People capability: A strategic capability for enhancing organizational excellence of construction firms

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to find out how construction organizations can achieve excellence and enhance excellence through knowledge and workforce management. The combination of knowledge and workforce management, referred to here as the People Capability, is the key area of concern in this study.

Design/methodology/approach

The European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) model of organizational excellence is used as the basis for organizational excellence assessment and system dynamics is used as the modeling tool. Scenario analysis is conducted to identify the enabling factors that are more significant for organizational excellence, as well as how these factors operate and interact.

Findings

Based on the outcomes of the model, human resource development and training is the most important enabling factor that enhances organizational capabilities. Both workforce management and knowledge management are key components of People Capability, and they play crucial roles in the performance of construction firms. There is a high degree of dependence on these two components. Human resource development and training affect all capability areas and are key to the effective implementation of capability building programs.

Originality/value

Organizations might have various options in choosing different policies, and those policies can be planned and expressed in different manners and scales. How can an organization determine which scenarios end up producing desired performance results? Simulation techniques, especially system dynamics, have been used to answer these types of questions due to their ability to model causal relationships among various system components. The results of this research can help construction organizations identify effective knowledge and workforce management policies and capability-building programs that improve their organizational capabilities.

Citation

Terouhid, S.A. and Ries, R. (2016), "People capability: A strategic capability for enhancing organizational excellence of construction firms", Journal of Modelling in Management, Vol. 11 No. 3, pp. 811-841. https://doi.org/10.1108/JM2-04-2014-0028