AS 2013 Volume 20 Issue 1

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http://hdl.handle.net/11660/2498

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    Post-occupancy evaluation of office buildings in a Johannesburg country club estate
    (University of the Free State, 2013) Emuze, Fidelis; Mashili, Humbulani; Botha, Brink
    English: The purpose of this article is to present the findings of a research project aimed at determining the level of satisfaction of building occupants in terms of Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) and the effect of IEQ on both the morale and the productivity of the employees working in the complex. The main findings were derived from the perceptions of the employees working in a Country Club Estate (CCE) in Johannesburg, South Africa. The questions asked addressed how poor air quality, lack of access to daylight, unpleasant acoustic conditions, and control over lighting and thermal comfort caused dissatisfaction with the buildings’ IEQ. The data were collected during August and September 2012. Questionnaires were sent to ten office blocks within the CCE complex. A total number of 126 questionnaires were sent out and 102 replies were received. Observations from the data led to the view that the satisfactory level of IEQ awareness is low among the occupants and that the employees have limited control over issues such as air ventilation, artificial lighting and noise in their offices. Organisational structure needs to be formed that will enlighten occupants about factors that contribute to poor indoor air quality (IAQ). Organisational procedures also point to the fact that the level of IEQ is low. The inconsistent ratings that were recorded suggest that there appears to be a major scope for addressing post-occupancy evaluation (POE)-related matters in the complex.
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    Implementation of Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment in construction: a South African metropolitan area study
    (University of the Free State, 2013) Emuze, Fidelis; Adlam, Ruan
    English: The institution of Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) has had an impact on the economy in South Africa. Due to its extensive reliance on government procurement, BBBEE has had a substantial influence on the construction industry in terms of transformation imperatives. Although much has been achieved in the transformation of the sector, its empowerment initiatives are generally deemed to be less effective. This argument can be attributed to the impediments encountered by industry stakeholders, when implementing BBBEE. The central subject examined in this study pertains to the BBBEE implementation challenges in South African construction. In order to get to the depth of the identified issues in the reviewed literature, the qualitative method was employed for primary data collection. Eleven interviews were conducted with management representatives of major construction firms in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolis, through the use of a brief questionnaire and an interview protocol. The empirical findings that emanated from the study show that most of the respondents were aware of the challenges associated with BBBEE implementation in the construction sector. However, very few are presently addressing the difficulties. This lack of action frequently promotes the exploitation of BBBEE by concerned parties. This exploitation leads to unethical procurement practices in the form of ‘fronting’. Based on the literature reviewed and the data that were collected, it appears that deterrents must be addressed before the implementation of the BBBEE initiative can begin to yield the desired benefits for all concerned parties in South African construction.
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    Exploring communication challenges due to language and cultural diversity on South African construction sites
    (University of the Free State, 2013) Emuze, Fidelis; James, Matthew
    English: Communication can be traced to, among others, an individual’s language and cultural background. These aspects play a fundamental role in ensuring effective communication. Literature surveys show that language and culture have contributed to ineffective communication, giving rise to a wide range of problems in the construction industry. These problems include an increase in rework and poor product quality, and low employee morale. Given the multicultural environment in which construction activities occur in South Africa, communication can potentially dictate the extent of project performance. In order to explore the impact of this phenomenon, a survey was undertaken among general workers and site managers employed by five general contractors (GCs) in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Salient findings include that communication problems occur on construction sites due to language and cultural diversity-related barriers; site managers are generally effective at communicating; the South African workforce is diversely cultured, which potentially leads to misunderstandings on sites, and language barriers between site management and site workers impede performance improvement.
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    Investigating the use of Automated Valuation Models (AVMs) in the South African commercial property market
    (University of the Free State, 2013) Boshoff, Douw; De Kock, Leane
    English: The adoption of Automated Valuation Models (AVMs) in the field of property valuation is a trend, considered controversial and not readily accepted by the valuation profession. The aim of the article is to report on a study conducted in an attempt to determine whether the commercial property sector in South Africa is ready to accept and adopt or reject AVMs and to investigate the possibility of AVMs replacing professional valuation services for commercial property valuations. Limited research was available both nationally and internationally on commercial property AVMs. It was found that AVMs utilised for the valuation of commercial property are still in the development phase and cannot be considered feasible as yet. The major concerning factor is that commercial property markets are heterogeneous. AVMs offer various advantages over traditional methods, but there are also some disadvantages, which were identified in the study. Structured interviews were conducted to determine the opinions and sentiments of commercial property professionals towards commercial property AVMs. As no AVM system exists for commercial property in South Africa, no factual opinion or experience was obtained. The general attitudes towards AVMS were negative and a small percentage of respondents indicated that there may be future potential. AVMs were also regarded as a threat to the valuation profession. It was established that there is scope for commercial property AVMS, however, on a limited basis, and the results could be improved by combining these with traditional valuation techniques. Commercial property AVMs will never replace traditional valuations and can be implemented as a useful tool for verification and auditing of values.
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    Organisational culture of the South African construction industry
    (University of the Free State, 2013) Harinarain, Nishani; Bornman, Christina-Louise; Botha, Mandie
    English: Constant change and globalisation of the construction industry has prompted an international query into the understanding of organisations’ culture, highlighting its impact on effectiveness and performance. Assessment of the likely culture type of the South African construction industry has been conducted. The aim of this article is to investigate the organisational culture of the South African construction industry by utilising the Competing Values Framework, with its measurement scale, the Organisational Culture Assessment Instrument. This model will identify the industry as either one of the following dominant cultures, namely the clan, adhocracy, market or hierarchy. The systematic sampling method was used and every third participant from a list of quantity surveyors and contractors was selected for the sample group. Each participant was emailed a standard questionnaire. From a sample of 235 quantity-surveying firms a total of 39 valid responses were received. From the 270 contractors that were emailed, 32 valid responses were received. The results revealed the market culture to be the predominant organisational culture in the South African construction industry, followed by the clan, hierarchy and, lastly, the adhocracy cultures. Understanding of their own and other firms’ organisational culture could reduce conflict and misunderstanding between stakeholders, and enable managers to make business decisions that could improve competitiveness and create a more harmonious working environment.
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    Health and safety management practices in small and medium enterprises in the South African construction industry
    (University of the Free State, 2013) Agumba, Justus; Pretorius, Jan Harm; Haupt, Theo
    English: Considering its share in, and impact on national economies, the construction industry receives additional attention in terms of its performance and productivity, especially among small and medium contractors. However, with the extensive workforce it employs, health and safety (H&S) issues have become important, since the industry still has the reputation of being one of those with the highest fatality and accident rates. It has been well established from literature and previous studies (Fernandez-Muniz, Montes-Peon & Vazquez- Ordas, 2007: 636; Rajendran & Gambatese, 2009: 1072) that managing H&S helps to ensure that construction organisations are achieving their H&S objectives. As such, H&S management practices constitute a vehicle to improve H&S performance. Given the dominance of small and medium contractors in the construction sector, the challenge is to determine what needs to be measured and practised by these Small and Medium Construction Enterprises (SMCEs) at project level. The objective of this article is to validate the H&S practices that small and medium construction enterprises practise in order to improve H&S performance at project level. A descriptive survey was done and data collected using a structured questionnaire consisting of 31 practices. These practices were categorised in terms of five elements developed from an extensive review of literature and the participation of 20 H&S experts, 16 of whom completed all four iterations of the Delphi survey. A convenience sample of 1.450 SMCEs was used to gather data. A total of 228 questionnaires were returned, of which 216 responses were usable for analysis. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 was used to determine the convergent validity and the reliability of the proposed H&S practices. Furthermore, the respondents’ perception on H&S practices was also determined. The five elements, namely upper management commitment and involvement in H&S, employee involvement and empowerment in H&S, project supervision, project H&S planning and communication in H&S, as well as H&S resources and training were considered key factors of H&S for SMCEs at project level. However, employee involvement and empowerment in H&S was the least rated H&S attribute within the SMCEs. It was, therefore, recommended that employees needed to be engaged in H&S at the project level of SMCEs.
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    Die volwassenheid van die bourekenaar se kontraktuele kommunikasievermoë
    (University of the Free State, 2013) Berry, Frank; Verster, Basie
    English: The aim of this article is to identify principles that support the quantity surveyor to communicate effectively in contractual communication and measure these principles to determine the maturity standard of the quantity surveyor’s quantity surveying contractual communication. This article forms part of a more comprehensive study on quantity surveying communication in the construction industry, and aspects such as oral, written, electronic and leadership communication have been addressed elsewhere. The survey was conducted among practising quantity surveyors, architects, engineers, clients and contractors chosen from all 9 provinces of South Africa. The questionnaire was distributed to, and returned by respondents in 2010. The questionnaire was circulated by means of e-mail for the purpose of measuring the principles that support the quantity surveyor to communicate effectively in contractual communication according to the quantity surveying standard vs the worldclass standard. The results of the survey indicated that respondents identified the following principles as important in contractual communication maturity measured against quantity surveying standard: contractual binding, reasonableness, effectiveness/enforceability and unambiguousness, where contractual binding showed the most positive and unambiguousness the least positive valuation result.