Essential modernisation

The first edition of Construction Management in Practice was published in 1983, and was very well received in the construction community. Since then it has been an essential guide.

Many practitioners in their day-to-day management of the construction business and processes turn to this book. It has also been part of the curriculum or recommended for further reading for the students of graduate and postgraduate courses in the UK, Hong Kong, South Africa, and Australia.

Now, almost a decade after the publication of the first edition, the structure and working practices of the construction industry have changed so much that a new edition has been much needed.

There has been a number of key changes including the recommendations of both the Latham (1994) and Egan (1998) reports. Both needed to be integrated into the book within a construction management context.

It has also became imperative to ensure there is detailed coverage of a number of structural changes, including the:

• rise of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI)
  
• changes in supply change management
  
• effects of the CDM regulations.

Furthermore,the changes also required an update to reflect current financial management and accounting practices which have been added to the construction control process since 1983.

The second edition has been thoroughly revised and takes account of the above changes along with increased globalisation of construction, the move from public to private sector work, the drive for productivity, changing procurement methods, new emphasis on life cycle costing and more.

The book contains eleven chapters, entitled: Construction Management in Practice; Introduction to Strategic Management: Strategy Systems; Industrial Relations; Health and Safety in Construction; Managing People; Financing Business Units; Budgeting; Financial Performance; Quantitative Decision-making; and Operational Research.

There is a wealth of information to determine what people do in practice, as well as a wealth of advice on 'How to do better'. However, some of the text does not clearly define the terminology and does not include any details relating to the definition. This may cause a bit of difficulty for students, trying to better understand construction management.

This revised edition additionally provides an examination of the management principles and techniques involved in running a construction business and provides an up-to-date analysis of managing strategy, people and money.

According to the authors there are three key areas where strategic thinking and actions can create competitive advantage for construction firms, and these are:

• strategic management (Chapters 2 and 3)
  
• managing people (Chapters 4, 5 and 6)
  
• managing money (Chapters 7, 8 and 9).

The fourth key aspect is the process by which decisions are made in these areas: decision-making techniques (Chapters 10-11) Construction Management in Practice embodies the results of intensive research by the authors which, in my opinion, is accurate, informative, brief, and forceful — for the success of the construction management process.

Finally, this book is strongly recommended for both construction management students and practitioners.

Construction Management in Practice (Second Edition)

Authors: Richard Fellows, David Langford, Robert Newcombe & Sydney Urry
CBD order number: 3060
Cost: £24.99
Pages: 378
Publisher: Blackwell Science