Atkinson, A (1997) The management of construction failures and defects. In: Stephenson, P (ed.) Proceedings of 13th Annual ARCOM Conference, 15-17 September 1997, Cambridge, UK.
Abstract
Recent developments in research into the avoidance of accidents and failures in several industries has placed emphasis on managerial forces influencing the event rather than the actions of an individual error perpetrator. Similar research into managerial forces related to lesser construction failures is, however, notable by its absence. This paper reports a study of 23 housing projects constructed by two house-building companies in the UK. A statistical analysis was conducted of "individual", "managerial" and "external" factors compared with dependent variables of cost, times and levels of defects for the projects. Significant relationships were not generally noted between factors and dependent variables, with one important exception. There was a correlation between the senior managers 'a priori' ratings for their site managers and out-turn project performance. This supports the commonly held intuitive view that project performance (whether related to cost, time, defects or accidents) depends on the individual quality of key workers, in this case the site manager. The implications of this finding are that efforts to reduce defects should focus on managerial selection, training and education, rather than interventions of the "quality systems" type.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction failure; defects; human error; project management |
| Index terms: | project performance, housing project, manager, site manager, dependent variable, project management, statistical analysis |
| Subjects: | data science, statistical analysis, practitioner, housing and residential development, project management theory and practice |
| Topics: | Roles and Professions, Urban Studies, Research Practice, Project Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCA |
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