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Item Open Access Volhoubare fasiliteitsbestuur in winkelsentrums in Pretoria(University of the Free State, 2017) Van der Merwe, Jaco; Kleynhans, Bouwer; Cloete, ChrisAlthough sustainable facility management is increasingly gaining recognition in developing countries and is implemented in new buildings, in particular, hardly any information is available regarding sustainable practices in facility management that are applied locally in South Africa, and particularly in Pretoria. In this article, five key areas for sustainable facility management in shopping centres are investigated, namely energy consumption, water consumption, materials and resource management, internal environment quality management, and location management. This study also established which sustainable facility management strategies and methods are currently being applied and what perceptions property managers in shopping centres in Pretoria have regarding sustainable facility management. Questionnaires and one-on-one interviews with property managers and centre managers and owners were employed to obtain qualitative information such as the perceptions and knowledge of the respondents, as well as quantitative information such as quantities and percentages. The sample and data collected for the study are limited to shopping malls in Pretoria with a commercial area of 10 000m² or more, which yielded a total of 69 shopping centres. Completed questionnaires were returned by approximately a quarter of the total sample population, representing a lettable area of 765 835m2 and 1 663 stores. Nearly 90% of the respondents indicated that the ‘property’ management function is done internally, compared with over 94% that internally manage the ‘facility’ management function. It was found that sustainable facility management practices are being applied in shopping centres in Pretoria, but that there is a clear preference for widely applied practices that lead to financial savings. Practices that contribute to social and environmental objectives are applied to a much lesser extent, due to the perception that such practices do not result in financial savings or contribute to the management of the centres and are, therefore, regarded as less important.Item Open Access An investigation into cost overruns for ongoing building projects in Abuja, Nigeria(University of the Free State, 2017) Saidu, Ibrahim; Shakantu, WinstonThe total amount of cost overruns for any construction project can be fully determined once the project is completed. Estimating the amount of cost overruns at different stages of ongoing construction projects is important for project success. There is, however, a dearth of research for this exercise. This article reports the results of an investigative study on cost overruns for ongoing building projects in Abuja. The quantitative technique was adopted in this study. The investigation included ongoing building-construction projects within Abuja, from which a sample of 30 building projects (public and private) was purposively selected (project value of ZAR100 million and above). The data were sourced from the archival records (drawings, bills of quantities, project progress reports, and specifications) on the issues relating to the costs and duration of building projects. The data were analysed using descriptive (percentages) and inferential methods. The results revealed that the percentage of cost overruns ranged from a minimum of 5.56% with 90% project completion, and within 88% of the estimated time limit, to a maximum of 216.08% with merely 5% project completion, and within 8.3% of the estimated time limit. The entire projects had average cost overruns of 44.46%, with an average project completion of 52.4%, and within 91.4% of the average estimated time limit. Based on these findings, it can be concluded that continuous investigation into, and analyses of cost overruns at stages of building projects would encourage professionals to apply the best mitigation measures, in order to achieve a significant reduction in the total cost overrun at the completion of a project. Construction professionals should be well informed of these consequences (cost overruns) at an early stage, in order to evaluate the extent to which these consequences could be minimised.Item Open Access A sequential mixed methods research approach to investigating HIV/AIDS intervention management by construction organisations in South Africa(University of the Free State, 2017) Gilbert, Guinevere; Cattell, Keith; Edwards, Peter; Bowen, PaulSequential mixed methods research is an effective approach for investigating complex problems, but it has not been extensively used in construction management research. In South Africa, the HIV/AIDS pandemic has seen construction management taking on a vital responsibility since the government called upon the private sector to play a greater part in combating HIV/AIDS. However, the South African construction industry has been slow in responding to this call, and many organisations are not fully aware of what such involvement might mean. A sequential mixed methods research approach was used to investigate this problem. As the research is ongoing, it is described in this article as a research journey; the findings of each stage have determined the best method for the next. Findings of each stage are not presented in detail, since the main purpose of this article is to show the effectiveness of the research method. The approach commenced with a quantitative survey to establish base-line information. Semi-structured interviews then yielded richer qualitative data before quantitative datasets were revisited to exploit their potential for more complex analysis and modelling. Findings to date show that corporate knowledge about HIV/AIDS is inconsistent, that intervention management may miss the population most affected, and that the stigma of being HIV+ is a major barrier that frequently prevents disclosure and thus misses the benefits that employer organisations can bring. The construction industry needs to find better ways to promote disclosure and minimise stigmatisation. The applied example shows that the adoption of sequential mixed methods has responded to individual stage data needs and provided essential flexibility for the research. It is an effective approach where end outcomes are not sufficiently clear at the outset of the research.Item Open Access Ownership and care in culturally significant architecture: three case studies(University of the Free State, 2017) Bosman, GerhardPublic buildings are not permanent, but at most durable and robust enough to outlast a few generations. Earth-constructed buildings, as soft architecture used for public buildings, need more care and maintenance than buildings in brick, stone, concrete and steel. The ownership and care of private and public buildings reflect social attitudes and sustainable means. The attitudes towards the durability and technical performance of building materials can lead to the rejection of earth architecture, due to the high maintenance required. Negative attitudes discourage the use of traditional earth-constructed buildings in Africa. Case studies show the ownership and care in maintenance as temporal reflectors of the communal well-being. This care or no care becomes a celebration or rejection of the built environment. The argument is that, without ownership, public buildings constructed in conventional building materials can deteriorate faster than well-accepted maintained earth-constructed buildings of cultural significance. This phenomenon should be considered if public buildings are built in contemporary earth construction.Item Open Access Characteristics of the safety climate in teams with world-class safety performance on construction projects in South Africa(University of the Free State, 2017) Boshoff, Douw; Krugell, Chris; Van Heerden, HennieAccidents and incidents in the construction environment are not reduced or eliminated effectively, despite numerous efforts made to improve health and safety in the industry. An extensive field of research has been conducted on how teams in the construction environment interact to deliver a project successfully in terms of cost, quality and time. Previous research exists on how team dynamics interface with safety, but is found to be of different focus or markets than this study. This study aims to determine the characteristics of the safety climate that exists in construction teams in South Africa in terms of world-class safety performance, when compared to teams with poor safety performance. An adaptation of the modified safety pyramid (Zohar, 2010) provides a useful conceptual model to investigate the link between safety performance and safety climate related to construction teams. By combining observations from literature and predominantly adapting the Safety Climate Questionnaire (SCQ), a number of directly measurable factors are identified that can be correlated with safety performance and utilised in this investigation to identify the unique characteristics of safety climate in construction teams with world-class safety performance. The characteristics of the safety climate in construction teams were divided into eight groups, namely work pressure, incident investigation, adequacy of procedures, communication and training, relationships, personal protective equipment, spares, and safety. The framework developed in previous studies is used for assessing the responses of safety users to that of safety performance observations. It is found that relationships within an organisation are a major contributory factor in safety performance, but also the way in which the safety climate is enforced in an inclusive management style through proper procedure, training and communication. This also supports the results of Cohen (1977).