Identifying And Estimating Engineering Construction Activity In Australia In Past Two Decades

The Importance of Engineering Construction for Society

Engineering construction is one of the most prominent pillars for the development of a society and defines the technological success of a nation. Hence, it becomes of great prominence that the engineering construction capability of a country be assessed. The discussed report has discussed different aspects of the paper.

Based on the statement above the research aim of the paper is to identify & estimate the engineering construction activities and other crucial factors of Australia in the past two decades in both the private and public sector. The data of both the private and public sector of the past ten years that is from 1995 to 2018. Hence based on the research aim the research questions are

1. What is the difference in the total investment made on constructional activities by the private and public sector?
2. What impact does difference in investment cites on the construction outcome?
3. How could private sector cope up with the challenges of investment with the public sector and vice-versa?

Industries could be categorised in two prominent categories namely public and private. Both of the categories have their prominence and have their contribution in the development of a nation. In case of construction, it has been identified that the Australian public sector construction id more focused on the welfare construction activities such as developing of structures related to education, health, public facilities, roads, sewerage and others (Francis et al., 2015). On the contrary, the private construction industry is engulfed in the residential and non-residential constructions. Hence, it is evident from the difference in project that the public sector is responsible for most of the major engineering construction works and in the process could be stated that the public sector gets more investment for their projects because of the size of the projects (Zeffane & Bani Methem, 2017). The working strategy of the public and private sector are also very different in nature. While the public industry prefers outsourcing their processes and operations to private contractors, the private industry prefers conducting their operations themselves. The outsourcing prominent reason for outsourcing is to save the money in maintenance and buying of the equipment. According to the Top, Akdere & Tarcan (2015), the private sector works on the public projects but as they have to report to the state authorities and hence, they are considered as an employee of the projects. On the contrary, according to Johnson, Leenders & McCue, (2017) the number of public construction are limited while the booming economy of a country leads to more number of private projects such as offices, residential and other construction works. More number of the private sector projects could be summarised to state that the investment in the construction industry associated with the private sector is more.

Difference between Public and Private Engineering Construction in Australia

The review of the discussed section has enabled in understanding of the difference between the private and public construction industries. However, it has also been identified that the results regarding to the investment in the public and private sector is conflicting in nature which could be regarded as a gap in the literature.

Construction works are the most expensive project because of the huge investments made developing physical structures. Hence, it becomes of great prominence that the discussed projects are cited with adequate attention because a failed construction project will impact the sustainability of the owners and its associates. To attain a successful project, it is of great importance that the critical success factors (CSF) of a construction work are cited with adequate attention. According to Amade et al., (2015) leadership & management, planning, quality, satisfaction, technology, environment, resources and cost are the most prominent CSF. Leadership & management, satisfaction, quality are CSFs are abstract in nature compared to its environment, resources, technology and cost are physical and could be measured. Additionally, according to Alvaipour & Arditi, (2018), cost is the most prominent factor in the construction project work because other factors such as the quality, resources and technology are dependent on it. Hence, cost estimation and management is given high prominence in the construction works. Another notable fact by Stentoft Arlbjørn & Vagn Freytag, (2012) states that the huge investment availability to the public sector is one of the most prominent reasons why private sector lags behind the public. Lloyd and Denise, (2015) also supports the claim above by stating that though a stronger efficiency capability is cited by the private sector but the difference of investment and authority constraints their success and sustainability.

The review of the discussed article relevant to the CSFs and most prominently cost has enabled to establish a background that defines the importance of capital in the construction work. Moreover, it has also been identified that the public sector entertains more capital freedom with respect to its private counterparts even though the latter is more efficient. The identification will assist in establishing a difference between the public and private sectors of construction based on the investment in engineering construction activities.

According to Morrison, Wilson & Bell, (2012), private industry faces multiple challenges with respect to its counterpart, public sector enterprises. In case of the construction work the challenges further amplifies because of the huge investment. The challenges are not limited to the investment but further extends to multiple other factors and one of the most prominent of them is the shortage of skill. The reason for skill shortage is mostly associated with the high salary in context to the job and ease of job that is offered by the public sector (Cappeli, 2015). The job satisfaction and lack of competition & pressure are also prominent factors that motivates the people to join public sector rather than the private industry. Additionally, the limited fund forces the private sector to recruit unskilled immigrants rather than skilled native workers which in the long run impact their sustainability (Aslund, Hensik & Skans, 2014). Additionally, the cost of raw material, uncontrolled growth, technology adoption and multiple other factors are also associated with the growth of private sector that challenges their existence (Haufler, 2013). Most of the factors above could be associated with the undercapitalisation that the private sector is linked with. However, other factors such as lack of safety measures, inadequate planning, resource management and staff training & development are certain aspects where the private sector’s negligence could be hold responsible (Morrison, Wilson & Bell, 2013). Hence, it would be justified to state that the private sector is facing some major challenges in context with the construction work.

The Challenges Faced by the Private Sector in Engineering Construction

The review above could be summarised to state that the private construction sector suffers from some crucial challenges that are capable of affecting its sustainability. Most of the challenges could be linked with the undercapitalisation of the discussed sector, however the other challenges are due to their negligence. Hence, it would be justified to state that the private sectors are facing certain challenges which they need to mitigate to be able to cope up with the public engineering construction activities.

Interpretivism and positivism are the most prominently used research philosophies. The Philosophy for the paper will be interpretivism because of it focuses on the scientific data unlike the positivism which focuses on both the scientific and social data. The discussed task does not focus on the abstract or social data because it does not focus on human aspect and hence the selection could be justified. Understanding of the scenario is enough for the analysis of the secondary data and does not deems need for social data.

Descriptive, exploratory and explanatory are the most prominently used research designs. The research design of the proposed paper is exploratory in nature as the paper is attempting to explore the engineering construction activity in Australia between the year 1995 to 2018. Furthermore, the design in consideration will enable the author of the proposed paper to explore the position of the private construction entities in the process.

The collection of the data will be done through secondary means where Australian Bureau of Statistics will be the primary sources. Additionally, other literary work on the construction activities will also be accounted for to identify the crucial factors for successful execution of construction projects. The primary sources for the data collection has been listed in the table attached in the appendix table along with the step that will be taken to obtain the secondary data.

The data will be analysed using secondary statistical analysis which will account for regression model. The theoretical data for understanding and other crucial aspects will be collected from different reliable sources such as world bank, google scholar search engine and others (Vaismoradi, Turunen & Bondas, 2013). The theoretical data will be analysed using thematic analysis and critical thinking (Joffe, 2012). The data will be collected from Australian Bureau of Statistics which makes it secondary in nature and hence, the most appropriate data analysis technique would be Secondary Statistical Analysis. The data sets from 1995 to 2018 collected from the statistical website and other sources will be analysed using IBM SPSS software (Draper, 2014). Regression analysis will be used to statistically analyse the data.

Research Philosophy and Design

The sampling of the data will be done based on the likelihood data sampling method because the format of all the data will be identical and will be collected from similar source. Furthermore, the data collected for the discussed paper will be in statistical figure and could be calculated using SPSS or Excel statistical tool and hence, the selection of the sampling method could be justified.

Task Name	Duration	Start	Finish	Predecessors
Identification & estimation of the engineering construction activities of Australia in the past two decades of both the private and public sector	58 days	Wed 01-08-18	Fri 19-10-18
Initial Phase	14 days	Wed 01-08-18	Mon 20-08-18
Topic Selection	2 days	Wed 01-08-18	Thu 02-08-18
Single Page project Plan	3 days	Fri 03-08-18	Tue 07-08-18	3
Project Plan Submission	1 day	Wed 08-08-18	Wed 08-08-18	4
Project Plan Submission	0 days	Wed 08-08-18	Wed 08-08-18	5
Preliminary Literature review	3 days	Thu 09-08-18	Mon 13-08-18	5
Establishing research question	1 day	Tue 14-08-18	Tue 14-08-18	7
Planning phase	8 days	Wed 15-08-18	Fri 24-08-18
Activity Planning	2 days	Wed 15-08-18	Thu 16-08-18	8
Scheduling	1 day	Fri 17-08-18	Fri 17-08-18	10
Project Proposal Drafting	4 days	Mon 20-08-18	Thu 23-08-18	11
Proposal Submission	1 day	Fri 24-08-18	Fri 24-08-18	12
Draft Submitted	0 days	Fri 24-08-18	Fri 24-08-18	13
Execution Phase	12 days	Mon 27-08-18	Tue 11-09-18
Primary Literature review	4 days	Mon 27-08-18	Thu 30-08-18	13
Summary	2 days	Fri 31-08-18	Mon 03-09-18	16
Data collection	4 days	Tue 04-09-18	Fri 07-09-18	17
Summarising data	2 days	Mon 10-09-18	Tue 11-09-18	18
Analysis Phase	17 days	Wed 12-09-18	Thu 04-10-18
Relevant data identification	3 days	Wed 12-09-18	Fri 14-09-18	17,19
Data Analysis	4 days	Mon 17-09-18	Thu 20-09-18	21
Conclusion	6 days	Fri 21-09-18	Fri 28-09-18	22
Report Drafting	4 days	Mon 01-10-18	Thu 04-10-18	23
Report Drafted	0 days	Thu 04-10-18	Thu 04-10-18	24
Closure Phase	11 days	Fri 05-10-18	Fri 19-10-18
Report Submission	1 day	Fri 05-10-18	Fri 05-10-18	25
Oral Presentation	10 days	Mon 08-10-18	Fri 19-10-18	27

                                                                   Table: Time Schedule

                                                (Source: Created by Author using MS PROJECT)

                               

                                                                                      Figure: Gantt Chart

                                                                     (Source: Created by Author using MS PROJECT)

The provided time frame has considered the maximum time that would be required to complete a task associated with the proposed project. Additionally, the feasibility of the timeline could also be supported by the fact that the data will be collected through secondary means and are easily available on the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Hence, it would be justified to state that the timeline provided is feasible in nature.

The discussed paper will offer an insight into the engineering construction activities of Australia which will assist the private construction entities to understand the difference between them and the public sector and how they could cope up with the latter.

The project work will be based on the secondary data collection which will mostly be collected from Australian Bureau of Statistics and could be readily collected. However, other secondary sources could prove to be challenging because they will be collected from the internet and most of the research articles available on the internet are paid versions.

Data Collection and Analysis

The author will maintain an unbiased approach while evaluating and analysing the data. Furthermore, no data manipulation will be done to ensure ethical values of research work and the sources will also be adequately referenced. Other ethical considerations that are considered as part of the research work will also be cited adequate attention.

Conclusion:

Hence, in conclusion it would be adequate to state that both the private and public construction industries are investing their efforts in the development of the nation. However, private entities are facing certain challenges and the discussed paper is aimed at identifying those challenges by analysing the past activities which would prove to be of great vitality for the private industry.

References:

Alavipour, S. R., & Arditi, D. (2018). Optimizing Financing Cost in Construction Projects with Fixed Project Duration. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 144(4), 04018012.

Amade, B., Ubani, E. C., Omajeh, E. O. M., & Njoku, U. A. P. (2015). Critical success factors for public sector construction project delivery: A case of Owerri, Imo State. International Journal of Research in Management, Science and Technology, 3(1), 11-21.

Åslund, O., Hensvik, L., & Skans, O. N. (2014). Seeking similarity: How immigrants and natives manage in the labor market. Journal of Labor Economics, 32(3), 405-441.

Cappelli, P. H. (2015). Skill gaps, skill shortages, and skill mismatches: Evidence and arguments for the United States. ILR Review, 68(2), 251-290.

Draper, N. R., & Smith, H. (2014). Applied regression analysis(Vol. 326). John Wiley & Sons.

Francis, V., Lingard, H., Prosser, A., & Turner, M. (2013). Work-family and construction: Public and private sector differences. Journal of Management in Engineering, 29(4), 392-399.

Haufler, V. (2013). A public role for the private sector: Industry self-regulation in a global economy. Carnegie Endowment.

Joffe, H. (2012). Thematic analysis. Qualitative research methods in mental health and psychotherapy: A guide for students and practitioners, 1, 210-223.

Johnson, P. F., Leenders, M. R., & McCue, C. (2017). A comparison of purchasing’s organizational roles and responsibilities in the public and private sector. Journal of Public Procurement, 3(1), 57-74.

Lloyd, M., & Denise, H. (2015). Do Public to Private Buyouts Improve Target’s Efficiency?. Advances in Economics and Business, 3(9), 349-359.

Morrison, T. H., Wilson, C., & Bell, M. (2012). The role of private corporations in regional planning and development: opportunities and challenges for the governance of housing and land use. Journal of rural studies, 28(4), 478-489.

Stentoft Arlbjørn, J., & Vagn Freytag, P. (2012). Public procurement vs private purchasing: Is there any foundation for comparing and learning across the sectors?. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 25(3), 203-220.

Top, M., Akdere, M., & Tarcan, M. (2015). Examining transformational leadership, job satisfaction, organizational commitment and organizational trust in Turkish hospitals: public servants versus private sector employees. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 26(9), 1259-1282.

Vaismoradi, M., Turunen, H., & Bondas, T. (2013). Content analysis and thematic analysis: Implications for conducting a qualitative descriptive study. Nursing & health sciences, 15(3), 398-405.

Zeffane, R., & Bani Melhem, S. J. (2017). Trust, job satisfaction, perceived organizational performance and turnover intention: A public-private sector comparison in the United Arab Emirates. Employee Relations, 39(7), 1148-1167.