Effects of skills, motivation, and personality traits on the competency of masons

Abstract

Incompetency of masons is a problem because they execute many construction activities. This imparts the need to identify factors that affect the competency of masons on construction sites. Factors related to motivation, skills and personality traits are identified. A questionnaire instrument consisting of 15 factors related to the three categories was forwarded to masons on construction projects. Responses collected on a five-point Likert scale were analysed for relative importance index (RII), which was used as the basis for ranking the factors. 'Resistance to change', 'lack of appreciation', and 'lack of formal training' were identified as the first, second, and third most important factors affecting the competency of masons on construction projects. The impact of the category of motivation was found to be the highest on the competency of masons, followed by skills, and personality traits. These findings may be utilised as an assessment tool for determining the competency of masons and identifying areas that need improvements. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Choudhry, R.M. and Zafar, B. (2017) 'Effects of skills, motivation, and personality traits on the competency of masons', Int. Biographical notes: Rafiq Muhammad Choudhry has over 25 years of construction industry research and teaching experience. He is a Professor of Construction Engineering and Management, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia. Before joining the academic environment, he served nine years in the construction industry and completed three large projects. He organised a number of conferences and seminars. His experience in industry and subsequent research Effects of skills, motivation, and personality traits on the competency of masons 17 has demonstrated a strong interest in improving the efficiency, productivity and safety of construction projects. He has published 81 papers in refereed journals and conferences. Bilal Zafar is a graduate student in the Department of Construction Engineering and Management at the