Editorial

Citation

McCaffer, R. (2008), "Editorial", Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, Vol. 15 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam.2008.28615baa.001

Editorial

ECAM, Vol. 15 No. 2, sees another collection of papers from international authors. Each of the six papers are sourced in a different country namely: Hong Kong; Australia; UK; Turkey; Ireland; and Thailand. A total of 13 authors produced these papers with one having a single author, three having two authors and two having three authors. In this edition there are no multi-country or multi-institutional papers. The topics are, as ever, wide ranging including: managing waste; improving the safety culture; life cycle costing; building materials selection; leadership styles; and the use of blended learning.

At least three of the papers are based on questionnaire survey data. The growing reliance on the use of questionnaires somehow worries me. I wonder if it is too distant from the problem being examined. How do you move from analyses of questionnaire returns to making a real change in industry’s practices? Clearly questionnaires have a role but a closer dialogue with practitioners and more demonstrations of application would greatly appeal.

The papers in this issue are as follows. Hao, Hills and Shen use the tried and tested technique of system dynamics to model the managing of construction waste in Hong Kong. The model is tested by simulation and the researchers foresee a further developed model being applied in the Pearl Delta River region as part of the drive to improve the environment in Hong Kong.

Chinda and Mohamed attempt to provide insights into the interactions and relationship between the enablers of a safety culture. Using a quality management excellence model they examine the relationships between “Leadership”, “Policy and strategy”, “People”, “Partnerships”, “Resources” and “Processes”. They offer comment on all of these. This work needs to move into testing/demonstration phase to illustrate the value. At present it may cause some to give thought to these issues.

Swaffield and McDonald examine the use of “Life cycle costing” within Private Finance Initiatives. Their rationale for this study is that the profitability of a PFI project depends on management of the life cycle costs. The data is drawn from the views of quantity surveyors working for design/construct contractors and this was collected mainly by questionnaire. They report a high interest and use of life cycle costing and expose the risks when it is not used.

Tas, Yaman and Tanacan address issues of selecting building materials in the Turkish construction industry. They describe the issues that the Turkish construction industry face with respect to building material information and the burdens this places on construction professionals. They propose a structured methodology for evaluating and selecting building materials based on a building materials information system. This work is feeding into the Turkish portal of CONNET (European CONstruction NETwork). So the authors have high ambitions for this work as through CONNET Turkish practices are more aligned will those in the EU and therefore is supporting Turkey’s candidacy for membership.

Limsila and Ogunlana examine leadership styles and the relationship with performance. The aim of the study is to inform project managers how to adapt their leadership behaviour in order to enhance the organisational commitment of subordinates and improve work performance. A questionnaire using an established approach produced the data from 156 respondents. The authors argue that leaders that transform produced high outcomes. However, the paper stops short of telling us how to apply this knowledge. It needs a case study to demonstrate it working.

Wall, a well known leader in educational development, presents a case study using blended learning in continued professional development. This is a more important contribution that the casual observer might think. The demand for CPD to advance the work force is high and blended learning, a mixture of class room, distance learning and IT is probably the leading solution for access to life long learning. So for the education providers amongst our community this is worth a read.

Ronald McCaffer