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The Negative Effects of Mobile ICT on Productivity in Indian Construction Projects

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Advances in Informatics and Computing in Civil and Construction Engineering

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Abstract

Due to increased affordability of mobile devices, better network coverage, and availability of a wide range of mobile applications, the use of mobile information and communication technologies (mobile ICT) has increased significantly in construction projects. While considerable research on both positive and negative implications of using mobile ICT has been conducted in different industries and social contexts, relatively few studies have examined the perception of construction management (CM) professionals. A questionnaire survey conducted across the Indian construction industry revealed that the use of mobile ICT could impede construction productivity due to factors such as: (1) pressure to remain accessible outside the work hours, (2) temptation to check it frequently, (3) adverse effects on work-life balance, (4) compulsion to work outside the normal work hours, (5) massive amount of information, (6) distraction, (7) less time to respond to changes, (8) loss of productive time due to personal internet usage, (9) adverse effects on health of the users, and (10) frequent drawing changes. Since potential applications of mobile ICT in construction projects present enormous opportunities for CM professionals, these issues need to be addressed through user awareness, training, and organizational policies.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their sincere appreciation to all of the companies and their personnel who participated in this study for their cooperation, time, data, and valuable information that they provided. The authors also want to thank the Australian Government’s financial support through an “Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship” for Ph.D. studies and support from the University of South Australia. Without these contributions, this research would not have been possible.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of South Australia, Adelaide, 5000, Australia

    Abid Hasan, Raufdeen Rameezdeen & SeungJun Ahn

  2. Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi, New Delhi, 110016, India

    Kumar Neeraj Jha

  3. University of Adelaide, Adelaide, 5000, Australia

    Bassam Baroudi

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  1. Abid Hasan
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  2. Kumar Neeraj Jha
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  3. Raufdeen Rameezdeen
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  4. SeungJun Ahn
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  5. Bassam Baroudi
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Correspondence to Abid Hasan .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. CAEE, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL, USA

    Ivan Mutis

  2. Institute of Civil Engineering, TU Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Timo Hartmann

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Hasan, A., Jha, K.N., Rameezdeen, R., Ahn, S., Baroudi, B. (2019). The Negative Effects of Mobile ICT on Productivity in Indian Construction Projects. In: Mutis, I., Hartmann, T. (eds) Advances in Informatics and Computing in Civil and Construction Engineering. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00220-6_34

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00220-6_34

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-00219-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-00220-6

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