Module Code: MMK221199

Module Name: Construction Management

Name of Tutor: Dr Michael Tong

Name of Coursework: Coursework 1

1.0 Introduction

Towell Construction is one of the leading companies in construction fields in the Sultanate of Oman.

It contributes in numerous engineering projects in Oman such as roads, building‟s, warehouses

projects, villas and industrial projects.

The successfulness of companies reflects the effective management that considers the needs of the

companies as well as the needs of employees. This practice is defined as Human Resource

Management (HRM). Towell Construction has been working since its establishment to enhance its

employee‟s skills and abilities in order to achieve its goals. It considers the employees as the most

significant resource that can enhance the company performance and competitive advantages.

Accordingly, there are several theories that explain Human Resources Management. Most of

management theories believe that employees are the most important factor that can lead to successful

business. One of the well-known Frederick Herzberg theory which announced his Two Factor Theory

in 1959. He suggested that there are two kinds of factors affect motivation, and they do it in dissimilar

ways: Firstly, Hygiene factors which is A chain of hygiene factors create dissatisfaction if

individuals perceive them as incomplete or inequitable, yet individuals will not be significantly

motivated if these factors are viewed as ample or good. Hygiene factors are extrinsic and contain

factors such as compensation or salary, working environments and job security. Secondly, the

Motivators which are intrinsic factors such as sense of achievement, recognition, responsibility, and

personal growth. There is a theory that increases employee incentives and rewards in Exchange for

his effort and work. It‟s called by the name of the incentives theory which is based on the main

principle of financial strengthening. This theory is consistent with economic theory often which is

supposed to be the guy who taught man has high culture in the economic sphere so people can rely on

his experience and study.

Human Resource Management includes three main aspects: human focus, resource focus and

management focus. Human focus considers the needs and rights of employees as the main element

that can affect the business. The Second focus is recourse focus. It simply means the balance between

the employee‟s needs and the organization needs. Thirdly management focus which illustrates the

effectiveness of organization‟s management in connecting human focus and resource focus to achieve

overall goals of the organization.

This report will discuss the Human focus as it is the focus applied in Towell Construction. It will start

by introducing human focus through outlining studies carried out by others demonstrating resource

focus. This is then followed by analysis and discussion before ending with recommendations and

conclusion.

2.0 Literature review

Many studies have been carried out in order to identify the more powerful methods in Human

Resource Management. Some of them believe that training programs and motivations practices which

are part of human focus are more effective than resource focus and management focus methods used

in construction industry.

There is a rapidly growing literature on motivation which indicates that organizations which invest in

their workforce by supporting them and developing their performance by training programs, will be

more successful in the long term than those who are concerning about adopting new technologies. In

fact, this study was comparing tow plant A and B. plant A focuses in enhancing its employees skills

and abilities while plant B focuses in acquiring new technologies in order to be more efficient in the

work. Both of them are doing well but the author believes that plant strategy is much better. (Lake,

2007)

There are various Human Resource Management practices which can be implemented in construction

companies and all of them are effective. Examples of these practices include training programs; better

working conditions, social protection for workers, rewards and compensation. Therefore each

company can choose the best practices to be applied depending on its size. (Codrina, 2008, pp.179-

183)

Likewise, many researches have been conducted to evaluate the most important Human Resource

Management factors which can affect construction organizations. “Motivation and demotivation

„cause factors‟ for engineers in construction organizations” is one of these researches. It aims to

identify the value of motivation practices in the organizations. It showed that de-motivation practices

in the organization affect the work in construction projects negatively. Therefore, fairness,

employee‟s encouragement and providing good working conditions will upgrade worker‟s

performance. (Venkatesan et al., 2009, pp145-53)

Similarly, another study carried out by researchers confirmed that every organization should improve

the working culture before implementing any motivation method since working culture itself is

classified as the most significant factor that motivate workers to work. (Parkin et al., 2009, pp.105-

14)

Furthermore, a study in Iran on 2000 showed that growth of construction industry is affected by

motivation methods. It concluded that Iranian workers are not satisfied with the most essential

motivation factors like Fairness, on time payment, financial rewards, good working facilities and

safety measures. This reflects the need to consider motivation as one of the leading aspects on

construction industry growth. (Yisa et al., 2000, pp.465-72)

“Training and development has positive effect on organizational performance” this was one of the

hypotheses proved in a research carried out by researchers in university of Lahore in 2012. Basically,

the main purpose of the research was to determine the effect of training on organizational

performance and the hypotheses was accepted. (Khan et al., 2011)

Similarly, a research paper conducted by Chan, Puybaraud and Kaka (2001) revealed that there is a

connection between productivity of construction industry and training methods in the United

Kingdom. The research presented many studies and statistics collected from trusted institutions which

verify that planned training programs affect organizational productivity.

It noteworthy to point out a research conducted in Spain in 2012 which confirmed that although

training affects organization success, it can be waste of resources when it is not well planned. In fact,

this study implemented on some construction companies to investigate whether training is effective or

not. (Fuentes and Navarro, 2012, pp.601-610)

Furthermore, another group of researchers claim there is a noticeable difference in the performance

between old and young workers, and the older employee holds a lot of concepts due to his experience,

also young employee is active and has new notions and ideas that help in work development.

(Chileshe, & Haupt, 2007, pp.389-398)

It is recognized that modern technology has a critical impact on construction industry, but the

productivity level is affected more by motivation practices. Essentially, managers should focus more

on motivating their workers as it has a direct impact to work performance. (Mansfield and Odeh,

1991, pp.93-98)

The writer‟s objective is to present the basic check of the present motivation notions, analysis of

worker needs and job-site climates, and previous exploratory researches where there is a big potential

for effective motivation in construction work. (Hazeltine, 1976, pp.497-509)

3.0 Analysis

Motivation as defined is the process that allows individuals to pay through certain motives or

push the individual to make efforts in order to achieve a certain goal. I think that motivation is

important in any workplace and especially in the construction management field because it is a

hard working filed and need some motivation to encourage its employees to do better. Motivating

the staff is something negative and has many advantages such as encourage competition, improve

productivity, raise the morale of the employees, and encourage new creativity and innovation.

Also, motivation increase in the Organization's revenues by raising the production efficiency of

the workers, as the right choice to pay workers to increase production. On the other hand

motivation in construction field contribute to blow up the capacity of workers and their energies,

and this leads to a reduction in manpower required and harness the surplus to other organizations

that may suffer from a shortage of manpower. According to my experience as an employee in the

construction field in Towell Construction, I believe that motivation is one of the effective tools of

Human Resources Management specially in our domain; because motivates workers will tend to

develop working methods and instruments that will reduce waste in time . As a member in this

company, we share information, opinions, and ideas, and moral support, time, and duties also to

develop common goals, and exchange views with them to have a common consensus, and we as a

team strive to improve product quality, or mode of action, or increase productivity. So, the

encouragement and motivation are essential and important for the completion of the work and to

move towards achieving the goals. And through this point of view, motivation aims to make the

individual like his work, which leads to raise the production level, increase the worker‟s skills

and abilities and raise the employee productive efficiency. Moreover, motivation provides self-

motivation of the staff to increase efficiency and improve productivity. Motivation of the labor

force is of paramount importance because the quality of human performance at the workplace

depends largely upon motivation. That is, higher motivation brings higher productivity.

Our Company Towell Construction used to encourage its employees by following some

motivational factors such as giving workers bonus or rewards, using the style of Friendliness

and helpfulness of the coworkers, chances to learn new things, giving employees Amount of

salary, give the staff the opportunity for challenging work, Job security, etc. And though the

performing of these motivational factors we notice that employee satisfaction and

performance increased, also it encourage competition, improve productivity, raise the morale

of the company employees, and encourage new creativity and innovation. Moreover, these

factors increase in the Organization's revenues by raising the production efficiency of the

workers and contribute to blow up the capacity of workers and their energies.

I see that staff motivation is a key factor because worker‟s behaviors could be positively

influenced out of staff-orientation plans and a total atmosphere of confidence, also through

encouragement, the involvement in decision making can produce a powerful adherence from

workers and this can contribute in the Company's revenues by raising the production

efficiency of the employees. In addition, competition as a significant motivator induces

innovation and affects greater productivity. The below charts summarize the analysis clearly.

It reflects the work development in Towell‟s constructions during 2015. As mentioned

before, different motivation methods have been implemented in my company and each

method reach certain percentage of development. Obviously, Bonus and rewards is the most

effective tool while giving employees chances to learn new things is the least one. This can

be explained that not all of employees are ambitious but ofcourse most of them need to be

rewarded. The second effective methods as shown in the chart are amount of salary paid to

employees and job security. These methods are basic motives for employees in any

organization. They affect work performance by 70%. Moreover, Opportunity for

challenging work and Friendliness and helpfulness of the coworkers are the third

powerful methods in which they influence work performance by 50%.

Table: Motivational factors results

Motivational Factors Work development

percentage within one

year

Notices

Bonus or rewards 80% Giving bonus or rewards to workers is

an effective motivational factor which

contributes in work development.

Friendliness and helpfulness of the

coworkers

50% Human relations are important to

encourage the staff.

Chances to learn new things 40% It is not actually effective because some

workers are not ambitious.

Amount of salary 70% Material motivation has a noticeable

positive effect

Opportunity for challenging work 50% Challenge is a significant motivator

which induces innovation

Job security 70% Providing security is very important

where the worker feels relaxation and

his productivity increase.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Work development percentage within one year

Work development percentage withinone year

4.0 Recommendations

In the view of the analysis of this report, it is recommended that:

The company must work to build a sense of respect and appreciation for employees through

complementing and praising for what they have done of good works.

For further motivation, the company must be interested in its employees.

Give way for employees to share the responsibility to improve tasks, and the company work

to train them accurately.

Managers may involve workers with their perceptions, and ask them more ideas.

Giving employees bonus or rewards is an effective motivational factor that may help the

company to improve its business.

The company responsible must link bonuses to better work accomplishment and not to

functional standards and seniority at work.

Provide job security for workers to make them feel that they are working in a safe and

healthy environment and this will improve their productivity.

Construction organization should consider motivation methods as leading factors affecting

the performance of workers as well as the productivity of the organization.

Conclusion

Human Resources Management (HRM) is the management of organizational needs as well as the

needs of employees in order to reach higher levels of productivity. It includes three main aspects:

human focus, resource focus and management focus nevertheless it focuses particularly on the

human side. Human resources are the people who work for the company. They are the heart

of any business. Therefore, this paper discusses one aspect of Human Resources Management

which is human focus and it considers motivation method. The report summarizes and survey all

the possible articles related to construction worker motivation. It can be concluded that, the

implementation of Human Resources Management practices in construction industry is essential. It

confirms that motivation play a big role in enhancing the productivity of Towell Construction through

its different methods which include rewards, chances to learn new things, amount of salary,

opportunity for challenging work , job security etc. likewise, motivation influence construction

industry positively. Further study can be done to investigate the impact of other human focus factors

on the construction industry. While next studies should address the other aspects of HRM which are

Management focus and resources focus.

REFERENCES

Chan, P, Puybaraud, M C and Kaka, A (2001) Construction training: a linkage to productivity

improvements. In: Akintoye, A (Ed.), 17th Annual ARCOM Conference, 5-7 September 2001,

University of Salford. Association of Researchers in Construction Management, Vol. 1, 143-55.

Chileshe, N and Haupt, T C (2007) Age influences on the job satisfaction of construction workers:

evidence from South Africa. In: Boyd, D (Ed) Procs 23rd Annual ARCOM Conference, 3-5

September 2007, Belfast, UK, Association of Researchers in Construction Management, 389-398.

Codrina, Conţiu Lia, (2008), “A Study of Human Resource Management Practices In Romanian

Private Companies”, Annals of the University of Oradea, Economic Science Series, (Vol. 17 Issue 4,

pp. 179-183).

Fuentes-del-Burgo J. and Navarro-Astor E. (2012) How is job satisfaction in Spanish building

engineers influenced by training? In: Smith, S.D (Ed) Procs 28th Annual ARCOM Conference, 3-5

September 2012, Edinburgh, UK, Association of Researchers in Construction Management, 601-610.

Hazeltine, C. S. (1976). Motivation of construction workers. Journal of the construction division,

102(CO3).

Khan, R. A. G., Khan, F. A., & Khan, M. A. (2011). Impact of training and development on

organizational performance. Global Journal of Management and Business Research, 11(7).

Lake, H. (2007). Steering towards the high road: a study of human resource management in two

Indian garment factories. Available at SSRN 1136389.

Mansfield, N. R., & Odeh, N. S. (1991). Issues affecting motivation on construction projects.

International Journal of Project Management, 9(2), 93-98

Parkin, A.B., Tutesigensi, A. and Büyükalp, A.I. (2009) Motivation among construction workers in

Turkey. In: Dainty, A.R.J. (Ed) Procs 25th Annual ARCOM Conference, 7-9 September 2009,

Nottingham, UK, Association of Researchers in Construction Management, 105-14.

Venkatesan, R. , Varghese, K. and Ananthanarayanan, R. (2009) Motivation and demotivation „cause

factors‟ for engineers in construction organisations. In: Dainty, A.R.J. (Ed) Procs 25th Annual

ARCOM Conference, 7-9 September 2009, Nottingham, UK, Association of Researchers in

ConstructionManagement, 145-53.

Yisa, S B, Holt, G D and Zakeri, M (2000) Factors affecting management motivation in the Iranian

construction industry: a survey of site managers. In: Akintoye, A (Ed.), 16th Annual ARCOM

Conference, 6-8 September 2000, Glasgow Caledonian University. Association of Researchers in

Construction Management, Vol. 2, 465-72.