Improving the supervisory and managerial skills and competences required in construction management in Nigeria.

Construction professionals understand the complexity and everchanging nature of the built environment which continues to raise enormous challenges for managers. The industry has embraced managing people as an effective strategy in managing successful projects. In Nigeria, the industry employs and deploys an extremely diverse range of workers from various backgrounds, expected to be managed and supervised. Ineffective management caused by lack of updated skills and competences (SC), has been identified in several literatures as a major setback in the Nigerian construction industry (NCI). The purpose of this study was to identify and understand these SC, examine the critical success factors that promote their development, and investigate the challenges associated with their development and application. The data, on which this study was based, was sourced from 155 completed and usable survey questionnaires and 30 semi-structured interviews with registered construction professionals in Nigeria. Participants were drawn from membership of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, practicing in both private and public sectors. The objectives of this study include exploring and documenting the current SC development approaches in the NCI and its impact on project outcomes. The study inter-alia revealed, that training and online self-education are two popular ways Nigerian construction managers and supervisors develop their SC. Training infrastructure and standard, measuring SC attainment and reward system, lack of commitment, values and unguaranteed loyalty of trainees, general education and knowledge sharing culture, political interference, regulation and policies, expensive SC development and lack of sponsorship, corruption and ethical issues are key challenges to SC development in the NCI. The study developed and validated a framework and a set of guidelines for the development of construction management SC the NCI. The study established that SC development help save time, cost and positively impacts quality and general project outcome. It identified and documented the top twenty important SC, top twenty difficult SC and the top twenty SC that need development. These SC; team building, communication, programme design, motivation, programme maintenance, supervision of others, quality control/assurance, employee training, creativity, leadership, company law, construction law, recruitment/selection, health and safety, material planning and control, manpower planning and control, in no order of preference, were rated in both top twenty important and difficult SC. Only employee training, as an SC, was rated in the top twenty SC that need development as well as previous two categories. Organisations are responsible for SC development and can now use the identified SC to prioritize and profile their managers and supervisors before investing in their development. The critical success factors for SC development in the NCI are willingness to learn, obtaining valuable certified qualification, promotion and career development, obtaining respect of peers, job creation and generating wealth. Organisational culture and structure are other established success factors in SC development in the NCI. The study recommends that all aspects of SC trainings be practical and technical. It also recommended that knowledge-sharing should be encouraged in every construction organisation. Furthermore, students in construction management programmes in Nigeria tertiary institutions should be exposed to acquire experience from the industry. Further study could investigate how SC of managers and supervisors can be profiled and monitored. Similarly, there is need to develop a model for monitoring and identifying shortages and gaps in construction management SC in Nigeria.