Research On Construction Management: Analyzing Aims, Objectives, And Rationale In An Essay.

Scope and Growth of Construction Management Research

Write a research on Construction Management.

The purpose of this paper is to conduct a research on construction management. In order to critically analyze this research, it is very important to understand the scope covered. Typically, this is an area of research that is fully recognized at global level. The research has undergone growth from research consultancy activities to a wider area of attracting adequate quantities of academic research funding (Jonasson 2012). The research has shifted from a wider scope of construction engineering to business, economics and management areas of research. Therefore, this research aims at determining different aspects by analyzing critically research aims, rationale and objectives. It can be traced as an international domain that contributed to growth of construction consultancy activities since 1970 (Gould 2013). This has made construction management to be fully recognized at international level by different academic researchers and ever growing community of academics. The rise in competition for students’ recruitment in this area has led to wide growth in emphasis at local levels as well as in the international domain. In that connection, the research has been subdivided into two main scope of academic research. That is, management and organization research in construction.

Over the last two decades, the need for construction management has been triggered by several factors that initiate the importance of the research. These factors include high quality requirements in the global environment covered by construction industry, increased competition in this field as well as increased customers’ demand for services offered by construction consultancy activities on performance.

This research aims at formulating a clear plan that can be used to execute different types of projects in a given period of time. There are two research plans that this research aims at achieving. That is, a plan for one year of research and a plan for 11 week research project. For these projects to become viable within the stipulated period, as a positivist researcher, it is important to understand different types of projects in this field. These projects are based on size. A minor project takes 100 construction team days to complete. Again, we have small projects that take 1000 construction team days. Next we have normal projects that take 5000 construction team days. Large projects takes 10000 construction team days to complete. Finally, mega projects take 25000 construction days (Jonasson 2012). Thus since on construction research plan takes 1 year and 11 week research project, then we consider our project as small project with the following research aims.

1. To execute viable and feasible research that will deliver high quality projects.
2. To initiate a reliable plan so as to ensure that the projects under consideration meet international expectations.
3. To provide projects that are highly competitive at regional and international domains.
4. To critically characterize the research. This will be done at the interface of design science as well as explanatory science.
5. To critically examine the methodology of dual nature of this research so as to integrate this research to different fields of research such as design science, natural science and its interface. This is achieved via identification of research interface of design science and explanatory science in high quality projects.

Factors Triggering the Need for Construction Management

Construction management has been applied since 1970 so as to fill various gaps that construction engineering failed to fulfil (Gould 2013). There are various aspects in this domain that require great intervention. There is a lot of competition at regional and international levels on quality of services offered in this field. There is increased customers’ demand that the domain has not been able to supply with quality services (Gould 2013).  Again, there are high quality requirements in the Global environment that need to be satisfied. However, these requirements have not been fully addressed over the last decades due to inadequate strategies. Although there are various researches that have been conducted in the past, there exist several issues that have not been addressed. This is a literature gap that the current research aims at filling.

Some of previous researches conducted in this field include a research by Isilay Akkoyun and Attila Dikbas on performance and performance measurement. They managed to establish different approaches, philosophies and techniques (Gould 2013). These techniques aimed at achieving high quality performance and performance measurement. These techniques included just-in-time, continuous improvement, improvement in total quality management in construction industry and quality assurance standards. They also addressed marginal improvement in construction that has been initiated by automation (Gould 2013). With all these technique, previous research failed to fill three gaps. That is, customers’ demand, increased competition and provision of quality construction services required by local and international clients. These are the main gaps that the current research aims at addressing. The importance of these gaps to this field is based on improvement of qualities offered to customers in this field. Therefore, we aim at designing research plans that will indicate quality approaches.

There are two types of research objectives that can be designed. That is, agreed objectives and potential key objectives. These objectives are drawn from theory of construction management, research aims and anticipated research plans.

• To establish practical measures of key objectives in the domain.
• To initiate application of these measures in the domain.
• To conduct a feasible and viable research on effectiveness of key measures that act like guiding practices in the domain.
• To motivate application of benchmarking policies established by these measures.

• To determine methods in construction management to apply for customer satisfaction.
• To provide quality services in this area.
• To design time bound research plans.
• To ensure safety policies are provided in the field.
• Promote value addition to research project.
• Promote effective relationships in this field.
• To determine life cycle costs of facility.
• To ensure generation of profits of construction companies.

This is a very important part of this research. By preparing a research plan, positivist researcher will be in a position to deliver some of potential key research objectives for one person in a period of one year. The research plan will incorporate the desire of construction industry to undergo growth and development (Holm 2015). In that connection, the following four objectives will be delivered by preparing this research plan.

• To ensure generation of profits of construction companies.
• To determine methods to apply for customer satisfaction.
• To provide quality services.
• To determine life cycle costs of facility.

This plan will try to raise ideas on how to satisfy the above four objectives so as to promote construction management. In that case, we aim at reviewing different sections so as to clearly spell out what need to be done during execution of actual projects for a period of one year.

Research Plans for One Year and 11-Week Projects

The first of research plan consider the process of collaborating over costing and negotiating over costing that is likely to take place in a period of one year. We need to understand that negotiation over costing cannot be fully equated to collaboration over costing. This difference enable positivist researcher understand the gap between a team of experts working together to build a cost and those working together to negotiate a cost (Holm 2015). In that connection, understanding the difference between a collaborating over costing and negotiating over costing, then researcher will be in a position of addressing the objective of determining life cycle costs of facility. Therefore, for a period of one year, the research plan indicate the type of costs to be applied.

Another research plan the can be applied in determining costs is based on methods to be used so as to control the increase of cost. It also control time used in these projects. These projects are time bound. It is important to assert that these projects suffer from increase in costs of construction and frequent delays that affect completion time. In that connection, this research plan attempts to determine how to control the increase in costs as well as time used in these projects. Construction industry is associated with low efficiency and a lot of waste during construction process. This is much higher when compared with other industries (Kotler 2011). This research plan aims at preparing a feasible budget as well as selection and deployment of appropriate construction procurement arrangements. Another objective need to be delivered in research plan is determining methods to be applied for customer satisfaction. This method will be applied in different phases within different quarters of the year. There are several phases that need to be incorporated in research plan as to deliver this objective. They include initiation phase, planning phase and execution stage. The three stages will be recommended in research plan so as to determine methods used. There is need to use capital asset pricing model during planning stage of project scheduling (Jonasson 2012). In that case, the requirements of the project during different phases such as initiation and planning processes need to use crashing techniques for time scheduling. There is need to employ such techniques during different quarters of project time. However, is very important to make sure that these techniques need to arise from controlling and planning processes (Hubbard 2016). They should also be applied in project planning and project execution activities.

Addressing the Gaps in the Construction Management Domain

Systems of inquiry can be defined typically as a process of ascertaining the truth. It involves the process of understanding systems which are complex in nature. Traditionally, the approaches used in systems inquiry involved analytical thinking, synthetic thinking and process orientation. In the current research, we consider induction, deduction and abduction as part of system of inquiry to be applied in the research plan. 

Systems of inquiry are very applicable in delivering research aims. In that connection, this particular section will elaborate the three concepts of systems of inquiry so as to determine the most appropriate system of inquiry to apply so as to deliver research aims. It also connect to research plan for a period of one year. First, we consider induction as a model of scientific inquiry. Induction is a system of inquiry that play two main functions. To start with, this model offer a descriptive account of how system or scientific inquiry is carried out (Halpin 2017). It also provide an explanatory account on why system of inquiry succeeds. Induction is a social research method used in reasoning works. Induction involves reasoning from specific observations to a wider generalization as well as theories.  This process begin with specific observations and measure. The researcher is able to detect regularities and patterns. Positivist researcher will be in a position to formulate a tentative hypothesis. In that case, general conclusion and theories can be explored and developed from inductive reasoning. This system of inquiry involves a cycle. That is, observation, pattern, tentative hypothesis and finally development of theory (Franco 2015). This approach has been applied in previous researches to conduct experiment. The researchers have been able to observe patterns in the data collected which have been used to develop theories in these projects.

On the other hand, deduction is a system of inquiry that require deductive reasoning from a general observation to specific observation.  This process begin with a theory concerning a given topic under consideration. For this research, a researcher can start from general overview and finally narrow down to specific topic. This approach has been applied in medical research by medical researcher to determine causes of certain diseases. They usually start from a general form by considering several theories (Dow & Taylor 2015). By the end of research process, they are in a position to determine the specific cause. In connection, deduction process follows a cycle. That is, theory, hypothesis, observation and finally confirmation.

Designing Research Plans for Quality Approaches

Finally, we consider abduction as a system of inquiry. This is a reasoning process that begin with observation and then seek to determine the simplest and most likely explanation. Unlike deduction system of inquiry, abduction process does not guarantee a conclusion. This system of inquiry has been used in previous researches such as computing power growth of 1990s, used in the fields of law, used in artificial intelligence and computer science research. Also, diagnostic expert systems apply abduction system of inquiry.

Considering the research aims, we realize that these aims target a particular path. That is, from a general point of view to a specific point of view (Allen 2011). By considering the critical paths applied in the systems of inquiry, we realize that the most appropriate system of inquiry that can be applied to deliver research aims is deduction approach. This is because the critical path in deduction approach involves a theory, hypothesis, observation and finally confirmation. The same path is demonstrated in research aims as well as research plan.

Research plan involves a sequence of methods. The sequence follows as indicted below.

1. Restatement of research tasks. This is a very important method that can be applied to generate a hypothesis and research questions.
2. Study population and sampling. This involves of description of population, study areas and procedures applied in generating a research plan.
3. Data collection methods.
4. Data analysis methods.
5. Laboratory procedures used to describe protocols in research plan and standardized procedures applied in generating a research plan.
6. Specific tools that will be applicable in delivering research objectives in research plan.

The above sequence of methods is the most appropriate approach in addressing research aims if all the resources are available. Basing this argument on one person one year, it is important to gather all the necessary requirements so as to generate a feasible research plan. This can only be generated by using the above sequence of methods.

The method to be applied in generating this research plan is data collecting method. This is a very critical process in generating a research plan. A positivist researcher need to determine the type of data to be collected. This include primary and secondary data (Lambsdorff 2012). It also include qualitative and qualitative data. In that connection, the research need to determine the correct sample so as to correct accurate data. From the information generated from collected data, a positivist researcher test hypothesis and then prepare a research plan for 11 week research project.

Therefore, this research paper will try to shift from traditional approach so as to fit in the two domains of construction of this research (Dow & Taylor 2015). Management and organization in construction have a wider scope in analyzing research aims, rationale and objectives as parts of the wider domain of this research. Through organizational structure in construction, it is possible to formulate a research plan for one year of research as well as formulate a research plan for 11 week research project. This will contribute to business, management, economics and social sciences since many academic researchers have used construction management as a mainstreams that require a unique research of its own.

This plan will reduce wastage and delays for a period of 11 weeks. Budgeting is the initial stage in this research plan so as to determine costing process (Halpin 2017).  Another very important stage to be considered in the research plan is design and construction delivery stages. This need to be planned in different sections within the required period of 11 weeks. There is need to conduct regular meeting perhaps weekly on teams involved so as to reflect on progress. Team meeting will also be used as platforms for solving problems, planning ahead as well as anticipating obstacles in the project under consideration. This plan will assist the person involved to deliver the objective of quality services. The diagram below indicates activities that need to be executed starting from week 1 and ending at week 11.

References

Allen, RC 2011, Global Economic History: A Very Short Introduction, OUP Oxford.

Dow, W., & Taylor, B 2015, Project Management Communication Tool, William Dow.

Franco, SA 2015, Fundamentals of Corporate Finance, McGraw-Hill Education.

Gould, F 2013, Construction Project Management, Pearson.

Halpin, DW 2017, Construction Management, Wiley Publishers.

Holm, L 2015, Who Done It? 101 Case Studies in Construction Management, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

Hubbard, GR 2016, Microeconomics, Pearson.

Jonasson, H 2012, Determining Project Requirement, Averbach publication.

Kotler, P 2011, Framework for Marketing Management, Pearson.

Lambsdorff, JG 2012, ‘making corrupt deals-contracting in the shadow of the law’, journal of Economic behavior and organization, pp. 221-241.