Part 6, Advanced Civil Construction

台科大高等土木施工學教材(2023) 

MT KAO (Blog: http://mtkaoforum31.blogspot.tw/)

(mtkaoforum31@gmail.com)

7. Resource Required for Project Implementation

1) Man

a. Power to drive Individuals and Organizations to achieve Business Goal:

- Nature of Power 

Man loves power. Unlike animal content with existence and reproduction; human desires are essentially boundless and incapable of complete satisfaction.

A large proportion of the human race is obliged to work so hard in obtaining necessaries that little energy is left over for other purposes; but those whose livelihood is assured do not cease to be active, they look to power and glory. So young people start to drift in the world will wonder why the needs of obtaining the two become imperative for those have something.

The easiest way to obtain glory is to obtain power; this is especially the case as regard the men who are active in relation to public events. The desire for glory, prompts the same actions by the desire for power, and the two motives may be regarded as one.

Power exhibits in many forms, such as wealth, civil authority, and influence on opinion. No one of these can be regarded as subordinate to any other, and there is no one form from which the others are derivative.

- Organization

Among the phenomena featuring construction industry, "Man" is most relevant.  Because people can't be alone to work out big and complicated structure and buildings, they have to be molded into "organizations", to synchronize different expertise and sized up strength, then are capable of serving the society as a meaningful member of construction industry.

To make them functional and contributive, organizations need to be given goals, compatible resource, and rules for participants accepting rewards and punishments as inducements. So, there must be leader(s), hierarchy, and systems in an organization. It means engineers won't be immune from influence of power maneuver, only that an innocent engineering freshman may hesitate to touch.

- Leaders

However, in an organization where technology and experience are crucial to success, naked power manifested on the leader assigned through investment, heritance or tradition without assent of the follow members will have to share power with doyens of superior skill and knowledge for their cooperation. It's the same that commercial people will get their part of power when profitability is major concern. 

When the organizations become big and complicated, power from creeds and over opinions of public will be another origin. As a result, the leaders or candidates for them will be restrained for the power, and the organizations' behavior will have to be institutionalized. 

So, the entire system become more business-oriented at least in this part of capitalist world because we are sure that any organization, public or private, shall perform according to the principle of utilitarianism that worth taxpayer, shareholders or expert's trust. 

- Power Distance 

It takes different guises from person to person, and there's possibility that the leaders may pursue and profit from enacting their own agenda using their naked and traditional power, but it won't be conflicting that the follow employees who gains nothing will be vicariously cooperative as they seem also to share superficial achievements from the leaders.

It's the fact that "genuinely cooperative enterprise" often appeared in Asian countries where "power distance" can be big between each layer of management. In In such an organization the young startups are always taught only to listen and the quest to satisfy their curiosity sometimes will be regarded as offensive, though minor as it is. 

But the deliberation of power in an engineering organization will affect its benefit, loss, even survival. Individuals always humbly don't like to touch non-technical issues and think by doing so they can be shielded from power manipulation of imperious person.

And it is wrong that people pretend they’re apolitical, instead, they’ve to care about the leadership and history of the organizations they want to join or deal with, not least for the reasons to judge and decide whether or not there’re people with whom it’s worth to fight together.

And it has to be noted, as organizations differ in size and type, common to them is the tendency that power sharing inequality will increase as member number increase. It's a confusion to young people who may have justice and fraternity in mind to consider the management in big company is rogue and exploitive. 

The power distance in an organization shall be kept as short as possible because the proportion of self-motivated and highly intelligent workers among the young generation is rising, vision articulation, action orientation, and management-by-exception are required, all depending on good communication.

b. Managerial cadre and their Recruitment:

- Inflated Titles for Professionals

A successful engineering company requires good balance between managers, professionals and occupational. But the balance could only be achieved when number and quality of the "man" employed matched operational requirement.

Among all, loyalties to the company or the boss personally in an industry where small entrepreneurs are everywhere, are most important. It means steady employment that the "man" can be recruited and assigned to work places for required period under reasonable conditions. Qualification to fit the jobs is basic, and more than that, the hired must be trusted for many inter-person deeds taking places every day in construction industry.

In Taiwan, there're 3,148 Class A Contractors, 1226 Class B Contractors, 7465 Class C Contractors, and 566 Specialty Contractors toward the end of 2022. Also not a smaller number of Consulting Firms, Architects and independent PE Offices have been registered.

That it means thousands post of which titles equal to general managers, and senior managers are wanted in the industry. The result is that the construction companies or consultants cannot hire those experienced enough for positions; and people also don't have opportunities to learn management or technical skills required in the career. 

- Recruitment

Under the circumstance, market fragmentation is ensured as many small companies or institutions in the industry struggle for survival. But people still cherish their titles such as vice president, manager or director of the companies even the jobs asking them to do works of more occupational content than professional ones.

The situation further worsens when authority tried to introduce project management system supposed compatible with international practice. Under the system, each position in the project organization requires the license or certificate, which makes the recruitment more difficult.  

Unless there is an overhaul in construction related companies that the vicious cycle to train and hire engineers will be repeating. Make it plain, the decimation of underperformed companies should be required, so that the fragmentation of market can be prevented. Engineers with better disciplines, grade, and initiative, will be able to work in more neat, clean and efficient 21st century construction industry.

- Diploma Over-Trump Proficiency

Conventionally, general public always considers diploma is equal to people's ability and it compels the authority to accept the idea that expertise can be tested through examination. And it turns out, the project owners and the parties responsible for supervision wouldn’t look into the true curriculum of job candidate. 

The outcome that bureaucrats waive their objective judgement to evaluate the real capability of proposed project staff, is that they have to use dull and useless contract stipulation to fortify their essential requirement in work safety, quality and progress; only to torment the submitting contractors.

c.  Professional and Occupational 

People working in the industry understand the difference between Professional and Occupational is whether or not they’ll use brain all the time. However, they must be aware a professional can easily and unconsciously become an occupational. 

The situation may include they practicing routine and unchallenged work too long, or simply losing the brain power to reason and judge.

Always the changes in the market or industry will bring in the impact, that people have to wary if their income are hardly raised or the employers asking for more training and test for the same job they’ve carried out. 

d.   Project-based or Department-oriented (functional) Management:

- The General Contractor’s Shrived HQ

As it evolves, emergence of the subcontractors to undertake the field work in lieu of the main contractor becomes a trend seeming irreversible. And when competition goes further, many of the main contractors withdraw to the point that they don't keep sufficient engineers to stay in lowest notch of expertise. 

The educated retained by the companies won't divide the works in line with disciplines, levels and grades truly demanded by the complicated system.

The recent project management system imposed by government to supervise the public work has an intention to assign more engineers for various discipline of construction so as to develop expertise for engineers over the course. 

But the companies cannot follow because elaborated and calibrated division of the works require more engineers to fit the jobs with more salary to pay thus weaken the parties' competence. Also, it's a realty that there're more than10, 000 constructors, consultants and architects in a small market busy for engineer recruitment.

All combined together, the general contractor’s will always be undermanned and have a shrived HQ.

- Project-based Management, Functional department-oriented Management.

Only a few companies in Taiwan have fortune to expand their organization into big, and sophisticated matrix structure, in which both project-based and functional department-oriented management co-existed and support each other.

As we’ve shown above, many entrepreneur-led companies with limited business volume have to adopt project-based management, of which, the practice is to assign people to site offices meeting minimum requirement imposed by the client. 

The project offices are presumed to gain technical and management backup from knowledgeable engineers in each functional department, however, it couldn't be done as fierce competition to get the tender has hallowed head offices; we saw the veterans disappeared over time.

Consequently, people are reduced only to work on projects of which the design and construction are general and routine because they don't hold engineers capable of developing know-hows of projects. But in reality, the companies have to establish for the project something similar to matrix organization to furnish the required support provided by both project-base and functional department-oriented system. 

- Design an organization adapted to the actualities and open to the future development 

According to Max Weber (German Philosopher and Sociologist), an organization can be designed in consideration of the following:

* Task specialization: Tasks are divided into simple, routine categories on the basis of competencies and functional specialization.

* Hierarchical layers of authority: Managers are organized into hierarchical layers, each responsible for its staff and overall performance.

* Formal selection: Employees are selected on the basis of technical skills and competences, acquired through training, education and experience.

* Rules and requirements: Employees know exactly what is expected of them. In this sense, the rules and requirements can be considered predictable.

* Impersonal (Impersonality and Personal Indifference) : Regulations and clear requirements create distant and impersonal relationships between employees, 

* Career orientation: Employees are selected on the basis of their expertise, deployment of the right people in the right positions and thereby optimally utilizing human capital.

d. Personal and organizational behaviors:

-  Company Culture related to Size

Personal behaviors are different from person to person, also in different time for the same person. When an organization is formed, it behaves as a person but like persons it will have different faces overtime. It depends on the leaders very much; especially the way he handles coordination and communication. 

Organization mainly consist of engineers and ruled by them can be stiff and fastidious in giving orders and executing them. The reason and the result maybe it need to avoid mistakes and at the same time push things forward. 

But people with more liberal or creative thought may not appreciate and can be shut put; not good to business development and technological innovation. To mitigate that, a motley style of coordination and communication in a big company is highly valued.

-  High and Low Context Cultures

When organization is small, cultures can be defined as "high context”, more inclined toward relational and collectivist. Message can be spread effectively aiding by gestures, relations, body language, verbal messages, or non-verbal messages between individuals.

But when organization grows big, communication shall be more explicit, direct, and elaborate; because under the circumstance the individuals are not expected to have knowledge of each other's histories or background, and communication can't be shaped by long-standing relationships between speakers. They depend more on the words being spoken rather than on the interpretation of more subtle or unspoken cues. In such case, the organizations need low context culture.

"High" and "low" context cultures typically refer to language groups, nationalities, or regional communities. However, they have also been applied to corporations, professions and other cultural groups. Though not all individuals in a culture can be defined by cultural stereotypes, it can roughly classify: 

＊ In elementary school, classmates and teacher fixed in the same classroom all day know each other; it is high context. In the university, professors and classmates come and go, interactive only in the class; it is low context.

＊ In smaller companies, boss know every employee, give orders and evaluate performance himself; it's high context. In big companies, management layers are many, the communication needs to be made in meetings with minutes or written mails, power must be delegated and the bosses are distant; it is low context. 

＊ The lawyers and accountants talk and writes to identify the truth, and it must be precise in words and numbers, they're of the lower context; the engineers and businessman next, while the farmers deal with the same lands and climates for life can be higher context.

   

＊ In nations or societies where the benefit of group is emphasized over individual, higher context cultures dominate, such as the Asian countries, probably an extension peasantry economy. While mercantile vigor were developed in European and North American countries; it can be lower context. 

People grow up in different context of culture will have distinct response toward the organization which he is hired; however, he can judge how or whether or not he can adapt or fit in the career, if he has the sense about the cultural context. And it is possible that people can change his thought and behavior when he is young.

e. Labor laws, quality, incentives, and unions

   

- Labor and Taxation Laws in Taiwan

Working at site as construction people or supervisors will have to follow the weather instead of the calendar for their agenda. 

There's considerable improvement for employees on the aspect as labor law and regulation interfere; but the employer especially the big companies may not be able to observe to the law completely. It's also one of the reasons that sub-contractors and work gangs are introduced to the project for execution as they may be more "flexible' to follow the law. 

More than law abiding for overtime assignment, smaller company in Taiwan can pay corporation tax in deemed amount in exchange of lax scrutiny into their books. It means sometimes they can neglect or under report their employees' personal tax, retire fund or health care premium. And beyond monetary evasion, they can be audaciously to recruit employees especially for foreign blue collars not obtaining legal stay permit. 

A well-organized company in construction industry will consider laws amended in favor of employees are draconian, and tend to be meticulous toward recruitment even for white collar professionals. So, when construction or design companies have to rely on dispatched people to fulfill minimum contract requirement, they actually leave the responsibility to lay off people to manpower dispatch agencies; which is big departure to the professionalism.

- Taiwan’s Scrupulous Professionals 

In Taiwan, a few professionals have problem to develop expertise. They lack patience to pursue the knowledge and expertise. They incline to accept jobs their quest of titles and income for short term benefit. So, they put more attention on employment conditions more related to income, welfare and work places. Some of them may need to share with spouse for family chores and tend to work on regular hours. 

We learn that the professionals are working with their brain and are hardly quit the job for entire 24 hours a day. It means if they can cut clean with the work after office hour, they’re not better than any occupational for at all. 

There could be a compromise likely to be reached with an irresponsible employer to sacrifice the work quality, but, and it opens the chance for those don’t have formal engineering background to fill the vacancy; thus, a degradation of professionalism.

Yes, it’s an industry that toil and sweat still overwhelm the brain-exhausting work style and leaving rooms for occupational. But the projects management system, public or private, continue to request the inclusion of certificated and licensed engineers, then people having engineering education and training may have chances to claim their dominance.