...INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT International Journal of Project Management 25 (2007) 517–526 www.elsevier.com/locate/ijproman Causes and effects of delays in Malaysian construction industry Murali Sambasivan *, Yau Wen Soon Graduate School of Management, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang Selangor, Malaysia Received 21 April 2006; received in revised form 27 June 2006; accepted 21 November 2006 Abstract The problem of delays in the construction industry is a global phenomenon and the construction industry in Malaysia is no exception. The main purpose of this study is to identify the delay factors and their impact (effect) on project completion. Earlier studies either considered the causes or the effects of project delays, separately. This study takes an integrated approach and attempts to analyze the impact of specific causes on specific effects. A questionnaire survey was conducted to solicit the causes and effects of delay from clients, consultants, and contractors. About 150 respondents participated in the survey. This study identified 10 most important causes of delay from a list of 28 different causes and 6 different effects of delay. Ten most important causes were: (1) contractor’s improper planning, (2) contractor’s poor site management, (3) inadequate contractor experience, (4) inadequate client’s finance and payments for completed work, (5) problems with subcontractors, (6) shortage in material, (7) labor supply, (8) equipment availability and failure,...
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...Prioritizing Projects at D.D. Williamson 2014 October 20 HRM 517/ Professor Stephen Castellese Prioritizing Projects 1 Introduction Keeping any organization above water takes a few key components. These components are not limited to strategic planning, goals, budgeting, qualifications, leadership and loyalty. These components will make for a successful organization as long as they remember to prioritize. A case study has been conducted on the business of D.D. Williamson. The D.D. Williamson Company has not been one to lack success, but has lacked the ability to manage projects. Because of its lacking ability to manage projects they have missed out on opportunities and have exceeded budgets. After reading the case study we see that there has also been a clear breakdown in the communication when dealing with projects assignments. It took nearly three years before investigating and upper level management to figure out that there were no precise systems put into place for marking projects level of importance. Prioritizing is necessary and crucial to an organization for growth, planning, and success. According to Kloppenborg, Nkomo, Fottler, and McAffee (2012), D.D. Williamson would have benefited from utilizing a project management team, whom would have identified the scope of the project, cost, and taken ownership of the schedule from start to finish. Critique the prioritizing process at D. D. Williamson. This company would have benefited more...
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...2009). Knowledge Management System A knowledge management system has the ability to enhance several companies, especially GM. GM is a well-known company that has been around for several years. GM can profit from several advantages by using a knowledge management system. Some of those advantages include decreasing cost by eliminating the number of times the company must continuously resolve similar issues, decrease repetition of knowledge-based activities, raise up productivity by making knowledge accessible and user friendly, encourage employee personal growth, and establish aggressive favor in the marketplace, (Delen, Sharda, Turban, 2011, pgs. 509-510). Valuation In 2000, GM was on top of the world and put together a live Knowledge Management (KM) program. Initially, GM had the best of both worlds by having 138 best practice teams and 33 centers of knowledge working collectively with recognizable subject matter experts. The KM program was an outstanding asset for GM. The KM generated over 5000 best practices that affected quality and led to millions in cost avoidance. The KM program was at a very high peak in 2008, but GM took a down turn in 2009. GM shocked the world in 2009 by filing for bankruptcy. A defective strategy is what took GM down, but on the flip side, an organization’s strategy is definitely a product of the knowledge that dwells within its walls. GM failed to cultivate a more competitive strategy. From 2000-2008, the knowledge management program did not...
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...Moss and McAdams Accounting Firm Tyrone Adaway BUS 517 Project Management Dr. Flores April 20, 2012 1. Explain how you would respond if you were Bruce at the end of the case. I would be furious beyond belief; I would feel very disrespected and unappreciated by the company at the end of this case. To be forced to work with a subpar team member for several months who had shown poor performance and cause my project to run behind, only to then be told that not only were they going to remove him from my project and leave me shorthanded it was him who got to make the decision. My response to Sands would be one that expressed my concern for the image that may be presented by allowing this to be the way that business is conducted. Since it is standard practice to have junior associates assigned to more than one project as at a time, by allowing him to choose the project that he’s “more interested” in may lead to other jr. associates to put forth less than stellar work in the projects that they are not interested in doing in the hopes that they will be able to not do that work. Also I would advise them that while Springfield account is important the Johnsonville account is equal as important and we are sending the wrong message to the client that we do not value their business as much since we are taking people off their account to put them on other accounts. Thirdly I would remind her that he was initially assigned to work on the Johnsonville account and that his participation...
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...Case Study 1: Prioritizing Projects at D.D. Williamson HRM 517 – Managing Human Resource projects Strayer University June 21, 2013 What was the Prioritization Issue at D.D. Williamson? In the case study of D.D. Williamson, it appeared the organization was successful in many ventures, but lacked the ability to manage certain projects. In fact, critical projects that required attention were left to the waste side, and as a result lead to missed opportunities, or resulted in going over the allocated budget. Within the organization of D.D. Williamson, there appeared to have been a breakdown in communication, which blinded the organization in determining projects that needed the most attention. Through the process of the organization’s investigation, which took approximately three years, leaders realized the they had no accurate system in place for marking the level of importance in each of their projects. In researching the writings of Kloppenborg, Nkomo, Fottler, and McAffee (2012), D.D. Williamson would have benefited from utilizing a project management team, whom would have identified the scope of the project, cost, and taken ownership of the schedule from start to finish. D.D. Williamson would have benefited from having developed a well-rounded project team, or several teams could have managed each project independently. Furthermore, each team could have managed the project based on the urgency of each project, the cost, and the practical details concerning...
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...not being able to balance that with the expectations of the Johnsonville audit. I would confirm awareness of the importance of the Springfield consulting project to the company’s strategic objectives i.e. to grow its consulting services by 40 percent within 5 years however, I would suggest that for a venture as important as Springfield the team should be chosen carefully and a compromise worked out by management in the event staff must be shared. I would also bring to her attention that the Johnsonville audit was behind schedule as a result of the decision to assign Olds to Crosby’s project which resulted in him being consistently late due to the demands of the Springfield project. I would inform her of the times that was wasted when Olds should have been working on the Johnsonville audit and instead worked on Crosby’s assignment. I would recommend that Sands communicate with management to make them aware of the new developments so that the situation is not used against me for future promotions in the event I am not able to complete the audit within the projected time. Also I would try to negotiate a replacement to fill Olds spot so that we can deliver on the expected date or request that an extension be given based on the change of events. 2. Discuss what Palmer could do, if anything, to avoid losing Olds. Had Palmer been fully aware of the importance of the Springfield project and how it tied...
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...leadership as stated by Wikipedia, defines Transformational leadership as “leadership which enhances the motivations, morals, and also performance of followers through a variety of mechanism”. In other words, transformational leadership could be termed as a type of leadership that could inspire change positively to everyone who follows. A transformational leader is one who possesses the skill set to motivate and inspire people who follow his/her footsteps. Transformational leaders are usually full of energy, ideas and are very passionate. (Wikipedia) The entire concept of transformational leadership was introduced by presidential biographer James MacGregor Burns. He related his theory to that of the difficulty in differentiation between management and leadership then said the only difference were in behavior and characteristics. Burns developed two different theories – Transformational leadership and Transactional leadership. It said that transformational approach made way for change in the organization and life of the employees. He believed that leaders and followers could help each other advance to higher levels if the work together. Unlike the transactional approach where only the leader benefits. Burns also believed that because of the vision and personality that leaders have, they can easily change the expectations and perceptions of their followers. Burns concluded that transformational and transactional forms of leadership were mutually exclusive. (Yahoo voices) In 1985...
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...Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanisms” at Hamburg School of Business Administration Prof. Dr. Christoph Niehus Simon Rybach Langenfelder Damm 90 22525 Hamburg Tel.: 0173/ 2196726 simon@rybach.de Matriculation number: 1896 MBA HL 2013 Charles Darwin described 1871 that “[…] an advancement in the standard of morality […] will certainly give an immense advantage to one tribe over another. A tribe including many members who, from possessing in a high degree the spirit of patriotism, fidelity, obedience, courage, and sympathy, were always ready to aid one another, and to sacrifice themselves for the common good, would be victorious over most other tribes” (Darwin, 1871/1981). His work about the antecedent of men pointed out to the importance of shared moral values as an element for the survival of certain tribes. These findings in the context of evolution are still valid and appropriate in the context of building high productivity teams in firms as a competitive advantage. Organizations have to cope with today’s complexity of a global business environment. Meeting this challenge requires a high degree of flexibility in companies in order to adapt to constantly, rapidly changing external factors. The globalization forces companies to develop new organizational structures to deal with the competitive pressure by improving their quality and efficiency. Teams, defined as “a small group of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals...
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...Model of Program Planning……………...22 Appendix B: Needs Assessment…………………………………………………23 Appendix C: Faculty Survey……………………………………………………..29 Appendix D: Student Survey…………………………………………………….30 Appendix E: List of Graduate Programs with Internship Components………….31 Appendix F: Internship Learning Agreement ……………………………………32 Appendix G: Possible Internship Sites for HALE Master’s Program…………...35 Appendix H: Sample Brochure…………………………………………………..36 Introduction The HALE master's program prepares individuals for entry-level leadership positions in postsecondary education, public agencies, and business settings. The program provides a broad understanding of educational systems from social, historical, cross-national, normative perspectives and an understanding of central issues in postsecondary teaching and learning, and a theoretical understanding of administration and leadership connected to practice. There are opportunities to develop and use skills needed in practice through practica...
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...incentives (Zikmund, McLeod, Jr., & Gilbert, 2002, p. 84). This incentive program would be a rewards program that would contain such prizes as high-end gift items. “The Food Marketing Institute reports that 76 percent of all large grocery retailers offer a frequent-shopper program” (Kerin, Hartley, Berkowitz, & Rudelius 2006, p. 517). For this reason Kudler is going to implement its own reward program but in its own way. Rather than providing customers with discounts customers will accumulate points. The customer can then purchase rewards from the program with the point he or she had acquired. This incentive program would have to contain a type of tracking device to maintain customer information and purchases. To develop this program a database, application and printed materials need to be designed. The scope of this project is to incorporate a system into or replacing the existing system that will track the current customers and maintain records of their spending at Kudler Fine Foods. The customer will come to the store, purchase products check out at the registers and use his or her Kudler club card to receive their earnings for that purchase. The system will record the items, purchase price and total in a...
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...HUMAN RESOURCE EFH LT MANAGEMENT ™ EDITION Gary Dessler Florida International University .I r e i l t l C e J r l 3 . l l Boston Columbus Indianapolis Dubai New York London Sydney San Francisco Madrid Milan Seoul Upper Saddle River Munich Paris Montreal Taipei Toronto Amsterdam Delhi Cape Town Mexico City Sao Paulo Hong Kong Singapore Tokyo Contents Preface xxiii Acknowledgments xxvii Introduction to Human Resource Management 2 WHAT IS HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? What Is Human Resource Management? 4 Why Is Human Resource Management Important to All Managers? 5 Line and Staff Aspects of Human Resource Management 6 Line Managers' Human Resource Duties 6 Human Resource Manager's Duties 7 New Approaches to Organizing HR 9 Cooperative Line and Staff HR Management: An Example 9 Moving from Line Manager to HR Manager 10 THE TRENDS SHAPING HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 10 Globalization and Competition Trends 11 Indebtedness ("Leverage") and Deregulation 12 Technological Trends 12 Trends in the Nature of Work 13 Workforce and Demographic Trends 14 Economic Challenges and Trends 15 IMPORTANT TRENDS IN HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 16 The New Human Resource Managers 16 Strategic Human Resource Management 18 High-Performance Work Systems 19 Evidence-Based Human Resource Management 19 19 • EVIDENCE-BASED HR: Why Should You Be Evidence-Based? Managing Ethics 20 HR Certification 20 THE PLAN OF THIS BOOK 21 The Basic Themes...
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... Strategic Management in a Global Context | Assessment A | Module Leader: Karl Warner | Matriculation Number: 09005374 | | Abstract The purpose of this essay is to evaluate a proposition which claims that the weaknesses of formal strategic planning confirm that alternative forms of strategic decision making are more appropriate for organisations that operate in highly uncertain and dynamic environment. | Table of Contents Introduction.......................................................................................................................3 Contrast between the nature of formal planning and strategic decision making...........3 Benefits and problems of formalised strategic decision making.....................................4 Benefits and problems of emergent strategy...................................................................4 The role of uncertain and dynamic environment.............................................................5 Why Borders failed while Barnes & Noble survived?.......................................................6 Conclusion.........................................................................................................................7 References.........................................................................................................................8 Introduction Planning is the basic function of strategic management and has a direct...
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...49233144 music Senior Project Research Paper Rachel McFarland 2011-2012 Severson Pecha kucha project Senior project pictures Senior Project Work Log Senior Project Speech Brandon Ferrell 0 inShare Wordpress + Follow Music Education Research Paper by Brandonjferrell on Apr 18, 2012 292 views More… No comments yet Subscribe to commentsPost Comment Music Education Research Paper — Document Transcript 1. Ferrell 1Brandon FerrellMrs. TilleryAP Literature15 November 2011 Music Education “Music is the universal language of mankind.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’srevelation about the universality of music applies even today in the education system ofAmerica. Over the last several years, funding for music education and even fine arts programs ingeneral has been decreasing among public school systems, on the basis that more money shouldbe spent teaching students academically applicable subjects in order to pass standardized tests.However, in a study by Amy Graziano, 237 second-grade children involved with both pianokeyboard training and innovative math software scored27% higher on proportional math andfractions...
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...Topic: Examine groupware systems including their various types and examples of organisational activities they support, and discuss how they would evolve in the future. Student number: 21819254 Introduction Nowadays, usage of IT systems in enterprise environment is growing at an incredible pace. The main purpose of it is to help groups of cooperating individuals to overcome time and spatial barriers. Enterprise systems implementation has led to the problem of cooperation between companies to reach their goals and successfully operate in the current market environment. The rising demand for collaboration software has led to the groupware market expansion. Collaborative software has influenced the expansion of enterprises by improving the effectiveness of a range of tools such as the ability to communicate over long distances. This software had a significant impact on expansion of enterprises and increased efficiency of its work, for example, the communication over long distances. Along with development of technologies, the way workers operate in organisations has completely changed. Monotonous and time consuming tasks can be easily solved using the computer. Consequently, this change led to increase in the number of “knowledge workers”, workers, whose main capital is knowledge (Davenport, Thomas, 2005). Organisations more often require employees, who have the skill and experience of working within a team. Obviously, teamwork has a significantly greater efficiency, especially in...
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...MSSM 517- Critical Infrastructure Weekly Assignment 2.2 Weekly Assignment: Provide a detailed description of the National Response Plan (NRP). How has your local government cooperated with the NRP? Pick a U.S. city if located outside of the U.S. The government of the United States has experienced and continues to establish consistent, often times comprehensive changes to the way it accomplishes Emergency Response operations. The catastrophic events of both September 11, 2001 and the lingering tragedy of Hurricane Katrina proved to be instantaneous prompts for the evolution of governmental amendment to and eventual restructure of the overarching procedural standard for incident response in the country. One of the many important after-effects would become what was labeled the National Response Framework, or NRF. A detailed outline of the NRF structure and intent follows. The template is a doctrinal approach to the domestic partnerships and implementation of resources above and beyond those rules set by the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and the Incident Command System (ICS) (FEMA, 2012). The sole purpose of the 90-page document is to ensure that government executives, private sector, nongovernmental organization (NGO) leaders, and emergency management practitioners across the nation understand domestic incident response roles, responsibilities and relationships in order to respond more effectively to any type of incident. General administrators...
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