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Assessment of Human Productivity Drivers for Construction Labor through Importance Rating and Risk Mapping

Author

Listed:
  • Murat Gunduz

    (Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering, Qatar University, Doha 2713, Qatar)

  • Abdulrahman Abu-Hijleh

    (Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering, Qatar University, Doha 2713, Qatar)

Abstract

Labor constitutes a significant portion of the overall cost of a construction project, where labor productivity is often the main driver of the cost. Although studies on labor productivity factors exist, their frequency of occurrence in terms of their ranking remains unexplored. This study differs from other studies in the literature by introducing the frequency component to the productivity factors, a more realistic ranking of the factors by adjusting the importance by frequency (frequency adjusted importance index) and risk mapping of the factors. Moreover, this study is the first to apply risk mapping on labor productivity drivers. The aim of this paper is to identify the project factors affecting the labor productivity in construction projects and to rank these factors considering the perception of the industry on project performance. A literature review of past relevant studies was performed to identify and draft a list of factors affecting labor productivity in construction projects. Thirty-seven labor productivity factors were presented in a questionnaire to investigate the impact and frequency of their occurrence in construction projects. A 9-point scale structured questionnaire was constructed to measure the importance and the frequency of the factors and to evaluate the ranking for different categories. The frequency adjusted importance index (FAII), Spearman’s rank correlation, and risk mapping were used to study and analyze the 105 completed responses. The participants rated the following factors as the five most significant labor productivity-influencing factors: (1) poor labor supervision, (2) delays in payments, (3) poor work environment, (4) lowly skilled labor, and (5) bad weather conditions.

Suggested Citation

  • Murat Gunduz & Abdulrahman Abu-Hijleh, 2020. "Assessment of Human Productivity Drivers for Construction Labor through Importance Rating and Risk Mapping," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-18, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:20:p:8614-:d:430614
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Mensah, Jones Odei & Alagidede, Paul, 2017. "How are Africa's emerging stock markets related to advanced markets? Evidence from copulas," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 1-10.
    2. Abdullah Rasheed Alhajri & Adel Alshibani, 2018. "Critical Factors behind Construction Delay in Petrochemical Projects in Saudi Arabia," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-18, June.
    3. David Arditi & Krishna Mochtar, 2000. "Trends in productivity improvement in the US construction industry," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 15-27.
    4. Parviz Ghoddousi & Omid Poorafshar & Nicholas Chileshe & M. Reza Hosseini, 2015. "Labour productivity in Iranian construction projects," International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 64(6), pages 811-830, July.
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    Cited by:

    1. Jaroslav Vrchota & Petr Řehoř & Monika Maříková & Martin Pech, 2020. "Critical Success Factors of the Project Management in Relation to Industry 4.0 for Sustainability of Projects," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-19, December.
    2. Kleopatra Petroutsatou & Ilias Ladopoulos & Konstantina Tsakelidou, 2022. "Scientometric Analysis and AHP for Hierarchizing Criteria Affecting Construction Equipment Operators’ Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-24, June.

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