Reference no: EM13165954 , Length: Words 600

You should read and discuss your classmates' posts, offering constructive comments or feedback to each other. Comments include additional literature review, analysis, research methods and related theories etc.

Introduction to the post

The original posts are written by other students for their first section of the proposal (introduction part), and you will need to read their posts and to offer some constructive suggestion of improvement or advice.

Writing Requirement

• Read the original post written by other students;
• You do not need to analysis the original post (i.e what is the analyzed and what is the advantage), only give suggestion, there is an example attached at below;
• To write about at least200 words with academic reference or theoretical frameworks for the solution (an example of the response made by another student, in yellow);
• No plagiarism, fabrication or direct citation without referencing;
• Do use academic reference or citation, the style must be in Harvard style, if it is an internet source link must be incl., do not forget to attach the reference list at below;
• There are 3 posts needed to be critiqued / advised, and in total 600-700 words;
• Good English expression without grammar errors;
• Based on the above requirement to compose solution (suggestion) for the authors.

You must deliver one solution within 12 hours after the work is started, the rest can be done within 36 hours when the work starts.

This is an example of other students' submission, only for referencing:

Hello XXX;

I find your chosen Topic quiet interesting and brings back memories of the times I traded in the financial Markets. While you seem to have covered the positive side of incentives which is not bad it shows a bit of bias from the start.Using my experience and lessons in Trading were incentives where all that matters, and Bonus was the driving force, over time as evident in the Enron Case and many others, there is a point at which an incentive becomes detrimental to an organization or industry.

As such I would propose you include in the analysis the contra view that studies like that of Collins (2006) that extensively studied the Enron case basically boiled down to how incentives can create unprecedented greed across all levels of institution, the staff, managers, auditors, investors and to some extent the regulators.This addition would then limit the perception as many of us believe that with unlimited incentives, there is bound to be unlimited performance.

Note: this response is only an example, the word count is not sufficient and it lacks of academic reference and citation.

 ------------------------------------ Original post No. 1 -------------------------------------

Vincent Ward

Title

Generation Gap: Strategic factors influencing the implementation of the United Arab Emirates' renewable and nuclear energy policies.

 Hypothesis

The environmental, political, social and economic conditions in the UAE are ideal for an energy policy targeting substantially higher nuclear energy and renewable energy contribution to the electricity sector by 2030.

 Literature Review

The context of sustainable development, according to Choucri, Goldsmith &Mezher (2010), can be used to assess if a country such as the UAE can implement a renewable energy (RE) plan. The authors described the current RE situation in the UAE and examined the framework required to meet sustainable development. Choucri, Goldsmith &Mezher (2010) research showed that the UAE has the ability to meet emission-reducing targets as well as encourage sustainable development by implementing a national energy policy. One of their key findings was that the choice of renewable technology will ultimately be responsible for moving the economy towards sustainability. As this article is from four years ago then its use in the context of this dissertation is to provide background on the challenges facing policy makers, one of which is the apparent disconnect between policy and reality - this is something that my research will explore further. It will be interesting to see how (if) the policy has developed over the last four years. Choucri, Goldsmith &Mezher (2010) argue that the UAE's economic factors have not been "supportive of a sustainability strategy", however, I would disagree with their position and my research will show that high budget surpluses on the back of oil wealth could easily have supported earlier development of RE in the country.

Al-Amir & Abu-Hijleh (2013) performed some interesting research using a review of RE policies used in various countries worldwide to determine which ones worked best so that they could propose a recommended future policy for the UAE to adopt. Their work centered on the fact that the UAE desperately needs a policy to develop the RE sector and that this policy could have three stages of development - short, mid and long term strategies. Al-Amir & Abu-Hijleh (2013) identify the challenges of adopting an RE policy - like the article by Choucri, Goldsmith &Mezher (2010), this fits in as solid background to the status of RE in the UAE whilst Al-Amir & Abu-Hijleh (2013) also highlight some of the economic and political factors influencing the other countries choice of policy e.g. deregulation, feed-in-tariffs, etc. Their information assists this dissertation by helping to build a case for the hypothesis. The policies the authors propose are those that have been successful elsewhere - these are not whimsical ideas but tried and tested initiatives to work towards sustainability and emissions targets. A link can be made from Al-Amir & Abu-Hijleh (2013) proposed ideas and what should have happened in the UAE. This dissertation will incorporate their ideas to investigate why action wasn't taken sooner.

Whilst the first two articles are primarily concerned with RE, the article by Sgouridis et al. (2013) provides a comprehensive overview of all alternatives to fossil fuels as energy sources. Their findings are most relevant to my research questions as the key conclusion is that the UAE could implement alternative energies without economic penalty if there is a Sustainable Energy Transition (SET) plan in place. Sgouridis et al. (2013) discuss the feasibility and financial advantage of a SET plan in the UAE. Notably, their research suggests that early adoption of a SET plan gives a number of advantages, such as reduced risk involved with the capital investment; high penetration rates of RE; and possible mitigation of the need for future fossil fuel burning capacity. These are all positive factors that should influence the decision to invest in alternative energies and the research by Sgouridis et al. (2013) supports my hypothesis that economic and environmental factors are such that they benefit the early development of RE policies. The dissertation will extend their research to show that more could have been done and higher targets should be achievable.

------------------------------------ Original post No. 2 -------------------------------------

MinqiZuo

Introduction 

The proposed dissertation title is "Does leadership style lead the success/failure of project management in small-to-medium business in New Zealand?". The three following articles are related to project management which the author will discuss the details of the potential implications for the dissertation.

Findings and the key arguments point of three articles selected

The three articles are:

• Supporting collaborative project management
• Stakeholders and uncertainty management in projects
• Exploring the links between technology usage and project outcomes

Findings and the key arguments point of the articles:

Supporting collaborative project management

The key arguments point of this article discussed by Ollus, Jansson, Karvonen,  Uoti&Riikonen (2011)  that are based on the discussion of collaborative management of projects, management of collaborative projects, leadership and intangible assets in collaborative project management , using different figures and tables , emphasizing the importance of trust for effective and efficient collaboration and communication as well as the role of IT support in project management, giving the solution in supporting collaborative project management which is distributing project environment by sharing and aligning working process and methods, sharing project objectives, providing a checklist for c-PM collaboration activities, raising awareness of scheduling weakness and potential risks, identifying requirement for external knowledge and skills, comparing and positioning project sponsors/partners' attitudes and business cultures.

The authors didn't give out the solution straight away but provided foreseen further development of the discussion.

The argument point of the importance of trust for effective and efficient collaboration and communication as well as leadership and intangible assets in collaborative project management will be considered as a discussion point in researcher's dissertation. Ollus, Jansson, Karvonen,  Uoti&Riikonen (2011)  listed the advantages of collaborative project management and adopted verification design which also discussed by Easterby-Smith, Thorpe & Jackson (2012, p.67) that the potential implications will be applied to the researcher's topic. Figures and tables gave readers a better understanding on the argument point which the researcher will also consider to adopt this method.

Stakeholders and uncertainty management in projects

The argument points of this article were defining the project to clarify relevant stakeholders and the context, introducing what is the uncertainty process framework in project management and identifying the issues that related to stakeholders, structuring the issues, estimating variability and working out the way to manage implementation focusing the process for effectiveness and efficiency (Ward & Chapman, 2008).

The conclusion of this article was the SHAMPU framework maybe deployed at every stage of a PLC, it was employed due to the detailed is more than any other risk process frameworks in project management and it makes stakeholder problem central to the 7 shaping stages of the uncertainty management process (Ward & Chapman, 2008).

The authors used theory design and argued for the topic step by step using tables. The design of research will be the potential implications that the researcher is considered to be use in the research.

Exploring the links between technology usage and project outcomes

The argument points of this article are the issues of technology usage and the overall cost of the project, the relationships between quality and facility integration, the benefits of using technology, projects' levels of schedule success V.S projects' levels of cost success, different level of technology for assessing the integration link work functions and preliminary analysis of collected data (Yang, 2007).The conclusion described the schedule success-technology relationship is stronger than that for cost, the level of project schedule success, and the limitation of the research was the qualitative factors are excluded from the analysis (Yang, 2007).The author used formal steps arguing for the topic - Introduction of the article, literature review, research hypotheses, research method, analysis of the figure and the conclusion and recommendations after all.

The potential implications to the researcher are not also the way the author produced the article (used formal way and five chapters to argue for the topic), but also the points the author outlined that's the different level of technology for analysis of collected data.

Conclusion

In sum, three articles illustrated different approaches to argue for the topic. It gives the sample ideas to the researcher on how to make a realistic argument and the method it can use in the dissertation. Researchers will be benefits from the comparison of the articles and the findings of reading the articles provide positive impact on the dissertation.

------------------------------------ Original post No. 3 -------------------------------------

Mustafa Atia

Evaluation and analysis of contract claims management in construction industry.

Introduction

Construction contract claims caused by different many causes (lake of contract documents, stakeholders scope change, negative or positive change order, or missed items not included in scope verification documents) that claims become commonly happened in the construction projects "The incidence of delay claims continues to increase even with the implementation of relational contracting." (Yates, J, & Epstein, A 2006), that it is required careful management from project management teamwork in order to be fairly dealt and keeping the rights for each project participant side.

Background

construction contract claims is understood to be a demand asserted by one party on another party relating to services or products specified in the contract (Barnard P, 2005) it has been studied from different point of views with evaluating its affection for the project Time, Cost, & Quality, this research are studying the reasons lead to generate a contract claim and evaluating the way contract claims being managed.

Claims management way and the right reservation for claim should be applied professionally and officially that the miss understanding for the official claiming procedure could lead the contractor or subcontractor to lose his claim rights for the consumed time and project resources spend for something not included in his scope of work, furthermore it could lead the client to apply penalties on the contractor/subcontractor for the time lost handling the claim unofficially.

Construction contract claims.

Hassanein A & EL Nemr W. (2008) has studied the construction claims management in the Egyptian construction sector they have applied questionnaire in the constructional companies in Egypt regarding to project5 claims causes and application they have found that the majority of construction claims generated from client change order which resulted in project delay and more than 57% of the claims from the sample included in the applied questionnaire (companies have cumulative work budget exceeding 100 million L.E. (around 33 million USD)) have been lost regarding to poor claim documentation and project execution teamwork poorly aware of project contract.

Contract claims could be asserted by contractors, subcontractors or even owners that the construction project claims could be positive (some scope of work added to the contractor by client) or negative (some scope of work deducted from the contractor scope, that the countries regulations are controlling the percentage allowed to the client for changing the scope (addition or deduction) Barnard P, 2005 has addressed the construction claims from the contractor and client different point of views and discussing the impacts could affect the project success that it leads to time delay and exceeding the project estimated budget, the report giving some important notes helpful for applying effective claim resolution for the both contract participating parts (owner & contractor).

The report addressing that different owners (government, Gas & oil company, police station,....etc.) have different specifications required in their desired building that the contractor should be aware of the requirements of his client in order to diminish any scope changes during the project life.

Common attitude from the contractors in the construction project is to wait until the project end time (Vidogah W &Ndekugri I 1998 P367) which making the project owner in a good position for discussing the claims as a one figure with big reductions as a condition to pay the balance contractor payments when the project is complete.

Claims should be handled on time officially in order to keep the rights for each project participant part, Vidogah, W, &Ndekugri, I 1998 have discussed the claim's cost calculation method considering all indirect cost for head office and all project working teams, they reviewed and detailed analysis for claims from law point of view they have applied survey followed by interviews with 10 contracting and consulting companies and 5 ongoing construction projects resulted that the claims could be generated from contract preparing process time that the contract documents including design drawings, the paper-based nature most of the relevant information, and poor resourcing of the claims management role in contracting organizations.

claims could start at any process from the construction project life cycle from initiating process (project document creation not included all the required scope to completely finish the project) to the project closing process (contractor installed activities which was not in his scope or the client claiming activities which canceled and not executed), the claims dilemma exist in tow factors affecting the proof of right Procedure & Time.

Claiming submission time is very important for proofing the claimant right for the claim that the sometimes the client asking the contractor to stop the work in specific part of the project that they are making new changes in that part and after a period of time the client regret his order and asking to continue without any changes " the contractor shall promptly, give a written notice to the contracting officer" (Kim, M, & Adams, K 1989 P251) (the contractor has stopped the work regarding oral instruction from client representative) that the lost time can't be proofed.

on the other hand the claim documentation and submission on the same level of importance of the time, the claim document preparation should be arranged and supported by the contract document, project drawings, changes' order letters, scope verification...etc. that the claims handling person (from all contract participating parts) should be aware of the project contract document and domestic regulations in the construction sector.

Conclusion

construction contract claims have been analyzed from contract participants point of views, this research is willing to discuss the construction claims the proper application from the contractor point of view in order to save the contractor rights and official proofing it.