To successfully complete the project, the product has to meet
the expected level of quality and contract terms. The systems
have to be integrated and aligned so as to enable the people to
perform their work efficiently, effectively, and safely.
Unfortunately, many construction companies engage in repeated
ineffective practices that lead to suboptimal results, such as
low productivity, poor quality, and worker injuries, among
others. What is even more unfortunate is that they repeat these
practices time and time again with predictable outcomes.
Understanding the causes and effect of ineffective construction
management practices may provide an avenue to reducing some of
the problems faced by the people involved in project delivery.
Those selecting these practices generally have good intentions,
rarely get the results they expect, and have no idea why their
initiatives fail to achieve their intended outcomes. Recognizing
these ineffective practices will assist in avoiding them and so
improving the chances of success.
Risk assessments and risk control are the two main elements
of managing the project delivery risk. Risk assessment involves
identification, analysis, and prioritization, while risk control
involves planning, resolution, and monitoring. Assignment of
probability takes the management process one step further and is
used to evaluate the likelihood of the occurrence of a hazard or
exposure. Combining estimates of loss magnitude with failure is
the usual way of evaluating risk situations.
Anything that causes uncertainty or variability on the
project leads to confusion and invariably increases the inherent
risk. As risk goes up, so does the possibility of incidents,
injuries, and losses. Therefore the "better" the management
processes, practices, and procedures, the safer the project, as
workers are not put into positions where they have to make
changes to their routine, work faster or longer, or react to
changes, etc. So, if operations do a "better job" in setting up
the project as well as doing "better" planning and risk
assessment, workers will be faced with fewer exposures and
risks. These will invariably have a greater impact on safety
than the traditional safety practices and interventions do. Some
of the more common practices that contribute to adverse project
safety are discussed below.
Systems (Practices and Procedures)
Following are common industry practices and procedures that
can, and often do, affect project safety.
Overly Optimistic Assumptions
This generally results from wishful thinking or lack of
careful analysis. This could apply to the operational plan as
well as the schedule. The schedule is based on assumptions of
subcontractor performance, workforce productivity, and staff
management or leadership capabilities. During construction,
achieving the schedule depends a lot on the subcontractors
delivering on their promises. Up-front unrealistic assumptions
will in fact create situations where the work plan will have to
quickly be changed to recover from unanticipated situations and
thereby increase the potential for adverse outcomes.
Another key aspect is taking on projects that have very
aggressive schedules without providing the appropriate plans,
resources, and systems to adequately address the challenges.
This places pressures on the project staff as well as the
workforce to perform work that may be beyond their capability,
driving them to take shortcuts, not giving them enough time to
assess risk, stacking trades, extending overtime, etc. All of
these situations must get a thorough risk assessment, and the
work must be planned with ways to mitigate the risk, or
incidents and losses will invariably follow.
Ineffective Risk Assessment
Some of the risks are typical, while others are specific and
unique to a job. The outcomes of all incidents associated with
increased risks are not "fatal" to the project, but they do have
some adverse affect. Some inevitably lead to more issues or
cause the project to evolve so that more problems are
inescapable. Assessment of risk during construction tends to get
less attention due to time constraints and performance demands,
resulting in the possibility of greater risk being imposed on
the project delivery process. That is why it is wiser to spend
time up front to anticipate some of the potential disruptions
and have possible recovery plans available so as to make the job
of project staff easier, more efficient, and specifically more
effective.
Inferior Planning
Planning is more than creating a schedule. It involves
logistics–proactively addressing the impact of potential
changes, drawing up recovery plans on how to best deal with
them, understanding constraints, and implementing workarounds up
front. Abandoning proper planning steps under pressure and going
into "firefighting mode" will result in greater risks being
introduced into the process.
Poor Partner Selection
Contractors are only as "good" as their subcontractors are.
Therefore, subcontractor selection is critical to project
success and the decreased amount of risk with which staff has to
contend. Another important item is the capability of the
subcontractor's project staff. It behooves the contractor to
ensure that the subcontractor assigns competent people, and the
general contractor should assess their capabilities early on and
ask for incompetent or incompatible subcontractor personnel to
be replaced before they create problems on the job.
Poor Preconstruction Practices
Construction is about creating (building) something, and
since the front end does not physically create anything, there
is a tendency to try to minimize the time spent here. Time spent
before construction starts pays dividends many times over later
during construction. This area not only covers the creation of
the initial project schedule and operational plans,
subcontractor selection, and project risk assessment but also
establishing the budget, staff selection, and metrics that
identify issues early on, as well as company active oversight to
ensure that everything is progressing as it should and rapid and
effective problem identification as well. Resolution is crucial
to the reduction of cumulative risk as well as giving project
staff the time they need to manage and innovate rather than
overloading them with problems.
Misaligned Systems
Over time, all organizations institute change to their
internal systems and revise their policies, standards, and
procedures. In many cases, these changes are not carefully
reviewed for any potential conflict with already existing ones.
These discrepancies create situations where staff and workers
have to choose between conflicting directions or objectives.
This sets the stage for unexpected or undesirable outcomes.
Due to the need for specialization, organizations are
vertically organized. Over time, each department or division
ends up with its own special practices and goals that serve the
department well but may not be fully aligned with the overall
organizational needs, thereby creating operational or goal
attainment discrepancies. This is a system-driven risk that is
difficult to identify, assess, and resolve in the field,
especially where safe work is involved.
Little Cross-Functional Communication
Most organizations need specialized functions to operate
efficiently and effectively. These functions end up with their
own unique processes and practices. They may have their own
goals. These then may create barriers to cross-functional
communication and flow of information, which ultimately is to
the detriment of the organization. Inferior cross-functional
communication will also impact expedited decision-making and
problem solving, which is critical to the project management
process and safe working practices.
Insufficient Company Oversight
In instances where there are different profit centers,
business units, or project profitability goals, and they have
their own management structures, there is a need for main office
or senior management oversight to ensure that those units'
practices are in full alignment with the overarching
organizational goals and objectives. If these units are in
"competition" with each other for performance results, there may
be a tendency to take risks and potentially increase the
likelihood of losses and accidents.
Metrics
It is a well-known fact that metrics drive organizational
behavior. Senior management must be sure that all metrics drive
the "right" behavior. This is especially true of any newly
implemented or revised metrics. If these are not carefully
analyzed for potential misinterpretation, conflict with other
metrics, or confusion, it will have surprising unintended
outcomes. And, as mentioned above, senior management should be
on the lookout to ensure that competition does not drive groups
or individuals to take unnecessary and unevaluated risk for
gains that have marginal potential benefits.
Conflict Resolution
When people work together, there always is the opportunity
for differing opinions and conclusions. These may get resolved
at the individual level, or they may create problems that need
to be addressed by management. This points to the need for
organizations to have a structured process of how to address
conflict, quickly and effectively address the underlying issue,
and resolve it expeditiously.
People (Workers)
Following are common industry worker issues that often
directly relate to project safety.
Motivation
Research has shown that motivation has greater impact on
productivity, quality, and safety than just about anything else
does. So, the question is how to motivate staff and workers to
work safely. The typical interventions used in industry are
training, inspections, incentives, and punishment. It has been
proven that none of these is highly effective in garnering
optimal safety performance.
Training is not motivational and only addresses knowledge
deficiencies. Neither are inspections, and research has shown
that incentives and punishment really don't work well.
Behavioral interventions have their limitations and eventually
plateau.
Capability
One of the fundamental elements of performance is the
capability of the person assigned to do a task. Therefore,
proper selection and placement are important. If the person has
deficiencies, management should provide the support or resources
required to ensure success. If people have deficiencies, they
may choose to do things that are not appropriate or expected in
order to succeed or stay employed. Therefore, proper placement
and initial oversight and support are critical to the
development and ultimate success of the person.
Heroism
Many companies place a high value on production and reward
those who overcome barriers and achieve goals. This drives most
employees to try to achieve outstanding results. This may
encourage workers to "game the system," indiscriminately take
risk, and engage in unsafe work practices. If the organization
is not careful, it will create a culture that undermines safe
work practices.
Unrealistic Expectations
A major source of disagreement comes from perceptions and
expectations. Managing expectations and understanding the causes
of perception could go a long way to resolve misunderstandings,
which if left to fester, can lead to stress, conflict, and
undesirable behavior. Sometimes end dates are set because that
is when something may be required, and then a schedule is drawn
up to meet it without a critical analysis of the constraints,
capabilities, and resources. Sometimes people are given
assignments for which they are not quite ready and, if not given
support, fail in some respects.
Conclusion
There are foundational elements that play a critical role in
organizational behavior, be it in performance, productivity,
quality, customer service, safety, or other areas. These are
culture, values, leadership, climate, etc. Management devises
systems that enable performance as well as practices that
sustain them. Senior management establishes and articulates the
vision, middle management devises the strategy, line management
executes the plan, and the workers perform the tasks.
Organizational systems have a great deal of influence on the
project staff as well as the workforce. The organizational
systems influence and shape their behavior. How management acts
and is perceived by project staff and the workforce also shapes
their behavior. There is little in the literature that deals
with the impact of organizational systems and management
practices as they directly or indirectly influence safety
outcomes.
There are many potential sources of error or discrepancy in
the project delivery process. We covered process and people in
some detail, but this is certainly not a complete list.
Technology, equipment, agendas, etc., can also contribute to the
risk of incidents and injuries occurring on the job.
Organizational systems that have differing objectives or
management's acts or prognostications that send messages that
are in conflict with written goals and objectives or the way
things are communicated create an environment where staff and
workers have to make choices between one or another policy that
invariably create uncertainly or variability and thereby
increase the risk of an adverse safety outcome.