Welcome to the second issue of the Journal of Construction Business and Management (JCBM) in 2017. The issue contains six articles that were written by authors based in the United Kingdom, South African and Nigerian universities. Altogether, twelve authors produced these papers aimed at strengthening the discourse in and enhancing construction business and management research. The themes covered are varied and related to management theory and practice in the construction industry. These papers fill critical gaps in the knowledge and practice of construction businesses and project management by exposing the reader to innovative technologies, safety interventions, human resource management strategies and advances in housing development. The first paper by Onugwa and Uduma-Olugu examines how Building Information Modelling (BIM) is improving collaboration among stakeholders in the construction industry. The paper establishes that a country has to adopt BIM to develop an internationally competitive construction sector. Paper two by Dosumu et al. seeks to understand the issue of continual poor project performance in the construction industry by investigating the frequent causes of errors in construction contract documents and suggests that all designs should go through a quality assurance process to prevent errors prevalent on construction contract documents and thereby improve project performance. Ogbu’s paper highlights the need for low-income housing end-users to make inputs at the design and planning stages of their buildings based on the findings that the perception of a building by its occupants, rather than the physical features of the building is the main driver of maintenance cost. Paper four by Oladokun and Komolafe establishes that rural factors were the primary drivers of the housing choice by rural dwellers and recommends the inclusion of cultural values of the people such as kinship and social relations into integrated approaches to rural housing development. Housing development is a National strategy of most African countries needs to be improved in rural areas. The paper by Ameh and Daniel suggests that although the due process is followed in recruitment processes, the selection of suitable candidates is often hampered by interferences and competitive work conditions. The authors propose different methods through which human resource management can be improved in Nigerian construction firms. The final paper by Okoro and Musonda establishes the underlying structures of safety performance measures related to construction workers' unhealthy and unsafe eating behaviour and provides useful evidence for the psychometric evaluation of construction workers' safety and behaviours on construction sites. I wish to thank all authors who submitted papers for consideration, members of the Editorial Board and Panel of Reviewers for their assistance, timeous feedback and comments that helped shape and improve the quality of the submitted manuscripts. Finally, we welcome your feedback and suggestions that will help improve the quality of the journal and maintain the integrity of our published findings.
Workforce Management Decisions in the Construction Industry in the UAE
