A dynamic decision support system for organizational sustainability excellence of construction firms

Construction is among the most influential industries in the economy with significant impact on energy, environment, and society; therefore, the role of construction organizations in contributing towards sustainable development objectives is important. As sustainability has increasingly become a strategic business goal in the construction industry, the need for an organizational excellence model for sustainability has become clear. This research aims to find out how construction organizations can achieve excellence in terms of corporate sustainability. Organizational excellence in sustainability is an approach to organizational performance management that aims at the improvement of organizational capabilities in terms of sustainability. Organizational excellence focuses on organizational resources, capabilities, and knowledge management to determine what is driving the long-term success of organizations. The role of different organizational policies in capability building mechanisms will also be investigated. These aims have been achieved by using system dynamics as a modeling tool and by using scenario analysis to identify which enabling factors are more significant for organizational excellence in terms of sustainability, and how these factors are operating and interacting. To satisfy the objective of this research, a decision support tool has been designed and developed based on the EFQM (the European Foundation for Quality Management) model of organizational excellence as the basis for organizational excellence assessment. This decision tool consists of an integrated system dynamics model that each of its sub-models corresponds to one of the main components of the EFQM model, including leadership, policy and strategy, people, partnership and resources, and process. The results of this research can help construction organizations identify effective policies and capability-building programs that improve their organizational capabilities in sustainable practices