Properly harnessed social responsibility is vital for construction organization’s environmental sustainability as it provides a resource for their competitive edge in construction project delivery. This study examines the impacts of social responsibility on Malaysian construction firms' environmental sustainability performance. A cross-sectional survey of 185 questionnaires was administered to respondents from Malaysian G7 construction firms. PLS path modelling outcomes show that social responsibility and coercive pressure are positive predictors of environmental sustainability performance. The results also established that, despite the charitable nature of social responsibility, construction firms are still obliged to be socially responsible through investment in environmental and social responsibility activities. This could result from conformity with guidelines that mandated them to spend on social responsibility activities and secure legitimacy from multiple stakeholders. Our results also reveal that coercive pressure transmits the positive effects of social responsibility on environmental sustainability performance. Thus, it was established that coercive pressure is a positive mediator and a facilitator that plays a complementary role between social responsibility and environmental sustainability performance. The implications and recommendations for future research are also discussed.
6 March 2022 in Construction Economics and Building
Malaysia is one of the most rapidly developing countries among developing nations. The construction industry has played a major role in Malaysia’s rapid economic growth. Among the major sectors in Malaysia, the importance of the construction industry is unique regardless of the level of the country’s development. However, the attitude of the construction industry in Malaysia towards managing contractors’ risk attitudes is very weak. The introduction of the Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1994 by the Malaysian government made all industries in Malaysia to identify risks, conduct risk assessment and control risk. In addition, the Malaysian construction industry simultaneously implemented an integrated system to ensure consistency and better performance of projects. To identify the factors influencing contractors' risk attitudes, relevant literature was reviewed, and a questionnaire survey was conducted. This study focused on the G7 contractors operating in the Malaysian construction industry. One hundred and nineteen copies of a structured questionnaire were analysed with a response rate of 85%. Structural equation modelling was utilized to test the hypotheses developed for the study. Results showed that government policies played a moderating role in enhancing the relationship between human-related factors affecting contractors’ risk attitudes in the construction industry.
This paper explicitly clarifies an employee’s goal to voluntarily stay in his/her current employment. A large volume of research has concentrated on corporate environments on the causes of workforce turnover. Nevertheless, little was done to investigate workers’ desire to remain, which was the essential parameter in determining their stay in the construction sector. Therefore, this research was undertaken to explore the relationship between job embeddedness (off-the-job and on-the-job and the intent of staying in Malaysian construction companies with the mediating impact of continuance commitment. For the analysis, a simple random under probability sampling technique was used. Of the overall 280 samples surveyed, 243 responded and used it in the report, 86.8% of the response rate. A structural equation modeling approach was used to analyze the direct and indirect relationships as drawn by the hypotheses. This research showed that the component of the off-the-job, on-the-job embeddedness and intention to stay were substantially linked. At the same time, continuance commitment plays a full mediation between the convergence of off-the-job, on-the-job and the intention to stay. These findings suggest that construction companies in Malaysia need to consider organizational and community embeddedness relationships along with continuance commitment in the invention of programs designated to influence workers’ intention to stay on their current jobs.
31 July 2020 in International Journal of Construction Supply Chain Management
One of the critical factors responsible for the successful management of construction projects is individual factors. These factors play a significant role in the decision-makers' attitudes towards risks management. Many previous studies regarding the management of construction projects have focusedon the factors contributing to the success of risk management. However, little attention has been given to factors severely affecting the decision-makers' risk attitudes with particular reference to an individual's risk factors in the construction industry. Therefore, this study aims to identify the factors affecting contractors' risk attitudes and then determine its relationship with government policy. Theoriesof planned behaviour and organisational control wereused to develop the theoretical framework that investigated G-7 contractors in the Kuantan Pahang, Malaysian construction industry. A review of relevant literature and questionnaire was employedto identify the factors affecting contractors' risk attitudes (personal factors). 112copies of a structured questionnaire were analysed with a response rate of 80%. Structural Equation Modelling SEM was utilised to test the hypotheses developed for the study. The results of this study,through SEM,proved that personal factors (working experience, professional competence and physical health) have a significant influence on contractor risk attitudes in the Malaysian construction industry. The findings of this research also confirm that government policy (rules and regulations) plays a moderating role in enhancing the relationship of personal factors affecting contractors’ risk attitudes in construction companies in Malaysia. The findings of the study provide more understanding of the personal factors that affect contractors' risk attitudes to facilitate contractors' decision-making process and serve as a useful reference for further studies in the field of construction project management.