Chan, P and Kaka, A (2003) A blue-collar insight into improving construction labour productivity. In: Greenwood, D J (ed.) Proceedings of 19th Annual ARCOM Conference, 3-5 September 2003, Brighton, UK.
Abstract
This research is a follow-on study from a nationwide survey conducted among UK project managers, reported in Chan and Kaka (2003), aimed at identifying the potential areas of improving construction labour productivity, and represents one of the latest attempts in the UK to tap into the perceptions of the 'blue collar' sector of the construction workforce. The preliminary results presented in this paper stems from data collected from 59 site operatives and reveal a high potential in the areas of communication, usage of plant and equipment, specification and quality requirements, supervision and rework. A comparison between the results from the project managers' survey and this study highlights a gap in the thinking of 'white collar' and 'blue collar' workers, with the former more aligned to strategic issues and the latter more focused on the task to be completed.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | labour productivity improvements; perceptions; site operatives; questionnaire survey; UK |
| Index terms: | project manager, specification, survey, productivity, rework, labour productivity, questionnaire, construction labour, site operative, plant and equipment, supervision |
| Subjects: | contractual condition, manufacturing engineering, management, control systems, practitioner, profession, data collection methods, operations management |
| Topics: | Roles and Professions, Business Strategy, Project Management, Research Practice, Engineering Principles, Site Management, Contract Administration |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here