EURO MED SEC 01


USE OF THE DELPHI METHOD TO IDENTIFY AND ANALYZE INCENTIVES FOR US HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION WORKERS

R. EDWARD MINCHIN JR., GAVIN N. HANCOCK, JAMES G. SULLIVAN


Abstract

Crew leaders and foremen on construction job sites are skilled individuals that are dwindling in numbers due to the push on students throughout their secondary schooling to attend college, in addition to other economic factors. The focus of this research is to determine what incentives construction companies implement in order to retain, motivate and increase the productivity levels of their skilled crew leaders and foremen. This study utilizes the Delphi method, which consists of questioning a panel of experts in a series of rounds—with the summaries of responses from each round made available to each of the experts—until a consensus is reached. The Delphi method allows a researcher to utilize the expertise of a smaller population sample than traditional statistical methods, but has gained worldwide acceptance as a substitute for some of those traditional methods. Each construction company operates in a unique, independent manner as they compete to attract and then retain these valuable workers. The main goal of this research is to investigate this as an economic issue, and determine if offering more, or larger, incentives to the skilled crew leaders and foremen is worth the additional cost. The purpose of this paper is to describe how the Delphi Method was utilized to accomplish this.

Full Text (PDF)