Assignment Sample on RESE 1134 Research Methods

1. Introduction

The present study will shed light on the issues that have been raised in the time of the Covid-29 pandemic within the industry of construction and its resilience worldwide. Based on the identified issues this study will further include research questions, research aims and objectives along with a literature review and proper discussion of research methodology.

1.2 Research aim and objectives

In order to derive the intended conclusion through effective research work based on the topic of research, the research aim needs to be identified in the initial stage of conducting research work. According to these facts, this current study has an aim to identify and evaluate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the construction industry and its resilience. Based on the aim of the research, the developed research objectives have been discussed in the below section:

RO 1: To evaluate the impact of the global pandemic on the construction industry

RO 2: To analyse the resilience of the construction industry during pandemic times

RO 3: To identify the challenges encountered by the construction industry in a pandemic situation

RO 4: To evaluate information regarding the mitigation strategy of the construction industry

1.3 Research questions

Based on the above-mentioned research objectives and the particular research aim, the developed research questions have been described in the below section:

RQ 1: What is the impact of the global pandemic situation on the construction industry worldwide?

RQ 2: How resilient the construction industry is during pandemic times?

RQ 3: Which challenges have been encountered by the construction industry during global pandemic situations while building resilience?

RQ 4: How have the challenges been overcome by the professionals of the construction industry?

2. Rationale for the study

This study has been conducted in order to have an insight into the status of the construction industry’s resilience during the global pandemic period. It has been disclosed in several previous studies that for the sudden occurrence of the pandemic, the most harmed have been encountered by the construction industry as the government have announced a movement control order (Ogunnusi et al. 2020). For this phenomenon, the organisations of the global construction industry have been faced with a sudden pause in the business as well as in profitability as well.

2.1 Literature review

2.1.1 Concept of an independent variable (post-pandemic situation)

The social life of the people globally have been influenced in an immense manner by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic situation. After the first outbreak of this disease in December 2019, the whole world has witnessed a sudden pause in the economic growth of the countries and the organisations’ business as well (Zhu et al. 2021). Apart from this phenomenon, several industries like construction, retail, which need close contact between people, have been shut down as the order of movement control has been announced by the government for the sake of public health and wellbeing.

Figure 2.1: Post covid situation of the construction industry

(Source: Enwin and Okorosa, 2021)

2.1.2 Concept of the dependent variable (construction industries)

The industry of construction has been able to manage resilience in the post-pandemic situation. The term construction industry refers to the specific industry that includes several organisations that work overbuilding and other construction works. In this present situation, this industry has been able to recover by spending $1.54 trillion (Kawmudi et al. 2020). However, this industry is still under improvement as the market growth of this business almost stopped during the pandemic situation.

2.1.3 Correlation between the variables

Lockdowns during the covid-19 pandemic have delayed the projects of construction industries. It is noted that the construction of hospitals in Italy and China could not attend timely construction, thus decreasing the revenue of the sectors greatly. For example, projects in Honduras were reopened through four phases after the post-pandemic effects, starting with various roads as well as airport construction projects (Ilo.org, 2021). After the post-pandemic effects, the construction sites could not employ every worker with safety protocols. Hence, employee redundancy occurred and the economy of the construction sectors was doomed.

Moreover, the construction sectors were negatively impacted by the supply chain disruption after the pandemic. The delays in the completion of projects have decreased the profitability of the construction sectors greatly. However, it is noted in Africa that the local “supplier diversity” has been increased because of the “long-term effect” of the pandemic. According to Henau and Himmelweit (2020), the UK’s construction activities were seriously affected because of the post-pandemic effects. It is noted that construction jobs of many builders in the UK were halted because of the declining economy as well as financial activities.

2.1.4 Theory and model

The activities of the construction industries have been stopped because of the covid-19 pandemic. The construction sectors of the whole world have been striving hard to fight against the post-pandemic effect on the economy. According to the “Keynesian economics theory,” the organisations allocate resources as well as finances and analyse the effect on employment, inflammation. It has been noted that the shortage of liquidity because of the post-pandemic has threatened the SMEs greatly, thus decreasing their revenue (Ilo.org, 2021). The production costs of the raw materials have been increased because of the covid-19 pandemic and thus, creating a negative impact on the economy (Shibani et al. 2020). As per the Solow-Swan model, construction industries strive for long-term economic growth. However, it is seen that the employee redundancy in the construction sites, as well as the increase in supplier’s cost, harms the economic growth adversely.

Moreover, the projects of the construction industries were almost incomplete during the pandemic. Thus, it was almost impossible for the construction industries to afford a huge sum of money for higher economic growth. However, it is seen that the whole construction industry has been taking sufficient steps to improve economic growth through various steps.

2.1.5 The resilience of the construction industry

The post-pandemic effects harm the performance of the construction industries. The financial stability of the construction industries has been unstable, thus increasing their production costs greatly. However, it has been observed that the managers of the construction industries in Africa, UK, have taken sufficient safety protocols to incorporate skilled labour from various sectors. It is noted that many construction vendors have signed contracts with various partners for financial assistance as well as for economic growth. As stated by Zamani et al. (2021), the hospital construction workers in Malaysia have used a “product, organisation, process modelling approach” to make the construction projects more effective. This would give them strong financial stability as well as enable them to attain high profitability (Ilo.org, 2021). It is noted that almost 64% of the construction sectors have used OSH measures to provide health care security as well as income security to the customers.

The existing trend of new technology has made it possible for various construction industries to adapt “Construction 4.0 technology” so that the digital making of construction projects is performed effectively as well as successfully (Ilo.org, 2021). The construction sectors have made it compulsory to wear masks, maintain social distance as well as follow every safety protocol. This has increased the employee satisfaction level and has increased the profitability of the construction sectors effectively.

3. Research methodology

In order to have effective research work, the researcher needs to follow a specific procedure for selecting, identifying, processing and analysing the data regarding the research topic. Based on these facts, the researcher has chosen every aspect of the research methodology in a particular manner and been mentioned in the below section:

3.1 Research philosophy

The term research philosophy has been referred to as “a belief about the way in which data about a phenomenon should be gathered, analysed and used”. In the backdrop of this particular aspect, the researcher needs to follow any one of the existing research philosophies such as positivism, interpretivism and realism (Park et al.  2020). Among these previously mentioned research philosophies, the researcher has followed positivism as the researcher has been able to collect primary data in an easy manner. In addition, this research philosophy has provided several advantages as well like:

• The researcher has the independence of becoming the observer
• “Phenomenon can be reduced to simplest elements”
• Work with large size of a sample population

3.2 Research design

The research design refers to the “overall strategy that you choose to integrate the different components of the study in a coherent and logical way of collecting and representing data” (Sahin and Mete, 2021). Based on that fact, the researcher has chosen a descriptive research design among the available other ones such as quasi-experimental, correlational, and experimental research design. Descriptive research design has been followed by the researcher as several beneficial aspects have been offered by this specific type like:

• “Effective to analyse non-quantified topics and issues”
• “Less time-consuming than quantitative experiments”
• “The opportunity to integrate the qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection”.

On the other hand, several disadvantages have been encountered as well such as:

• “Descriptive studies cannot test or verify the research problem statistically”
• “The majority of descriptive studies are not ‘repeatable’ due to their observational nature”
• “Research results may reflect a certain level of bias due to the absence of statistical tests”

3.3 Research approach

The research approach has been referred to as “plans and the procedures for research that span the steps from broad assumptions to detailed methods of data collection, analysis, and interpretation”. Therefore, the researcher has followed the deductive research approach among the other research approaches such as inductive and abductive research approaches (Sadang and Palompon, 2021). The reason behind choosing that specific one is the advantages that offer such as:

• “Possibility to measure concepts quantitatively”
• “Possibility to explain causal relationships between concepts and variables”
• “Possibility to generalize research findings to a certain extent”

3.4 Data collection

In this current research work, the researcher has worked with the primary data in order to conduct effective and efficient research work. It has been chosen by the researcher by keeping the advantages it offers to the researcher such as:

• The researcher has been able to take a close insight into different perspectives of the sample population (Mazhar et al. 2021).
• Fresh data can be collected which have not been used previously
• The researcher has been able to question the specific research questions.

3.5 Sampling method

The researchers have chosen random sampling as the sampling method required for conducting the survey based on the research topic that denotes “to identify and evaluate the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on the construction industry and its resilience“. The researcher has encountered several advantages of this specific sampling method such as:

• “Given the large sample frame available, the ease of forming the sample group i.e. selecting samples is one of the main advantages of simple random sampling” (Iliyasu and Etikan, 2021).
• “Research findings resulting from the application of simple random sampling can be generalized due to representativeness of this sampling technique and a little relevance of bias”.

3.6 Data analysis

In order to analyse the gathered primary information regarding the research topic, the researcher has chosen the quantitative data analysis method. The researchers have used the “Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS)” in order to have a clear insight into the relationship shared between the dependent and independent variables of the research topic (Salminen et al. 2021). On the other hand, the researcher has chosen this specific one for several advantages discussed in the below section:

• “Cost-effective or Free of Charge”
• “Flexible information retrieval”
• “Broad coverage of formulas and statistical routines”.

3.7 Ethical consideration

In order to maintain the significance of the study and the uniqueness of this current study, the researcher has successfully maintained the regulation of the Data Protection Act 2018 and Privacy Protection Act 2017 (Irvine et al. 2020). Apart from these, the researcher has given a consent form to the respondent and all the controversial data have been represented in the research in a reflective manner to avoid any conflict of plagiarism.

4. Timetable

Figure 4.1: Gantt chart

(Source: Created by the learner)

5. Conclusion

In the above discussion, several aspects of the research work have been discussed in the research methodology segment. Apart from this, this entire research has cast light on the impact of the post-Covid-19 situation on the organisational resilience of the construction industry. It has been seen in the above discussion that, in the initial stage of the pandemic situation, this industry has faced several issues but in the current post-Covid situation, this industry is still in the process of recovering its past business profitability.