Morfologia nominal 1 Articles

The model below provides some very useful descriptive and frequency statistics, including the means, for the 80 site managers participating in this study.

 Construction Site Problems (Drivers): data showed that poor communication is the most common problem for site managers (61 strongly agree and 21 agree, with a mean of 4.74), followed by site management and administration problems (43 strongly agree, 37 agree and 3 neutral, with a mean of 4.50).

 Barriers to Training Needs: data revealed that site managers believed a lack of job descriptions to be the main barriers to conducting TNA (59 strongly agree, 20 agree and 2 neutral, with a mean 4.67), followed by a lack of support from top management (50 strongly agree and 30 agree, with a mean of 4.60) and a lack of adequate expertise (41 strongly agree, 43 agree and 7 neutral, with a mean of 4.41).

 Indicators of Training Needs: site managers believed organizational performance problems are key indicators for conducting TNA (60 strongly agree and 20 agree, with a mean of 4.73), followed by meeting changes in the working environment (40 strongly agree and 25 agree, with a mean of 3.92).

 Training Needs Methods: the preferred method for delivering training needs by site managers is performance appraisal (38 strongly agree, 40 agree, 3 neutral and 1 disagrees, with a mean of 4.20), followed by on-site field visits (10 strongly agree and 49 agree, with a mean of 3.81).

 Criteria of Data Collection Methods: it was found that availability of HR expertise is the most important (37 strongly agree, 41 agree and 3 neutral, with a mean of 4.19) followed by top management preference (20 strongly agree, 47 agree and 17 neutral, with a mean of 3.90).

 Training Needs Techniques: it was found that PEST analysis was the most widely used technique by the organizations’ site managers (10 always, 40 frequently and 10 seldom, with a mean of 2.46), the second most popular was organizational scans (14 seldom, 47 rarely and 19 never, with a mean of 1.91).

 Importance of TNA (outcome): as for the importance of TNA: data shows that site managers accept the statement that TNA plays an important role in achieving improvement in training effectiveness (59 strongly agree and 23 agree, with a mean of 4.71), followed by TNA being used as guidance for career development (45 strongly agree and 31 agree, with a mean of 3.47) and organizational goals achievement (20 strongly agree, 45 agree and 15 ).

 Skills and Knowledge Needs Assessment: site managers were asked to rate the importance of a skill and/or knowledge item and the extent to which they have that skill and/or knowledge item. Based on this, the training needs gap for different skills and knowledge was calculated and the mean scores were presented. Data showed that the most important skill was perceived to be project management, with the highest mean score of 4.81 (67 very important and 15 important), followed by technical skills (51 very important and 31 important, with a mean of 4.62). The lowest level of skills possessed was project management (43 poor and 38 fair, with a mean score of 1.47), followed by technical skills (35 poor, 34 fair and 11 average, with a mean score of 1.60). The training needs gap was relatively greater for project management skills, followed by technical skills.

It can also be observed from the survey results, that the training needs gap, as perceived by site managers is not much for all knowledge. Data also showed that the most important knowledge need was site management administration, with the highest mean of 4.20 (70 very important and 11 important), followed by knowledge of production (56 very important and 24 important, with a mean of 4.15). However, the least knowledge possessed was also in the area of site management and

administration (36 poor and 45 fair, with a mean score of 1.56), followed by construction technology (41 poor, 32 fair and 7 average, with a mean score of 1.59). These areas of knowledge need more attention in terms of training and the training needs gap is relatively large for site management administration and knowledge of construction technology.

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Figure 5-1 Conceptual model development of TNA for site managers

Model Of Training Needs Assessment for Site managers

S it e m a n a g e r Is there a deficiency problem

Driver for TNA

1- Poor communication 2- Site Management Admin Task analysis 1- job analysis Person analysis 1-Performance appraisal TNA Methods 1- Performance appraisal 2- Site visit Criteria Of TNA 1-HR expertise 2-Top management preference Skills needs Knowledge's needs Possessed skills

1-Project management skills 2-Technical skills 3-Interpersonal skills 4-Enterprise skills 5-Conceptual skills 6-Business skills Possessed knowledge

1-Site Management, and admin 2-Construction Technology 3- knowledge of production on site 4-knowledge of process 5-Design knowledge 6-Quantity surveying Require knowledge

1-Site Management and admin 2- knowledge production on site 3- knowledge of process 4-Construction technology 5-Quantity surveying 6-Design knowledge Training needs outcome 1- Training effectiveness improvement 2- organisational goal Yes Indicators 1-Performance problem

2-Meet new changes in work

Require skills

1- Project management skills 2-Technical skills 3-Enterprise skills 4-Interpersonal skills 5-Conceptual skills 6--Business skills Input Process TNA Barriers 1- lack of job descriptions 2- lack of management support 3- Lack of expertise Output Gap areas Training needs output

1-Project management 2-technical skills 3- Site Management Admin knowledge 4- Production on site Process

Non training needs lead Organisational analysis 1-BEST analysis 2-Organisational Scan analysis 3-SWOT analysis yes N o Trigger event

As identified in Figure 5-1 above, this model helps us to understand the assessment needs of site managers in the Iraqi construction industry. To start with the first phase, this model is

likely to further support the view that site managers consider poor communication and poor site management administration as the main drivers for TNA for site managers in the construction industry. This is attributed to the fact that in most Arab countries, including Iraq, rapid changes occurred after independence and nationalization: such as expansion of the public sector; this, in turn, lead to an increased demand for workers to fill managerial positions (Atiyyah, 1993). Less capable employees, who lacked any in-depth knowledge of management, often filled management positions in these countries; therefore the need for management training became apparent. Hence, post-independence most Arab governments were faced with severe shortages of professionals, managers and skilled labour. Governments reacted to this by investing in formal education at all levels. However, training to develop the managerial skills of employees in particular received little attention at this stage, because it was still generally believed that management competence could be acquired either through experience, or even sometimes by friendship. Atiyyah (1993) argues that Arab managers invest more in strengthening their positions within their organizations and humanizing their personal relations with their supervisors than developing their skills and knowledge needed for their organization. Moreover, Abdalla and Al-Homoud (1995) argue that personal connections, nepotism, sectarian and ideological affiliations, negatively influenced training effectiveness.

In the input phase, the model consists of an organizational analysis, operational analysis and a personal analysis. Hence, this phase shows that the TNA model has not been applied comprehensively. It has been found that the application of training programs set by TNA were mostly either rare or seldom, despite the adoption of the full TNA model by Iraqi construction firms. This indicates that the companies depend on techniques, which are useful only for improving the company’s policy, or that perhaps they are not aware of the importance of conducting TNA at all the TNA levels. As a result, they do not give full attention to other cases such as job analysis, monitoring absenteeism, labour turnover, complaints or a decrease in an individual’s performance. This obviously leads to ineffective and inefficient TNA outcomes.

At the same stage of TNA the best methods for site managers were performance appraisal followed by site visits because those methods could make very accurate judgments regarding employees’ performance. This finding for site managers concurred with Agnaia’s (1996), who found performance appraisals to be one of the predominant TNA approaches or techniques in Libyan companies. It is possibly no surprise to find that performance appraisals are selected as the best method by site managers, as they are considered the most common

and widely used method of TNA for most organizations (Brown, 2002; Osborne, 1996). In order to implement those methods effectively and efficiently site managers assumed staff with HR expertise to be essential for the TNA method of data collection.

In the input phase, TNA could face difficulties that impede the conduct of TNA in organizations. It was found that a lack of a clear job description followed by a lack of upper management support is considered as the main barrier facing site managers in the Iraqi construction industry. This could be very common in most Arabic organization. This finding corresponds with Al-Faleh (1985), who argues that most Arab organizations lack job descriptions, clear performance appraisals and that the approach used for assessing the needs of employees was impressionistic rather than systematic.

In the process phase, after TNA is identified, there are certain important skills and knowledge that are required to enrich employees’ abilities in the Iraqi construction industry sector. In this phase, the model starts to diagnose the required skills and knowledge, and the skills and knowledge possessed by employees; afterwards, the output phase is the conclusion as to whether the model indicates either training or non-training needs, and in some cases, both. Within the context of training needs drawn for the research, it emerged that the urgent need to train site managers was conceived to be common in the Iraq construction industry. As identified in above flow-chart, there are great gaps in project management skills, technical skills and knowledge of site-management administration for site managers; therefore training needs are evident for these areas of skills and knowledge. This can provide us with an image that Iraqi construction site management suffers from a deficiency of the right calibre of management in general, and a lack of proper construction project management, in particular. This is due to the dissemination of a cultural of: concentrating on technical expertise development; not paying proper attention to the advancement of the individuals’ aptitudes; and not improving the construction knowledge-base, as a whole. Technical skills and managerial skills are both required to meet the demands of the construction business environment. The key role of site managers and the importance of their managerial and technical skills, are increasingly being recognised in Iraq at the present time, though perhaps not sufficiently within many small firms. The role of site managers in construction has become increasingly critical and requires a different mix of skills (both technical and construction project management skills).

Non-training needs that have no skills or knowledge deficiency for site managers are: conceptual skills, business skills, design technology skills and quantity-surveying knowledge. Lastly, the training needs assessment outcome from site managers’ point of view is to achieve and improvement in training effectiveness.