Abdul Ghafar, M and Ibrahim, R (2025) Quantifying AEC professionals' cross-work culture productivity: Comparison between Malaysian and UK projects during industrialized building project. Smart and Sustainable Built Environment, 14(4), pp. 921-942. ISSN 2046-6099
Abstract
Purpose: This paper discussed quantifying architect, engineer and contractor (AEC) professionals' cross-work culture productivity by comparing between Malaysian and United Kingdom (UK) projects during industrialized building project delivery. This study addressed the second part of a mixed method research design study. Design/methodology/approach: This study hypothesized that with understanding of cultural work knowledge between professionals during design phase coupled with competent technological support, productivity can be improved. It utilized Cognitive Organizational Theory (COT) protocols to test conceptual models in SimVision®. Organizational structure, project intensity, and statistical validations parameters were performed to obtain the reliability and generalization of the result. Findings: This study found that with Building Information Modeling (BIM) technology intervention, the handling of exception, coordination and decision-making time could be improved, resulting in better project performances. The result also indicated that in choosing organizational fit, national culture factor needed to be considered; otherwise, organizational change would be unacceptable. By changing the operational process from intensive to reciprocal task intensity with BIM technology intervention, the effect on productivity would be similar to changing hierarchical organizational structure to flatter organizational structure. Research limitations/implications: Project discrepancies issues are limitedly discussed due to companies' confidentiality. The paper only focuses on understanding the effects of human factors during the integrated project delivery phase. Practical implications: The findings could support developing countries' professionals to collaborate effectively with developed countries' professionals. Originality/value: The development of the project's cultural knowledge experimentations will provide guidance to teams involved in international projects from developed and developing countries in pursuing joint ventures in project deliveries in either country successfully.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | AEC; cross-work culture; cultural knowledge; integrated design management; sustainable design informatics; transdisciplinary practice |
| Index terms: | design management, methodology, decision-making, developed country, confidentiality, validation, international project, human factor, developing country, organizational change, organizational structure, sustainable design, organizational theory, United Kingdom, integrated project delivery, informatic, experiment, national culture, architect, design phase, project performance, industrialized building, project delivery, coordination, building information modelling, joint venture, engineer, productivity, mixed method research |
| Subjects: | contractual arrangements, professional practice, strategic management, cross-cultural studies, building construction, professional ethics, research methods, Geography, design process, development economics, project delivery, profession, data collection methods, business, occupational health and safety management, decision analysis, sociology, information science, information systems, management, project management theory and practice, professional development |
| Topics: | Legal Issues, Project Management, Geographical Context, Health and Safety, Procurement, Risk Management, International Construction, Design Practice, Digital Applications, Organizational Design, Research Practice, Information Management, Business Strategy, Construction Technology, Roles and Professions |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
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