ICPM

N/A

Owing to the large number of practitioners from different companies, and professional backgrounds who are involved in each international construction project, issues relating to the human resource, and how to get the best out of each participant are of great importance. 

In this course, aspects of the effective management of the human resources relating to international construction projects are covered. Stress is put on issues which have emerged both in practice and in the literature, as being among the critical success factors of large projects. The need for every member of the design and construction team of the project to have the highest possible level of professionalism has been emphasised. Leadership is another factor which is considered essential owing to the increasing size and complexity of projects and greater diversity of the participants in the project. Building, developing and effectively managing the project team is another success factor often referred to. Finally, ethics, transparency and guarding against corrupt behaviour have also come to the fore owing to the realisation of the adverse effects of inappropriate practices, and laws and administrative mechanisms have been adopted in many countries to counter and punish malpractice.

Upon completion of this course, the students should be: 

1）aware of the nature and merits of professionalism on international construction projects, so they can consciously seek to develop appropriate levels of professionalism as a personal attribute 

2）familiar with how corruption manifests itself on international construction projects, while learning effective ways of preventing and addressing corruption when it occurs 
3）knowledgeable on the key concepts of leadership and how they can develop their own leadership skills 
4）able to form, effectively lead, and assess and improve the performance of, multi-cultural teams on international projects. 

一）Module Outline … nature of module, teaching and learning, assessment approach, schedule of sessions and relationships among topics 

二）Introduction to construction 

a）The construction industry 

b）Construction project 

c）Project participants and stakeholders 

三）Professionalism and the construction industry  

a）What is the nature of professionalism? 

1）theoretical conceptualizations 
2）historical development 

3）concept of “the true professional” 

b）How does a field progress from its inception towards becoming an established profession? 

c）Who (and what) determines that an area has attained the status of a profession? (… the situation in different countries, and elements of good practice) 

d）How relevant is professionalism to construction projects? What are the features of a construction project which make professionalism necessary? 

e）How can the professionalism of a person, and level of professionalism within an industry be enhanced? 

1）obsolescence and the construction professional 
2）statutory requirements(?) 
3）professional institutions 
4）role of education and research 

5）actions by corporations 

f）Concept of industry maturity; the paradox of rationalization of approaches and procedures versus professionalism; regulation versus professionalism 

g）Necessary action to enhance professionalism, focusing on the project level, and what the Project Manager should do. 

四）Leadership and construction projects 

a）What is the nature of leadership? What are the concepts of leadership? 

b）What is the difference between leadership and management? 

c）How important is leadership in the construction industry (at levels of industry, company, project)? … Why is leadership needed? Focus will be put on international construction projects? 

d）What is project leadership, and what are the characteristics of a good project leader? 

e）Can leadership be developed? What does leadership development involve? What should be done develop leadership for international construction projects?

f）Leadership and ethics: Authentic Leadership 

五）Culture and its influence in construction 

a）What is culture? 

b）What are the main frameworks and conceptualizations of culture? 

c）What are the types of culture relevant to a construction project (such as national, company, profession, project) 

d）What are the implications of culture for the management of international construction projects? 

e）Some manifestations of culture on projects… 

1）communication 

2）conflict and its resolution 

f）What is cosmopolitanism and how relevant is it to IPM? 

g）Culture and ethics: an inter-relationship(?) 

六）Teams in construction 

a）What is the nature of a team? 

b）What are the dynamics of teams on projects? 

c）What are the success and failure factors of teams? 

d）What are the human, cultural, legal and political environments of construction projects and how do they influence project management? 

1）the interrelationships among them 
2）their impact on project performance 

3）how they can be harnessed to realise improved project outcomes. 

e）How are effective teams for international construction projects formed and managed? 

f）How can one build an ethical project team? 

1）perspectives of the subcontractor, general contractor and field crew 
2）perspective of engineers, architects and sub-consultant 
3）perspective of project owner 

4）perspective of construction manager 

g）Ethics in the Market Place 

七）Ethics in construction 

a）meaning of ethics and professional ethics 

b）relationship between ethics and project performance 

c）“enforcing ethics” 

d）enhancing level of ethics in construction … is there a case for a uniform code of ethics for the construction industry? 

八）Corruption and construction 

a）What is the nature of corruption? 

b）What are the causes of corruption? 

c）What are the effects of corruption, in general, and on a construction project? 

d）What is the international situation with regard to corruption? (such as Corruption Perception Index; Bribe Payers Index) 

e）In what ways does corruption manifest itself in construction? 

九）Countering corruption ... an international perspective 

a）What actions are being taken by governments? (laws, such as Sarbanes-Oxley; codes of behaviour for public officers such as UK government’s Seven Principles; statutory agencies such as South Africa’s Public Protector and Singapore’s Corrupt Practices Investigations Bureau; also, Competition Commissions and UK Office of Fair Trading) 

b）What actions are being taken by non-governmental organizations? 

1）At the international level 
     United Nations compact 
     codes of business federations, consider general ones first, then FIDIC (in broad terms) 

     Construction Sector Transparency Initiative 

2）At national level 
     national chapters of Transparency International 
     alliances, and individual anti-corruption groups 

     professional institutions’ codes of ethics 

c）What are corporations doing? 

1）statements of corporate values and strategies (eg. Skanska’s Five Zeros 

2）corporate codes of conduct. 

十）Governance on international construction projects 

a）What is corruption? 

1）corruption, bribery, fraud, exerting pressure, interference 

2）rent-seeking 

b）Why corruption? 

1）a corruption analysis model under corruption economics 
2）the Fraud Triangle – another analysis framework 

3）combined analysis framework, using transaction theory to interpret the corruption processes 

c）Why is construction so vulnerable to corruption? … related to special nature of construction 

1）big investment: attractive to corruption 
2）unique products: non-comparable 
3）too many participants and complicated processes: easy to hide malpractice 

4）one of the most regulated areas: many opportunities for rent-seeking 

d）How does corruption happen along with the construction project processes? 

1）planning, concept and decision-making phases, maintenance phase 

2）design, tendering, construction, acceptance 

e）Corruption versus Professionalism and Ethics -- a case study 

1）contractual analysis 
2）cause and effect/fishbone diagram analysis 
3）human factor analysis 

4）what made the bridge collapse: corruption or professionalism and ethics? 

十一）Countering corruption 2 – an introduction of Project Integrity Management Maturity Index with examples of anti-corruption tools such as the guarantee 

a）Rating the Project Integrity Management Maturity 

1）integrating anti-corruption into project management 
     the resistance attitude: a big challenge for anti-corruption 
     make integrity management a pillar of project management 
     fundamental anticorruption strategies 
     integrate anti-corruption initiatives into project management 

     trigger a chain reaction of anti-corruption 

2）the PIMMI Rating System 
     rationale 
     framework 

     the index 

3）rating the 10 biggest public owners in Zhuhai City 
     assessment methods 
     assessment results 
     feedback from assessor 
4）integrity guarantee and surety bonds as anti-corruption tools 

     concepts 

b）guarantee and suretyship 

1）theoretical basis 

c）Prospect Theory 

1）integrity guarantee as anti-corruption tool 
     how does integrity guarantee changes the corruption decision model？ 
     how does integrity guarantee improve the effect of IP? 
     integrity guarantee in PIMMI 
2）high-penalty performance bond as anti-corruption tool 
     necessity of open bidding procedure for public works 
     role of surety, and three different models of construction bonding system 
     different effects on corruption 
     the reason for setting up mandatory bonding system in public works 

3）using the guarantee tools together. 

十二）Ethics in public life – collaborative approaches: practices of some North American construction companies 

a）business ethics in construction companies 

b）compliance management in construction companies 

c）decision tree 

d）examples of corruption in infrastructure 

e）ethics codes of some construction companies 

f）joint venture ethics 

g）ethical benefit 

1）8b. Responsible Conduct of Research and Other Field Studies (for Consultancy) … George Wang 

h）professional self-regulation; government regulation 

i）institutional policies 

j）federal research misconduct definition and policies 

k）ethical issue in research 

l）conflict of interest 

m）data ownership and sharing 

n）supervision and review 

o）authorship and publication of report. 

The approach which is adopted on the course should enable participants to appreciate both the theory and practice of some of the key contemporary issues relating to the human resource in the management of international construction projects. It includes: 

32 hours

• professionalism ethics and anti-corruption