Relationships of construction project manager, engineer, and foreman skills

Abstract

Understanding the relationships of construction project manager, engineer and foreman skills can be used by contractors to develop project performance. Although there are widely discussed on construction individual skills, the relationships between individual skills having on others' skills have not been examined in previous studies. Thus, this study examined such relationships. The questionnaire was used to collect data on the important range of skills of the individual to evaluate the relationships among them. The data were then analyzed using structural equation modelling (SEM) to determine the relationships of construction manager, engineer and foreman skills. The final SEM model shows regression weights in parenthesis that construction manager skills have influence on engineer skills (0.65) and engineer skills have influence on foreman skills (0.84). Additionally, the regression weight presents that knowledge management is the most important skill for a construction manager (0.64). Problem-solving is the most important to engineer (0.59). Regarding foreman, physical skill is the most important (0.67). The findings can be used as a guideline for contractors in developing their staffs to increase project performance.