Enhancing the performance of architectural design firms through addressing the gap of workforce skills in developing countries: a good-to-great approach

The construction industry is one of the biggest industries worldwide. It plays a significant role towards the social and economic development of countries at national and international levels. The construction industry is mainly concerned with the development of projects and infrastructure facilities that fulfil the community needs and achieve the sustainable development objectives. In addition, it is linked to the maintenance and refurbishment of existing buildings. Moreover, it is one of the critical sectors in the economic development of any country due to its role in increasing country’s gross domestic product, offering job opportunities and supporting other industries to excel (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2008). However, due to the unique nature of the construction industry in terms of being labour-intensive, multidisciplinary, highly fragmented business, relying highly on the skills and competencies of its workforce and slow adoption of new technology (Castagnino et al. 2014; Siriwardena et al. 2010), the productivity level of the construction industry is low when compared to other industries (Szymanski 2006; Oladinrin et al. 2012). Shortage of offering quality education and professional training programmes in developing countries is a major challenge that leads to lack of providing the construction industry with high-qualified human resources, which have the right skills that match with business demands. In addition, the lack of human resource development in management-related disciplines (e.g. project management, contract administration, leadership and communication) results in poor supply of experienced staff who can accept critical roles, which they are not prepared for (Georgieva 2012). Furthermore, there is an agreement between academics and professionals that academic institutions do not equip graduates with necessary skills required to meet the requirements of the construction industry (Nkado 2000; Chileshe and Haupt 2007; Rwelamila 2007) which highlights the need for human resource development. The labour market is as competitive as the commercial market, which means that attracting, rewarding, deploying and retaining people should be a primary focus within organizations. In the construction industry, this is particularly a complex issue as the workforce is itinerant and the industry relies on a wide spectrum of different skills, ranging from craft operative to support services and production management functions (Loosemore et al. 2003). To be effective, the construction industry and ADFs have to develop a strategy that responds to the labour market situation in which they operate.

Gap of workforce skills is an issue that threatens the success of any organization (Sitek 2012). Gap of workforce skills is the gap between what are the skills needed by the organization and what are the available skills (JP Morgan Chase and Co 2014). Some leaders understand the importance of bridging gap of workforce skills and consider it one of the top pressing concerns. Moreover, in both developed and developing countries, gap of workforce skills is a barrier to industries’ growth, innovation and timely delivery of services and products, achieving the required quality standards and meeting economic and social requirements. Closing the gap of workforce skills has a direct connection with improving productivity, human resource development and economic growth (Aring 2012). The Considerate Constructors Scheme (2016) reported that the construction industry needs to recruit an average of 44,690 workers yearly. In addition, another study conducted by Barnes (2013) reported that 82% of managers believe that there is a remarkable gap of workforce skills in the construction industry. Mainly, there are two types of gap of workforce skills in the construction industry, namely skill shortage and mismatch of skills.

The global crisis of gap of workforce skills in the construction industry called for developing approaches and strategies to overcome this issue. The current research and best practice points to three remedy areas that organizations have to consider are as follows: first, developing a comprehensive understanding of the skills supply and demand through rigorous workforce planning; second, engaging in external partnerships to develop talent sources and finally, refining internal talent attraction and assessment practices to widen talent pools (Olson 2015). Results of a survey conducted by the Chartered Institute of Building (Barnes 2013) raised a number of recommendations to resolve the gap of workforce skills in the UK construction industry including the following: (1) placing construction higher on the political agenda, (2) offering employers further financial incentives to offer more internships and apprenticeships, (3) incentivizing careers in construction and sustainability amongst the younger generations, (4) creating more public sector projects, (5) cutting red tape and making it less burdensome for employers to recruit apprentices, (6) reducing tuition fees, (7) investing in innovation and (8) promoting and funding for further local enterprise partnerships. Despite the abovementioned approaches and effort done to bridge the gap of workforce skills in the construction industry, the problem still exists and these approaches lack some of the innovative methods included in the good-to-great concept.

The good-to-great concept aims to implement different techniques to solve the problem of gap of workforce skills. The concept consists of seven main rules that if applied will turn a company from good to great.

2.4.1

Leadership

Mostly, people think that a leader is someone who manages and directs only. However, this is not true. The true leader motivates and inspires to reach the goal of the organization. There are five levels of leadership (Figure 1). Table 1 summarizes the different types and characteristics of leadership levels, which will enable leaders to adopt the appropriate level towards turning their organizations from good to great.

Fig. 1

Tab. 1

Types and characteristics of leadership levels.

Type of leader	Characteristics
Level 1: highly capable individual	The “highly capable individual” is a person who must be capable of making productive contribution using his/her talent, knowledge, skills and good work habits (Collins 2001)
Level 2: contributing team members	In this level, the leader must be able to work effectively within teams to achieve the group objectives (Collins 2001).Level 2 leadership is not far from level 1, instead, the scope of contributions is slowly getting wider. Level 1 leader must be able to make productive contributions, whereas level 2 leader must be able to make productive contributions within a group and to achieve the group objectives
Level 3: competent manager	A “competent manager” must be able to manage and organize people and resources to work effectively to reach the organization goal (Collins 2001). In this level, a competent manager must be more matured and must understand that time is not money, but time is the measure of work done by the organization (Bassett 2015). Moreover, he/she must know that the company does demand not only for materials but also for skilled labour
Level 4: effective leader	In this level, the leader must get the organization with high performance standards (Collins 2001). The effective leader must have a strong personality and expert communication skills, know what the organization wants and know how to achieve it. The effective leader must be honest and trust worthy. He must motivate and encourage employees to reach the organization’s desired mission (Ulrich and Smallwood 2012)
Level 5: the great leader	In this level, the leader must develop all the levels of the leadership pyramid. He/she must be the one who builds a great company through a paradox combination of “humility” and “professional will”. Level 5 leaders usually put their egos away and work for making an organization great (Collins 2001)

Gap of workforce skills is an issue that most organizations suffer from especially ADFs. There are two types of gap of workforce skills, namely shortage of skills and mismatch of skills. Good-to-great concept has seven sub-concepts that work to address the issue of gap of workforce skills. Any industry begins with a leader who is the main key of any improvement. When the leaders have the level 5 skills, then he/she has the ability to choose the right employees to fill the right places. When the right people are put in the right places, the gap of workforce skills is necessarily solved. Leaders must understand that if the job is empty and there is a doubt about the skills of the employees, it is better to leave this place empty. Nonetheless, leaders must be similar to hedgehogs to have a clear plan to guide all people. They must also know what are the drivers for all employees and what are they passionate about. Moreover, they must understand that technology is just an accelerator not the pioneer of the industry. Finally, leaders must follow the flywheel and keep moving the organization forward. Adopting such approach will enable ADFs to improve their performance and maintain their competitiveness in market.

Gap of workforce skills poses the greatest threat to the future of the construction industry worldwide. In addition, it continues as the demand for construction work increases, which puts pressure on the construction industry which is struggling to meet increasing demand for its services (Creamer 2007). Organizations acting in the construction industry are reluctant to invest in closing their gap of workforce skillss as the cost is tangible and clearly visible, whilst the benefits are often intangible and build up only over time. Moreover, organizations are often unable to reap the benefits of their investment if the newly upskilled employees leave the company or if suppliers turn towards competitors. However, closing the gap of workforce skills will impact positively on the workforce development, the value chain, and the community (European Development Finance Institutions 2016).

This section presents and analyzes two case studies of organizations that adopted different approaches to fill gap of workforce skills. Although some of these approaches failed to address gap of workforce skills, some succeeded. These approaches are analyzed in comparison with the good-to-great concept. The selection criteria for case studies are initially based on ADFs operating in developing countries and adopt the good-to-great concept. As this concept was not applied in the construction industry before and in ADFs in particular worldwide, the present cases are selected from other industries operating in USA. However, learned lessons will be beneficial for application in ADFs in developing countries.

This section summarizes the results of a field study carried out through a survey questionnaire with a representative sample of 44 Egyptian ADFs to investigate their perception and application of the good-to-great concept as an approach for improving the performance of ADFs through bridging the gap of workforce skills in developing countries. The survey questionnaire consisted of three sections. The first section was designed to collect information about the respondents’ specialty, experience, position and contacts. The second section was designed to investigate the awareness, types, causes and impacts of skills gap and actions adopted to overcome this issue in ADFs. The last section was dedicated to examine the perception and application of the good-to-great concept as an approach for bridging the skills gap in ADFs. In the survey questionnaire, two types of questions were used: first, close-ended questions, in which the respondents are allowed to select a single response of yes/no or rate the response on the Likert scale from 1 to 5; second, open-ended questions, in which respondents are given the opportunity to express their thoughts. Open-ended questions allow unanticipated findings to be explored and permitted richness of details and self-expression (Baker 1994).

To select a representative and non-biased sample to answer the survey questionnaire, the list of all ADFs registered in the Egyptian Engineers Syndicate (EES 2018) was obtained resulting in a population of 44 firms. To calculate the sample size, the next two equations were applied (FluidSurveys Team 2014). In this research, the confidence level chosen is 95%, and the margin of error is 5%. The confidence level score corresponding to the confidence level of 95% is 1.96. Sample size calculation=Distrubution of 50%[Margin of error%Confidence level score]2True sample=Sample size×populationSample size+population−1Sample size=0.5×(1−0.5)[0.051.96]2=384.16True sample=384.16×44384.16+44−1=39.57~40\matrix{{{\text{Sample}}\,{\text{size}}\,{\text{calculation}} = \frac{{{\text{Distrubution}}\,{\text{of}}\,50\% }}{{{{\left[ {\frac{{{\text{Margin}}\,{\text{of}}\,{\text{error}}\% }}{{{\text{Confidence}}\,{\text{level}}\,{\text{score}}}}} \right]}^2}}}} \cr {{\text{True}}\,{\text{sample}} = \frac{{{\text{Sample}}\,{\text{size}} \times {\text{population}}}}{{{\text{Sample}}\,{\text{size}} + {\text{population}} - 1}}} \cr {{\text{Sample}}\,{\text{size}} = \frac{{0.5 \times \left( {1 - 0.5} \right)}}{{{{\left[ {\frac{{0.05}}{{1.96}}} \right]}^2}}} = 384.16} \cr {{\text{True}}\,{\text{sample}} = \frac{{384.16 \times 44}}{{384.16 + 44 - 1}} = 39.57\sim40} }

However, since the true sample size of 40 ADFs is only different from the population size in this case by 4, the whole population was considered the sample size for the survey questionnaire. A pilot study of the survey was tested with colleagues to determine its effectiveness and problems. They were asked to answer the questions as if they were received from someone unknown and go through the questionnaire again to point out any problem they noted with questions. After going over the responses of the preliminary test and making changes, the questionnaire was ready for formal testing (Baker 1994; Czaja and Blair 1996). A copy of the survey questionnaire was sent electronically to all the 44 ADFs by contacting them at first through their formal email addresses or directly by calling them depending on the available contact information. Out of 44 ADFs participated in the survey questionnaire, only 29 firms responded representing 69% that supports the research findings and recommendations. Results of the survey questionnaire revealed the following.

All respondents showed their awareness of the issue of gap of workforce skills and its impact on their organizations by varying degrees. Thirty-one percent of respondents rated their awareness as 5/5, 31% rated their awareness as 4/5 and 38% rated their awareness as 3/5. The measure of central tendency highlighted a good typical value for mean (3.86/5), median (4/5) and mode (4/5) which reflects the quality of collected data. In addition, the measure of dispersion highlighted the homogeneity of collected data via variance (0.47) and standard deviation (0.69). These results reflect the maturity of ADFs to confirm their awareness of this critical issue. 1)

89.3% of respondents stated that immediate actions should be taken by their ADFs to overcome the consequences of gap of workforce skills.

A framework is simply an arrangement of series of concepts, tools and approaches needed to be reached into a designed structure to complete a specific process (Othman and Mia 2008). In addition, it is a series of actions needed to achieve a specific objective (Othman and Sirbadhoo 2009). The good-to-great concept implementation framework (hereinafter referred as G2GIF or the framework) is a proposed framework describes the steps and procedures needed to investigate and address the issue of gap of workforce skills in ADFs through implementing the good-to-great concept. The need for the framework emerges from the necessity of establishing organized procedures that enable ADFs in developing countries to integrate the good-to-great concept to address and bridge the gap of workforce skills issue as an approach for improving their performance.

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

The framework aims to improve the performance of ADFs through bridging the gap of workforce skills of ADFs in developing countries. This aim will be achieved through accomplishing the following steps.

Diagnosing current challenge of gap of workforce skills.

Table 3 describes the objectives, activities, tools and techniques, involved personnel and needed resources as well as the output of every step.

Based on the authors’ deduction, the framework has a direct impact on enhancing the performance of ADFs through bridging the issue of gap of workforce skills. In addition, the framework provides a new innovative systematic approach that helps improve the attitude of employees working within ADFs as they address the gap of workforce skills in a way that was not adopted before in ADFs. This framework will help in adopting new ways for solving major issues in ADFs. On the other hand, the effective application of the framework depends to a large extent on the encouragement of the top management in ADFS to bridge the gap of workforce skills in developing countries. If the top management does not have the desire and tends not to use the framework, then its adoption will be limited. The application of the framework is a long-term strategy to fill the gap of workforce skills in ADFs, and within the current culture in the construction industry where performance is almost calculated in monetary terms and limited attention has been paid for the issue of gap of workforce skills; this framework might not be welcomed by some sectors of the industry. The benefits of the framework should be clearly presented to the top management of ADFs to get them convinced with the role, which the framework could play in bridging the gap of workforce skills of ADFs in developing countries. This will increase the opportunities for adopting the framework. The time-line for implementation as indicated is a long-term commitment. It is important to note that, depending on changing the attitudes and perceptions of managers who shape the missions and visions of ADFs, the timeline for implementing the framework may vary accordingly.