Measures To Identify Challenges Associated With The Adoption Of Risk Management In SMEs On A Global Scale

Positive relation between risk management and small project’s performance

Discuss about the Risk Management in Construction Industry.

The purpose of the reviewed paper is to evaluate the risk management in the construction industry of Singapore where the variables are the status, impact and barriers. The paper has also aimed at evaluating the importance of risk management on small projects and how can the former enhance the project’s performance. Additionally, the barriers to the implementation of risk management in the small project are even cited with proper attention following by their status.

The paper has adopted primary data collection method to collect data that can assist in achieving the proposed paper. The collection process includes distribution of the of sample questionnaire to the stakeholders of small projects in the construction industry of Singapore. The questions for the questionnaire has been devised with assistance from the literary work that had been conducted in the past over the same subject. Additionally, four project managers have also been interviewed to collect abstract data before analysing them to conclude the paper.

The paper claims that it is not of concern whether a project is small or big, it is necessary to have a risk management plan to tackle undesired situations. Additionally, it also claims that a project can be plagued by complexity and dynamic nature of risk at any time.

The findings from the paper reveal that small projects do not have a risk management plan in place for undesired circumstances because of the barriers like ‘low budget’, ‘short timeframe’ and ‘non-economical causes’. The findings also claim that there is a positive relationship between the risk management and project performance.

The findings from the paper can be used in a real-world scenario to motivate project managers (PMs) to adopt risk management as part of project management and enhance the performance of small projects. Additionally, identifying the barriers can help in omitting them.

The paper has limited itself to the identification of the barriers, and hence, it has offered scope for further scholarly work to devise a measure to omit the identified barriers and in the process motivate projects to adopt risk management.

The paper is a well-scripted work. However, it lacks critical thinking along with some grammatical and spelling errors. The paper also failed to concise the findings to simplify the understanding. The research work carried out before pursuing the objective is also evident from the paper.

The reviewed article has aimed at identifying the risks that are associated with the green retrofit projects of the Singapore construction industry. The focus has also been shifted to comparing the criticalities of traditional and green projects along with offering remedial measures for the identified risks.

The paper has adopted primary data collection method where a questionnaire sample was distributed among thirty project professionals consisting of the questions developed with assistance from the past research works pursued on the discussed subjects. Following the collection of the sample qualitative data has been collected to adopt the positivism philosophy of researching. The collected data are then evaluated to attain the defined objectives of the paper.

The paper has claimed that construction industry is a significant contributor to the GHG (Green House Gas) emissions. The paper has even claimed that the risks associated with the green projects are more significant and complex than the risks associated with the traditional construction projects.

The findings reveal that of all the identified risks that are associated with the green building projects ‘post-retrofit tenants’ cooperation risk’ was the most crucial. Additionally, the findings also reveal that 19 risks were more prior in the sustainable construction industry than the traditional counterparts. The findings of the paper have been analysed further to offer recommendations to tackle the identified risks in the sustainable projects and achieve successful project completion.

The findings can be implemented in the real-life scenario to omit the risks that are associated with the green projects. Additionally, the comparative analysis of the green construction and traditional methods can assist the owners in selecting the mode of construction they want to pursue.

The deemed paper has offered some significant benefits for further implications. However, the identified risks are not exhaustive and have further chance to devise measures that can keep the risks exhaustive with time because the measures can offer temporary solution for the risks and needs further research. Additionally, the findings are relevant to the Singapore construction industry which can be compared with global data to identify a solution that is applicable globally.

CSFs of risk assessment in the Tanzanian construction industry

No, faults were identified in the paper as it is well-research and has taken appropriate care of the ethical issues to achieve the goals of the paper. However, the understanding can be complicated for non-construction related readers, and the language could have been kept a little simple.

The paper has pursued the objective of filling up the knowledge gap to change the perception of the professionals of Tanzanian construction industry over the selection of the ‘risk assessment and management practices (RAMP)’. The critical success factors (CSF) and its role in the deployment of the RAMP have also pursued in the paper by the authors.

The authors have equipped primary data collection method to pursue the research objectives and were collected from 67 professionals who were associated with construction clients.  The data were analysed with one-way analysis taking consideration of inferential and descriptive statistics.

The authors have claimed that even though the construction industry of Tanzania follows project plans though their budget tends to double up from the initiation to the completion of the project and the reason behind it is the incorrect identification of the CSF associated with the risk.

The findings reveal there are 10 CSF’s that influenced the perception of the construction professionals in the Tanzanian construction industry and were viable for the deployment of RAMP. The most vital of all the identified CSFs were ‘teamwork and communications’, awareness of risk management’ and ‘management style’. The least vital CSF’s where identified as the ‘positive human dynamics’ and ‘customer satisfaction’.

The findings of the reviewed article are hugely beneficial for the Tanzanian construction industry. The readers of Tanzanian construction industry will be able to understand how the identified CSF can assist in successful completion of the construction projects.

The paper has leaved scope for investigating the validity of the identified CSFs in construction industries other than the Tanzanian construction industry. Additionally, the paper has accounted the whole construction industry of Tanzania without taking account of the owners; whether they are local and foreigner because their perception about risk assessment varies upon it that leaves scope for further research.

The paper has used data from the sources that are over a decade old which raises question over the reliability of the data because the data used in the paper are dynamic and changes with time. Apart from the reliability of the offered data, the reviewed article cites some incredible facts about the Tanzanian construction industry.

The purpose of the reviewed paper is to examine the difficulties that the SMEs (small and medium enterprise) face in implementing the risk management strategies of the United Kingdom’s (UK) construction industry. 

The paper has adopted mixed methodology to pursue the research objective of the paper. The secondary data collected after reviewing the literary work that had been analysed to form the base of the questionnaire sample that was distributed different enterprises who have experience of construction in the past or present. The collected data were then evaluated to conclude the paper.

The authors have claimed that the risk offered in the construction industry is due to the economic crisis and have forced the industries to take consideration of the risk management. The authors have even discussed the need for risk management in the construction projects especially those that are UK based. The reason has been laid on the fact that UK construction projects are challenging, dynamic and risky at the same time.

The findings reveal that even though the official British body for construction has cited the importance of risk management though, the scaling of the risk management is preventing the project owners to include it in their project plan. The authors have even stated that the participating SMEs claimed that the existing standards were not accurate and failed to explain the process of applying risk management in the project planning. The deemed risk further enhances due to lack of expertise and knowledge required for the implementation of the risk management.

The findings from the reviewed paper have great significance in the British construction industry and can change the course of British construction industry. The findings can be of great assistance in omitting the challenges that are associated with the implementation of the risk management.

The paper has focused on UK’s construction industry and hence offers excellent scope of implementing the finding in SMEs outside the UK after verifying the validity of the findings in the considered geographical region.

The paper is well-structured, but the findings do not offer any benefit as similar findings can be found in the previous literary works and hence can be stated that does not offer any new findings apart from the fact that it had considered UK and SMEs.

Theme	Article 1	Article 2	Article 3	Article 4
Relationship	Positive relation between risk management and small project’s performance		Relation between the CSFs of risk assessment and perception of Tanzanian construction professionals perception.	Lack of knowledge and skills prevents the adoption of risk management
Advanced Decision Making	Understanding the importance of risk management can assist the PMs to devise a risk management plan for future projects.	On the selection of the mode of mode of construction (traditional or green) based on the benefits and associated risks.
Tool & Techniques		Measures to omit the associated risks though they are exhaustive.
Parameters	The parameters for the paper were the status, impact and barriers to risk management in the small projects		Perception of the construction professional of the Tanzanian construction industry.

Table 1: Critical Analysis Table

(Source: Created by the Author)

Based on the above-reviewed papers, my proposed topic for the research is:

“Measures to identify challenges associated with adoption of risk management in SMEs on a global scale.”

References:

Hwang, B.-G., Zhao, X. & Toh, L., 2014. Risk management in small construction projects in Singapore: Status, barriers and impact. International Journal of Project Management, 32(1), pp.116–124.

Hwang, B., 2015. Addressing risks in green retrofit projects: The case of Singapore. Project management journal., 46(4), p.76.

Chileshe, N. & John Kikwasi, G., 2014. Critical success factors for implementation of risk assessment and management practices within the Tanzanian construction industry. Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, 21(3), pp.291–319.

Rostami, A. et al., 2015. Risk management implementation in small and medium enterprises in the UK construction industry. Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, 22(1), pp.91–107