Importance of design consultants' soft skills in design-build projects

doi:10.1108/eb021161

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Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management

ISSN: 0969-9988

Online from: 1994

Subject Area: Built Environment

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Importance of design consultants' soft skills in design-build projects

Document Information:
Title:	Importance of design consultants' soft skills in design-build projects
Author(s):	FLORENCE YEAN-YNG LING, (Department of Building, National University of Singapore, Singapore), GEORGE OFORI &SUI PHENG LOW, (Department of Building, National University of Singapore, Singapore)
Citation:	FLORENCE YEAN-YNG LING, GEORGE OFORI &SUI PHENG LOW, (2000) "Importance of design consultants' soft skills in design-build projects", Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, Vol. 7 Iss: 4, pp.389 - 398
Keywords:	Architects, Contextual performance, Design-build, Engineers, Selection, Soft skills
Article type:	General review
DOI:	10.1108/eb021161 (Permanent URL)
Publisher:	MCB UP Ltd
Abstract:	Architects and engineers (AE) need to possess both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ skills. Soft skills are important because AE interact in organizational settings instead of working by themselves. Soft skills may be grouped under ‘conscientiousness’, ‘initiative’, ‘social skills’, ‘controllability’ and ‘commitment’. As part of a larger study on the selection of consultants by design-build (DB) contractors in Singapore, a survey was conducted to gauge whether contractors felt that soft skills are important for consultants to carry out their design tasks in DB projects. From the literature, attributes relating to these skills were identified. Data were collected via mailed questionnaire. The questionnaire requested respondents to indicate on a five-point scale the importance of various soft skills. It was found that all the soft skills, which were operationalized into 14 attributes, are important factors that contractors look for when selecting consultants. It is, therefore, concluded that contextual performance is important and relevant.

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