Can we really measure construction productivity?

Recent studies have highlighted that productivity growth for the construction industry have remained stubbornly low or have declined over the last two decades in many developed countries. This observation does not match the advances in materials, project management, procurement, information technology, outsourcing, specialisation, and global competition that has been adopted in many modern construction companies. Undoubtedly, recent projects are built under more onerous regulatory, health and safety, environmental and quality expectations, but the impact of these demands should not outweigh the advances achieved through modern technology. A review of construction industry productivity literature indicates that there is little agreement on the actual rate of productivity growth for many developed economies. A research finding of either high growth or low growth is often disputed by other researchers using a different or revised methodology resulting in an opposing outcome. This study critically reviews both the economic and physical measures productivity from data, methodological and utility perspectives to determine if the effort expended to collect, define and compute these measures commensurate with the information that these provide. The findings indicate that economic or cost-based measures of productivity are unlikely to provide a consistently accurate estimate due to the dynamic nature of the construction activities. Linking physical measures of productivity to the specific demands of stakeholders to quantify improvements in construction performance may be more beneficial and practical.