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Problems and Problem Attention in the Construction Sector – Understanding the Influence of Human Factors.

Sunding, Lars LU and Ekholm, Anders LU (2014) In Australasian Journal of Construction Economics and Building 14(2). p.1-17
Abstract
Problems concerning quality and productivity in the construction sector have been a recurrent issue for many years and seem to remain in spite of various initiatives for resolving them. This situation is a result of human action. From social sciences we know that psychological factors crucially influence action design. Knowledge of this influence seems however to be underestimated in the construction sector, and could represent a missing link between strategies, plans and instructions, and the actions carried out.



In order to prospect for new problem solving approaches we undertook a questionnaire-based survey to investigate how individuals in the sector perceive the importance and occurrence of, and attention directed... (More)
Problems concerning quality and productivity in the construction sector have been a recurrent issue for many years and seem to remain in spite of various initiatives for resolving them. This situation is a result of human action. From social sciences we know that psychological factors crucially influence action design. Knowledge of this influence seems however to be underestimated in the construction sector, and could represent a missing link between strategies, plans and instructions, and the actions carried out.



In order to prospect for new problem solving approaches we undertook a questionnaire-based survey to investigate how individuals in the sector perceive the importance and occurrence of, and attention directed to, different proposed causes of inadequate performance. The design of the questionnaire enabled comparisons of different answers to look beyond the respondents’ overt answers.



The result suggests that (1) the whole problem solving situation, including individual, relational and contextual problem components should be addressed as ‘the problem’; (2) the workforce has the ambition and courage to do what is expected but does not always have adequate information and the ability or resources to do it; (3) mental information distortion might be responsible for affecting the way the world is understood. (Less)
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author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Australasian Journal of Construction Economics and Building
volume
14
issue
2
pages
1 - 17
publisher
UTS Publishing
external identifiers
  • scopus:84903385958
ISSN
1837-9133
DOI
10.5130/AJCEB.v14i2.3925
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
1f4417c9-07bf-400a-b1c8-f55506965211 (old id 8676297)
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 13:04:31
date last changed
2022-03-23 19:25:15
@article{1f4417c9-07bf-400a-b1c8-f55506965211,
  abstract     = {{Problems concerning quality and productivity in the construction sector have been a recurrent issue for many years and seem to remain in spite of various initiatives for resolving them. This situation is a result of human action. From social sciences we know that psychological factors crucially influence action design. Knowledge of this influence seems however to be underestimated in the construction sector, and could represent a missing link between strategies, plans and instructions, and the actions carried out.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
In order to prospect for new problem solving approaches we undertook a questionnaire-based survey to investigate how individuals in the sector perceive the importance and occurrence of, and attention directed to, different proposed causes of inadequate performance. The design of the questionnaire enabled comparisons of different answers to look beyond the respondents’ overt answers. <br/><br>
<br/><br>
The result suggests that (1) the whole problem solving situation, including individual, relational and contextual problem components should be addressed as ‘the problem’; (2) the workforce has the ambition and courage to do what is expected but does not always have adequate information and the ability or resources to do it; (3) mental information distortion might be responsible for affecting the way the world is understood.}},
  author       = {{Sunding, Lars and Ekholm, Anders}},
  issn         = {{1837-9133}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{2}},
  pages        = {{1--17}},
  publisher    = {{UTS Publishing}},
  series       = {{Australasian Journal of Construction Economics and Building}},
  title        = {{Problems and Problem Attention in the Construction Sector – Understanding the Influence of Human Factors.}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/AJCEB.v14i2.3925}},
  doi          = {{10.5130/AJCEB.v14i2.3925}},
  volume       = {{14}},
  year         = {{2014}},
}