Factor Analysis of Constructing International Contractor Claim Management Organization Based on the

Construction Engineering Volume 3, 2015 www.seipub.org/ce doi: 10.14355/ce.2015.03.003

Factor Analysis of Constructing International Contractor Claim Management Organization Based on the Method of Fuzzy Decision ZHANG Peng1, GAO Quanchen1, GAO Shuliang2, XIAO Lili1,3, JIN Kun1,3 China University of Mining and Technology , Beijing, Beijing 100083,China;

1.

China Beijing Metallurgical Engineering Technology co., LTD, Beijing 100088,China;

2.

State Key Laboratory for GeoMechanics and Deep Underground Engineering Beijing, Beijing 10083, China

3.

Abstract The influence factors of organizational structure design are divided into four categories from the angle of factor attribute: environmental factors, management factors, organizational structure characteristics factors and the organizational scale factors, this paper will analyse specifically the impact of these factors on organizational structure, meanwhile, the importance of these factors will be sorted by the fuzzy decision method, the subjective evaluation of the group can be quantified, and then the scientificity of constructing the claim organization will be improved.

Keywords Claim Organization; Factor; Fuzzy Decision; International Contractor; Claim Management

Introduction In order to improve the level of international engineering project claim management, a claim management organization is essential, but the establishment of claim organization is influenced by many factors, how to determine the role of various factors has important influences upon the creation of the organization. This paper will analyse the factors of establishing the claim organization using the method of the fuzzy decision, so that the problem of qualitative can be quantified, the individual subjectivity that frequently occur in the organization design can be reduced by quantifying the subjective evaluation of the group, as a result, the scientificity of constructing the claim organization will be improved.

The Introduce of Fuzzy Decision The fuzzy decision is the method that the evaluation object will be sorted according to the advantages and disadvantages, or in some way from the evaluation objects to select a ʺsatisfactoryʺ solution, which will be needed for decision making. Fuzzy decision includes comments, dual contrast decision‐making and comprehensive evaluation method.

In this paper, the structure factors of evaluation have fuzzy dual contrast decision and fuzzy opinion centralized decision making. The main idea of fuzzy dual contrast decision is that the factors evaluated are compared. The comparison is a kind of fuzzy understanding, then quantizing this understanding, and using the fuzzy mathematics method to discharge the merits of the overall order. The main idea of the fuzzy opinion centralized decision is that using quantitative model to concentrate for the reasonable opinion from different opinions.

Integrated application of these two methods can provide scientific evaluation for the issue of many qualitative quantitative solutions, it is very feasible and effective.

The Influence Factors of the Claims Organization Construction The Scale of the Contracted Project For smaller business enterprises with small scale, less personnel and less amount of the contracted project can set up simple organization section and they donʹt need to build a particular organization department. They can make

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the actual dressing according to itself. But for some larger business enterprises with more personnel, more much bigger engineering items and more complex claims, their organization scale is relatively large and more complex, the division of labor is relatively clear, workload is big, the requirement to the staff is also more professional, the organization has a high stability.

Management Factors Management factors are the factors directly related to the organization management and operation, mainly including claim strategy, organization technology, and organizational culture three aspects.

1)

Claim Strategy

Claim strategy affects claim organization structure on two levels: first, the different claim strategy requests different claim technique that influences the design of claiming personnelʹs job; second, the change of strategic point will arouse the change of claim organizational priorities. Thus lead to the change of claim responsibility’s important degree in the organization.

2)

Claim Technology

In the project claim work, there are some claim problems that are often appear. They are processed well in the previous claim work, so the new problems can be treated according to the former approach. Consequently with specialized claim department or professional talents and technical talents, it will save more time. Handling will be also easier, more professional and more efficient.

3)

Organizational Culture

Organizational culture is very necessary for the organization’s effective operation. It plays two key roles in the organization: (a) integration of organization members, cultivating members of the collective identity, forming good communication mechanism, making its cooperation work effective; (b) helping organization to adapt to the external environment, guiding the daily work of organization members to quickly respond to the change of external environment. Therefore, the influence of organizational culture to organizational structure design cannot be ignored.

Organization Structure Characteristic Factors Organization structure characteristic factors refer to a series of parameters can reflect the internal characteristics of an organization, including the management level and management scope, division of labour form, key function, the degree of specialization, centralization degree, the degree of standardization, institutionalization degree, professional degree, personnel structure, etc. Through these parameters, we can understand the basic situation of an enterprise organization structure. It provides a basis for evaluation and comparison group, also for the design of the organization.

Environmental Factors Any organization exists in certain environment. Change in the environment is bound to a certain degree of impact on claim organization structure. Environment is made up of different environment which contains similar elements, including market environment, economic environment, political environment and international environment.

Environmental has impact on claim organizational structure mainly expresses on three different levels.  The influence on the position and the department design. Organization is a subsystem of the social economic system, the different methods of social division of labor determine the content within the organization work. Thus setting up the necessary office and department is not the same.  The impact on the relationship among departments. Different environment has different influence on the difficulties of the work’s completion and the realization of the organizationʹs goal.  The influence on general characteristics of organization structure. External environmental stability, on the requirement of the organizational structure is different. The external environment is stable, rigid

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organizational structure can guarantee the normal operation; otherwise, it is necessary to design the flexible organizational structure in response to changing external environment.

The Influence Factors of the Organizational Structure Design by Fuzzy Decision Determine the Evaluation Item Set As shown in figure 1, the multilevel hierarchical model is established by the reform goal of the organizational structure. In order to simplify the calculation, the four factors influencing the organization structure design will be considered as a whole.

FIG 1. THE MULTILEVEL HIERARCHICAL MODEL OF CLAIM ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE INFLUENCING FACTORS

Establishing Evaluation Matrix The goal of the company organizational structure design is decomposed into high efficiency, controllability the two aspects. Therefore, the high efficiency and controllability will be considered respectively as primary evaluation factors, meanwhile, the 13 specific factors (as shown in figure 1) affecting organizational structure design elements are considered as the secondary evaluation factors.

TAB. 1 THE EVALUATION MATRIX

Efficiency\Controllability

Managerial Hierarchy X1

Degree of Specialization X2

… …

Organizational Culture X13

Managerial Hierarchy X1

Degree of Specialization X2

……

Organizational Culture X13

Evaluate In the research, according to the above‐mentioned evaluation matrix, the evaluation expert group which is composed of 23 claim personnel in an international project grades the relative importance evaluation scale for 13 factors.

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Establishing Fuzzy Precedence Relation Matrix According to expert evaluation, the establishment of the fuzzy preferential relation matrix of evaluation factors, as follows:

R=

Calculating Fuzzy Preference Relations Calculating the influence factors of organizational structure design important degree of sorting, the results are shown in table 2.

TAB. 2 IMPORTANCE ORDER INFLUENCING FACTORS OF ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

Serial Number

Influencing Factors

Order by Efficiency

Order by Controllability

1

Managerial Hierarchy

1

1

2

Degree of Specialization

4

6

3

Degree of Centralization

3

3

4

Degree of Formalization

5

2

5

Degree of Professionalization

12

11

6

Personnel Structure

10

10

7

Economic Environment

11

12

8

International Environment

13

13

9

Degree of Informationization

7

5

10

Claim Strategy

2

4

11

Organizational Technology

8

8

12

Engineering Scale

6

9

13

Organizational Culture

9

7

The Synthetic Evaluation of Importance The importance of the factors affecting the organizational structure are considered by the efficiency and controllability, and then the above two aspects will be evaluated. So the proportion of efficiency and controllability in the design of claim organization structure will be considered. Through investigation, the results are shown in table 3.

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TAB. 3 EFFICIENCY AND CONTROLLABILITY WEIGHT TABLE

Factor

Efficiency

Controllability

Weight

55%

45%

TAB. 4 IMPORTANCE RANK OF ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE INFLUENCING FACTORS

Importance

Borda Value

Order

Managerial Hierarchy

16

1

Claim Strategy

14.1

2

Degree of Centralization

14

3

Degree of Formalization

13.35

4

Degree of Professionalization

12.1

5

Degree of Informationization

10.35

6

Engineering Scale

8.65

7

Organizational Technology

8

8

Organizational Culture

7.9

9

Personnel Structure

5.55

10

Economic Environment

3.65

11

Degree of Professionalization

3.45

12

International Environment

0

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Using the fuzzy opinion centralized decision to rank the important degree of influencing factors of organization design, namely according to the weighted Borda the order is computed, the results obtained are as shown in table 4.

Conclusion In the article, from the perspective of factor belongingness, the influencing factors of organizational structure design are divided into four categories: environment factors, management factors, organizational structure characteristic and organizational scale factors, using the score will have a quantitative analysis of influence factors and management level, enterprises strategic factors such as comprehensive importance sorting, subjective evaluation, a comprehensive quantitative group reduces the organization in the design of individual subjectivity, to claim that the organizationʹs building provides a scientific basis.

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