Addressing Existing and Changing Roles in the Construction Industry. Current and Future Transformations of Professional Roles toward Fulfilling Industry Demands.
Publicerad
Författare
Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Master's Thesis
Master's Thesis
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
The Construction industry is currently buffeted with continuous transformative processes and demands, the
like that has never been experienced before. The subject of the resulting change in literature has been
explored relatively sparsely, the introduction and evolution of digital technologies and sustainability
thinking and their increased propulsion for the AECO in terms of upgrading existing skills, responsibilities,
and competencies to meet new norms and recommendations made by society, clients, and regulatory
organizations in the industry. In addition, there has been existing research speculating how the construction
practice would be in the future, including outcries of new engineering competencies that would be needed
in the near future. Nonetheless, there has sparsely been in-depth work to determine how individual
professional roles are being altered through their adaptation to the various industry change processes. This
study provides a foresight of how professional roles in the construction industry will be developed. In
addition, the study will help ascertain from a historical viewpoint through literature and experience of active
professionals the trends and changes in their work experience in the Swedish AEC industry over the years
and the various drivers influencing these changes. Following a comprehensive literature review combined
with deductive analysis of the empirical data from interviews, a mind map was developed to demonstrate
findings and analyze how professional roles are perceived to develop in the future. Through the findings of
this study, we could redefine the development of roles as a progressive process that is first depicted by new
ways of working and new responsibilities, upon which the growth on either of these fronts would require
that a new entity become accountable for the new responsibilities, and independent of existing roles. The
findings show that digitalization, sustainability, and collaborative working practice have contributed to
future role development.
Meanwhile, achieving the industry goal of being more efficient, enabling digitalized systems, adopting
more sustainability solutions, and becoming data-driven serves as drivers of change that influence
professional roles in the industry. The study’s conclusion will provide insight into the future expectations
of stakeholders and policymakers for managing change processes in the Swedish AEC industry. Especially
by implementing strategies to upskill professionals’ IT competencies, automate routine tasks, increase
sustainability or circularity engagements, share common operating databases, and facilitate interaction
between these development pathways.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
Role development, Future of the roles, Driver, Trends, Changes, Sustainability-based roles, Digitalization-based roles, Structural engineer.