Transnational Adaptation Model for Facilitating Technology and Expertise Mobilisation in Gulf AEC Organisations

Abstract

The fragmented nature of the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry is well recognised, the main issues of which relate to failures in communication, process, productivity and interoperability. These failures have contributed to an increased proliferation of adversarial relationships between the different parties involved in projects, the result of which have deleteriously affected projects. Challenges include a range of issues, from the veracity of design information throughout the project lifecycle, through to supply chain communication. These are global issues. For example, in the Gulf States, the nature and complexity of AEC projects has changed significantly due to increased globalisation and the emergence of enmeshed transnational practices. This has created an overwhelming reliance on the mobilisation and transfer of technology/expertise of professional expatriates, which has influenced the approach taken to traditional design and construction business models, including staff roles and procedures. New knowledge and ways of working are needed to support future projects in the Gulf States. There is also a requirement to capture and codify domain-specific expertise. This paper discusses the need to enhance Qatar's AEC industry by fostering a smooth transition from its current position, into a more sustainable [replicable] state. The philosophical underpinnings of this paper take into account disparate socio-cultural, environmental and economic impacts of change, in terms of business models, technology, innovation, labour market needs, local laws/bylaws, and legislation. A theoretical growth model is presented for discussion. This builds on the experience of the UK (in particular) in terms of facilitating the mobility and penetration of technology/expertise/change in the AEC sectors. This paper presents a series of recommendations needed to develop a Pervasive Transnational Adaptation model for Qatar and the Gulf States, covering such issues as: ICT adoption, agile project management, technology-transfer, innovation, offsite construction, Public Private Partnerships, capacity building, and international strategic alliances.

Full text

TRANSNATIONAL ADAPTATION MODEL FOR FACILITATING TECHNOLOGY
AND EXPERTISE MOBILISATION IN GULF AEC ORGANISATIONS
Farzad Pour Rahimian 1*, Jack Steven Goulding 1, Ashraf M. Salama 2, Steven Ruddock 1, and Hatem Galal
Abdelazim Ibrahim 3
1 The Grenfell-Baines School of Architecture, Construction and Environment, University of Central Lancashire,
Preston, PR1 2HE, UK
2 Department of Architecture, University of Strathclyde, James Weir Building, Montrose Street, Glasgow G1 1XJ
3 Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, College of Engineering, Qatar University
* Corresponding author (fpour-rahimian@uclan.ac.uk)
ABSTRACT
The fragmented nature of the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry is well recognised, the
main issues of which relate to failures in communication, process, productivity and interoperability. These failures
have contributed to an increased proliferation of adversarial relationships between the different parties involved in
projects, the result of which have deleteriously affected projects. Challenges include a range of issues, from the
veracity of design information throughout the project lifecycle, through to supply chain communication. These are
global issues. For example, in the Gulf States, the nature and complexity of AEC projects has changed significantly
due to increased globalisation and the emergence of enmeshed transnational practices. This has created an
overwhelming reliance on the mobilisation and transfer of technology/expertise of professional expatriates, which
has influenced the approach taken to traditional design and construction business models, including staff roles and
procedures. New knowledge and ways of working are needed to support future projects in the Gulf States. There is
also a requirement to capture and codify domain-specific expertise. This paper discusses the need to enhance
Qatar’s AEC industry by fostering a smooth transition from its current position, into a more sustainable
[replicable] state. The philosophical underpinnings of this paper take into account disparate socio-cultural,
environmental and economic impacts of change, in terms of business models, technology, innovation, labour
market needs, local laws/bylaws, and legislation. A theoretical growth model is presented for discussion. This
builds on the experience of the UK (in particular) in terms of facilitating the mobility and penetration of
technology/expertise/change in the AEC sectors. This paper presents a series of recommendations needed to
develop a Pervasive Transnational Adaptation model for Qatar and the Gulf States, covering such issues as: ICT
adoption, agile project management, technology-transfer, innovation, offsite construction, Public Private
Partnerships, capacity building, and international strategic alliances.
Keywords: Productivity and Workforce Issues, AEC, Transnational Adaptation, Expertise Mobilisation,
Technology Mobilisation, Innovation, Gulf States, Qatar.
1. INTRODUCTION
The Qatari economy has increased majorly over past 10 years. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has more than
tripled. A major reason for this is the oil and gas industry. These natural resources have aided Qatar in becoming
the world leader in GDP per capita according to the International Monetary fund (IMF). In pursuance of this, the
Qatari construction sector is expected to expand on average, by 12% a year (up to 2021). The successful 2022 FIFA
World Cup bid has had acted as a catalyst and has led to the Qatari government to develop a long-term framework
for delivering outcomes, namely the ‘Qatar National Vision’. By 2030 Qatar aims to become an advanced society,
capable of being sustainable in terms of development. The vision also aims to provide a high standard of living for
current, and future, generations. It is anticipated that achievement of the Qatar National Vision will evolve Qatar
from being a predominantly hydrocarbon-driven economy into a “knowledge economy”, via the four pillars of
Human Development, Social Development, Economic Development and Environmental Development (Qatar
National Broadband Network, 2013). In accordance to this progressive development and globalisation trend within
this region, technology/expertise mobilisation and transfer of tacit and explicit knowledge from developed
countries has been widely acknowledged as one of the key factors for leveraging success. However, the social,
technological, cultural, and economic implications of this trend has led to fundamental changes in the conventional
design and construction business models, including staff roles and procedures, within the Qatari Architecture,
Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry. This has been even amplified due to fragmented nature of the AEC
industry which is well recognised both in academia and in practice, the consequences of which have led to several
documented problems relating ostensibly to failures in communication and information processing (Egan, 1998,
Latham, 1994). These failures have contributed to an increased proliferation of adversarial relationships between
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International Conference on Innovative Production and Construction (IPC 2015)
28-31 July 2015, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

the different parties involved projects, and have affected the veracity of design information within the project
lifecycle. As such, this paper argues that the AEC industry in the Gulf region needs a paradigm shift from the
conventional approaches to be able to address the challenges of the new type of practice. It is also suggested that
due to these high impact transitions, high value skills and processes need to be firmly embedded in the Gulf States.
2. CROSS CULTURAL TRAINING AND STRATEGIC ALLIANCES
In order to increase international productivity, many global organisations provide Cross Cultural Training (CCT)
to their expatriates. This simple action can significantly contribute to the success of international construction
projects and is critical in construction, due to the increase in strategic alliances in the industry. This increase in
strategic alliances increases the significance of cultural differences due to the interaction of workers from different
cultures. Companies have to consider the cultural concepts in their daily business to operate successfully in the
global marketplace (Kivrak et al., 2009). There is a high rate of expatriate failure in Qatar, and a major reason for
this is the inability to adapt cross-cultural skills in their new environment (Hurn, 2007). Consequently, many
companies operating in the Gulf Region have been exploring new methods to aid expatriates in acclimatising to
their new environment. CCT has been identified as a main method of achieving this. It is important to acknowledge
the importance and impact of culture and innovation on business performance. Corporate culture is often ingrained
and very difficult to influence and change, as it is frequently affected by employees’ deep-rooted values and beliefs,
the nature and causes of which can often have far reaching consequences (Geletkanycz, 1997). This is a particular
challenge in the Gulf region, especially where companies are trying to enter new markets, or ‘settle in’ to new
business environments. Numerous issues tend to surface, from general acclimatisation, through to understanding
on such factors as government strategies/policies, ethics, traditional approaches, technology, procurement,
financial matters etc. Understanding these issues from the outset can therefore have a significant impact on how
companies perceive this new operating environment; specifically, whether they can adapt, or decide to leave. From
an AEC perspective, it is therefore important to appreciate the dynamic business environment and move forward
into a new learning culture, as construction organisations need to learn (and change) simultaneously (Love et al.,
2000). Whilst that culture is accepted, one must recognise the impact of several conflicting concepts, including the
‘tensions’ between traditional and innovative business thinking. The real challenge here is to maximise such
drivers as the creation of added-value (Johannessen, 2013), improved productivity (Al-Ansari et al., 2013),
increased growth (Paul Jones et al., 2013), sustainability, developing economies of scale (Reed et al., 2012),
organisational learning, and understanding the relationship between organisational culture, people and
performance. This is particularly important, as the preservation of traditions and culture often tend to take
precedence; which can be counterproductive if not appropriately managed (Sadegh Sharifirad and Ataei, 2012).
3. THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ICT AND SKILLED LABOUR
Failures due to the fragmented nature of AEC industry have contributed to an increased proliferation of adversarial
relationships between the different parties involved in a project, and adverse information loss within the project
lifecycle. Stewart et al. (2003) advocated employment of cutting-edge technologies in organisational management
and decision-making process. During past two decades, ICT has revolutionised AEC production and design
communication and decision-making systems and has led to dramatic changes within the AEC sector, in terms of
labour and costs. However, project teams are still facing real and signification problems and challenges regarding
heterogeneous systems faced by project teams using disintegrated project interfaces (Goulding et al., 2014). In
essence, the problem here is that the industry is experiencing confusion as to how to manage an integrated project
information system in order to support decision-making process. In spite of the success of some promising
attempts in employing Building Information Modelling (Sawhney et al., 2014), process integration in Gulf
projects is still limited, especially at the decision making stage. Thereby, current AEC firms in the region are facing
a series of challenges with respect to the management, integration, and alignment of dynamic data to market forces,
core business processes and legislative compliance requirements. Consequently, there is a need to address these
challenges by an innovative decision support tool capable of managing complex data sets and aligning to differing
Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) business models and levels of organisational maturity. These can be further
justified in lights of issues of People, Process, and Product. From the People perspective, failure concerns the
inability to understand the importance of obligations, the necessity to employ competent and qualified staff in the
area of archives and records management, and the inability to understand the importance of training. These issues
were raised in a temporal study by Parker and Castleman (2007), especially noting the importance enabling SMEs
to employ ICT to help them make informed decisions. From the Process perspective, failure concerns the inability
to establish policies, procedures, and guidance for the management of project documentation goals and practices,
the provision of appropriate resources to manage data, and the inability to implement statutory and/or legal
requirements. Finally, from the Product perspective, failures include the inability to deploy appropriate
technologies and systems needed to support project information, records management and archiving.
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International Conference on Innovative Production and Construction (IPC 2015)
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4. GROWTH AND PRODUCTIVITY MODELS
Numerous attempts have been made to model and measure productivity in the construction industry, most of which
have focused on multifactor productivity indicators and the measurement of total factor productivity (TFP).
However, these studies have been hampered by the lack of availability of appropriate data on the composition of
output and inputs at the meso-level. For example, Xue et al. (2008) used data envelopment analysis based indices
to measure construction industry productivity in China; and Li and Liu (2010) used a Malmquist index method as
a decomposition technique to estimate the TFP of the Australian construction industry (to analyse the factors
which affecting technological change in the industry). However, the problems of data provision are not just issues
for the construction industry (Ruddock and Ruddock, 2011). The OECD and the Groningen Growth and
Development Centre maintain multifactor productivity series for OECD economies at the macro-level. However,
to permit international comparisons, the main challenge seems to be the lack of available statistics on the
composition of labour and capital at the industry level for a sufficient number of countries. As a result,
international industry productivity comparisons are rudimentary, including methods of inputs, outputs and TFP
measurement, mostly based on national accounts data, the OECD Structural Analysis (STAN) database and its
predecessor the International Sectoral Database (ISDB). These databases provide industry level series on output,
aggregate hours worked and aggregate capital stock for a limited group F countries and years, while ignoring
changes in the composition of factor inputs. Growth and Productivity Accounts, such as EUKLEMS, provide a
rich source of information for the analysis of productivity and growth in the construction industry. On this theme,
determining ‘value’ can present its own set of challenges, where for example Ruddock (2006) reported that
efficiency gains from ICT in the construction industry could only be understood with better measurement
approaches. Similarly, Jorgenson et al. (2008) asserted that the growth accounts allow the absolute and relative
importance of labour, capital and intermediate inputs to growth to be measured and the derivation of multifactor
productivity measures to indicate the efficiency with which inputs are being used in the production process. The
growth accounting framework utilises production possibility frontiers where industry gross output is a function of
inputs indexed over time.
Proposed
Growth Model
gap analysis and
transition
knowledge
creation
knowledge
application
evaluation
metrics
project-
specific
needs
Qatar
Environment
technology/knowledge
transfer
tkt+1
technology/knowledge
absorption
competitors
c+1
strategic
trajectories
s+1
business
drivers
sector
requirements
technology/knowledge
diffusion/dissemination
Innovation
opportunities
Fig. 1. Theoretical Framework of the Proposed Growth Model
The transdisciplinary global AEC projects are becoming progressively complex, engaging new business processes
and technological solutions to meet ever-increasing demands. This often requires employing high-level skill sets to
deliver the solutions needed. This is also evident in the Gulf States. These issues [and contextual requirements] are
presented in Figure 1. From this, it can be seen that there are several interrelated issues to contend with, from
causal drivers and external constraints, through to the need to capture, codify and store interdisciplinary and
transdisciplinary processes, skills and decision-making criteria for subsequent re-use. This includes a number of
fundamental dynamics, including policies, technology, productivity, skills, infrastructure, culture, competition,
strategic trajectories etc. These are critical issues facing global construction companies operating in the Gulf
States.
5. CONCLUSION
New knowledge and way of working is critical for the future of the Gulf States. Acknowledging this, there is a
need to capture and codify domain-specific expertise in an all-encompassing model for future growth. This paper
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presented a theoretical framework for this growth model, the rubrics of which highlight a series of internal and
external forces, constraints and opportunities. These issues need to be evaluated and prioritised as part of any
transitional arrangements. A pervasive transitional model of this nature would provide Qatar’s AEC industry to
objectively evaluate its present position, then highlight its strategic priorities through a cogent roadmap in order to
signpost a series of transition arrangements - from its current position, into a more sustainable (mature) state that is
capable of being replicated. However, this model would also need to be pervasive, so that it fully embraced all
disparate socio-cultural, environmental, technological and economic impact variables; as these are firmly
intermeshed, in respect of changes to business models, technology, labour market needs, local laws/bylaws,
legislation etc. Notwithstanding this, there are tangible opportunities and benefits to be garnered, not least through
improved synergies with knowledge transfer, skills, and innovation opportunities.
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