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Has files: YesSubject: search.filters.subject.Construction Industry

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Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    PublicationOpen Access
    IMPACT OF ECONOMIC CRISIS ON EMPLOYEES OF CONTRACTORS’ ORGANISATIONS IN THE SRI LANKAN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY
    (Ceylon Institute of Builders - Sri Lanka, 2023-07-21) De Silva, S.S.; Wijekoon, W.M.C.L.K.; Kalugala, C
    The construction industry contributes more than 6% of the GDP of the Sri Lankan economy, employing workers at different levels of the value chain. The economic crisis in the country from 2019-2022 has had a significant impact on contractors’ organisations in the Sri Lankan construction industry, resulting in job losses, pay cuts, and reduced working hours. Hence this study aims to investigate the impact of the economic crisis on the employees of contractors’ organisations in the Sri Lankan construction industry, the most affected level of employees, and propose strategies to minimise the impact on the most affected level of employees. This study has been done using the mixed-method approach. Thirty-three (33) employees participated in a questionnaire survey and seven (7) managerial-level professionals were interviewed who are currently engaged in construction projects. This study has explored the levels of employees including technical, supervisory, and similar levels, professional level, administration, and managerial level. Further, this study provides the strategies adopted by the employees and the contractors to overcome the impact of the crisis, including measures to enhance productivity, cost reduction strategies, and access to financial support. The findings of the study will provide insights into the impact of the economic crisis on the construction industry in Sri Lanka and inform policy recommendations to support affected workers and ensure the long-term sustainability of the industry in a resilient way
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    PublicationOpen Access
    Modelling the Implications of Delayed Payments on Contractors’ Cashflows on Infrastructure Projects
    (Salehan Institute of Higher Education, 2023-01-01) Chadee, A; Ali, H; Gallage, S; Rathnayake, U
    The consideration of payments to contractors is not only a legal obligation but a necessity for assuring the continuity and completion of a construction project. However, consistent payments to facilitate project cash flows are uncommon in the construction industry. Within the context of a small island developing state, this paper aims to uncover leading risks factors contributing to implications of delayed payments, on contractors’ cash flows and uncover causalities and effects on relationships among these factors. A two-tiered quantitative approach was adopted. Firstly, a compiled list of delay factors was collated from the literature review. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with experienced construction professionals to determine the factors’ relevance and applicability in Trinidad and Tobago. A closed-ended survey questionnaire was subsequently developed and administered to primary construction stakeholders. Secondly, the responses obtained were collated, validated, and ranked using the relative importance index. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was carried out using SPSS, and thereafter, SPSS Amos was used to determine the best-fit Structural Equation Model (SEM). The results strongly indicate that the issue of delayed payments is very prevalent within public sector projects. Unstable political climates and the delay in employers’ issuance of variation orders were found to be the main causes of delayed payments within the industry. Delays in sub-contractor and supplier payments as well as an increase in the contractor’s debt were the leading effects of delayed payments on the contractor’s cash flows. Based on these findings, a risk response framework was outlined to assist small to medium-contracting enterprises to cope with payment delays, both locally and internationally. This research contributes to the advancement of construction management knowledge by informing construction professionals and policy makers of the implications of delaying approved payments, the consequential causes and effects, and a risk response technique to mitigate the negative effects on contractors’ cash flows.
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    PublicationOpen Access
    Conflicts Handling Styles Used by Professionals at Pre-Contract Stage of Building Construction Projects in Sri Lanka
    (SLIIT, 2022-02-11) De Silva, p; Sandanayake, Y. G
    Conflicts between design team professionals is a common experience in building construction projects in Sri Lanka. Depending on the way they are been handled, these conflicts bring either positive or negative impacts to the project. Thus, this paper investigates the conflict-handling styles that the professionals use to handle different types of conflicts among themselves at pre-contract stage of construction projects in Sri Lanka. The study on different types of conflicts and handling styles were derived through quantitative approach by a questionnaire survey designed incorporating Rahim’s Organisational Conflict InventoryII (ROCI-II) with the participation of 42 number of professionals engaged during the pre-contract stage of building construction projects in Sri Lanka. The scope of the study was limited to the building construction projects and only to the conflicts among professionals at the same level. The collected data were analysed using descriptive statistics. The research findings revealed that there are four types of conflicts: task, relationship, process and status conflicts, occur in different frequencies among the professionals. The task conflicts occur very often, and process conflicts occur often whilst relationship and status conflicts occur rarely among professionals during the pre-contract stage. This study revealed that professionals use different conflict handling styles to handle these four types of conflicts among themselves during the pre-contract stage of building construction projects in Sri Lanka. Further, majority of professionals use integrating style often to handle conflicts among themselves, and they use avoiding style very rarely to handle the conflicts among themselves except for relationship conflicts. However, to handle relationship conflicts, professionals use dominating style as the last option. The study would assist the industry practitioners to identify their personnel conflict handling style and the outcome of using each style with their supervisors when handling conflicts during the precontract stage.
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    PublicationOpen Access
    Level of risk management knowledge among construction project managers in Sri Lanka
    (researchgate.net, 2022-06-24) Welikala, D. H. N; Jayasena, H. S; Perera, B. K. C
    Risk management often becomes a significant concern among the construction professionals especially due to the complex nature of the industry. Though it is a popular subject in project management discipline, it was observed that authentic application of the principles of risk management at times is arguable in practice. As a Project Manager who is a key role player in a project, it is vital to have a solid knowledge on risk management and its related arena. Evidence was found of limited risk management knowledge among construction professionals. Therefore, a study was conducted to find the status of risk management knowledge among the construction Project Managers in Sri Lanka. A mixed method approach was followed by a comprehensive literature review on elements of body of knowledge of risk management and later a questionnaire survey to contextualise the status of the knowledge gap of Project Managers in real. According to the findings of the study, it could be concluded that Sri Lankan Project Managers are not fully confident on their risk management knowledge. It was primarily likely to be due to the limited learning in the subject area when pursuing higher studies. The study also identifies the options to device appropriate strategies to improve risk management knowledge among the Construction Project Managers in Sri Lanka.