Understanding Management Roles and Organisational Behaviours in Planning and Scheduling Based on Construction Projects in Oman

There are many challenges associated with the construction processes of planning and scheduling. These challenges are relevant to all project parties or stakeholders and therefore management roles or organisational behaviours of those parties have to be properly considered and assessed. With this in mind, this study is aimed at assessing practitioners' perspectives on the current significance and applicability of a set of criteria or factors concerned with management roles and organisational behaviours of the different parties based on construction projects in Oman. The study has adopted a quantitative approach in which a questionnaire-based survey was chosen and conducted to gather responses from construction projects in Oman. A total of 67 valid responses were analysed based on the rankings and means of the respondents' perspectives on the significance and applicability of the identified factors to current practice. The overall findings indicated that all investigated factors should be critically considered as equally important to the development process of planning and scheduling. Nevertheless, the findings implied that a management priority should be given to the most important factors significantly affecting project planning and scheduling. The study provides some useful recommendations on how to improve project management roles and organisational behaviours in planning and scheduling on the part of key project parties.


INTRODUCTION
The complexity of planning and scheduling tasks requires rigorous effort in terms of the effectiveness of the project team, especially with regard to the project management roles and organisational behaviours that are key factors for the success of project objectives (Mubarak, 2010;Ahuja and Thiruvengadam, 2004).This is because planning and scheduling should be managed and controlled in the most effective way by all team involved for a successful project performance (Kerzner, 2013).Therefore, the understanding of the impact of such roles and behaviours on work performance can provide tangible benefits to the success of the project (Yang, Huang and Wu, 2011).In this respect, a good alignment between the team's working behaviours (or human aspects) with the technical issues of a project will support the achievement of such benefits (Edum-Fotwe and McCaffer, 2000).According to Eriksson (2010), the effectiveness of any ineffective planning and scheduling systems.To support this argument, it can be postulated that the effective consideration of such management roles and organisational behaviours in project planning and scheduling will help overcoming the occurrence of contractual disputes related to project planning during execution.
Summarising the above literature, there are far fewer examples to be considered when assessing the different project management roles and organisational behaviour attributed to key project stakeholders at particular stages such as planning and scheduling.These roles and behaviours should be considered and applied properly by all project stakeholders (or parties) involved in a project.Otherwise, insufficient considerations of such roles and behaviours will result in ineffective planning and scheduling, and thus low quality project execution.So, the originality of this study is based on its attempt to assess project management roles and organisational behaviour in construction planning and scheduling.This is important because giving a specific focus to the different roles and behaviours related to particular project tasks of planning and scheduling can be more worthwhile than looking at a project holistically.Consequently, this will improve the effectiveness of the implementation and control of these tasks; thus, enhancing their practical performance.
This study, therefore, aimed at addressing this lack of knowledge by identifying and assessing a set of factors concerned with management roles and organisational behaviour of the key project parties using the Oman construction projects.The primary goal was to answer the following research question: What are the management roles and organisational behaviours of project parties that should be critically considered for effective planning and scheduling?
In order to explore this research question, the following objectives were set: 1.
To identify and examine project management roles and organisational behaviours of the key project parties involved in planning and scheduling 2.
To provide new insights on how to improve the efficiency of such roles and behaviours in planning and scheduling.
The expected outcomes might provide useful insights for construction stakeholders and practitioners towards critically understanding and sufficiently addressing management roles and organisational behaviours for more effective planning and scheduling.

LITERATURE REVIEW
In addition to the above literature, there are a number of research studies studied and assessed various factors pertained to different project parties, which are considered as major reasons for poor project performance.However, some of these factors can be considered as team management roles and behaviours that should be independently investigated.In connection to this view, Nepal, Park and Son (2006) argued that project scheduling has a strong interaction with other metrics of a project and therefore is assumed to involve other management factors that to be critically considered.More specifically, Walker (2011) stated that organisational behaviour in the construction industry is still an issue that unquestionably needs more explicit exploration in practice.Latterly, this claim has been confirmed by Kreiner (2013) who argued that the effectiveness of the construction process can be best understood and improved by properly understanding the project management team and their organisational behaviour.
In summary, there seems to be a need for specific research studies on the understanding and assessment of project management roles and organisational behaviour in planning and scheduling in the context of construction projects.As noted earlier, much previous research, however, has paid more attention to the evaluation of the success and failure factors affecting project performance with regard to time and cost constraints (Assaf and Al-Hejji, 2006;Ahadzie, Proverbs and Olomolaiye, 2008;Ghosh and Jintanapakanont, 2004;Sun and Meng, 2009).Nevertheless, a number of these research studies have highlighted some initiatives regarding the assessment of potential effects of various factors, pertaining to the main participants (project managers, clients, contractors and consultants) in a project, on the success of project performance (Oyedele, 2013;Bari et al., 2012;Enshassi et al., 2007;Jaffar et al., 2011;Mbachu and Nkado, 2007;Doloi et al., 2012;Cooke-Davies, 2002;Sunindijo, Hadikusumo and Ogunlana, 2007;Hwang, Zhao and Goh, 2013).In a more recent study by Davis (2014), it is found, however, that there was no common agreement in perspectives among the different project stakeholders regarding the significance of these factors to their projects.This insignificant variation among stakeholders' view can be attributed to variability in project management roles and organisational behaviours currently adopted in project planning and scheduling.A summary of examples of investigated factors related to key project stakeholders or parties is presented in Table 1.As mentioned earlier, however, this study is trying to pay a more particular focus on the assessment of project management roles and organisational behaviours of the key project parties involved in the implementation and control of planning and scheduling.Assaf and Al-Hejji (2006); Belassi and Tukel (1996); Enshassi et al. (2007); Mbachu and Nkado (2007); Cooke-Davies (2002) (continued on next page)

Identification of the Study Variables
In view of the literature review and the subsequent discussions, the current practices in project planning and scheduling, not least in Oman, take very little account of stakeholders or practitioners' perspectives regarding the understanding of project management roles and organisational behaviours currently embraced in the development, implementation and control of project planning and scheduling.Considering this lack of knowledge indicated in the literature and by using experiences of the researcher in the construction industry and subsequently utilising brainstorming, a screened list of 44 factors was identified and designed.The identified factors were presumed to contribute to the project management roles and organisational behaviours of the four main parties, usually involved at a certain level of participation in project management tasks of planning and scheduling.Out of a total of 44 defined factors, 14 criteria related to project managers' roles and behaviour in planning and scheduling, 10 to clients' roles and behaviours, 10 to contractors' roles and behaviours and 10 to consultants' roles and behaviours.

Data Collection Methods
The study has adopted a questionnaire-based survey, which is considered a positivist tool for gathering data about research problems where their relevant theory seems to be inadequately investigated in practice (Neuman, 2005).In this study, the questionnaire was distributed manually (hand-delivered copies) and electronically (mail-delivered copies) to groups of people engaged in a number of public and private construction organisations in Oman.The questionnaire tested the strength of the participant perspectives on the significance of the adopted factors based on a Likert-type point scale of 1 to 7 , where 1 represents the lowest level of disagreement (strongly disagree) and 7 represents the highest level of agreement (strongly agree).The questionnaire was responded by 67 participants out of about 120 distributed copies; which is 55.8% response rate which can be considered as a reasonable response rate.Table 2 presents the analysis of the respondents' profiles.

Data Analysis Methods
The study has considered the relative importance index (RII) for testing the collected data.Holt (2014)  Where RII = relative importance index, w = individual weight given to each statement based on a seven-point scale (stems), Amax = the highest ranking point used (7 in this study) and N = the total number of respondents used in the analysis.It should be noted that the respondents were asked to rank the identified factors in the study based on the relevance or applicability of these different factors to the current practice of their construction projects.For the purpose of management priorities and practical considerations of the most significant factors (roles and behaviours), the data interpretation is based on the RII analysis of the top five factors as discussed next.

DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS Management Roles and Organisational Behaviours Related to Project Managers
The results in Table 3 indicated that respondents assigned close RII rankings to the significance of project manager roles and behaviours to planning and scheduling.Project manager roles and behaviours concerned with the practical use of project scheduling as tool-based managerial skills rather than tool-based computer skills (F1; Mean = 0.424; RIIadjusted = 0.848) and motivational incentives for successful planning and scheduling teams (F8; Mean = 0.423; RIIadjusted = 0.846) were ranked as the most important factors to the current practice.In view of these findings, a study by González et al. (2014) revealed that a proper understanding of project schedules by project managers is crucial to the effective control of schedule deviations during project execution.This would imply that managerial motivations assigned for the successful planning team can improve the project team productivity in managing a more realistic and controllable scheduling.
Other roles and behaviours concerning project manager competence in understanding the complete transfer of planning outputs into scheduling plans (F6; Mean = 0.418; RIIadjusted = 0.836) and the best use of lessons learned when developing new project plans and schedules (F10; Mean = 0.418; RIIadjusted = 0.836) were received the same RII ranks as equally important factors to the current practice of planning and scheduling.This has become evident in view of the literature which implied that insufficient considerations of all inputs and deliverables in project planning will result in impractical scheduling of the project (Nepal, Park and Son, 2006;Ahsan and Gunawan, 2010).This results can imply that project managers should not proceed with project scheduling unless project planning is measured against the completeness of scope definition, especially time and resources estimates.

Management Roles and Organisational Behaviours Related to Clients
The RII results revealed a small variation in the overall rankings of the studied roles and behaviours of clients as indicated in Table 4. Nevertheless, there is still a room for prioritising some significant factors than others while developing project plans and schedules.In this regard, the clients' roles and behaviours concerned with sufficient awareness about the impact of unplanned changes on the original schedule (F22; Mean = 0.387; RIIadjusted = 0.774) and the participation in coordinating and setting out the measurement performance tools for planning and scheduling (F18; Mean = 0.385; RIIadjusted = 0.771), as well as clients' flexibility in facilitating the flow of the project boundary information in planning and scheduling (F17; Mean = 0.383; RIIadjusted = 0.766), were ranked as the top three factors that might be given more attention.The findings can imply that clients should play a strong role in setting out the performance control tools, as well as they should use their own competencies when addressing and evaluating their needs and relevant impacts on planning.Additionally, clients should be authentic regarding desired information needed about project boundary conditions for a more reliable project planning.Other management roles concerned with the completeness and accuracy of needs and inputs in planning on the part of clients was considered as the fourth significant factor (F16; Mean = 0.381; RIIadjusted = 0.762).This factor was followed by project clients' roles or behaviours concerning the ability to establish trustworthy and interactive environments in planning and scheduling (F15; Mean = 0.378; RIIadjusted = 0.756) ranked as the fifth significant factor.A combination of these findings aligned with the same concern indicated in the relevant literature stating that the client ability to allocate contingency resources (buffers) and ability to actively participate in project planning, as well as the ability to efficiently overcome any schedule deviations during the implementation stage are significant issues to the success of project time performance (Ahadzie, Proverbs and Olomolaiye, 2008;Hwang, Zhao and Goh, 2013;Mbachu and Nkado, 2007).

Management Roles and Organisational Behaviours Related to Consultants
Table 5 presents the overall rankings and means of the factors used to judge roles and behaviours of project consultants in planning and scheduling.The results revealed that the factors identified as effective coordination with all project stakeholders in the implementation and control of planning and scheduling (F28; Mean = 0.389; RIIadjusted = 0.778) was rated with the highest RII value as the most important role to be considered.A more recent study by Oyedele (2013) revealed that the effectiveness of consultants' co-ordination with other project stakeholders is a key issue for the effectiveness of project planning, especially in mega projects where many stakeholders are involved at different design stages.Subsequently, the findings from the study indicated that management roles and organisational behaviours of consultants concerned with the efficiency in transferring all information, needs and other inputs of stakeholders in planning (F27; Mean = 0.377; RIIadjusted = 0.754), the effectiveness in analysing the scheduling outcomes in conformance quality and risk aspects of project (F29; Mean = 0.377; RIIadjusted = 0.754) and the tendency to be proactive regarding uncertainties or risk factors causing hindrance to the schedule performance (F31; Mean = 0.376; RIIadjusted = 0.751) were considered as equally important factors to the implementation and control of project planning and scheduling.In connection to this, it was argued that delegating a more proactive team is crucial for identifying all potential risks and for allocating contingency plans; thus, mitigating uncertainty in scheduling by effectively managing risks (Schatteman et al., 2008).Moreover, the results showed that the factor concerned with the consultant capability to adopt a variety of control methods and tools in project planning and scheduling was received the fourth RII score (F25; Mean = 0.374; RIIadjusted = 0.749).This would imply that project consultants should understand, choose and adopt the most suitable tools and methods that fit with the project nature (size and complexity) for managing a more realistic scheduling that meets the common understanding of other project parties.

Management Roles and Organisational Behaviours Related to Contractors
Table 6 presents the RII rankings of the factors used to examine the contractor roles and behaviours in planning and scheduling.It is also very important to understand the contractor roles in the development and control of project planning and scheduling.More recently, Alzahrani and Emsley (2013) have stated that proper understanding of performance aspects and management roles of project contractors is crucial for the best likelihoods of having more achievable outcomes from the execution of construction projects.The results in Table 6 indicated that the factors concerned with the contractor effectiveness in following up and controlling in-site teams and in resolving their related conflicts affecting the schedule performance (F37; Mean = 0.417; RIIadjusted = 0.833), as well as the contractor competence in adequately incorporating and managing work schedules of sub-contractors and suppliers in the main project scheduling (F38; Mean = 0.414; RIIadjusted = 0.828), received the highest RII ranks as significant roles or organisational behaviours to the implementation and control of planning and scheduling.This was followed by the factor concerning the contractor role and behaviours towards admitting the accountability for the most efficient technical implementation of project plans and schedules (F35; Mean = 0.412; RIIadjusted = 0.823).In addition, the contractor should also be able to manage all interferences between procurement schedules and the project schedule (F36; Mean = 0.408; RIIadjusted = 0.816), as well as the ability to update project schedules resourcefully based on feedbacks from other project stakeholders (F40; Mean = 0.398; RIIadjusted = 0.796).In this regard, scheduling quality control can be enhanced by adequate identifying of the interference impacts in the material delivery schedule on the detailed scheduling of a project (Oberlender, 1993;Belout and Gauvreau, 2004).These roles and behaviours of contractors should be critically considered for high quality performance of scheduling.Other relevant studies by Iyer and Jha (2006), Jha and Iyer (2007) and Ibironke et al. (2013)

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS FOR MANAGERIAL CONSIDERATIONS
Based on the findings and subsequent discussions, the significant factors concerned with roles and organisational behaviours should be integrated into the current philosophies of project planning adopted in the construction industry.As a result, construction practitioners and key stakeholders should be able to properly identify and adjust the existing management roles and organisational behaviours for the purpose of managing more dynamic and effective planning and scheduling systems.The project parties should be able to address, amongst other management roles and behaviours, the following issues, which can be used as guidelines in making the most effective decision in project planning and scheduling: 1. Project managers should effectively recognise that their accountability is not limited to planning, but should also be extended and communicated to the implementation and control of project plans and schedules.Project managers should give specific focus to the improvement of their team skills in managing effective project scheduling.It can be achieved through specific training on planning and scheduling theory, the use of control tools and other computerised techniques.In addition, project managers should 14/PENERBIT UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA be competent in setting out the most efficient control and communication plans with other parties in the project in order to allow more realistic information sharing and feedback.2.
Clients should be competent in and increase their awareness of the consequences of any uncontrolled or poorly planned changes on the effectiveness of planning and scheduling systems.Therefore, they should actively participate in coordinating and establishing the most efficient measurement tools or methodologies for planning and scheduling.Moreover, clients should be very flexible and realistic when providing and addressing all required information to other stakeholders about project boundary conditions in planning.They should be competent in addressing their needs and interests on the basis of real needs behind the project idea.

3.
Consultants should be effectively coordinating all inputs and deliverables from other parties in planning and scheduling which means that consultants should be able to transfer such needs into well-defined, measurable units in planning.The consultants should be able to foster any required change in the management plan, for example, by applying new tools and techniques for controlling and analysing all uncertainties in the schedule against other measures of quality, risk and cost control.4.
Contractors should be competent in applying planned and scheduled tasks into physical actions, as well as effectively communicate with their in-site team in order to be able to follow-up the implementation of such tasks on site according to the original plan.Moreover, they should be able to adequately manage interferences among materials' delivery schedules and master the work schedule to prohibit any detraction from the original plans.
In this regard, they should utilise monitoring and optimisation tools to precisely identify any deviations in scheduling and rapidly address them to other stakeholders for necessary corrective action with no cost implications.

CONCLUSIONS
The study has identified and examined a set of factors identified as project management roles and organisational behaviours of the main project parties in project planning and scheduling.The literature review implied that there is a lack of knowledge on the part of construction practitioners towards the proper understanding of such roles and behaviours in the current practice.The research findings revealed that there is a strong level of agreement among the respondents on the rankings of significance of the investigated factors to planning and scheduling.Nevertheless, the study implied that there is a need to prioritise certain significant roles and behaviours than others while developing project plans and schedules.In addition, construction policy-makers should take into account that any mismatch in project management roles and organisational behaviours of the main project parties involved can result in ineffective planning and scheduling.Despite the study being limited to locally perspectives based on the Oman construction projects, it has provided some useful insights to construction practitioners and stakeholders in general.First, it highlights a new management area concerned with organisational behaviours in project planning which appears to be a relatively new concept that needs further investigations.Second, it has provided useful knowledge regarding the rankings of the different roles and organisational behaviours to current practice; thus, construction practitioners are expected to obtain new information on how to prioritise certain management roles by adjusting their current planning strategies for the best development and control in planning and scheduling.The study results might be externally validated by adopting a more rigorous approach to develop a deeper insight about the research phenomena highlighted in this study.

Table 2 .
Background Profiles of Respondents (continued on next page)

Table 3 .
RII Rankings of Project Managers' Roles and Organisational Behaviour

Table 4 .
RII Rankings of Clients' Roles and Organisational Behaviours

Table 5 .
RII Rankings and Means of Consultants' Roles and Organisational Behaviours

Table 6 .
also indicated the imperative of considering such factors, amongst other important factors (Table 1), while managing construction scheduling.RII Rankings of Contractors' Roles and Organisational Behaviours