Measuring WLB-Job Satisfaction For Construction Engineers
Karki S. K. and Bhattarai D. P.
A cross-sectional and quantitative study with a sample of N=219 among 500 engineers at construction sites of hydro projects has revealed common dissatisfaction on contractor (lowest), reward and recognition; promotion and growth, and pay and benefits. The Job Satisfaction (JS), Overall Job Satisfaction (OJS) and Work-Life Balance (WLB) were above "neutral" 3.0 mean 3.505, 3.444, 3.435 "just satisfied". Among the items with higher satisfaction levels in order (higher to lower) were: the challenging nature of work (highest), responsibilities, able to use own knowledge and skills, coworker, subordinate, supervisors, feedback, consultant and work load. Most of the engineers (52.3%) were dissatisfied. The percentages of satisfied engineers were higher on Pay (51.5 %); Promotion and Advancement (47%), Reward and Recognition (40.6 %), Work Load (55.7 %), Job security (46.1 %) and the Employer (53.4 %) than dissatisfied engineers. The analyses using SPSS 20.0 version, Chi-square and Pearson's Coefficient found a moderate (0.48) correlation of WLB with JS. In the same way, WLB was found having associations: high (0.87) with less than half a million; low (0.29) with a half to one million; low (0.39) with 1.0 to 1.5 millions and low (0.265) with more than one and a half millions annual family income group. The scales satisfied the validity and reliability criteria but are recommended for future researches on test- retest. The employers are recommended to improve the aspects of job which have lower level JS and implement WLB programs on the projects.
Job satisfaction, Overall job satisfaction, Work -Life balance
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Research Articles
Ergonomic Analysis of Building Construction Workers Using RULA & REBA Techniques
Vikram S. Kulkarni and R.V. Devalkar
Ergonomics deals with the study of internal and external stresses acting on human body. Use of ergonomic principles reduces fatigue experienced by the human body in various tasks. This study is limited only to the various tasks on building construction. The paper describes the use of Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) and Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) techniques in construction industry to quantify the amount of fatigue experienced by the workers. The objective of this study is to assess and understand the role of Ergonomics in various tasks in construction industry, and also to find the level of Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) and suggest corrective measures for every task having a high risk factor. The key data required for the study is gathered from the secondary sources like journals and primary sources like a field survey. The outcomes of both the RULA and REBA assessments indicate that there was a high risk of developing Cumulative Trauma Disorders (CTDs) and MSDs. The results were compared for each activity and it was found that all the selected activities were at a high risk and the process needed to be investigated further. Changes must be implemented to protect the workers and improve the productivity.
Construction workers, Ergonomic analysis, Productivity, REBA, RULA
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Research Articles
Strategic Planning For Redevelopment Of Residential Projects In Mumbai City
Amlani Saurabh B. and Nagrale Prashant P.
Mumbai, the financial capital of India which covers 437.71 square kilometers, is facing a major problem of city development because of the existing slum area. Mumbai had seven island cities during the Portuguese rule before it came under the British rule. It is currently the financial capital of India and is divided into 24 wards of Municipal Corporation Greater Mumbai. The slum dwellers are important contributors to the development of the city by rendering their services to the citizens and organizations. The horizontal topographical growth of Mumbai is being restricted for development due to the shortage of land, and the major problem for vertical growth is the present slum area.. This study is carried out to strategically find out new general Floor Space Index (FSI) for each residential category in each ward of Mumbai in relation to the population density of the respective wards; in addition, to equally boost the vertical growth of Mumbai by providing strategically attractive. This research will be summarised by developing a new strategic FSI for the undeveloped areas of Mumbai without interrupting the current growth of the developed areas by providing new strategic FSIs for each residential category in each ward of Mumbai which will boost the development of slums, chawls and clusters etc.
Imperative Of Project Management Process In A Construction Project
Indrasen Singh
The process of project management is an integrating one where an action (or failure to take action) in one aspect will usually affect the other. Their interactions often require trade-offs among the variables that normally need to measure whether a projects goals are achieved, i.e. time, cost and performance. Performance for convenience can be interpreted as being constituted from two functions, namely scope ('what') and quality ('how', 'who' etc). The variables, time, cost and performance are related to one another in the form of a mathematical vector. The project's target is the confluence of the three variables. These three variables are sometimes known as the triple constraints. It is project management's job to ensure that the triple constraints are continually balanced and that, at completion, the project achieves or betters the predetermined target values of the triple constraints. In a project with several hundreds of activities, it is much complicated and time consuming to evaluate the progress, to compare, and to arrive at suggested remedial measures. Using computer software techniques, the controlling can be done much easier, faster and with least amount of errors. Re-scheduling several hundreds of activities of using conventional manual methods will require several man hours of top/middle management and also such methods are prone to errors mainly human errors. By using computer software techniques, the time required for planning, scheduling and re-scheduling is miniscale, in comparison to the manual conventional methods.
Project mission, Project plans and schedules, Personnel, Monitoring, Communication,
Troubleshooting
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Research Articles
Implementation Of BIM Execution Plan : An Experimental Study In Global Teams
Shobha Ramalingam and Ashwin Mahalingam
Virtual project execution is a popular business methodology adopted by the multi-national engineering firms that have moved beyond the work sharing practice to develop high performance virtual teams across national and cultural boundaries. In the design and development phase of construction projects, advanced collaborative tools including Building Information Modeling (BIM) facilitate this process by coordinating information and enabling the visualization needs for remote participants. However, to effectively integrate BIM into the project delivery process, it is important for the teams to develop a detailed BIM Execution Plan (BEP)to follow throughout the project and thereby reduce the uncertainties in schedules, cost over-runs and over-all project risks. While there are several BIM Plan frameworks developed that can assist the managers in integration, little remains explored to understand its implementation process and effect in the collaborative virtual projects. In this paper, we address this research concern through an experimental study conducted with 15 student teams across two leading universities including University of Washington, USA and Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India. The teams collaborated virtually for a period of two months to develop a 3-dimensional Revit model and a 4- dimensional design model in Autodesk Navisworks for two projects, a single storey and a multistorey residential building for disaster response with the latter including the integration of BEP in the planning process. The data collected through debrief memo, team reports, BIM plan document and audio-video recording of team presentations were qualitatively analyzed using the ethnographic coding techniques. Findings showed that 'Communication' and 'Planning' were two significant constructs that affected team performance. Teams emphasized the importance of implementing a detailed BIM execution plan during the planning phase that provided clarity to understand the team goals and the expected level of detail in the project leading to a collaborative and successful project outcome.
BIM Execution plan, Global virtual teams, Construction projects
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