Skip to main content

Retaining Steel Tips: Motivation of Construction Managers in South Africa

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Advances in Human Factors, Business Management and Leadership (AHFE 2020)

Abstract

The world economy continues to grow at an ever-increasing pace and as a result, has created additional demand for new buildings. This has placed an ever-increasing demand for experienced construction managers with learned and practically applied skills to competently deliver successful projects. South Africa is no exception to this phenomenon. To retain skilled construction managers projects must be well managed from the outset. Having the correct policies and procedures in place will assist with this requirement. Motivating factors play a large role to assist construction managers in achieving their best and keeping their focus. Thus, how to motivate them is key to ensuring that a project delivers on; quality, time and within budget. This paper attempts to identify factors that motivate construction managers and assist construction companies to retain them. For this purpose, structured interviews were conducted at the University of Pretoria and a mixed-method approach was followed. Data was collected from construction professionals with a minimum of 10 years of construction site experience within the Gauteng Region of South Africa. The decisive factor was the work environment conditions and this included factors like; creating job security, give employees a sense of belonging, mentors giving constructive criticism, listening to problems, acting on them and thus giving support, reducing long working hours, improved site office facilities, regular relaxing social events within the company. Results from a recent research project have identified three items that are needed to retain construction managers. These included; a good work environment and extrinsic and intrinsic rewards. It was found not uncommon that if an offer to be employed at an alternative company with less salary, but with a more comfortable work environment was available, then this would be a viable option. Construction companies should invest more effort to improve their work environment and further tailor-make their extrinsic and intrinsic awards systems.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Van Heerden, A.H.G., Burger, M., Zulch, B.: The road to purpose-fit selection of the construction manager. Doctoral dissertation. University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa (2018). http://hdl.handle.net/2263/67931

  2. Sherrat, F., Farrell, P: Introduction to Construction Management. 1st edn. Routledge, New York (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  3. McKeon, J.J.: Becoming a Construction Manager: A Guide to Careers in Construction. Wiley, Hoboken (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Jackson, B.: Construction Management: Jump Start. 2nd ed. Wiley Publishing Inc., Indiana (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Kreitner, R., Kinicki, A.: Organisation Behaviour, 5th edn. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., New York (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Smit, P.J., Cronje, G.J. de. J.: Management Principles: A Contemporary Edition for Africa. 2nd ed. Cape Town. Juta & Co (Ltd.) (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Strydom, Bruwer, De Beer, Holtzhausen, Kiley, Maritz, Nieuwenhuizen, Oosthuizen, Rudansky-Klopper, and Steenkamp: Principles of Business Management. 3rd edn. Cape Town, South Africa, Oxford University Press Southern Africa. (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Coetsee, L.D.: Peak performance and productivity: a practical guide for the creation of a motivating climate (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Swanepoel, B., Erasmus, B., van Wyk, M., Schenk, H.: South African Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice. 2nd edn. Juta & Co (Ltd.), Cape Town (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Walker, A.: Organisational Behaviour in Construction, 1st edn. UK, Wiley-Blackell (2011)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andries (Hennie) van Heerden .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

van Heerden, A.(., Jelodar, M.B., Burger, M., Zulch, B. (2020). Retaining Steel Tips: Motivation of Construction Managers in South Africa. In: Kantola, J., Nazir, S., Salminen, V. (eds) Advances in Human Factors, Business Management and Leadership. AHFE 2020. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1209. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50791-6_82

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50791-6_82

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-50790-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-50791-6

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics