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Construction projects are actualized through the involvement of multidisciplinary stakeholders from various cultural and ethnic groups or nationalities who have different levels of exposure to civilization, languages, and world views. Their cultural diversity makes the evaluation of corruption a daunting task and subsequently can adversely affect the team decision-making process, disrupt collaboration among stakeholders, reduce project quality, and hinder outcomes of construction projects. The constant occurrence of building collapse, in which about 83% are linked to corruption, cost overrun, time overrun, and risk to lives in construction projects, often point at corrupt behaviors among construction stakeholders during decision-making, which remain unabated. Construction team members with a corrupt mindset may jeopardize the required standards, specifications, manipulate construction bid, inflate construction cost, distort information, and thorough supervision of projects. In fact, discouragement of foreign investors in the construction industry, which often affects the reputation of the industry, can further exacerbate if not curbed. Past studies mainly focused on forms of corruption in the construction industry, while understanding the factors that triggers them can lead to the practical recommendations for minimizing corruption. Therefore, this study used focus groups to explore corruption factors and the ways they inhibit team decision-making on construction projects in Africa. Hence, five focus groups of a total of 30 construction professionals were conducted virtually with consultants, contractors, government officials, developers, and clients in the Nigerian construction industry. The discourses in the focus groups were summarized and analyzed using contextual analysis. The participants identified 15 corruption factors that affected the team decision-making processes on construction projects, and those corruption influences were classified into four main types: (1) individual people's values (e.g., unity, tolerance, harmony, superiority, etc.); (2) project factors (project complexity and project secrecy); (3) organizational variables (organization–government alliances and unethical professionalism); and (4) societal factors (social pressures, social norms, and social ties). The study's findings build an understanding of the critically important corrupt actions that negatively influence construction projects. Even more importantly, the findings can be used to design public enlightenment campaigns against corruption and in favor of project monitoring. Practical recommendations are given, such as positive applications of human values, with utmost sincerity, to achieve the expected goals of team decision-making. The deliberate involvement of female construction professionals in project teams is also advised. In summary, the corruption factors that we investigated in this study form a basis for a future larger-scale study; meanwhile, the approach we employed is suitable for drawing necessary inferences. Practical Applications: The bane of corruption in the construction industry is alarming, especially in developing countries. In this research, the factors of corruption affecting team decision-making on construction projects were explored in an interactive discourse among groups of construction stakeholders. For minimizing the corrupt actions and improving the completion of construction projects within cost, time, and quality, values of individual stakeholders and projects can be the fundamental components in the industry. Transparency in the construction team decision-making process must be ensured by making all contract information available to the public for monitoring and progress tracking. It is expected that corrupt actions as a result of alliances between construction organizations and government officials can then be uncovered and minimized. The construction institutions must also ensure that unethical professionalism among members is punished adequately without favor or prejudice, and every opportunity for corruption to thrive in the society must be discouraged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction industry is notorious for stressful jobs, particularly for ethnic minority construction workers (EM-CWs), who experience complicated issues in the host country. Despite the high-level stress of EM-CWs compared to native construction workers, the particular coping behaviors of EM-CWs is unclear. Due to their cultural differences, religious beliefs, and possible stigma related to sharing feelings, typical stress management strategies may not be effective in relieving the stress of EM-CWs. To manage the stress of EM-CWs and also to benefit organizational productivity, it is important to identify the specific coping behaviors adopted by EM-CWs in response to stress. Therefore, this study aims to explore the stress management factors of EM-CWs. Six focus group discussions were conducted, made up of five EM-CWs groups (three general worker groups and two skilled worker groups) and one group of foremen. Contextual analysis was used to analyze the focus groups' qualitative data. The study identified 11 items of stress for EM-CWs in two major categories: emotional and physical stress. In addition to problem-focused (i.e., planned problem-solving, seeking instrumental support, and cognitive appraisal) and emotion-focused coping behaviors (i.e., seeking emotional support, emotional discharge, and escapism), the current study also explored religious-focused coping behaviors (i.e., religious practice, service, and meditation) of EM-CWs. The findings advance coping-behavior literature by addressing important features of religious coping behaviors in the construction industry. The study explored the unique stress management factors of EM-CWs, which can be used to manage the stress of EM-CWs, improve their stress management approaches, and design various stress management programs for EM-CWs. Furthermore, several recommendations were made in initiating time management training, encouraging organizations to consider mental health needs in the construction industry, acknowledging the specific cultural context of EM-CWs, striving to reduce the stigma around sharing emotions under stress, facilitating an adequate on-site environment to practice religion, and introducing mindfulness programs to relieve EM-CW stress and improve their performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Belt and Road (B&R) initiative creates a highly competitive and dynamic environment and cooperation network for construction projects in specific regions. By using the experience of other countries, construction professionals can be well-equipped with management skills for solving intractable problems during the project management process of a construction project. Value management (VM) is a systematic team decision-making methodology used to achieve the best project value, but it is rarely applied in developing regions along the B&R. This study aims to identify critical success factors for the implementation of VM in construction projects in both developed and developing regions along the B&R. Six focus groups targeting three groups of regions were conducted, including advanced VM developed regions (Regions 1), advanced VM developing regions (Regions 2), and unadvanced VM developing regions (Regions 3). Three main groups of critical success factors were identified by using contextual analysis: technical process, team behaviors, and outcomes. By comparing VM in advanced VM regions (Regions 1 and Regions 2) and traditional team decision-making in unadvanced VM regions (Regions 3), the study revealed that (1) practitioners in Regions 1 applied VM to achieve project success with a logical process and positive team behaviors, although several problems were also encountered; (2) surprisingly, in some technical respects, VM practitioners in Region 2 performed better than those in Regions 1, but positive team behaviors were still not emphasized; and (3) inefficient traditional decision-making activities with illogical technical processes and negative team behaviors in Regions 3 often led to poor project outcomes. A propositional model is established based on the identified critical success factors and comparison results among the three groups of regions. Finally, several practical recommendations are proposed to ensure effective VM application and promotion in both developed and developing regions along the B&R. In the developing countries that participated in the Belt and Road initiative, poor performance is not uncommon for megaconstruction projects with multiple stakeholders due to poor problem-solving strategies. This research revealed that value management practitioners in developed regions could achieve good project outcomes by applying value management with a logical framework and positive team behaviors, but they have not yet found a good way to resolve problems in terms of time constraints, no follow-up actions, and duplicate information from the public. VM practitioners in some of the developing regions put much effort into VM application, but the poor function analysis and insufficient conflict management, commitment, and transparency still impacted the final project outcomes negatively. Various problems such as no information analysis, serious corruption, and limited participation were encountered in illogical traditional team decision-making activities in developing regions, which significantly destroyed stakeholder outcomes and project performance. This research explores the insufficient value management practices in both developed and developing regions along the B&R, which provides empirical evidence to constriction professionals to update their VM/traditional team decision-making strategies and find out the best ways to conduct VM logically and effectively for improving final project outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction industry has been recognized as a stressful industry, and a great deal of stress is placed on various construction professionals (CPs). However, due to the different 'values' among CPs in Hong Kong, susceptibility to stressors varies from individual to individual. People who grow up and live in different cultural environments have different values and this leads to different perceptions of stressors. This study aims to investigate the impact of Chinese values on the stressors of CPs in Hong Kong, one of the main cities in China. To achieve this aim, factor analysis, Pearson correlation analysis, and structural equation modeling were applied based on the survey data collected from CPs in Hong Kong. Four types of Chinese values and eight stressors are identified. The results reveal that: (1) social conventions value alleviate role ambiguity and poor workgroup relationship; (2) value of disciplined work ethos triggers work overload, although it alleviate poor workgroup relationship and work underload; (3) value of conservative personality alleviates work overload; (4) interpersonal integration value has indirect impacts on the various stressors; and (5) the objective poor working environment stressor has significant impact on the poor workgroup relationships and role ambiguity of individual CPs. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0000234 CE Database subject headings: China; Hong Kong; Construction industry; Engineering profession; Organizations; Personnel management. Author keywords: Chinese values; Construction professionals; Interpersonal: Organization; Stressors; Task.

Construction workers (CWs) are the key and indispensable contributors to every construction project. Their psychological feelings greatly influence their behaviors and safety performance. To improve CWs' safety performance in dangerous working environment, the current research aims to identify the various stressors affecting two types of stress of CWs (i.e., job stress and emotional stress) and to explore the impacts of the two types of stress on CW injury incidents in Hong Kong. Eleven stressors were identified through factor analysis: work overload, role ambiguity, lack of autonomy, unfair reward and treatment, appropriate safety equipment, optimism, interrole conflict, poor workgroup relationship, lack of feedback, poor physical environment, and unsafe environment. The results of correlation and regression analyses reveal that (1) among the two types of stress identified, injury., incident of CWs was found to be affected by emotional stress only, (2) emotional stress is predicted by work overload, interrole conflict, poor physical environment, unfair reward and treatment, and appropriate safety equipments, and (3) poor workgroup relationship, work overload, and interrole conflict predict job stress of CWs. Based on the result, various recommendations are suggested to employers on how to minimize CW injury incidents. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0000216 CE Database subject headings: Construction industry; Injuries; Human factors; Accidents; Hong Kong; Occupational safety; Occupational health. Author keywords: Construction workers; Emotional stress; Injury incidents; Job stress; Stressors.

Construction projects involve multistakeholders (e.g., architects, structural engineers, surveyors, contractors, suppliers, etc.) completing a large number of unpredictable tasks in a complex process within a limited period of time. Construction project managers (C-PMs) are the key persons in achieving project success throughout the construction process, as they are responsible for planning the construction program, organizing human resources, controlling operations and the budget, and forecasting probable difficulties. Hence, C-PMs always encounter a great deal of stress in construction projects. Apart from the subjective feelings experienced by individual C-PMs, C-PMs may also feel objective stress due to the deviation between their actual abilities and their expected abilities on tasks or projects. To understand the integrated relationships between the various stressors and stresses of C-PMs, a survey was conducted of 108 C-PMs in Hong Kong. This paper attempts to investigate the causal relationships between stressors and stresses (both subjective and objective). The study reveals seven stressors of C-PMs in the industry. Based on the results of a correlation coefficient, an optimized stressor-stress structural equation model is established. Four critical stressors were found to have significant impact on both the subjective and the objective stresses of C-PMs, including work overload, poor interpersonal relationships, poor work environment, and poor nonwork environment. A number of recommendations were made for both construction companies and individual C-PMs in their offices and at home in order to optimize their work performance in the real world. CE Database subject headings: Construction management; Stress; Hong Kong; Integrated systems.

Project goals expressed in terms of time, cost, and quality requirements are seldom disputed. However, it is not easy to ensure that the defined goals will be implemented by all parties involved in the implementation process as goal commitment is one of the key variables in project success and participant satisfaction in construction projects. In order to ensure professional commitment in the management process and optimize construction performance in the complex situation, it is necessary to identify the moderate variables and clarify the interactions among affective commitment, job performance, and job satisfaction of construction professionals. A questionnaire survey was conducted in Hong Kong. Both correlation analysis and hierarchical regression models were applied. The results revealed that both job acceptance/contribution and specificity/teamwork are moderate variables influencing the relationships between affective commitment and job performance and between job performance and job satisfaction. A series of conditional relationships is revealed in detail in this study and some suggestions, such as formal briefing sessions, regular formal meeting, and value engineering workshop, are recommended. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9364(2008)134:12(963) CE Database subject headings: Construction management; Personnel management; Employees.

The work of construction project managers (CPMs) is often highly stressful, due to time pressures, and due to the uncertainties and the dynamic social structure involved in construction projects. This study aims to investigate the impact of stress on the performance of CPMs. Correlation analysis and structural equation modeling are employed to uncover the relationships between different types of stress (i.e., objective stress, burnout, and physiological stress) and the work performances (i.e., task performance, interpersonal performance, and organizational performance) of CPMs. Data were collected from 108 CPMs who work in a variety of construction sectors, including prime contractors, subcontractors, developers, consultant firms, and the public sector. Results showed that (1) objective stress reduces the task performance of CPMs while burnout can have a positive effect on it; (2) interpersonal performance is maximized with a moderate level of objective stress (i.e., an inverted-U-shaped relationship between these two variables) and increases in line with the improvement of the task performance of individuals; and (3) organizational performance has U-shaped relationships with both burnout and physiological stresses and is worsened by objective stress. Last, it is suggested to stakeholders that regular reviews of job allocation, stress appraisals, stress management workshops, group or individual counseling, and psychological treatment or physiotherapy be carried out to optimize the stress and the performance of CPMs. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9364(2008)134:8(644) CE Database subject headings: Construction management; Project management; Managers; Personnel management.

Estimation is not a purely scientific task. It requires cost engineers equipped with a wide knowledge of construction and a professional ability to make judgments. However, stress will deaden their use of knowledge and influence their professional judgment in estimating. In the construction industry, cost engineers can generally be divided into two main groups: clients' cost engineers in consultant firms or in a development company who serve clients; and contractors' cost engineers in construction companies working for the contractors. This study investigates the causal relationships between the stressors and stress of clients' and contractors' cost engineers. Two stressor--stress integrated models were developed for these two cost engineer groups by using the structural equation model. The findings revealed some stressors that affected both clients' and contractors' cost engineers: (1) poor environment, role conflict and work underload affect their stress positively; (2) social support and Type A behavior affect their stress negatively; and (3) work underload induces stress via the role conflict among cost engineers, their supervisors, and the organization. On the other hand, some deviations between these two groups of cost engineers also occur: (1) social support acts as a source of stressors of clients' cost engineers; (2) a private life stressor only affects the stress of contractors' cost engineers; and (3) a closed interactive looping relationship among role conflict, Type A behavior, and work underload affects contractors' cost engineers. Based on the results of this study, some recommendations are suggested to manage cost engineers' stress well. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9364(2008)134:8(635) CE Database subject headings: Contractors; Cost control; Construction management; Client relationships.

Forecasting the likely cost of construction work before tendering is known as to be a hazardous task. Both underestimates and overestimates may present problems to clients and contractors. Not surprisingly, cost-engineering activities can be stressful for those responsible. Coping with the stresses requires action on the part of the individuals affected and the organizations to which they belong. This paper examines the effect of organizational supports in the process of project estimation through a survey of construction estimation participants in Hong Kong. Using correlation analysis and regression analysis, it is found that: (1) the stressors of autonomy and feedback are directly related to the stress experienced by cost engineers; (2) informal organizational supports (particularly concerning relationship conflict, Type A behavior, work underload, lack of autonomy, and unfair rewards and treatment) are far more effective than formal supports in reducing stress; and (3) lack of autonomy and lack of feedback are predictable variables affecting stress. Cost-engineering managers and supervisors need to carefully distinguish between those who prefer hands-on support and those who prefer hands-off support. A good communication and team decision-making process and a fair reward and treatment system may help establish close relationships among cost engineers in a company and ensure sufficient autonomy to cost engineers and the participants in the estimation process. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9364(2008)134:2(84) CE Database subject headings: Construction management; Cost estimation; Contractors.

Education is a systematic teaching-learning process involving four main components (teachers, students, knowledge, and the environment) and three main subprocesses (teaching, learning, and evaluation). Throughout the education process, students' learning is considered as the core subprocess, though various interactions are involved among the variables in the components. The surface-achieving learning approach (achieving motive and surface strategy) is not generally recommended by educational psychologists, but it is the most popular learning approach used by construction engineering students in Hong Kong. In order to investigate the reasons for this phenomenon, a structural surface-achieving learning model is established that includes key learning factors. In this paper, teaching approach, learning approach (achieving motive and surface strategy), year of study, gender, performance, and satisfaction are all considered as major elements of the teaching-learning process. Using the LISREL program, three optimized structural equation models were established separately for the three teaching approaches (transferring, shaping, and traveling). The study confirmed a partial causal relationship among the hypothetical variables and revealed six interesting points: (1) shaping is an exogenous variable that has the least effect on the surface-achieving learning approach among the three teaching approaches; (2) the traveling teaching approach, like the transferring and shaping teaching approaches, causes students to adopt the surface strategy in the learning process; (3) good performance can be obtained even though the surface strategy is adopted by construction students in Hong Kong; (4) students' performance is a factor encouraging or discouraging educators to use the traveling teaching approach in construction education; (5) satisfaction is an essential variable that induces students to learn with an achieving motive; and (6) female construction students often perform better than their male counterparts. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)1052-3928(2007)133:4(327) CE Database subject headings: Achieving motive; Construction engineering students; Education; Learning; Surface strategy; Teaching.

Learning is a process of acquiring knowledge, and students may adopt different learning approaches to achieving their learning goals. While educationalists can draw up what they believe is a good construction curriculum for students, students' learning would depend on their own learning approaches and attitudes. Acknowledging a lack of research on the learning attitudes of construction students, a matrix framework of learning approaches (MFLA) based on the relationships between three learning motives and three learning strategies is proposed in this paper. The MFLA enabled a major empirical survey to be carried out in Hong Kong to examine the learning characteristics of construction students. A questionnaire based on Biggs's study process questionnaire was distributed to five groups of construction-related students in three universities in Hong Kong. The results of the survey indicate that seven of the nine hypothetical learning approaches exist in construction education in Hong Kong. The assortment of learning approaches used varied across the five student groups. As a result, different teaching and learning factors should be adopted by educators of construction students to meet the distinctive characteristics of students in various universities. CE Database subject headings: Construction industry; Engineering education; Learning; Students; Teaching methods; Hong Kong.

The success or failure of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) depends heavily on effective implementation, which in turn is founded on a good understanding of the principles and features of ADR. This paper reports a study on the features of ADR based on interviews with practitioners who have experience with using ADR in construction projects with a contract sum in excess of $HK10 million. The interviews were conducted with 20 accredited mediators/arbitrators of the Hong Kong International Arbitration Center (representing the neutrals) and 42 construction practitioners (representing the users). A total of 19 key features, identified and categorized in four categories--nature, neutral, settlement, and benefits--were prioritized according to their relative importance by using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP). The inconsistency ratio of the AHP helped ensure the reliability of the ranking scores mathematically. Six of the top eight features as ranked by the neutrals and the users are common to both groups. These are preservation of business relationship, enforceability, neutrality, cost to obtain, speed to obtain, and fairness. These suggest that the neutrals and users have similar expectations from ADR processes. The ranking also assists ADR process designers to focus on the fundamentals and avoid overly complicated processes. CE Database subject headings: Construction industry; Dispute resolution; Characteristics; Analytical techniques.

Value management is a goal-setting process that aims to satisfy the client's project requirements. However, goals cannot always be easily identified or agreed upon due to conflicts among project participants and/or objectives. Conflict is often conceived of as detrimental to the effective operation of a team. Cognitive scientists argue that a suitable level of conflict can stimulate a team's creativity, which could lead to better decision making, productivity, and satisfaction. This paper examines the relationships between the value-goal conflict and participants' satisfaction through three case studies collected in Hong Kong. The findings indicate that a suitable level of conflict can improve satisfaction up to a certain point, where the satisfaction diminishes as conflict increases. To yield an optimum level of satisfaction, a value manager should stimulate conflicts at the early stage of the value management workshop and strive to resolve any undue conflicts among the project participants. CE Database keywords: Value engineering; Conflict; Construction industry; Project management.