Hutchings, D M and Christofferson, J P (2004) Management practices of residential construction companies producing 25 or fewer units annually. International Journal of Construction Education and Research, 1(1), pp. 34-44. ISSN 1557-8771
Abstract
The majority of home building companies in the United States produce fewer than 25 homes per year. To better understand the management practices of home builders who reportedly build 11 to 25 homes per year, a survey was mailed to 1,114 of these residential contractors who were randomly selected from the membership rolls of the National Association of Home Builders. This research report summarizes the responses received. Topics of interest addressed by the survey included construction management, accounting and planning, scheduling and estimating methods, software usage, and customer and employee relations. Most of the respondents reported excellent relationships with clients; however, relationships with employees, subcontractors, and suppliers did not seem to be as strong. It is interesting to note that some tasks, which are easily automated, such as scheduling and estimating, were usually completed by hand. The results of other findings are also discussed in detail.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | management practices; residential construction; home builder |
| Index terms: | residential construction, home building, management practice, subcontractor, estimating, accounting, employee relation, scheduling, United States, survey, builder |
| Subjects: | Geography, construction type, practitioner, psychology, operations research, economic analysis, management, construction integration, data collection methods, financial and cost management |
| Topics: | Research Practice, Business Strategy, Cost Management, Construction Technology, Roles and Professions, Human Resources, Time Control, Geographical Context |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCE |
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