Selecting superior performance improvement policies

The changing trends in the Asian construction sector are creating both new opportunities for and threats to the domestic construction organizations. To improve the competitiveness of these organizations, senior managers are tasked with the responsibility of selecting and implementing improvement policies to enhance organizational performance. This study utilizes the system dynamics methodology to provide a careful and holistic evaluation of the policies. A model is built to represent an average performing construction organization listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange. Long-term simulation of the validated model produces the forecasted organization performance. Three improvement policies recommended by CIDB (2000) that have different cost and benefit impact profiles are selected for evaluation. Taking into consideration the impact of the economy on the construction industry, simulated results of the policies and combination of the policies indicate that the implementation of short-term improvement policies produces superior improvement in organization performance when compared with other policies.