Engineering, Project, and Production Management
EPPM 2014 Conference Papers
Modelling the Factors Impacting the Sustainability of South Africa's Construction Industry – An Interpretive Structural Modelling Approach
Nien-Tsu Tuan1 , Ian Jay2 , and Mark Massyn3
1 Senior Lecturer, Department of
Construction Economics and Management, Private Bagx3, Rondebosch 7701, South
Africa, Tel: +27-21-6503443, Fax: +27-21-6897564, E-mail: nien-tsu.tuan@uct.ac.za
2 Senior Lecturer, Department of Construction Economics and
Management, Private Bagx3, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa, Tel: +27-21-6503443,
Fax: +27-21-6897564, E-mail: Ian.Jay@uct.ac.za
3 Senior Lecturer, Department of Construction Economics and
Management, Private Bagx3, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa, Tel: +27-21-6503443,
Fax: +27-21-6897564, E-mail: Mark.Massyn@uct.ac.za
Abstract:South Africa’s construction industry has suffered stagnation since the 2010 FIFA World Cup. As the construction industry is deemed vital in economic growth, various inquiries have been made attempting to understand this trend and reverse its direction. However, these efforts were mainly based on mechanistic paradigms, ignoring the systemic nature of the problem. In contrast to the mechanistic paradigms, this paper demonstrates how to use Interpretive Structural Modelling, a systemic approach, to unearth the root cause hampering the growth of the South African construction industry. The proposed factors resulting in stagnation are modelled on an ‘aggravate’ relationship which is transitive in logical inference. Through an interactive session, the modelers go through the relationships of system elements. The output of modelling is a diagraph surfacing the sources of the problem. The result, which is demonstrative rather than conclusive, reveals that environmental factors have a significant impact on the sustainability of South Africa’s construction industry.
Keywords:Construction, Interpretive Structural Modelling, diagraph.
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