Management Practice v 01

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C O N S T R U C T I O N

Management Practice in

the Construction Industry

in Ireland.

April 2012

Draft no.01

Brian O' Hanlon

The object of this paper was to produce a report card for the Construction industry in

Ireland in 2012 based upon standard theories contained in management science.


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Brian O Hanlon - April 2012

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Contents

Chapter 01 ..........................................................................................................................................................3Introduction to Management ...............................................................................................................................3Chapter 02 ..........................................................................................................................................................4Organisational Environment ...............................................................................................................................4Chapter 03 ..........................................................................................................................................................5Planning and Decision Making ...........................................................................................................................5Chapter 04 ..........................................................................................................................................................6Leading and Leadership .....................................................................................................................................6Chapter 05 ....................................................................................................................................................... 15Organising and Controlling .............................................................................................................................. 15Chapter 06 ....................................................................................................................................................... 27Communication ................................................................................................................................................ 27Chapter 07 ....................................................................................................................................................... 35Motivation ........................................................................................................................................................ 35 Chapter 08 ...................................................................................................................................................... 41Human Resource Management ....................................................................................................................... 41Chapter 9 ......................................................................................................................................................... 44Strategic Management ..................................................................................................................................... 44Chapter 10 ....................................................................................................................................................... 55Company Case Study ...................................................................................................................................... 55Works Cited ..................................................................................................................................................... 62


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C h a p t e r

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I n t r o d u c t i o n t o M a n a g e m e n t

[ Awaiting Further Completion ]


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C h a p t e r

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O r g a n i s a t i o n a l E n v i r o n m e n t



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C h a p t e r

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P l a n n i n g a n d D e c i s i o n M a k i n g



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C h a p t e r

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L e a d i n g a n d L e a d e r s h i p

I have decided to answer the question above, somewhat out of sequence. I formed a conclusion based on

studies, that the path-goal theory by (House R. J., 1971), (House & Mitchell, 1974) and (Evans, 1970)

required a greater deal of reflection than the others.

P a t h - G o a l T h e o r y

In (House R. J., 1996), the author remembers struggling in the early 1970s to find a theory, which could

explain why the same leadership behaviour had different effects from one sample to another. Following a

publication by (Evans, 1970), it became clear to Robert House, that leader behaviors are contingent on the

context in which the leaders and followers worked.

(Evans, 1970) and (House R. J., 1971), argue that motivation on the part of subordinates to perform a task in

the course of work, can be improved by the leader behaving in a way such as to offer clarification to

subordinates on what the goals are, and how they are to be achieved.

. . . the motivational function of the leader consists of increasing personal payoffs to

subordinates for work-goal attainment . . . and making the path to these payoffs easier to

travel by clarifying it, reducing road blocks and pitfalls, and increasing the opportunities for

personal satisfaction en route. (House R. J., 1971)

(House & Mitchell, 1974) suggested that leader behaviour ought to complement the environment of

subordinates and to provide coaching, guidance, support and rewards necessary for effective performance.

(House R. J., 1996) mentioned that a limitation of early path-goal theory, was its inability to address the

effect of leaders on groups or work units. (House R. J., 1996) described other limitations of the original

theory, where leadership of an entire organisation was concerned, and on the subject of strategic

leadership, or leadership as it relates to change.

We still do not have theories of leadership as it relates specifically to major organisational

change, political behaviour or strategic competitive organisational performance. (House R.

J., 1996)


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(House R. J., 1996) views the latter as important areas for future research and enquiry. In the re-formulated

theory (House R. J., 1996), discusses the problem that his original 1971 seminal path-goal theory has yet to

be fully tested in laboratory and/or real world contexts. Much of (House R. J., 1996) deals with that issue, of

how to improve measurements, which researchers could use to test the original theory.1

The issue of approximate measurement is important for future development of the field of

organisational behaviour. The use of existing approximate measures of constructs should be

seriously questioned. (House R. J., 1996)

In the re-formulated theory expressed in (House R. J., 1996), the author devotes space to discussion about

participative leader behavior. The author speculates on the effect of participative leader behaviour to

increase subordinate authority and ability to carry out their intentions, thus leading to greater effort and

performance.2

One of the advantages of path-goal theory as claimed by (House & Mitchell, 1974) is that it makes

satisfaction of subordinates needs contingent on effective performance. (House R. J., 1996), underlines the

fact that path-goal theory, rested on the earlier work done by (Vroom V. , 1964), who assumed that

individuals calculate work outcomes contingent on the level of effort to be expended, which will maximise the

attainment of attractive outcomes.

The path-goal theory (House R. J., 1971) deals with the issue of leaders and the provision of resources,

which the subordinates may need to carry out a task. The correct identification of the resources needed bysubordinates, must depend upon adequate clarification by the leader of the nature of the task at hand.

Successful organisation of a construction project will depend on the ability of leaders to correctly assess the

types of resources needed and when they are required. But it doesnt always work, and it is not uncommon

in construction to have surplus of resources at an inappropriate time, or visa versa.

(House R. J., 1996) mentions that path-goal theory led to his formulation of charismatic leadership in the

later 1970s, which built on the seminal work of David McClelland and his theory of personality (McClelland

& Winter, 1971). According to McClellands theory, the psychological nature of human beings can be

explained fairly well by the operation of three motives.

I speculated that effective military combat leaders arouse the power motive; effective

leaders of social groups arouse the affiliative motive; and effective leaders of salespersons,

profit center managers, entrepreneurial firms, and scientists and engineers arouse the

achievement motive. (House R. J., 1996)

1

Much of the original work on the measurement of leader behaviour was conducted between 1950s and1960s at Ohio State University (Fleishman, 1957), (Stogdill, 1965). Problems with some measurements usedin research according to (House R. J., 1996), include the failure to capture leader coaching, goal clarification,path clarification or the use of contingent rewards.2

Later in the paper I will discuss (Conde, 2010).


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F i e d l e r s C o n t i n g e n c y M o d e l

In writing this paper, I have invested a lot more time in investigation of (Evans, 1970), (House & Mitchell,

1974) and the path-goal theory of leadership. My investigation has led me to the conclusion, that much of

current leadership theory rest upon that foundation.

The (Fiedler, 1964), contingency model of leadership was quite a leap forward in the science of

organizational behaviour at the time of its first publication. In summary, what the publication of (Fiedler,

1964), achieved was a clean break with the past and the dominance of the leadership theories expressed by

(Taylor, 1903), (Taylor, 1911), (Taylor, 1912).

During the later 2000s decade, I was employed by a real estate development company in Ireland. An

intriguing design manual (Hascher, Jeska, & Klauck, 2002), which I and others used, attempts to describe

the latest thinking about design of workplaces. Theorists such as (Carr, 1999), (Sennett, 1998), (McGregor,

1960), (Duffy, 2008) are referenced in the design manual.

Figure 1 - Larkin Office Building, Frank Llyod Wright, completed 1903.

(Hascher, Jeska, & Klauck, 2002), focusses on that break away from Taylor-ism (Taylor, 1903), (Taylor,

1911), in thinking about the design of a workplace to house a modern organisation.


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In de-standardised work, human qualities such as intelligence and fantasy regain the

importance that Taylor-ism had suppressed. (Hascher, Jeska, & Klauck, 2002)

In (Hertzberger, 2005), the famous Architect described one of his office building projects from the 1970s as

not a building, but a settlement. (Hertzberger, 2005), stated that at the time of construction there was a

revolution taking place in society of how the workplace was seen.

Figure 2 - Herzberger's Centraal Beheer, built in Apeldoorn, Holland. Completed in 1974.

The disadvantage, with contingency theory of (Fiedler, 1964), is that it suffers from influence of the prevailing

trends in 1960s organisational behaviour theory. According to (Bennis & Nanus, 1985), (House, 1996) prior

to the introduction of Path-Goal Theory in the early 1970s, the leadership literature was dominated by

concerns for task or person orientation in leadership.

It was the ambition of (House R. J., 1971), (House & Mitchell, 1974) to break away from the task or person

concern in (Fiedler, 1964), and into new territory with the science.

In modern day leadership literature such as that by (Goleman, McKee, & Boyatzis, 2002), the task and

person orientations has not vanished. (Fiedler, 1964), does have application in certain circumstances

encountered today in the construction industry.

In the six styles of leadership, (Goleman, McKee, & Boyatzis, 2002) refer to the affiliative style. The

application of that style of leadership is deemed to be appropriate in the context where deep divisions exist in

a team or organisation. That is, a situation where one must coax the enterprise back from the brink of its own

self-destruction.


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The affiliation style as described by (Goleman, McKee, & Boyatzis, 2002), is one in which the focus moves

to the person, and not the task. The logic of the approach, is that until the people involved in the enterprise

are, brought together, differences patched up and so forth it is futile to try to attempt any particular task

goals. I.e. The first goal should be to get people feeling better, and then focus on what needs to be achieved.

In a lecture delivered at the Society of Project Management, (Bailey, 8th April 2009), spoke a lot about this

kind of situation, where dispute resolution issued in the construction industry.

(House R. J., 1996) expressed the notion that a good theory of leadership is one that can remain standing for

long enough, for a better theory to come along. What is most destructive in academia is a situation, where

the intellectual foundations on which several decades of work have been built collapses. This is what

occurred in the late 2000s when economists in universities around the world found themselves going back to

the drawing board when some of the basic suppositions about how financial market works came crashing

down.

Rather, with each new theory advanced it will likely be necessary to develop and validate

measures specifically design to test the theory. (House R. J., 1996)

V r o o m - Y e t t o n J a g o C o n t i n g e n c y M o d e l

Before I begin on Vroom-Yetton Jago model of decision making planning, I would like to draw some attention

to the views expressed in (Brooks, 1974), (Brooks, 2010). Namely, the distinction drawn between

participative design creation, and participative design review.

The design portion of the construction process is widely understood to be important. The design stage is

when the flexibility still exists to allow the team to change or adjust specifications. The point expressed in

(Brooks, 2010), is that a singular chief architect is valuable during the design creation stage. But in parallel

with design creation, are regular design reviews. During the design reviews, there is benefit to be gained

from a participative approach.

Following these intermediate design reviews, (Brooks, 2010) argues that the chief architect or designer may

wish to retreat into their own private space. He uses a Bernard Baruch quotation:

There is no substitute for the dreariness of labour and the loneliness of thought. (Brooks,

2010, p. 53)


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I will posit that only two of the five processes of decision making, described in the theory (Vroom & Yetton,

1973), (Vroom & Jago, 1988), are commonly used in the construction industry. I base this speculation on

personal observation in the industry over two decades in Ireland.

In the case of the Autocratic A1 process (Vroom & Jago, 1988), it appears to me that the leader is so

isolated this process can be regarded as defining theoretical boundary condition. Where the Consultative

C2 process (Vroom & Jago, 1988), is concerned I have significant doubts as to how it could be applied in a

construction industry context.

In reading about another industry, such as the hi-tech or computer science, there have been documented

examples of successful research and development institutions or R&D departments within large companies

where the Consultative C2 process (Vroom & Jago, 1988), was used with success. Those examples are

captured in literature and lore, because they are rare and wonderful.

One example, Xerox Parc Laboratories of the 1970s, enjoyed almost unlimited financial assistance and

support from its parent organisation. It enjoyed a privilege of being able to hire a huge percentage of the

available experts in computer engineering in the world at the time (Hiltzik, 2000).3

(Kay, 1997), (Kay, 2003) the famous computer scientist who worked at Xerox Parc Laboratories tells a story

of where members of the group, sat around together for hours, on bean bags, to discuss the most

challenging (and interesting) problems they could think of. Alan Kay comments that never since the 1970s at

Xerox Parc has he enjoyed the same experience again. In Kays own words, he never found people again

that he could argue with, in such a productive manner.

This observation by (Kay, 2003), has shines a lot of light on motivation. I will return to (Kay, 2003), later on

in the chapter on motivation.

From a point of view of commercial implementation, Xerox Parc Laboratories, did not deliver commercial

benefits to the parent company. Despite, the efforts of a close knit team of expert and innovators working

over a decade long period (Kay, 1997).

The Consultative C2 process and the Group G2 process (Vroom & Jago, 1988), appear to describe a

work process very similar to that which (Kay, 2003) experienced. That is the my reason for scepticism about

processes C2 and G2 being applied in a construction industry context.

In (Prietula & Simon, 1989), the authors discuss the development of expert systems to assist with decision

making in organisations. The article contains sobering comments about the limitations of such systems. In

(Prietula & Simon, 1989), the hypothetical situation of a company chief executive who loses a valuable

3

The view today is that it would be impossible to create the equivalent of Xerox Parc Laboratories even themost powerful global corporations can assemble at best a percentage of 3-5% of the worlds best talent ina particular field. But the point is, is that given a hypothetical opportunity where a company did have amonopoly on all of the finest human resources, it would make sense to adopt the Consultative C2 orGroup G2 process as presented in (Vroom & Jago, 1988).


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employees is described. The article describes the process of realization that the manager goes through, step

by step, in trying to assess the damage to his organisation by the departure of the valued employee.

An expert scheduler is intimately familiar with the products, resources, machines and the

people who run them. Keeping in mind the subtleties inherent in these factors, an expert

scheduler can weave a schedule that optimizes yield and minimizes downtime. (Prietula &

Simon, 1989)

(Prietula & Simon, 1989), point out that experts can exist at multiple levels in an organisation. Experts can

exist from the top to the bottom, from the centre to the periphery.

. . . the foreman begins to see that all the problems arising in daily operations are not new

and independent of each other. He learns to ignore the irrelevant patterns of activity and

concentrate on the critical ones. (Prietula & Simon, 1989),

In various writings and lectures over the years, project manager of the IBM/360 project during the 1960s,

(Brooks, 1974), (Brooks, 2010) emphasizes the importance of peer review involving many stakeholders and

personnel with many different backgrounds and types of expertise. There is one case that Brooks cites of a

painting crew involved in the design review process for an offshore oil exploration platform.

The leading design engineers were questioned in the presentation by the painting crew, about certain steel

components that ought to be made from heavier gauge steel. When the chief engineer probed further, he

learned from the painting crew that it would be impossible to paint certain steel components when the

exploration rig set out to open seas. This led the engineering team to re-configure some parts of their design,

to allow the painting crew to safely access and maintain the paint finish for the structure.

Had this problem not been spotted early in the design process, where a solution was easy to implement it

would have cost the enterprise a considerable amount.

(Brooks, 2010) uses a movie making industry analogy to distinguish between the role of a Director and that

of a Producer. While it is the job of the Producer to make sure that the project gets done, and is responsible

for a whole task of organising, hiring, implementation and resource management it is the sole responsibility

of the movie projects Director, to maintain the conceptual integrity of the project.

This role of the movies Director is crucial according to (Brooks, 2010), and the Directors credit is always the

last one on the list in the final print to celluloid. Consider what might happen, if during the course of executing

the movie making project, the Director was not in charge. The chances are that a movie of some kind would

eventually get made. Perhaps the movie would be made faster without a Director, or slower.


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But there is an excellent chance that the final celluloid of a move project which had no Director present,

would not bear a true resemblance to the initial movie script. That would be very bad for the financial

investors in a movie making project. That which does encourage investors in the movie making business to

support a project in the first place, is the merits of the original script.

In fact, the buying and selling of licenses to movie scripts is one of the major financial speculation activities

carried out by Producers in the movie industry that stage of the process often goes on for years and

decades before an project finally receives a green light. Sometimes the Producer cannot find the right

director, or the right investor, or a certain kind of script may not be in demand at a certain time.

Having found a promising looking script, the last mistake the investors and the Producer of the movie would

wish to make is to hire the wrong movie Director. (Brooks, 2010) explains that the value of the Director, or

chief Architect figure, is the same in many kinds of engineering projects.

In the Chapter Five, Organising and Controlling of this paper, I will discuss implications of structure in an

organisation with reference to views expressed by Sungard software company CEO, Cristobal Conde

(Conde, 2010). Conde is keen to point out the fact, that in the flatter organisation, it is possible to gain the

benefit of expertise from across the entire staff population.

Expertise is based on a deep knowledge of the problems that continually arise on a

particular job. (Prietula & Simon, 1989)

The worst thing in the hypothetical scenario as sketched out by (Prietula & Simon, 1989), is that the

company executive does not understand how the departed employee (the valuable human expert), fitted into

the organisation. The executive only had some vague idea, that in certain situations the employee had been

able to assess situations very quickly, and consistently known what right course of action to take.

(Brooks, 2010) draws our attention to the example of the global positioning system and the job performed by

the chief system architect on that project.

(Brooks, 2010) states that it was the job of the chief Architect on that project to distribute the finite resources

of the budget, whatever it is, amongst the various design units. The purpose of giving the chief Architect this

control, according to (Brooks, 2010), is to ensure the conceptual integrity of the project is maintained

whatever else happens.

The chief architect of the Global Positioning System engineering project, 'kept some microseconds in his

pocket, to bail out the parts of the project that may get into un-anticipated technical difficulties'.

In the construction industry in Ireland, the government approved standards and regulations, are the means

for how the chief Architect can create 'wiggle room' and to know in the back of his or her mind, there is some

slack left in the system - that if the project did run into difficulties - there could be some low cost trade-off's


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made to solve things. The way that Architects in construction are trained now, the architect is not the guy in

the middle any longer who tries to manage budgets - but he/she is the guy in the middle who tries to blow the

budgets.

The culture has grown up, that if you aren't pushing the envelope on all fronts, you are not trying hard

enough.

I have observed how the old-style architect, in practice, go to pains to manage his budgets in the various

technical sub-specialities. It does require an individual who can operate in the centre, and who has sufficient

technical expertise, or awareness in the sub-specialities, to be able to actively manage the budgets.

In building Architecture, we have forgotten what the Architect at the centre is supposed to do. I believe this is

one of the reasons why building construction projects have gone up hugely in cost. The building architect in

2012, does not see it as their responsibility to manage budgets.


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C h a p t e r

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O r g a n i s i n g a n d C o n t r o l l i n g

(Linehan, Greaney, & Foster, 2010), state that organising for a construction project can be a complex

process. The industry is highly fragmented, through the extensive use of sub-contracting. The design

process and the assembly process are separated.

Part four of the British Standards document on Design Management Systems states the following.

The management hierarchy should be described in an organization chart that shows the

formal relationships between levels of management and staff and the delegated

responsibilities. Each member of staff should be provided with a written job description.

(BSI, BS 7000: Part 4: 1996)

In (Linehan, Greaney, & Foster, 2010) the authors describe the process that one goes through to organise a

construction project. The jobs to be done are identified, grouped together logically and a pattern of authority

is established between each job, and each work unit.

(Linehan, Greaney, & Foster, 2010) state that the assessment process in performance management is

linked to job definitions and is rigorous and objective. Performance management was one of the

management practices that (Linehan, Greaney, & Foster, 2010) found had a role to play inside the 80,000

employee construction materials company CRH.

In comparing the construction industry to others, where similar challenges or organisation are encountered,

the movie making industry makes for an interesting comparison. Movie making does involve a lengthy design

process, where a lot of creative individuals have to somehow work together. The group may not know one

another, and do not have much time to get acquainted over the short duration of the movie project.4

4(Brooks, 2010) has written in favour of movie making organisation, to look at how certain design and build

challenges ought to be undertaken. The distinction made in the movie making industry between theProducer and Director has a lot in common with a distinction made in (Mintzberg, 1979) between theOperating Core and the Supporting Staff.


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In the diagram shown, are the five key areas of an organisational structure as identified in (Mintzberg, 1979).

According to (Mintzberg, 1979), (Mintzberg, 1983), a division of labour and of job specification can lead to

more efficient use of organisational resources. Organisation involves the division of labour into distinct tasks

and then achieving coordination and control between those tasks.

T h e S t r a t e g i c A p e x

The strategic apex of an organisation has assumed many different forms throughout history, and in different

culture. In certain societies the males are positioned at the apex. In other societies it is the females who run

things.

In the modern era, in the larger corporations the members of the strategic apex are featured in articles and

in broadcasting. The individual who comprise the strategic apex are carefully hand chosen by the

organisation in order to project an image of confidence, ambition, security, sensitivity or ruthlessness or

whatever the organisation needs at a specific point in time.

That is to say, a changing of personnel at the strategic apex is frequently undertaken and will demonstrate

(both internally and externally), that a real change of direction has taken place, a brand new strategy has

arrived or simply that an organisation has a renewed sense of its own purpose, its own mission.

A huge part of our perception about politics and government affairs is conveyed through print and screen

media to the general public by the image projected by the strategic apex. It is clear that at times a well-


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managed change at the highest level of an organisation is a crucial part if a strategic goal or mission is to be

accomplished. But it is also clear that in recent times, the levels of incentive given to figure heads in many

large organisations has grown beyond all kind of logic. (Fish, 2009)

Who are these people who think that they need this money?

It just drives me crazy. (Fish, 2009)

(Bennis & Nanus, 1985) is noted in this publication for changing the focus in organisational behaviour theory

away from management and towards the idea of the leader. (Bennis & Nanus, 1985) express a well-

constructed argument that in modern times, there is a deficiency of leaders in society and in business.

An alternative view is expressed by former chief executive at Intel Corporation, Andy Grove (Grove A. S.,

1996), (Grove A. S., 2005), (Burgelman, Grove, & Meza, 2005), (Tedlow R. S., 2006) has expressed a

sceptical view of the modern cult of the leader in organisations. Grove argues that this modern obsession

with finding leaders, can prevent us from recognise the true value of good management.

Grove worked his way up through the ranks inside Intel Corporation and it gave Grove a very deep respect

for the skills of middle managers. Craig Barrett who succeeded Andy Grove as chief executive, also seems

to reinforce those views of Grove. (Barrett, 2009) made plain in his talk at Stanford, that problem solving was

a crucial strength of those who worked beneath him at Intel Corporation for three decades.

Furthermore (Barrett, 2009) argued, that a majority of chief executives in companies do come from an

engineering background, and not a legal or financial one. (Barrett, 2009) attributes this to the problem-

solving and decision making capabilities, which is so much a part of engineering. In (Friedman, 2005) the

author makes similar observations.

T h e M i d d l e M a n a g e m e n t

According to (Burgelman, Grove, & Meza, 2005), being a senior executive president or board chairman in a

company only means that an individual was very good at something twenty years ago. In (Burgelman, Grove,

& Meza, 2005), the authors express an admiration for middle management in companies. The middle

managers are the individuals are who are on the front lines, and they know how the organisation actually

operates.

In (Dell, 2007), the interviewee describes in Dell Corporation that they have something called a Directors

Day. It involves sending the directors that sit on the board to the manufacturing centres owned by the

Corporation to see how things are actually done and speak to people directly involved with day to day

operations. When the directors return they are required to tell the executives what they learned.


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In (Dell, 2007), the interviewee articulated his fear that boards of directors are good at delivering PowerPoint

presentations, without knowing how the organisation actually operates.

T h e O p e r a t i n g C o r e

(Dell & Fredman, 1999) provides a classic example of the importance of the operating core as presented by

(Mintzberg, 1979). What (Dell & Fredman, 1999), reveals is that in the late 1980s the company had horrible

inventory management problems.5

The challenge in the industry was that there were large technology shifts periodically. Success or failure was

not so much contingent upon how a company performed between key transitions. It was contingent upon the

management skills exercised at the key transition points. The challenge was how to manage in a way so that

the technology transition could occur without the company having to write down massive losses each time,

for holding onto old inventory.

The managers at Dell Corporation identified this problem which existed at the operational core. Fortunately

for Dell Corporation, it transformed itself in three to four years from having terrible inventory management

capabilities to being world leaders in that part of their operations.

T h e S u p p o r t i n g S t a f f

At the support staff level as described by (Mintzberg, 1979), there are a vast array of different service

providers which the company must subscribe to at one time or another, in order to function.

Indeed, many professional firms that are licensed to provide services of various sorts in the construction

industry may be considered to be working as supporting staff. That means, that companies who take a

major portion of the responsibility for how designs are created, implementation plans are

In 2012 I became involved in a high court case regarding a pre-maturely aborted project on the Dublin citys

river front, which the Irish Central bank intends to occupy in coming years. I was informed by personnel close

to the court proceedings that the fall out from this multi-million euro project is valued at many times the

actual budget for its construction.

The point to be underlined about the construction industry, at least in the private sector, is how minimal the

larger employers operation can be. One veteran architect who has practiced in the architectural profession

in Dublin city since the 1960s, and has witnessed several deep recessions in the industry, claims that

5Many times in (Dell & Fredman, 1999), the authors contradict the popular notion that success experienced

by Dell Corporation was a simple, un-interrupted line on a graph headed upwards.


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property developers can operate out of the trunk of their automobile. That is, they require almost no direct

employees at all.

That architect also noted that in times of boom construction activity, the property development company may

find it is strategically beneficial to directly employ a number of staff in-house to cope with the burden of

administration and decision making required. But that in the recession, the property development company

will shed this staff overhead in lightning speed again, and return as she described, to operating out of the

automobile trunk.

This is the structure of the construction industry in Ireland, and indeed throughout the entire world. The

Employers in the construction company commonly referred to by professional construction consultants as

their clients (some consultants will use less complementary labels) appear and disappear intermittently. It

is similar to the phenomenon of the dry spell in a desert.

When the heavens break open and the ground suddenly becomes saturated, life may burst out from

everyplace and display all of the colours of the rainbow. Then the heavens stop sending rains again, and the

desert landscape soon returns to being.

The term often given to the most senior position in an architectural or engineering consultancy is the rain

maker. In fact, the attribute most valued in these firms is never technical skill but the ability to make the

rain happen so that the firm can get itself wet.

The unfortunate thing about the Supporting Staff part of the construction industry organisation is thatmany a very competent engineer or architecture professional has witnessed a promising career fail,

because they could not learn how to perform the rain dance.

T h e T e c h n o - S t r u c t u r e

(Mintzberg, 1979) describes the Techno-Structure as being the other side of Middle Management, from the

Supporting Staff.

A very interesting point was made in (Schein, Delisi, & Kampas, 2003). The main author Edgar H. Schein

worked directly as a consultant to Ken Olsen, who was chief executive and founder of Digital Equipment

Corporation.

(Schein, Delisi, & Kampas, 2003) records the fact that DEC were quite unique in terms of organisational

structure in north America, because it hired so many engineers and those engineers had what Schein calls

two ladders along which they could progress inside the company. That is, in DEC the engineer could work

his or her entire life within the company and graduate to promotions in that manner.


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Or alternatively, the engineer could decide they needed a break from the engineering side and move into

management within the company instead. However, the key point emphasized by (Schein, Delisi, & Kampas,

2003) is that the engineer did not get penalized for doing so. The author noted that in other corporations that

one had to stay on one or other ladder.

Otherwise, the work and dedication that one had invested through the years would be erased if one changed

career ladder.

(Dell, 2007) also described an interesting case in his company, where the chief financial officer found himself

out-matched by the size of his job in the 1980s. The company has grown and grown at a staggering rate, and

the CFO simply could not keep pace. According to (Dell, 2007), the individual in this case did not choose to

throw in the towel and simply walk away from Dell Corporation (as many did).

Instead the individual who had been Dell Corporations CFO, became their Treasurer. Years went by and the

job of being Treasurer also became too large for what the skills of this individual could manage. Again,

instead of choosing to eject from Dell Corporation, the individual decided to move to a different position, as

chief investment liaison officer.

(Dell, 2007) describes that in all three positions the individual distinguished themselves by giving excellent

service to the company, and as a consequence ended up becoming much wealthier than many of those who

left.

T h e C o m m u n i c a t i o n s R e v o l u t i o n

Mintzberg and others could not have foreseen the communication revolution, when they scripted their

management theories, even as late as the 1980s.

I will discuss to some degree the revolution in communications technology that has occurred since the time

of (Peters & Waterman, 1982), and how this revolution in communications technology continues to have a

serious impact on how organisational structure (Sennett, 1998), (Carr, 1999), (Weinberger, 2002),

(Friedman, 2005), (Tapscott & Williams, 2006), (Sennett, 2007), (Shirky, 2008) .

Many at the beginning of the 20th

century took it for granted that great corporations and bureaucracies were

in the process of forming themselves and that great wealth and profit was being amassed as a result of that

activity. A question was asked by (Coase, 1937) in a very famous academic paper. Why do firms come

together at all, involving the combination of many people and resources in synchronisation?

(Coase, 1937) questioned the whole premise of having larger organisations at all. He asked the question,

would it not make more sense to have lots of smaller, discreet companies instead? It is the question that

(Schumacher, 1973) also wrestled with. (Schumacher, 1973) was a part of a wave of environmentally

conscious writers, who questioned why everything in the modern world needed to be so large.


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(Toffler, 1980) is an original text, which hailed the coming of electronic typewriters, electronic cottages and

the electronic frontier, and shows the influence of (Schumacher, 1973) in many ways.

A recent text such as (Schewe, 2006), probes into the question. Why do we build so many large power

plants to electrify the grid? (Benkler, 2006) poses the same question about broadcasting, where one

witnessed a huge capital investment in centralised broadcasting facilities.

Authors including (Benkler, 2006) argue that the march of progress in information technology and mobile

communications, is leading to a divestment of capital resources into smaller and smaller units owned by a

larger and large number of individuals. In the modern era, it becomes harder for the few to control the many

(Kelly, 1994), (Turner, 2006).

In popular culture, characters such as 'Dirty' Harry Callahan (Eastwood, 1983) expressed a disdain for large

centralised organisations. The Callahan character complains of, . . . being swept away by, waves of

corruption, apathy and red tape. (Eastwood, 1983)6

(Sennett, 1998), (Sennett, 2007) admits to being one of the extreme left-wing 1968 generation who tried to

prophesize that technological progress would free people from the tyranny of bureaucracy and tedious

routine. But (Sennett, 1998), (Sennett, 2007) is seeking to challenge his own original assumptions. He asks

question, was it a good thing to get rid of bureaucratic organisation?7

There is some renewed interest today in (Coase, 1937), who tried to explain the advantages of having alarge organisation. (Coase, 1937) asserted that operational units will be merged together into a large

organisation to the degree to which savings can be achieved in overheads of communicating and

transacting between business units.

The converse of the theory expressed by (Coase, 1937), would be that fragmentation of business units will

occur to the degree to which operational efficiencies cannot be obtained from being integrated.8

There can be no doubt, that modern organisations through use of information technology, can divide up

labour and tasks to a degree never been seen before (Friedman, 2005). (Gilder, 2000), talks about the death

of distance. According to (Thacker, 2009), no two points in the globe need to be more than fifty milliseconds

apart from each other, in terms of computer networking speed.

Some of the things I had read in (Friedman, 2005) at the time of its publication, about the dispersed digital

production of the movies series, Star Wars (written and directed by George Lucas), came to bear in the Irish

construction industry in the late 2000s.

6The 1980s was a decade which witnessed the launching of popular magazines such as Wired, whose

major motivation appears to have been, to look at ways in which computers be connected and used as toolsfor communication, as much as being a tool for data processing. (Kelly, 1994), (Turner, 2006)7

See also (Carr, 1999), (Carr, 2003), (Carr, 2008).8

Refer to section ten of this paper, where I have made some reference to the work (McAfee, 2006),(McAfee, 2009).


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Construction detailing production for large projects in Ireland was being outsourced to Eastern Europe,

where the labour for producing such documents was cheaper. Management consultants McKinsey in New

York send their draft PowerPoint presentations to India at the close of business and return in the morning

to find a beautifully rendered set of slides, left by the tooth fairy. But in fact, have been created overnight in

India, while McKinsey employees were asleep.

The scholar can find evidence of theory like that expressed in (Coase, 1937), when reading a high quality

work about construction project delivery systems such as (Koch, Molenaar, & Gransberg, 2006).

The construction industry today is trying to resolve the difficulties created by its own fragmentation. In their

publication about preparing for Design-Build project delivery, (Koch, Molenaar, & Gransberg, 2006) cited

research carried out at Reading University (Bennett, Pothecary, & Robinson, 1996), in relation to early

contractor involvement in projects.

Certainty of completion on time increases with the earlier the contractor is involved in the

design process. (Koch, Molenaar, & Gransberg, 2006)

In Ireland we have introduced a new form of Design Build contract for government projects. But it is claimed

that true Design Build companies do not exist in Ireland. We have not got full Design Build coordination and

integration of resources.

The worst result in meeting quality requirements occurred in projects where the designer

was a subcontractor and a significant proportion of the design was completed by the owner

in the RFP [Request for Proposal]. (Koch, Molenaar, & Gransberg, 2006)

According to (Linehan, Greaney, & Foster, 2010), one of the disadvantages of the centralised organisation is

that common policies may not be appropriate throughout the whole organisation. That was evident in the

Federal Bureau of Investigations (PBS, 2002) attempt to set up its own dedicated anti-terrorist unit.

A very interesting comment made in (PBS, 2002), in relation to the organisational structure of the Federal

Bureau of Investigations. The documentary shows that one senior FBI official, Mr. John O Neill who died on

September 11th, 2001, had been on the trail of the plot for some time, and had been ignored within the

organisation.

You never knew what the FBI knew. (PBS, 2002)


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Top-down management got started because the bosses either knew more or they had access to more

information (Conde, 2010). That no longer applies. A lot of people have access to identical amounts of

information. (Conde, 2010) claimed that employees should be able to stand out, irrespective of their

organisational ranking. Employees must be allowed to develop a reputation for expertise that is irrespective

of where they sit in the org chart.

Experts such as (Peters & Waterman, 1982) or (Christensen & Raynor, 2003) write about the skunk works.

The idea of a smaller unit within the larger organisation dedicated to achieving a specific goal and which

does not follow the exact same protocols as the parent organisation.

In todays competitive environment, it could be argued the smaller skunk works units are being created ad-

hoc using new electronic collaborative platforms. Authors such as (Raymond, 1999) have studied this new

flat organisational structure in some depth. (Brooks, 2010), who builds some argument in response to

(Raymond, 1999).

They do it because recognition from their peers is, I think, an extremely strong motivating

factor, and something that is broadly unused in modern management. (Conde, 2010)

Not only is the company global, the individuals who make up the teams inside of the company are dispersed

globally (Conde, 2010). According to (Conde, 2010), work needs to be done on the structure of collaboration.

How do you get people organised?

By having technologies that allow people to see what others are doing, share information,

collaborate, brag about their successes that is what flattens the organisation. (Conde,

2010)

(Conde, 2010) suggests that bosses should step back from the decision making process, and instead

monitor the activity happening on the electronic collaboration platforms.

Teams working together for the duration of a project. Empowered to make decisions, these

units can react directly to problems and customers requirements without having to waste

time going through functionaries higher up in the hierarchy. (Hascher, Jeska, & Klauck,

2002)

(Conde, 2010) tries to explain his opinion in more detail. That early on, he was very command and control

oriented as a leader, and felt that his decisions would be better. He discovered the problem of working long


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hours in his youth, was that he ended up with a type of leadership style that did not scale. It proved

detrimental as his organisation grew.

(Conde, 2010) describes having the problem of hiring world-class people but then trying to micro-managing

them. (Conde, 2010) claims that micro-management only spirals down.

If the very best people leave, then the people youve got left actually require more micro-

management. (Conde, 2010)

Then that second tier of people leave, and you end up having to implement a huge organisational micro-

management structure that ends up consuming huge resources to run.

In reading the (Conde, 2010) interview, one can see the ideas advocated by (Peters & Waterman, 1982), are

still alive and put into use two decades later. The famous business management author, Tom Peters is

reputed to have said once, Throw away your business cards. In (Peters & Waterman, 1982), the authors

developed the idea of something called an Adhocracy.

The concept of an Adhocracy was integrated into the organisational diagram in (Mintzberg H. , 1983),

(Mintzberg & McGugh, 1985) as part of development of the earlier theory and diagram in (Mintzberg H. ,

1979).

(Peters & Waterman, 1982) described a need for older organisations to re-invigorate themselves, and realise

their potential for innovation. It was the task of the Adhocracy to find out where exactly in the organisation

the really great new ideas existed, and what small back-room teams were developing them. The idea of

throwing away ones business cards, was intended to convey a notion that individuals should no longer be

defined by their position, as printed on their business card.

The Adhocracy had the function the authors believed of running counter to the procedures and practices set

up by the Bureaucracy in the old company.

The Adhocracy according to (Peters & Waterman, 1982), was a small unit established inside of a large

corporation on purpose. The purpose of which was to counteract stagnation experienced by many great

American corporations nearing the end of the 20th

century. Those companies which had grown up in America

since the early days of (Taylor, 1903), (Taylor, 1911) needed to re-invent themselves in many ways.

(Brooks, 1974), (Brooks, 2010) emphasized the importance of the maverick within an organisation. (Brooks,

2010) describes an individual within the IBM corporation, whose task it was to travel around within the

organisation, lighting little flames of inspiration wherever he went. The difficulty that (Brooks, 2010)

describes with such an individual is that it is very different to tie them down to just one task. They want to

pick up the next task, and forget the one behind them.


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The construction industry is very carefully segregated into different disciplines, and much of the reason for

that is so that disciplines are not given an opportunity to mix together. There seems to be value in the

practice of keeping human resources in the construction industry separated from one another, and rooted

within their own sub-culture.

The U.S. military for instance, created a distinct unit known as the U.S. Marines, in part because they wanted

the fighting element of the army to be segregated away from the less combat-oriented (more logistical

oriented), units of the army. This is a solution used time and time again, to try and overcome the

disadvantage posed by the large organisation.

The point was brought home to me in relation to construction, when I had a complaint (about our structural

engineering department), to make to my superior in the architectural department. My superior reminded me

of the fact that structural engineers, unlike architects, have to think about safety in every single aspect of

their duties. Anything that a structural engineer specifies, or designs, or authorizes if it did not work according

to plan may result in injury to persons.

My architectural superior reminded me, that in some aspects of the architects work, safety of users has a

major input. But for much of the time, the architect is not as pre-occupied with safety issues as the engineer

must be.

S o m e f i n a l w o r d s a b o u t m o d e r n o r g a n i s a t i o n s

Former Sun MicroSystems chief executive Scott McNealy, was famous for saying, Your privacy is gone: Get

over it, (Sprenger, 1999). One of the strategies he implemented within the company was shared desk space.

According to McNealy, no employee even needed a designated work space in the modern era.

If one has one hundred employees to facilitate, it would be wise to try to accommodate them with less than

one hundred individual workstations. Each work space available would be shared between several workers.

This made sense to McNealy for his organisation, because people werent at their desks most of the time

anyhow. People in the modern era, apparently are very mobile and flexibility they can work from anywhere,

anytime.

Frank Duffys latest book Work and the City describes a situation in the modern brittle city

(a concept borrowed from Sennett), that office space is only 50% used for a third of each

working day. Which represents a colossal drain on the finite resources of individuals,

corporations and society as a whole. (Hascher, Jeska, & Klauck, 2002)


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The term always on has been coined by (Gershenfeld, 1999) and others to describe the reality of being

always connected to the network and to information, as one moves about on ones daily business.9

(Carr,

1999), (Carr, 2003), (Carr, 2008) describes the situation of the modern worker in his writings. In one such

story, (Carr, 2008) tells of the career mother who has hidden a blackberry mobile communications device in

the bathroom at home, so as to be able to escape from the family dinners to read messages.

The conclusion reached by (Gershenfeld, 1999), was that some individuals will cope well in the new lifestyle

of being always on. Others will not.

9Refer to (Conde, 2010) comments in later section on CRH case study.


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C h a p t e r

0 6

C o m m u n i c a t i o n

It is fair to say that construction companies are constantly dealing with change at some level. It would be

difficult to choose a moment, when an organisation in the built environment isnt undergoing organisational

change. The bread and butter of the construction industry is, change.

A major work or study could be conducted on the matter. One example of such work is (Boyd & Chinyio,

2006). The work states that the act of building to house a new organisation, or re-house an existing

organisation implies that change will be deeply experienced by the client. The designer and contractor

should be aware that the construction client will change while the construction project is still taking place. If

the construction client did not want to change, they would not have tried to build a new facility in the first

place.

When a retailer begins trading from a new premises, things can go very good or very bad. By the act of

changing from one facility to another, the organisation is going to experience change in some way. It is the

primary role of designers and contractors in the construction industry to think about change. The entire

history of construction projects can be understood from that point of view.

One author who has consistently asked why is Frank Duffy (Duffy, 2008), co-founder of the DEGW

company in London.10

As a result of the fact that change is so embedded in the job carried out by construction professionals, it

follows that communication is important. In order to transmit messages and meaning to the intended

recipients, the enterprise of construction has to develop all kinds of techniques.11

Design unit leaders should be aware of and approve where necessary all communications

between their design unit, other design units and the design team leader. (BSI, BS 7000:

Part 4: 1996)

10Refer also to (Ricks, 2005).

11A talk once delivered to Engineers Ireland Project Management Society in Dublin was a tour-de-force in

explanation about communication systems (Gaffney, 2008).


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(Linehan, Greaney, & Foster, 2010) defined communication as a process of creating, transmitting and

interpreting information between two or more people. One could argue strongly, that a communications

system is never noticed to such a degree as when it disintegrates.

Figure 3 - Design Team Organisation, (BSI, BS 7000: Part 4: 1996)

A structural engineer told me of his first assignment in the early 1940s to assemble a pre-fabricated aircraft

hangar building, which the American army had shipped to Northern Ireland.

The engineer never succeeded in putting together the structure and the Second World War ended. The army

did not provide an assemblers manual, and the structure was too complicated, even for a young engineer to

figure out. The experience did convince him of the value of proper documentation on construction projects.

According to (Linehan, Greaney, & Foster, 2010), the primary purpose of communication is to achieve

coordinated action.

One of the best recorded histories of a communication system break down, that I know is (Blunden, 2004),

an autobiographical book about a database software company in Minnesota. The company employed a

couple of thousands workers, and enjoyed a significant slice of the north American market. At some stage in

the past, the software code which ran the database had all its instruction markers removed.

The reason offered was that computer memory needed to be saved. All of the helpful hints and instructions

that had existed in the code since project inception were gone. It is like an academic paper which containedreferences using the Harvard referencing system. But someone came along and erased the bibliography.


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According to (Blunden, 2004) this faux pas had the immediate effect that it granted enormous power on two

senior software engineers in the company. After a time, it became obvious to management in the company

that the two engineers held all of the power. The unthinkable then occurred. The two engineers had a

disagreement and stopped communicating with each other, as engineers sometimes do.

The population of employees inside the database company divided into two factions, two sides of a fence.

Operations became quite dysfunctional. All strategy and operations had to negotiate the reality of a company

that was split into two.

This type of situation occurs with information systems used in the field of construction design. There is built-

in motivation for the designers to break their own information system, so that a greater amount of power can

accrue to the individuals who are able to fix problems.

Following his employment at the database company (Blunden, 2004) carved a career for himself in the

maintenance of old software code. He became so good at that task because he understood the nature of the

problem so well.

For much of the decade of the 2000s may own career in working with information systems used in

construction followed a similar path. I worked for industrial facility owners who had paid several times to have

their facility surveyed and drawn up by one Architecture professional after another.

It is only slightly facetious," wrote RAND researcher Jeff Rothenberg in Scientific American,"to say that digital information lasts forever--or five years, whichever comes first."

(Brand, 1998)

Authors such as (Perrow, 2007), have examined cases where communications structures, if poorly designed

have been responsible for all kinds of operational weaknesses.

One of the illustrations in (Perrow, 2007), are diagrams of communication for Homeland Security in the

United States. In the first illustration (Perrow, 2007), showed a nice legible diagram for how Homeland


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Security is supposed to work. In a second illustration he showed the communication back-channels and sub-

routines, that have been implemented by the U.S. House of Representatives.

The point to emphasize is that where rules of communications are firmly established and designed to

function well, things do happen at the operational level, which undo sensible thought process.

Designers should communicate formally through established channels such as team

meetings; they may also communicate informally provided the outcome of such

communications is recorded and validated. (BSI, BS 7000: Part 4: 1996)

At Bolton Street College of Technology in Dublin, the lecturer and architect Noel Jonathan Brady would tell a

story about Norman Foster architectural practice and the construction of the Shanghai Bank headquarters

(Foster). The project begun in 1979 and completed in 1986 was executed before the arrival of computer

aided design.

Norman Foster Architects based in London, hired a second architectural firm based in Shanghai for no otherreason, except to guarantee accurate coordination of all documents. The Shanghai architectural firm took

every piece of drawing information issued for the project by the different professional firms, and using


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transparent drafting film would painstakingly compare the coordinates, the set-out points and dimensional

coordination.

The Foster designed project, was so complex and required such a high tolerance in construction that this

added layer of management was needed. Mistakes in the design and construction if not identified would be

too expensive to fix. The story serves as an example of how seriously the matter of communication was

taken in top levels in construction, before we had e-mail or computers on desks.

Foster Architects were exceptional in the level of control they implemented to assist them in managing their

projects. I know of architects who were employed at Foster architectural firm, who worked for five years

doing nothing more than door handles. One person, in the firm, had no other responsibilities except to

manage the specification and design of one item for every project and every client.12

Viewing this through a lens of (Taylor, 1903), (Taylor, 1911) may serve to illustrate the logic. Productivity

improvement by means of division of labour.

What generally happens is that everyone in an architects office has a go at specifying door handles.

Nobody quite knows what they are doing. Lessons learned from past projects are not captured. The mistakes

are repeated and it adds to the bottom line price for the employer. Worst of all, a contractor may receive

instructions from the same architect which change over time, or conflict with each other.

Employers who know best do hire Norman Foster & Partners, because they understand the firm will exert its

control over a project and that expensive mistakes arising out of poor communication are less likely tohappen. The logical procedures exercised by Fosters and others have made their way into todays

standards. For instance, the section on communication channels of (BSI, BS 7000: Part 4: 1996).

The design team leader should be the focus for communications within the design team

and, where necessary, approve all communications between the design team, external

agencies and the client. (BSI, BS 7000: Part 4: 1996)

Michael Tweed, one of the few top-class architects and project managers in Ireland used an analogy to

illustrate what a good communication system should be. He would remind staff of the Airfix model airplane

box kits, which children of young ages can understand and use the enclosed instruction pages to assemble

the model.13

12I will make some reference to (Prietula & Simon, 1989), who have some interesting perspectives to share

about experts in companies. Please see the last section ten of this paper in relation to the CRH case studycontained in (Linehan, Greaney, & Foster, 2010).13

If the analogy of the Airfix model kit does not appeal to the reader, it is also worth considering the moreadult assembly kit and attached instructions, when one purchases flat pack furniture from stores like IKEAand Argos. Without any prior training or knowledge in furniture manufacture, many people are able toexecute the assembly task and without the need for a helpline phone number or any great supportmechanism than the few sheets of paper instructions.


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When drafting a document needed to instruct a contractor how a task is to be carried out in construction, one

should approach it like one is creating the instructions for a model airplane kit. The information should lead

the assembly team through the correct sequence of steps.

Tweed would suggest that, if you can draw a construction document with fewer lines on a page, then do it

with fewer lines on the page. The few lines the easier it is to focus on the intended instruction. Where

revisions to drawings are needed one can use a revision cloud to highlight the change and the reader does

not have to search through a maze to find it. The less lines, there are on a document the easier will be the

process of communication.

Consider the situation where a person is sending out a resume to apply for a job. People are encouraged to

customise the resume according to the intended recipient. There is no sense we are told in sending out the

same resume a hundred times. The employers who read the resume are not all the same.

The tradespersons who read construction documents are not all the same.

Investing some effort to customise a resume affords the candidate a better chance of being considered. Any

miscellaneous information, which will not assist the candidate is eliminated.

Tweed did not have much regard for construction documentation created in general by consultant firms in

Ireland. Rarely do the construction documents read with the clarity of the model airplane kit. Draftsmen are

not encouraged to reduce the amount of information on drawings to only that which the tradesperson needs.

Drafting resources are scarce. The more hours that a consultant has to put into drafting, the less profit the

consultant will make. Draftsmen are encouraged to over provision documents with text, dimensions, gridlines

and paraphernalia of all kinds. The tradesman needs to study the document at length to find what is relevant

(which costs them time and money not the consultant).

Construction blueprints in Ireland are not tailored specifically to requirements of the tradesperson reading

them. This is part of the reason why expensive mistakes are made. A situation has been allowed to

deteriorate over decades.

Contractors have sued for claims against the Architect for not including X or Y on a drawing. At this stage,

the attitude of consultants is to throw everything on the drawing, in the hope of preventing legal suites later

on.

When things such as Building Information Modelling come along, it will not offer the magic bullet solution.

The major obstacle is a lack of willingness across the industry to strive for more robust and reliable

standards in communication.

The construction industry in Ireland is facing even more project management problems in the coming years,

as groups involved in construction projects communicate increasingly over networks and do not meet one


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another face to face.14

Many authors (Thackara, 2005), (Brooks, 2010) have asked about this organisational

strategy.

(Brooks, 2005) remarked that when a parent phones their child a long distance away, it only takes the parent

seconds to recognise the mood and disposition of their child. This is how well tele-collaboration technology

can work, where the investment of time and patience has previously been put in, face-to-face.

The point is made by (Brooks, 2005) that where the two tele-collaborators have not spent extensive time

getting to know one another face-to-face, the tele-collaboration will suffer.

(Brooks, 2010) cites one very interesting case, where senior generals in charge of the air and the ground

U.S. army forces, had shared a bunk room together at Westpoint. Afterwards, in their careers these men

were able to tele-collaborate extremely well, which led to very successful combined operations between the

two branches of the military.

C o n s t r u c t i o n M a n a g e r v e r s u s A r c h i t e c t

The communication system breakdown as described in (Berman, 2002) is one which is deeply embedded in

standard procedure and standard forms of contract in north America.

(Berman, 2002) contrasts the role of the 'Architect', a discipline which has been around since before ancientGreece to the role of the Construction Manager, who has been around since a US Federal government

report of 1970,15

asking for ways to obtain better value for money.

On September 3, 1968 a Federal Government study of the construction contracting

procedures of the Public Buildings Service, General Services Administration was approved.

The purpose of which was to study all reasonable alternative means of construction

contracting with the hope of finding which method was most advantageous for the

construction of public buildings.

The government was looking for the best method to reduce construction times and cost. In

fact, the real impetus behind the study was that the government hoped that the best

method would result in the avoidance of contracts with contractors who are prone to

contract disputes, are unduly claim-conscious, or take cost cutting actions that are

incompatible with quality construction. (Berman, 2002)

14

Refer to (Weinberger, 2002), (Tapscott & Williams, 2006), (Shirky, 2008) who have tried to grappleindependently with this subject of the modern loosely tied, loosely bound organisation, facilitated by meansof information technology. The space available in this paper doesnt allow me to go into detail.15

March 17, 1970, Final Report on Public Buildings Service Construction Contracting to the HonorableRobert L. Kunzig, Administrator of General Services.


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(Berman, 2002) describes the scoping conflict which occurs in the American construction industry where

both Architect and Construction Manager professionals are involved in the same project under standard AIA,

CMAA and AGC forms of contract.16

The problem is in deciding who does what, when and how. There are standard agreement contracts

published by all of the professional bodies in north American construction, which are supposed, in theory to

coordinate the roles and responsibilities of Owners, Architects, Construction Managers and Contractors.

What the author of the research, (Berman, 2002) found when he sent out questionnaires and compared all of

the pre-drawn contract types, was that the roles and responsibilities were ambiguous and sometimes the

contracts contained contradictions. Both the Architect professional and the Construction Management

professional try to lobby the Owner at the start of the project, to provide 'services'. The Architects try to bring

in-house, a construction manager to expand their piece of the pie. The Construction management team bring

in design capable person(s), to expand their piece.

The Owner who is trying to obtain a service from someone can find themselves unsure of who is meant to do

anything. (Berman, 2002) discovered from his research, that it wasn't even clear from the standard contracts,

who was responsible at all stages.

It boiled down to the legal wording in the contract. (Berman, 2002) pointed to the use of certain legal

terminology such as 'assist'. The CM or the Architect is supposed to 'assist' the Owner to do X, Y or Z. But

what does assist mean? Does the Owner have to carry the responsibility for everything? If so, then why doesthe Owner need the Architect or the CM?

16The American Institute of Architects (AIA), the Construction Management Association of America (CMAA),

and The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC).


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C h a p t e r

0 7

M o t i v a t i o n

Figure 4 - Diagrammatic illustration of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

It is difficult, when one thinks about the construction industry in Ireland to understand how the theory of

employee motivation as presented in (Maslow, 1943), (Maslow, 1954), could have relevance.

What is bothersome about (Maslow, 1943), is the notion that food and shelter (physiological needs), are

placed at the bottom of the pyramid hierarchy which is used to explain (Maslow, 1943). There must be a

variety of reasons why individuals from Irish society may choose to enter the construction industry

ambition, arrogance, delusion, hubris, or simply a mistaken confidence in ones ability to change the world.

I cannot see evidence that intelligent people could view Irish construction as a way to make a bread and

butter. Irish construction is simply too risky and thankless. There are safer refuges where one can go to

satisfy a primary need.

The construction industry will always attract racketeers, profiteers and misfits. From personal experience of

seeing how the story ends, it is like watching the Titanic going doing. The big and exciting splash followed by


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sheer hopelessness.17

But each generation in Ireland produces a new generation of opportunists in

construction who want to be big.

Further down in the section, I will attempt to look at the theory of (McClelland D. C., 1961), which rests upon

the work (Maslow, 1943), (Maslow, 1954). I was sufficiently impressed by (McClelland D. C., 1961), to feel it

deserved my effort in this paper.

A lot can be judged by statements from both young and the old in the construction professions in Ireland. A

Construction Management student speaking in 2011 summed up the attitude. His assertion was, one gets

into construction, to make money as quick as possible.

I know of one professional architect who operated a practice in the 2000s from Lesson Street in Dublin city,

who decided he would get out. He was a young enough man and having hired two of my college classmates

to run his architectural practice one morning he threw the keys on the table and departed.

(Coppola, 1972) describes the attempts of the character Michael, played by Al Pacino, to extract himself from

the sordid underworld where his father had made a fortune. What motivates the character of Michael is the

belief that he can make the familys operations legitimate. Then we have the famous quotation from part

three of the trilogy.

Just when I thought I was out of it, they pull me back in. (Coppola, 1990)

If one speaks in conversation to any number of construction professionals in their mature years in Ireland,

one will hear some version of that comment. Mature construction professionals in Ireland who are now

reaching retirement age, have experienced four or five serious recessions in their careers.

The fact in the minds of many, it seems to be clear, is that nowhere in Irish construction does evidence exist

that would support the (Maslow, 1943) hierarchy of needs. Nobody it would appear, from conversation,

expect self-actualisation, belongingness, esteem or security of psychological need satisfaction.

The original work in (Maslow, 1943) cannot be considered the very good lens through which to view

construction enterprise. The fact is though, I am only making a straw man out of Abraham Maslow, which is

too easy to knock down.

(Cutcher-Gershenfeld, 2006), in in writing commentary updates to the original classic work (McGregor,

1960), states that in later years Abraham Maslow continued to work on leading edge research into behaviour

and motivation. (Cutcher-Gershenfeld, 2006) highlights one citation contained in (Senge, 1990), of a report

by Abraham Maslow about the key individual in a high-performance team.

17In the years, 2009 and 2010 in Ireland, I saw my last four employers go into bankruptcy and a firth one left

the country permanently. The rising tide of demand for construction services that lifted so many boatsreceded out and never came back.


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The task was no longer separate from the self . . . but rather he identified with his task so

strongly that you couldnt define his real self without including the task. (Cutcher-

Gershenfeld, 2006)

There are large segments of construction professionals, who only remain viable in this enterprise because

they are not the primary bread winner for their family. Data will never be compiled, to confirm or deny this

assertion, because construction professionals are proud individuals.

When we did experience in Ireland a huge ramp up in volumes of production in the construction industry few

had the scale of company needed to partake in design or engineering of larger projects. There a conscious

decision on the parts of many construction professionals in Ireland, not to become involved in large scale

projects.

There is a strategic management decision made to not undertake the risk of large budget projects but

instead to remain small, less risky and a lot more sustainable. This motivation seems perfectly

understandable and rational, given the nature of the industry.

None of the above, can bring a scholar closer to an understanding why, the faculties for construction

professions in Ireland are full of students who wish to take this career path. We have no convincing

explanation of what motivates these young Irish people except total naivety and innocence.

In the chapter above on leadership theory, I referenced the teachings of computer science pioneer and

innovator, Alan Kay. I will return briefly to Kay now, because he has something interesting to say about

motivation that is also relevant to the construction industry.

Since 2001, Kay has been involved with a research institute that is focusses on the study of education

techniques for children; ways to learn and teach in the modern world (VPRI, 2001). Listening to (Kay, 2003)

deliver a lecture one can sense a deep understanding about psychological and human behaviour.

The incredible disparity between the number of human beings who are basically

instrumental reasoners, and those who are basically interested in ideas. This has been

studied in a variety of different ways. It seems that we normal human beings are basically

instrumental reason-ers. The instrumental reason-er is a person who judges any new tool or

idea, by how well that tool or idea contributes to his or her current goal.

Most of us are very goal oriented. We are working on things. Somebody comes up with

something new. Our ability to accept it or reject it, if we are instrumental reason-ers

depends on whether we can see it contributing to our current goal. But the other five percent


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are primarily motivated by ideas. So when a new idea comes along, that appeals to them,

they will transform themselves and their goals in the presence of that idea. (Kay, 2003)

The construction industry in Ireland (or in any other country), I believe is a representation of the 95% to 5%

ratio that (Kay, 2003) refers to. Much in the construction industry does depend on that five percent. Namely,

architects and talented engineers who are motivated by the ideas that they encounter in their professional

life. Their motivation, I think, is different from that of the majority in the construction industry.

Many of the architects and most talented engineers I have known to date, will willingly transform themselves

and their goals in the presence of a great new idea.18

M c C l e l l a n d s T h e o r y o f N e e d s .

Achievement motivation is a non-conscious concern for personal involvement in competition

against some standard of excellence and unique accomplishment. (McClelland, 1985)

The acquired-needs theory published in (McClelland D. C., 1961), explains the behaviour of individuals in the

construction industry a lot better than Maslows theory ever could. (McClelland D. C., 1961), said that three

types of needs achievement, power or authority and affiliation are needs that individual acquires overtime, based on life experiences and challenges that they may encounter. The person (McClelland D. C.,

1961), would claim is moulded significantly by their experience in the world.

What is remarkable about (McClelland D. C., 1961), and which in the opinion of this paper sets it apart from

(Maslow, 1943), is a possibility that one may satisfy all of the needs described in (McClelland D. C., 1961),

without having to satisfy all of the needs expressed by (Maslow, 1943).

That is, (McClelland D. C., 1961), can describe the individual in the construction industry who make achieve

remarkable things in their lifetime, but still fail to meet their basic need of making an acceptable, long term,

financial income.

In (McClelland D. C., 1961), (McClelland & Burnham, 1976), there is ample scope to define many of the true

motivations present in individuals who work in Irish construction. The affiliation motive is present to the large

degree, and always has been, in those individuals involved at the implementation and execution stages of

construction projects.

18The same is true of many of those men and women I worked with in the development industry.


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Quantity Surveyors as professionals in the construction industry are markedly different to architects or

engineers. Quantity Surveyors by the very nature of their task, must expend effort in dealing with the

construction and assembly crews deeper and further than the Main Contractor.

The tendency in traditional contracts and procurement systems in construction is for the Architect or

Engineer to be cut off in terms of personal access at the level of the Main Contractor representatives. But it is

exceedingly possible that Quantity Surveyors through me

Management Practice v 01

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