NATIONAL INSTITUE OF CONTRUCTION

MANAGEMENT AND RESEARCH, PUNE

SCHOOL OF DISTANCE EDUCATION

Post Graduate Programme in Construction Management (PGP CM)

Module : 11

Course No. : PGCM 11

Course Title : PRINCIPLES & PRACTICES OF MANAGEMENT

Assignment No : 1

Registration No: 217-06-11-50971-2191

Submitted by

SRINATH SRINIVASAN

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ASSIGNMENT

Your company has bagged a lucrative contract to construct a housing colony for an

industrial group to be located in western Maharashtra in a coastal belt. You as a project

manager have been asked by the company to evolve organization structure with

following conditions.

 Organization should be as lean and thin as possible with bare minimum of

personal on company roll up to junior level.

 All supervisors to down below will be temporary for project duration only to be

recruited locally from 100km radius.

Suggest and discuss an organization structure denoting responsibility, authority,

communication control for all facets of construction work and management functions

as visualized by you.

Housing colony consists of 10 bungalows for senior executives, 20 apartments in 5

buildings, 100 dwellings for white collar workers and 300 dwellings for blue collar

workers. Colony will have market and entertainment complex.

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SCOPE OF WORK

The project is about construction of a housing colony for an industrial group in

Western Maharashtra along a coastal belt. Following points must be strictly

considered and followed during the start of project,

1. Maintaining as less as possible for no. of people on company rollup to junior

level.

2. This will cut down the cost involved in arranging and maintaining man power.

3. Easy and less hectic management system.

4. Less controlling and monitoring required.

5. Supervisors below junior level will be on temporary job basis and to be recruited

locally from 100 km radius.

6. Only travel arrangements can be made on demand as the people are around

100 km radius from the work site.

The Complete colony area can be tentatively divided as indicated in the tabulated form

given below,

Sl. No Block Area (Sq. ft.) Personnel No’s Remarks

1. A 1300 Senior Executives 10 10 Bungalows

2. B 1050 White Collared Workers 100 Individual

3. C 860 Blue Collared Workers 300 House

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A small shopping complex equipped with shops providing daily uses items and

recreation hubs like multiplex is also proposed to be built along with the housing

colony at the Centre of the colony.

INTRODUCTION

The Project is about management in an organization. Organization here is a

construction of residential project, comprising of a housing colony having residential

blocks for different level of personnel based on the hierarchy / and their designation

in the firm they work for the project range varies from bungalows for senior executives

to apartments and dwellings for white collar and blue collar workers.

The responsibilities and duties of Project manager mainly are,

 Visualizing all key functions to be carried out for the project.

 Framing managerial functions and categorizing them into technical and

administrative functions.

 Assigning duties to the Authorities along with giving suitable jobs to junior staff

members.

 Establishing flow of communication.

 Recruitment of required man power.

 Controlling and forming a structure required for the proper execution of project.
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Main pillars on which a construction project is laid are proper, effective and efficient

planning and management of material flow. All the authorities guiding personnel at

different level of construction project should be well-coordinated. Flow of information

between the top level & bottom of management must be smooth and clear avoiding

any conflict and misguidance. Manpower should be as lean as possible avoiding any

over numbered people situation at project site.

For planning, managing and executing a construction project following key areas are

the axis around which a Project manager emphasis and concern should revolve:-

1. Committed leadership.

2. Determining bottlenecks of methods & to get rid of it.

3. Framing guideline easy to follow.

4. Quality driven agenda & intelligent planning of finances and cash flow.

5. Making a task schedule clearly indicating start and finish date of project along

with time taken to complete different individual tasks at different levels and

stages of project.

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KEY FUNCTIONS

1. Planning

Planning involves selection of objectives as well as the actions to achieve. It requires

decision making. Planning and controlling are closely interrelated. After bagging this

large scale project an integrated planning is required to complete this project

successfully. Phase wise planning plays an important role to achieve target

successfully, financially that is also best option. Entire project will be sub divided in to

sub project and also it will be further subdivided zone wise to facilitate work. Short

range plan must be co-ordinate with long period plan.

2. Objectives

Objectives are end points towards which activities are aimed. Objectives are verifiable

if it is possible, at the end of the period, to determine they have been accomplished.

Objectives form a hierarchy, starting from corporate missions or purposes going down

to individual goals. Managers can best determine the number of objectives they

should realistically set for themselves by analyzing the nature of the jobs and how

much they can do themselves.

Without planning, it is not possible to achieve the desire goals. Planning involves the

formulation of what, how, when, where & by whom it is to be done, to evaluate and

result.

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 3. Organizing

Another function of the management is to organize the business. Proper and sound

organization is the bases of success of every industry and manages. It is often said that

good people can make any organization pattern work. However there can be no doubt

that people can work together most effectively, if they have a clear understanding of

their role in the organization and the way their roles relate with their co-workers.

The purpose of organizing is to aid in making objectives meaningful and to contribute

to organizational efficiency. The basic cause of organization structure is the limitation

of span of management. The span of management refers to the number of people, a

manager can effectively supervise. A wide span of management results in few

organizational levels, and a narrow span results in much level. There is no definite

number of people a manager can always effectively supervise; the number depends

on several underlying factors. These include the degree of training of sub ordinates

that is required and is possessed the clarity of plans, the use of objective standards,

the rate of change, the effectiveness of communication techniques, the amount of

personal contact needed, and the level of organization.

The step in organizing include formulating objectives and supportive objectives,

policies and plans to achieve the ends, identifying activities, grouping these activities,

delegating authority and co-coordinating authority as well as information

relationships.

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 4. Staffing

Staffing means filling positions in the organization structure. It involves identifying

work-force requirements, making inventory of the people resume and recruiting,

selecting, placing promoting, apprising, planning the careers, compensating and

training people.

In the system approach of staffing, enterprise and organization plans become

important input for staffing tasks. The number and quality of managers required to

carry out crucial tasks depend on many different factors. One major step in staffing is

to determine the people available by making a management inventory, which can be

done in the form of an inventory chart.

Good results can be achieved through a systematic approach to manager development

and training. On the job training includes planned progression, job rotation, creation

of' assistant to' position, temporary promotions, use of committees and junior boards.

Manager development may include a variety of internal and external training

programme. The selection process may include interviews various tests and the use of

assessment centers to avoid dissatisfaction and employee turnover, companies must

ensure that new employees are introduced to and integrated with other persons in

the organization.

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 5. Leading

Leading is the process of influencing people, so that they will contribute to

organization and group goals. While working towards, a manager must take into

account the dignity of the person. Motivation is not a single concept, rather it pertains

to various drives but it is more to blend them properly so as to sustain group

performance, satisfaction, desires, needs, wish and other forces.

Leadership is an interpersonal influence process among a group of people organized

formally or informally, for purposes of meeting and maintaining certain group values

and interests. One or more persons in the group may assume the role of influencing

the group activities and attitudes, while the others follow.

In relation to their followers in the group, leader performs several roles. They

assemble their followers into a coherent unit. They set up clarity and enforce group

goals, values and norms. They activate and control group tasks and channel group

energies into meaningful directions. Good leaders are both task oriented and people

oriented. They seek to direct group activities toward high productivity and satisfaction.

Task orientation involves defining group goals and standers, establishing task

structures, assigning role and duties to followers.

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 6. Controlling

The managerial function of controlling is the measurement and correction of

performance in order to ensure that enterprise objectives and the plans devised to

attain them, are being accomplished.

Control techniques and systems are basically the same regardless of what being

controlled. Where it is found and whenever is being controlled, the basic control

process involve three steps

a) Establishing standards

b) Measuring performance against these standards

c) Correcting variations from standards and plans.

There are different kinds of standards and all should point out simple feedback system

similar to a common household thermostat. However, no matter how quickly

information is available on what is occurring. There are unavoidable delays in analyzing

deviations, developing plans for taking corrective action and implementing these

programme. In order to overcome these time lags in control, it is suggested that

manager utilize a feed forward control approach and not rely on single feedback alone.

Overall controls are financial, one of which is profit and loss control. Another is

exercise of control through calculating and comparing return on investment. This

approach is based on the idea that profit should be considered not as an absolute

measure but as a return on the capital employed in a business or a segment of it. The

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management audit has also been used as a control device. Now a day’s computers are

extensively used, their impact on managers at various organizational levels differs, as

some managers still resist on their use.

If controls are to work, they must be specially tailored to plans and positions, to

individual managers, and to the needs for efficiency and effectiveness. To be effective,

control also should be designed to point up exceptions at critical pints, to be objective,

to be flexible, to fit the organization culture, to be economical, and to lead to

corrective action.

All above mentioned functions, managers should know that they should also know the

three basic terms and should properly deal with those terms. These three terms are

a) Responsibility

b) Authority

c) Delegating authority.

Key Functions to be carried out

Now we will take in mind that the functions which we have to perform in site or goal

completion. These are as

1. Planning of entire project scope

2. Coordination with clients, consultants, sub-contractors

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3. Estimation work

4. Plot cleaning

5. Site Mobilization

a. Site establishment

b. Labor colony development

c. Mobilization of Plant & machinery

6. Construction work

a. Shell & core

b. Finishing and interior work

7. Services work-Plumbing, electrical, fire fighting

8. Billing work

9. Landscaping work

10. Quality control work

11. Safety work

12. Cleaning and handover work

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13. Store and material stacking work

14. Administrative work

Department details and responsibility

Site organization is very important component of site management. Depending upon

the nature of work, category of work, size and stages of completion of work organize

site staffing in appropriate manner is very important.

Due to there is a involvement of much more agencies like client, consultant,

subcontractor vendor/ supplier, local authorities, traffic problems on highway we

need proper co-ordination, involvement good understanding amongst all project

team.

Project Manager:

Project manager is the leader for all activities and effective communication system.

Resident engineer is reporting to the project manager.

Following different department works under supervision of resident engineer

Planning department

Responsibility

Plan each and every activity as per time limit given by the client. Preparing bar chart,

material schedule, making labor schedule, preparing plant, machinery schedule,

achieving better quality in minimum cost is the main aim of this department.

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Construction Department

Responsibility

Execution of work as per drawings, plans and specifications is main work of execution

department. In this department Sr. Execution engineer and gang of junior engineers

are appointed.

Procurement & Store Department

Responsibility

Inspection of material and goods coming on site, intimate or instruct to respective

department (material order) by maintaining material inward, outward registers

making GRN, storing and housing all material on site in proper place as per the site

condition and handover material to contractor as per their requirement, keeping their

records is the main work of store department.

QA/QC department

Responsibility

Checking of all material coming to site and testing as per requirement (Material Test

Plan). Verifying mix design of material going to use for site execution, inspection and

checking of all activities of execution work regarding quality norms and condition,

testing of work executed like sample testing (cube testing) non-destructive testing

making of audit report maintaining material testing, mix design, concrete testing, audit

test resister on site is the main work of this department.

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Quantity Surveying Department

Responsibility

Checking of all drawing and specification regarding site, estimating and surveying

quantity of each work activity separately, calculating material required, quantity, labor

required for each and every activity is the work of this department.

Billing Department

Responsibility

Checking of all bills quoted by sub-contractor or contractor as per their site executed

work, making of payment of sub-contractors is the main works of billing department.

Keeping total money expenditure regarding site, checking of departmental labor bill,

making payment of all site office related staff and helper is the main work of account

department.

Admin Department

Responsibility

Our site is huge type of construction therefore there is requirement of number of

services delay due to absence of any services is very dangerous. Arrangement of

electrical supply, water supply, making and repairing of any construction equipment

and machinery, electrical equipment is the main work of this department.

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Authority to carry out function

Each and every above mentioned entity in organization level or structure has got to

perform all the function stated above in daily work out for successful completion of

the project. Either knowingly or unknowingly while executing any activity in project.

They will be given adequate knowledge to what to do, when to do, who is to perform

what and the responsibility, also authority hold the particular person for the exact task

handed. Problem encounter and any deviation for schedule project should be follow

through proper channel and as quickly as possible. Any communication should flow

not only downward or upward in the organization structure but also horizontally and

diagonally. For this type of communication daily or weekly basis meeting as possible

to respective level should be conducted. Basically the organization structure has been

divided into two team to make project grand success with the help of manager’s

valuable guidance.

Daily report should be generated on site and it shall be submitted to head office

immediately if possible on the same day. This report will be help in to monitor the

project closely and controlling the project for its deviation can be solved by proper

decision or action. This action or decision may or may not involve financial condition,

also re-planning the activities and re-scheduling of project to avoid upcoming risk can

be easily possible with the data available in means of the daily reports. Daily report

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plays crucial role in handling the project risk and also helps in completing the project

in time by avoiding the deviation occurring during project.

Communication should be maintained properly at all levels. Both teams should have

information of both the project and knowledge with all daily activities of both the

projects such that communication also is carried out in horizontal and diagonal in the

organization structure. Responsibility and authority of each entity in the organization

structure should be well defined before work to be carried out the entity. Finance

should not be barrier on site for proceeding of work, this should be seen by head office

with keen interest to avoid project delay and indirect cost can be controlled by not

keeping men and machinery ideal.

Critical activities in project should distinct and proper monitoring and control should

be obtained on them. Key date and target shall be estimated for these critical

activities, as any deviation for this may cause severe financial loses, directly and

indirectly by this project to company. Each person in the organization structure must

be made continuous aware of this activities and tight up their knuckle down to this

activities. Motivation ought to provide by different means at different phase of the

project to each entity of the organization structure.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

 Ensuring the early involvement of the key project team member that have

expert knowledge, so that an appropriate level of client satisfaction and value

can be defined.

 Establishing of subcontractor / supplier relationship by selecting teams based

on value rather than lowest price.

 Managing the project parameters of cost schedule, QHSE in unity.

 Working together as a team to agree mutual goals and devise dispute resolution

mechanisms.

 Developing and monitoring continuous improvement program.

 Developing and implementing sound risk management processes.

 Dealing with the risks and rewards by using modem commercial arrangements

such as collaborative contract forms target cost and open book accounting.

 Using non - adversarial forms of contract ensuring that contractual relationships

are appropriate for expected project objectives.

 Mobilizing and developing people in order to ensure employee satisfaction

through integrated teams.

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BIBLOGRAPHY
1. NICMAR Lesson Book - Management in Organization.

2. Chapter on Organization Management - Koontz Odoneal McGraw Hill

Publications

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