Engineers in construction and manufacturing are expected to be able to work with and lead diverse, multidisciplinary teams. Engineering students entering the workforce must be not only technically competent, but also possess skills in working with other people. These traits are frequently lacking with newly graduated engineering students due to the highly technical focus of their curriculum. The opportunity to develop Emotional Intelligence skills is limited. This research proposed that Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) undergraduate students may possess a higher level of Emotional Intelligence than Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) undergraduate students. The research also proposed that if differences were observed, that causal influences could be identified. Undergraduate engineering students at The Citadel completed The TalentSmart Emotional Intelligence Appraisal® along with demographic data and a variety of questions regarding their undergraduate experience. This research included freshman and senior students in Civil and Environmental (CEE) and Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at The Citadel. These surveys suggested that undergraduate engineering students increase their EI score as they advance from Freshman to Senior year. The surveys also suggest that Electrical and ComputerEngineering (ECE) Majors do not advance in their EI scores from Freshman to Senior year as well as Civil and Environmental (CEE) majors. A positive connection was established between work experience and the impact on higher levels of EI. A positive correlation for growth in EI score was also demonstrated for students who attended high schools with smaller graduating classes. Based on the results of this research, the paper proposes CEE and ECE faculty place increased emphasis on encouraging students to pursue summer jobs, internships, and similar extracurricular programs. Both CEE and ECE faculty should evaluate their curriculum with an eye towards inculcating learning opportunities for EI into course work. Additionally, faculty and admission officials should give at least equal consideration to admitting students who graduate from smaller schools that may offer less college prep courses that may appeal to admissions officials.

Turnover rates in construction are high and must be slowed to meet the needs of an expanding and evolving industry. Therefore, it is critical to understand what makes construction professionals continue their employment in a company and persist in the field. This exploratory study examined the work values that influenced construction professionals’ decisions to seek employment at a company (i.e., values influencing recruitment) with the work values they perceived as lacking within the company (i.e., values influencing retention). Qualitative analysis of open-ended survey responses from 314 construction professionals identified three salient work values for improving recruitment: (1) development, (2) autonomy, and (3) belonging; and three values for retention: (4) advancement, (5) inclusivity, and (6) flexibility. Two actions that companies can exercise to support these values were also identified: (1) communicating and demonstrating a commitment to building people as they build work such as promoting modus operandi, trust and practice, and personification, and (2) building an employee-centered structure for communication, empowerment, and acknowledgment that is not stifling to employees. These findings point to a larger implication for construction companies’ recruitment and retention efforts to build employees as active agents in navigating their career paths at a company.

Shared Mental Models (SMM) is a well- established concept in cognitive psychology with strong links to team performance. Despite the extensive body of research in this area, the literature still presents varied perspectives and definitions for the SMM construct. Also, SMM empirical studies are limited to mostly the investigations of small disciplinary teams and are underutilized for inter- organizational project teams, such as those in the Architecture Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry. This study presents a detailed review of SMM literature resulting in a comprehensive framework and discusses the implications of SMM on AEC project teams, making a case for integrated project delivery. The study contributes to the body of knowledge by providing a theoretical lens of SMM through which to analyze the AEC literature related to project delivery processes.

An appropriate project delivery system is a key means for the owner to create preconditions for successful realisation of a project. The decision to use a certain system is likely the result of considering numerous factors since project owners and projects have divergent objectives and constraints. Market situation is one constraint, which can be expected to impact the relative capacities of project delivery systems to meet critical project objectives. There is, however, little research on that impact and existing project delivery system selection tools seem to ignore it. To correct that shortcoming, this study focusses on the impact of market cycles on the expected preference for and use of various project delivery systems. Literature and expert interviews were utilised to generate understanding, which was then tested against market practice, based on extensive data on new building construction projects extending over a period of a quarter century. Shares of different project delivery systems were examined in relation to market situation separately for different building types. The method involved calculation of partial correlations, which eliminate the impact of intervening variables that complicate the relationship between the shares and the market situation. Changes in the use of different project delivery systems over time were also examined. The results indicate that market situation is not a determinant. Yet, for instance, Construction Management methods become more advantageous as the market outlook improves. The traditional Comprehensive Contract (Design- Bid- Build), again, assumes a larger role as market trends weaken although a heated market is likely to make some of its users adopt the Separate Contracts method. Moreover, the study indicates that there has been a minor move towards increased use of Design- Build during the long period of examination.

Infrastructure megaprojects can cause considerable inconvenience to external stakeholders such as project communities, stakeholders in lands and stakeholders in existing services. Managing these external stakeholders is difficult as they interact with the project across permeable boundaries, are unaccountable to the requirements of the project and cannot be governed with contractual instruments or conformance to standards, as is the case with internal stakeholders. Hence the project team must resort to other strategies to manage these stakeholders. There is at present little other than scattered accounts of the use of these strategies in the literature. What is missing is a framework to explain how such strategies work to manage external stakeholders. We use organizational power theories drawn from frameworks stressing both the dimensions and the circuits of power to understand how strategy and power interact in the process of managing external stakeholders. This research uses the case study of a metro rail project in India compiled from 30 semi- structured interviews, 168 news media articles along with their 446 user comments, and 640 social media tweets along with 435 community comments. Using a qualitative research methodology, we highlight relations of persuading, framing and hegemonizing strategies employed for managing the external stakeholders in the project. Covert power- based framing and hegemonizing strategies shape the visible overt power- based persuading strategies employed to manage external stakeholders.

Managing the post-award phase of a PPP project is critical with respect to realizing the project’s intended benefits to society at large. The impact of institutional contexts as well as strategic action by project organizations on post-award project performance have often been studied individually. However, a comprehensive framework that combines these categories, identifies specific factors within each category, as well as outcomes relevant to the post-award phase of PPP projects is missing. This study attempts to develop such a framework through content analysis of 354 peer-reviewed journal articles. The developed framework was then refined and validated using a three round personal interview based Delphi process. In doing so, the study identifies 19 critical dimensions pertaining to institutional environments and project characteristics, and 13 different strategic mechanisms that can impact outcomes in the post-award phase of PPP projects. Further, 7 outcome dimensions - financial sustainability, adaptability, legitimacy, the extent of restructuring, sustained performance, conformance to budget and conformance to schedule - are identified and conceptualized as a seven-dimensional vector that can be taken together to assess post-award project performance. The paper concludes by discussing ways by which this framework can be used to assess and predict the outcomes of PPPs post award, and attempts to contribute to our understanding of how PPPs can be successfully designed for ease of governance across their lifecycle.

This study aimed at identifying competency components of project managers of small to medium-sized firms in the Palestinian construction industry and ranking them according to their degree of importance. A postal questionnaire survey was administered to 150 construction companies in Nablus, Tulkarm, and Jenin, which are located in the West Bank. A total of 109 questionnaires were returned, and the response rate was 73 percent. The respondents were project managers. The study identified four competence dimensions, namely, knowledge competence, functional competence, personal/behavior competence, and value/ethical competence. Each dimension is measured by several constituents. Knowledge dimension includes technical knowledge, management knowledge, general knowledge, communication knowledge, computer knowledge, financial knowledge, and legal knowledge constituents. Functional competence dimension includes seven constituents, namely, organizing project initiations, developing a project plan, managing human resource functions, managing project quality health safety and environment, managing design development and contract administration, tracking and controlling system, and administering project close out. Personal competence dimension has two constituents, namely, social-vocational and intraprofessional. Values/ethical competence dimension consists of two constituents, namely, personal values and professional values. Thus, personal competence is in the top ranking followed by functional competence, knowledge competence, and values competence. Finally, a mixture of knowledge, functional, personal, and values competences must be considered to produce a competent project manager in the Palestinian construction industry. This study recommends that the Palestinian Contractors Union and the Palestinian Engineers Association improve the competencies of their members by conducting continuous and up to date construction management training programs by targeting competencies included in this research.

Large engineering projects such as urban development projects that are organised as public–private partnerships (PPPs) often encounter critical problems that directly affect the partnerships. Literature indicates that characteristics specific to PPPs contribute to these critical problems becoming dysfunctional conflicts. Consequently, objectives are no longer met and projects suffer. This study identified interventions that prevent these dysfunctional conflicts. In the literature, no interventions at an operational level that are suitable for use ‘at the negotiating table’ and are also applicable for urban development PPP projects were found. Hence, based on a review of literature on interventions, a perspective for action was developed on interventions that are likely to succeed. Subsequently, in a study of 10 cases of urban development PPP projects, these (and other) interventions were found. All interventions can be categorised under economic feasibility or social relationship. We conclude that dysfunctional conflicts in urban development PPP projects can be prevented by managing economic feasibility and social relationships. Under certain conditions, this also seems applicable to other PPPs.

The dynamic interactions between stakeholders from diverse backgrounds with interest in green building have led to the emergence of various collective groups of actors promoting different Building ...