IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/conmgt/v16y1998i5p521-530.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Construction workers in developing countries: a case study of Sri Lanka

Author

Listed:
  • A. K. W. Jayawardane
  • N. D. Gunawardena

Abstract

This paper addresses human resource development (HRD) issues in the Sri Lankan construction industry. It reports an analysis of the occupational structure and characteristics of the construction work force as an aid to meeting the challenges of maintaining a skilled craft work force. Information was collected through on-site structured interview surveys of 3300 construction workers and a questionnaire survey of contractors, consultants and clients which included 56 organizations. Results indicate that the work force consists of 51% unskilled workers, 33% masons, 10% carpenters and 1-2% each of plumbers, bar benders, painters and electricians. The highest percentage of skilled workers is aged 30-39 years. Approximately 80% of the work force is casually employed, only 40% is fully utilized and 86% of the skilled work force have received informal training only. More than 20% of the work force is dissatisfied due to low income, lack of job security and difficulty in finding regular work. Comparing HRD practices to those in the USA and the UK indicates that Sri Lanka needs to adopt a more structured approach, including a more formal training system and proper grading of the skilled work force.

Suggested Citation

  • A. K. W. Jayawardane & N. D. Gunawardena, 1998. "Construction workers in developing countries: a case study of Sri Lanka," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(5), pages 521-530.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:conmgt:v:16:y:1998:i:5:p:521-530
    DOI: 10.1080/014461998372060
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/014461998372060
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/014461998372060?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sivaguru Ganesan & John Kelsey, 2006. "Technology transfer: international collaboration in Sri Lanka," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(7), pages 743-753.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:conmgt:v:16:y:1998:i:5:p:521-530. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RCME20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.