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1 – 10 of over 17000The construction industry can be characterised as a sector of the economy that uses planning, design, construction, maintenance and repair, and operation to transform various…
Abstract
The construction industry can be characterised as a sector of the economy that uses planning, design, construction, maintenance and repair, and operation to transform various resources into physical facilities in both developed and developing countries. Residential and non-residential structures, as well as heavy construction, are among the types of public and private facilities built, and these physical facilities play an important and visible part in the development process. Major participants in the construction industry include the design team (architects, engineers and quantity surveyors), management consultants, general contractors, heavy construction contractors, special trade contractors or subcontractors, and construction workers, as well as the owners, managers and users of the built facility. Building financing and insurance businesses, land developers, real estate agents and material and machinery suppliers and distributors, to name a few, are all involved in construction, yet they are categorised as independent but connected industries. Cost is a major factor that affects and determine the choice and engagement of these processes and stakeholders, and the same has been a measure of project success from the time immemorial.
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WHY is it, may we enquire, that so few work study technicians write about work study?
IN view of the ever‐increasing application of time and motion study techniques in this country it is difficult to understand why so few manufacturers of time and labour‐saving…
Abstract
IN view of the ever‐increasing application of time and motion study techniques in this country it is difficult to understand why so few manufacturers of time and labour‐saving equipment advertise the very items required by work study engineers.
Aziza Laguecir, Christopher S. Chapman and Anja Kern
The purpose of this paper is to examine the organizational construction of profit at the responsibility-centre level, how underlying cost calculations are challenged, and the role…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the organizational construction of profit at the responsibility-centre level, how underlying cost calculations are challenged, and the role of accountants therein.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper analyses profit calculation in a public social housing organization that experienced New Public Management (NPM). Participant observations, archives and interviews inform the study over three years, enabling access to day-to-day practices.
Findings
This study examines a trial of strength that revisited long-existing profitability and cost calculations. Accountants held competing views of how to treat labour costs. Some were anti-programme during a trial of incompatibility, while others were programme defenders. The authors also provide evidence of the stability of an established network and its resistance to the claims of an adversary spokesperson in a trial of strength. The concept of trial of incompatibility proved helpful in showing how the actor networks within OMEGA played out the tension between profit orientation and the social mission of offering affordable dwellings.
Research limitations/implications
The paper provides rare qualitative data on the significant and complex role of calculative costing choices in determining intra-organizational profitability and its interference with the inherent social mission of the organization.
Practical implications
The authors suggest that profitability calculations are influenced not only by economic context but also by different views of organizational actors regarding how to calculate profit. These calculations would benefit from a more detailed and explicit documentation of reasons for choices made, given the potential for different and, in principle, equally valid approaches. The authors provide further evidence of the complexity of the public social housing sector.
Social implications
This research points to a departure from the mission of public social housing in the face of NPM reforms and further questions the compatibility of a profit orientation with the provision of affordable dwellings.
Originality/value
The findings show intra-accounting variation regarding a specific element of profit calculation (labour costs) relating to the organization’s wider mission and status.
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IT is difficult to imagine the world of Work Study without the urbane ubiquity of Russell Currie, whose death on 28 August we deeply regret to record. Although he had been…
Abstract
IT is difficult to imagine the world of Work Study without the urbane ubiquity of Russell Currie, whose death on 28 August we deeply regret to record. Although he had been officially in retirement for a year or two his presence was immanent in any important gathering of those who had so long looked to him for the leadership that was always forthcoming. We can fittingly borrow an epigram he coined at the London Congress in 1963 as apt at this time. ‘The sun shone to greet your arrival; the skies weep for your departure.’
Irina Farquhar and Alan Sorkin
This study proposes targeted modernization of the Department of Defense (DoD's) Joint Forces Ammunition Logistics information system by implementing the optimized innovative…
Abstract
This study proposes targeted modernization of the Department of Defense (DoD's) Joint Forces Ammunition Logistics information system by implementing the optimized innovative information technology open architecture design and integrating Radio Frequency Identification Device data technologies and real-time optimization and control mechanisms as the critical technology components of the solution. The innovative information technology, which pursues the focused logistics, will be deployed in 36 months at the estimated cost of $568 million in constant dollars. We estimate that the Systems, Applications, Products (SAP)-based enterprise integration solution that the Army currently pursues will cost another $1.5 billion through the year 2014; however, it is unlikely to deliver the intended technical capabilities.
YET another book relating to industrial engineering arrives from the United States. Why is it that no English author ever writes a book about new developments in work study? All…
Abstract
YET another book relating to industrial engineering arrives from the United States. Why is it that no English author ever writes a book about new developments in work study? All the tomes on industrial engineering come from across the Atlantic Ocean. Is it because no one has the initiative, or is it the lack of “know‐how”? A combination of the two, no doubt. We have complained before of the indolent attitude of work study technicians, and we shall complain again—they are completely pen‐shy!
Donald R. Deis, Helmut Schneider, Chester G. Wilmot and Charles H. Coates
The purpose of this project was to compare the cost of transportation engineering design services provided by private contractors versus services provided by state transportation…
Abstract
The purpose of this project was to compare the cost of transportation engineering design services provided by private contractors versus services provided by state transportation agency staff for the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (LaDOTD). Due to shrinking budgets, staff cuts, and a trend toward privatization, state transportation agencies now outsource the majority of the services they provide. The merits of doing so, however, have been difficult to discern for lack of “apples-to-apples” comparisons. For engineering design services, this problem is particularly acute due to the uniqueness of many projects (e.g., a bridge over the Mississippi river). A simulation approach was used in this study to make “apples-to-apples” comparisons for 39 design projects, 22 in-house projects and 17 consultant projects. For each in-house design project, the cost was estimated had the work been done by a consulting firm. Similarly, for each consultant design project, the cost was estimated had the work been done by in-house staff. The result of the study was that in-house design costs were cheaper by an average of 17 to 19 percent.