Unlocking Construction Digital Future: assessing the affordance of remote working in construction

Thurairajah, Niraj, Mokhtar Azizi, Zahirah, Cochrane, James and Mokhtar Azizi, Nurul Sakina (2021) Unlocking Construction Digital Future: assessing the affordance of remote working in construction. In: 37th Annual Association of Researchers in Construction Management Conference, ARCOM 2021, 06/09/2021 - 07/09/2021, Online.

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Abstract

The advancement of digital technology within the construction industry has created greater flexibility that goes beyond simply working from home. As remote working becomes increasingly popular, it could potentially unlock the construction’s digital future with new ways of working and operating. However, the sector has been slow to adopt digitisation in its processes, making it difficult to assess whether this affordance may be well received and the current capabilities of digitisation to achieve this practically. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the interest in remote working among construction professionals and to examine the factors affecting remote working. Data were collected from 125 construction professionals in a questionnaire survey. The findings show that there is a general appetite for remote working on a flexible basis where a mix of “on-site” and “off-site” arrangement was deemed practical. This could potentially unlock significant time and cost savings as well as productivity gains. The main factors affecting remote working were the availability of interconnected systems allowing efficient communication and digital infrastructure that enable automated processes. The findings may benefit organisations to evaluate the practical needs of ensuring effective remote working in the construction industry and unlocking efficiencies.

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