol. 24, no. 12, pp. 1305-1314. Love, S. & Scoble, R. (2006) ‘Developing a quality assurance metric’ Active Learning in Higher Education, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 129-141. Ranns, R.H.B. & Ranns, E.J.M. (2005) Practical construction management, London, Taylor & Francis. Roberts, P. (2011) Effective project management, London, UK, Kogan Page. Seaborne, K. (2000) Quality assurance in the provision of library services in British Columbia, The Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver, pp. 77-87. Yuan, J., Fu, C.N. & Raba, G.W. (2006) ‘Implementation of web-based electronic data management system: Case study of highway megaproject construction material quality assurance program’ Transportation Research Record, vol. 1956, pp. 1-13. Read More