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The importance of clients' responsibilities in the construction process, as perceived by both clients and consultants, was assessed through a structured questionnaire survey. Using the relative index ranking technique, clients' fundamental needs and responsibilities in the construction process were analysed and ranked. Results indicate that the four most important needs are: functionality of the building, safety of the building, quality of the building, and completion time. The four most important clients' responsibilities identified by clients themselves are: planning/design, project finance, project implementation/management, and project definition/formulation. The four most important clients' responsibilities to project consultants are: project finance, project definition/formulation, planning/design, and project implementation/management. If both consultants and clients understand the fundamental needs of construction clients and if clients themselves are prepared to take an active role in the construction process, the chances of producing more successful projects will improve.

Construction management research (CMR) surveys frequently use questionnaires that employ “Likert-type” items, Likert-items, and Likert scales to capture respondents ' self-reported attitudes. This Editorial builds substantially on earlier observations by Holt regarding the significance of appropriate questionnaire response scale design and, use of the relative importance index (RII) method to analyse those data such scales yield. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Several RII models are examined by their application to a data set. Objectives include to contrast their practicality in use, compare outputs, highlight limitations of some models and discuss methods of RII data analysis, interrogation and interpretation.

Principal messages are: all components of response scales should be carefully designed; alternative RII models can produce similar results of analysis; “simple percentage” RII models may not yield “real” percentages; the minimum rating scale integer should accurately reflect its descriptor; only rating scales offering a “0” response, or an “adjusted percentage” RII model can achieve unity; and RII outputs should be interpreted cautiously.

Uncertain application of the RII has been observed within CMR literature, so implications of the Editorial will be of direct relevance to this research community (and beyond).

Aside from that cited above, no additional literature has been identified that specifically links RII usage to CMR.

The purpose of the research discussed in this paper is to ascertain the perception, from the project manager's viewpoint, of factors affecting construction productivity in the State of Queensland, Australia.

The research was conducted by a structured questionnaire that was sent to 89 randomly selected construction project managers in Queensland, Australia. This questionnaire requested background information about the respondents and then sought a score, using a 0-4 Likert scale, from each of them with respect to the importance of 47 factors identified from the literature that were considered likely to affect construction productivity. The factors were stratified into primary factors and secondary factors contributing to three of the primary factors. There were 36 responses. These factors were rated by the respondents and then ranked using a relative importance index approach.

The research evaluated the relative importance of the primary factors with respect to their effect on construction productivity. The 15 highest ranking factors are discussed. Three factors – rework, poor supervisor competency, and incomplete drawings – were ranked as having a strong effect on construction productivity. There was also an analysis of the secondary factors in relation to three of the primary factors.

The research focused on the State of Queensland in Australia. It had a response rate of 40 per cent. It provides insight into the factors affecting productivity on construction projects in Australia. Further research to investigate the identified factors in depth, using targeted interviews of expert project management professionals, is currently being undertaken.

The construction industry can use the findings in this paper as a basis for improving the productivity of construction projects.

This research is original research, which has highlighted a number of key areas of which construction productivity can be improved.

One of the major reasons for ineffective project delivery in the Nigerian construction industry is the improper assessment of risk factors. As a result, the industry continues to suffer poor performance with many projects failing to meet time and cost targets. This paper identifies the risk factors inherent in different building procurement methods and assesses their perceived relative importance with a view to evaluating their impact on project cost. The paper reports on a study carried out through a questionnaire survey of professionals within the construction industry in order to asses the relative importance placed on risk factors. Responses from the survey were analysed using relative importance index for the purpose of evaluating the impact of risk on projects cost. Data were collected on selected completed projects and analysed using frequencies, mean values and relative important index. The main risk factors identified are finance and political influence. A model was developed by relating the variation between the initial contract estimate and the actual project cost to the risk variables. From the analysis, the percentages of projects cost overrun due to the impact of risk were established for each procurement method investigated. The paper recommends that contingency additions should be based on the procurement method used.

Since the construction industry in the State of Kuwait is further governed by a competitive environment, which is driven by the lowest cost mentality, the aim of this study is to identify and rank the relative importance of factors perceived to influence bid mark‐up size decisions among local general contractors bidding on construction projects.

The effects of 40 identified factors, which were shortlisted based on previous relevant investigations and the input of local industry experts, were surveyed by a statistically representative sample of contractors. Using the “relative importance index” technique, the influence ranks of the factors explored were established.

The results reveal the following as the primary factors affecting general contractors' bid mark‐up size decisions: employer type and identity; project size; clarity of technical specifications; previous experience with employer; number and identity of competitors; previous experience in similar projects; design complexity level; current work load; design quality level; and tendering duration.

Although the outputs contribute to the overall body of knowledge related to bidding in the construction industry, it is further recommended to determine the relationship between the factors explored, especially those perceived as most significant, and their tangible effects on contractors' mark‐up decisions.

The outcomes: demonstrate the importance of the “constructability” concept to construction costs; and assert that the conception of exerting pressure on designers to cut down design durations and fees, and further shortening tenders' durations to speed up the projects' development process, is “false economy”.

The findings fill a gap in knowledge of the factors affecting contractors' bid mark‐up decisions, which can be used to provide academics, employers, industry practitioners, and policy makers, direction for focusing, acting upon and controlling the primary factors perceived to impact the competitiveness level of the State's construction industry.

The purpose of this paper is first, to assess the generalizability of the Integrative Model of organizational trust to the development of workplace trust in upward, downward, and lateral relationships. Second, it examines the relative importance of ability, benevolence, and integrity in predicting trust in supervisor, subordinate, and peer. Design/methodology/approach – Human resource professionals (n=187) from two sources (a human resource professionals’ organization and a large Canadian corporation) responded to an online survey.

The results indicate that the integrative model of organizational trust was applicable to trust in supervisor, subordinate, and peer. The results also suggest that the relative importance of ability, benevolence, and integrity in predicting trust differed according to the trustor‐trustee dyad.

A potential limitation of this study is that data regarding trust in each of the three referents (supervisor, subordinate, and peer) were obtained from the same raters. These findings need to be replicated with multi‐source data.

Given the necessity of trust for positive cooperative relationships, a better understanding of how to foster trustworthiness among individuals would be a benefit to society.

The findings provide valuable information for the development of effective and efficient trust‐building strategies for upward, downward, and lateral workplace relationships.

The paper describes a study which simultaneously examined trust in supervisor, trust in subordinate, and trust in peer. It also assessed the relative importance of the antecedents of trustworthiness across referent dyads using the relative weight analysis procedure strategy.

A recent analysis of wages has shown that within the productive structure of the French economy a two‐fold process of factor substitution is under way, namely the substition of capital for labour and of non‐manual for manual workers. By the logic of neo‐classical distribution theory, the relative price of manual labour should be increasing as its marginal productivity rises. But computations which we have carried out for the French economy between 1949 and 1973 yield the opposite result: the relative price of labour has fallen steadily over the period. The aim of this article is to attempt to explain how much of this decreasing trend is attributable to changes in the structure of the active population and how much is due to changes in the structure of the prices of labour. For this purpose, and following the work of Phelps Brown and Sheila Hopkins, we have calculated an index reflecting the relationship between the index of manual workers' wage rates and the index of national income per head of the occupied population. This relationship represents what is usually referred to as the “wage‐income ratio”. (WIR), with the difference that, in this case, it is limited to wage rates in the private sector. Changes in the index of the WIR can be regarded as reflecting changes in the relative index of a unit of labour if it is accepted that the index of income per head of the occupied population itself can be interpreted as an index of the price of productive factors. This hypothesis is accepted by Phelps Brown and S. Hopkins: “the wage‐income ratio gives us the rate of exchange of a unit of wage‐earners' work, not against quantities of produce but against quantities of other factors”.

Construction delays are a common problem in the Egyptian construction industry. Frequent delays in a project can lead to disputes and litigation. This paper aims to study and analyze the causes of construction delays.

This research identifies delay causes in residential projects in Egypt and analyzes these causes with the relative importance index method. The feedback of construction experts was obtained through interviews. Subsequently, a questionnaire survey was prepared. Fifty-six different delay causes were identified and categorized into eight categories based on a literature review and interviews with 36 experts from the construction industry who represent owners, consultants and contractors.

According to the highest values of the relative importance index, the top ten delay causes of residential projects in Egypt are determined. Statistical analysis is carried out using the analysis of variance method to test delay causes obtained from the survey, which revealed a good correlation between residential projects parties with respect to most of the delay causes. A fuzzy logic model using MATLAB is developed for determining the probability of delay of residential projects, and the model was tested in a real case study and was found to be satisfactory.

Delay causes in residential projects in Egypt were identified, and these causes were analyzed using the relative importance index method and fuzzy logic.

Successful risk management is influential in different phases of construction projects. It can play a critical role in reducing the possibility of claims as well as related disputes. The risk management knowledge area in large capital projects such as oil and gas is considered a questionable problem in the construction industry. The present study makes an effort to identify the importance of process groups in improving risk management performance.

This study is selected and ranked 36 factors leading to the claim in Iran's oil and gas industry through the Delphi method and a questionnaire. Factors categorized into a risk breakdown structure (RBS) include eight groups. Factors are linked to one of the process groups by a Delphi method. Finally, the relationship between RBS and the five process groups is analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

Findings showed that the planning process group had more confirmed factors than others. Most of the supported communications belonged to the contractor and the owner parties. Also, the cause of delay in the implementation phase due to the contractor performance had a higher relative importance index.

This article, from a project life-cycle perspective, considers the new structure between the risks leading to claims and the key parties to the project. It can be a good criterion for identifying risks and a timelier response to them before the risks turn into disagreements.

The purpose of this paper is to identify, explore, rank the relative importance and determine the prevalent allocation response trends of the major construction risk factors considered by general contractors operating in the State of Qatar.

A structured questionnaire survey comprising 37 potential risk factors was distributed to a statistically representative sample of contractors. The influence ranks of the factors explored were determined using the “Relative Importance Index (RII)” technique, whereas the prevalent trend of contractors’ attitudes toward risk allocation of each factor investigated was quantified and expressed as a percentage, based on the number of respondents who selected a specific option, in relation to the total number of respondents.

The results obtained indicate that risks related to the “client” group are perceived as most critical, followed by the “consultant”, “contractor” and “exogenous” group-related factors, respectively. The outcomes further show that the “transfer” option is the contractors’ prevalent response to “client” and “consultant”-related risks, while the “retention” decision is the principal pattern linked to “contractor” and “exogenous” group-related risk factors.

The dominant respondents’ perception that the crucial construction risks are related to clients and consultants suggests that these two parties have an essential role in controlling the negative ramifications of the associated factors.

The findings suggest that increasing designers’ awareness of the significant effect of applying the constructability concept can considerably help reducing the risks concomitant of the construction operation. Policy makers may contribute, moreover, in alleviating the risk of incompetent technical staff and operatives’ employment by controlling the migration of inexperienced and unskilled construction workforce into the State.

Given the knowledge gap for the major construction risk factors considered by general contractors in Qatar, the results reported in this study can provide clients, industry practitioners and policy makers with guidance to effectively manage the significant risks determined, which can further assist in achieving a reasonable level of competitiveness and cost-effective operation.