The Quality of Construction Project Managers in Hong Kong
what do you think about The Quality of Construction Project Managers in Hong Kong and the training of them ?
Many project managers in Hong Kong are not competent for a number of
reasons. First, many of them do not have the required academic
qualifications. Because of the downturn
of the construction market, there is a dangerous tendency that the
contractors are employing project managers without the appropriate
qualifications but only with those in
mechanical engineering or building services engineering etc.. These
personnel may only perform well in areas, to which their academic
qualifications relate. Second, their
experiences are usually restricted to a few areas in construction. This is
the result of overspecialization in our construction industry. Some
contractors deliberately
overspecialize the works so that their staff would not be able to compete
with them as they never gain sufficiently broad experiences. In fact, many
graduates in
construction were ousted from the industry because they do not have family
ties with the top management, while there are many top management personnel,
who are without the
sufficient academic background, in the industry. The problem is the attitude
of the local contractors that construction is their family businesses
regardless whether their
family members have the required formal training. This is unfair to those
graduates with the relevant qualifications but without any family ties with
the top management.
Admittedly, the quality of the recent graduates in building construction,
engineering & surveying is horrendously low.
In fact, the resources of our society in training the construction personnel
are being wasted by the incompetent architects who are afraid to see some
construction
personnel are able to surpass them.
One of the main roles of the project managers is to integrate all parts of
the construction works including design, structural works, building
services, finishing works,
quantity surveying and site surveying etc. in an effective manner. To do so,
he must have some background in all of these areas and be able to
communicate effectively both
in English and Chinese so that all parties concerned can understand one
another to a reasonable extent. They must be truly bilingual because they
have to communicate with
the relevant parties at all levels. Though I am a Chinese, I think, for the
time being, many technical matters can be more accurately and conveniently
expressed in English
than in Chinese. Even among the Chinese construction professionals, they
need to communicate with one another in English. Many project managers say
that they can do so,
but, actually, they cannot. For example, they cannot even explain the
problems or difficulties of the projects to the Architects clearly. While
the European, American &
Japanese project managers and engineers cannot understand Chinese, the
Chinese project managers and engineers, particularly those from Mainland
China, cannot communicate
effectively in English. The English communication skills of the Japanese
project managers and engineers are bad. The fact is the European, American &
Japanese project
managers and engineers do not have good understanding of the sub-contractors
who carry out the site manual works and the difficulties they have.
The project managers and engineers etc. from Mainland should work in
Mainland, while those educated in Hong Kong work in Hong Kong, according to
their language