Editorial
This issue of ECAM has six papers from six different countries. The Hong Kong paper deals with the culture of Chinese construction enterprises; the Thai paper addresses the effectiveness of public hearings in participation in construction projects; the Thai/Australian paper deals with the implementation of information communication technology; the UK paper by an academic and practicing solicitor examine past court decisions on dispute resolutions; the USA paper addresses the relationship between facilities management and open-plan attributes, interesting although their research data is drawn from Sydney. Finally, the Kuwait paper addresses how to balance mass production with customised houses in Kuwait. A total of 12 authors produced these six papers. One paper was singled authored, four papers had two authors, and one had three authors. One two authored came from two countries, Thailand and Australia and one came from two organisations a University and a law firm.
The papers in this issue are outline below:
Liu is interested in the organisation culture of Chinese construction enterprises and proposes a framework for its assessment. Liu reviews the transition from an environment of little competition and commissioned projects through government control to the requirement to take initiatives and acquire business skills. Examining five different provinces Liu reports a hierarchy culture dominant in four and a market culture in one, Shantou. This is a useful paper for those in the west seeking a better understanding of business culture in China.
Manowong and Ogunlana have been researching whether public hearings have been an effective vehicle for public participation projects in Thailand. Using a case study approach the researchers report that public hearings had moderate to low effectiveness. This is an interesting topic and a previous paper examined public participation in Hong Kong. The issue of how the public participate in decisions relating to major projects is global. It seems that there is a body of knowledge surrounding this topic that should be brought together and the techniques and processes evaluated systematically.
Peansupap and Walker return us to a topic that recurs and may well remain with us as technology develops. The topic is the constraints to implementing information communication technology in construction. The issues make me nostalgic as we were writing on these in the early eighties relating to the technology as it was then. The technology has moved on but there are still constraints. The technology examined here is web-based document management and an intranet. The organisation studied is IT-literate. This was a concept that did not exist in the 1980s.
Ndekugri and Russell return us to the recurrent subject of disputes in construction contracts. Ndekugri, an academic, and Russell, a practicing solicitor, bring an interesting viewpoint by questioning whether there actually is a dispute as a means of avoiding adjudication. The legal framework the authors are within is the Housing Grants, Construction and Re-generation Act 1966. The authors have analysed the court record of 26 cases. What the authors were seeking was examples where the court took a flexible approach rather than simply ruling on one or other of two opposing approaches.
Ilozor and Ilozor examined over 100 open-plan offices in Sydney’s central business district. The authors were examining the attributes of open-plan and the relationship to facilities management. These authors bring together the attributes of open-plan space, the relationship of space, people and the work process with the management of facilities.
Alreshaid, Mahdi and Fereig find another use for the analytical hierarchy process and this time apply it to deciding optimum housing delivery alternatives balancing the needs of both end-users (i.e. occupants) and government (i.e. funders). The issue they are trying to balance is the economy of standard production units in mass housing in Kuwait and the desire by the eventual occupant to customise their house. The government is disposed to customising the houses but is seeking to achieve this economically.
Ronald McCaffer
