2.3 BIM ADOPTION LEVELS AND THE NEEDED CAPABILITY
The transition from the traditional usage of the 2D environment to Computer Aided Design (CAD) and drafting to BIM requires extensive efforts to migrate. One of the requirements is the adoption of a new culture of using BIM. These cover a range of activities which are not limited to building new libraries/ templates of BIM models specific to a firm’s need, paying attention to certain legal risks, liabilities and challenges that come with the benefits of using BIM, development of training programs for both new and existing employees, developing standards and a common language and adopting new policies/procedures for creating and sharing BIM models (44 ;45;33 ;46 ).
Culture has been defined, described and conceptualised differently depending on the context, the concept, the systems/school of thought, the discipline, time and period surrounding its circumstances (47 ). 48 referring to the UNESCO (1982),widely recognised definitions for culture, sumarised it as the entirety of complex but distinctive cognitive, immaterial, intellectual and emotional features that distinguish a group. The authors further depicts culture as that concrete whole that allows critical judgment and a sense of moral commitment, encourages discerning values, permits choices and decision making, enhances self-awareness and tolerates seeking achievements untiringly and transcending limits.
Organisational culture is the culture of a social group which springs from the underlying assumptions and beliefs of its members about what they share in common, how the group operates and consequently, how they relate. This shapes their attitudes and their resultant behaviour, interpretation for better understanding hence successful outcome in their environment (49 ). Consequently, firms transform through a combination of intentional, unintentional processes; dynamic phenomenon created, enacted or shaped by leadership behaviour; with a set of structures, routines, rules and norms that guide the group towards a new situation (50 ;51; 47 ). As leadership behavioural changes are necessary to achieve the goals and objectives set in any organisation, their underlying beliefs though unconscious, but expressed in learned responses to problems of external adaptation and internal integration, are of utmost importance (52 ;53 ).
Based on the impact of leadership on firm performance, the culture exhibited is considered as cultural orientations. Cultural orientations are practices that are prevalent among construction firms’ leadership as part of the capability needed for internal and external integration. Based on a review of literature, fifty (50) sentences describing different orientation of construction firms’ manager, founder or owner (leadership) are set out under eight (8) major headings thus: client service orientation (CSO), conflict/dispute resolution (CDR), environmental/external orientation (ENV), information and communication technology (ICT), innovation, learning and knowledge management (ILKM), production orientation (PRO), task and goal accomplishment (TAGA) and workforce orientation (WKF) (54 ;55 ;56 ).
Briefly, external/environmental orientation relates with the scanning of the business environment, gathering information and making the provisions for the needed changes by matching the information received with organisational capabilities and converting such to feedback that can be turned into adaptive capabilities, hence competitive advantage (57 ). Innovation, learning and knowledge management entails the recognition of both technological and non-technological innovation, transformation through research and development (R&D) and upkeep with recent and best industry practices that are critical to the construction industry. A major constraint to project execution is lack of awareness and knowledge. Therefore, knowledge repository development and maintenance are of importance as the need for innovation will only be successful when different stages of knowledge are fully communicated and understood through continuous learning .There are supports on innovation as a major cultural factor affecting construction companies intention to digitilisation (58 ;59 ).
Client orientation examines leadership dispensation towards achieving overall improvement. This capability includes consideration for clients’ objectives, interest and satisfaction (60 ). Task and goal accomplishment entails all firm’s contributions towards best practice and global competitiveness which requires investment on autonomous systems rather than adherence to traditional methods. Consequently, goal accomplishment is task-related and centres on management decision on the level of commitment or input to the task or work to be executed as well as the decisions on what is right. Planning, job structuring, monitoring, working environment and project benchmarking are subsets of accomplishment.
For production orientation, management leadership style in organising and controlling the production process will be enhanced through automation. Issues relating to project plans and schedules, materials management, safety, harmonious relationships, subcontracting and performance standards will be enhanced thus resulting into less wastage, less time, better quality and better image .
The workforce of industry 4.0 requires better education, improved training, up-skilling and retraining. A workforce that is adequately trained is better equipped, so will do more in less time. Factors such as commitment, training and development, rewards and recognition, teamwork /team building and supportiveness, employees’ participation are the variables in this orientation (61;56 ). Digitalisation enhances data assemblage; therefore, communication channels should be unambiguous and reflect what is valued. Information and communication technology considers the availability or lack of relevant information on materials, labour and technology adoption, sophisticated tools for computerisation of office and site activities (62 ). Conflicts are inevitable in construction and are destructive when not properly managed; however, a number of AI variants are available for dispute handling and resolution (6 ). The variables for CDR include harmonious relationship/interaction, clearly defined and allocated functions, building of relationships, means of conflicts resolution are (26 ).
Apart from the culture requirements, the organisational/corporate strategy of the firm is of utmost importance. In the field of strategic studies, it is imperative that firms determine factors that hinder or drive performance (63 ). The adaptive capability within the context of this paper is the strategy that is set for digitilisation with the main framework. Such ability is employed to acquire new resources, combine both old and new in a value creating model( 64 ) . It describes a firms’ competence in knowing what the market expectations are, altering its understanding in response to such alterations, expanding its boundaries and putting in place the required resources that will correspond to the latest developments or expected developments (65 ;66 ). It is a measure of the presence of available opportunity with the degree of preparedness in the firm as well as the understanding of what the digital phenomenon requires as far as information and knowledge exchange is concerned. The variables adopted are eight (8) namely: willingness and the resources to scan, retrieve, organise, share and store information digitally; the ability and resources to communicate, interact, maintain relationships and collaborate using digital tools; the ability and resources to produce tasks/jobs requirements with digital tools for the required level of understanding; the ability and resources to communicate, collaborate, cooperate and network in a digital environment; the ability and resources to enhance and promote autonomous learning and embed such in the vision statement; willingness and readiness of leadership to organise, coordinate, manage team with multicultural diversity and spread in a digitally-coordinated platform/environment; the ability to seek and engage clients that are digitally-oriented or canvass clients to adopt digitally-oriented designs and construction techniques/products (67 ;68 ).
According to (37,39,71) with reference to the Efficiency and Reform Group (2011), the definition of the BIM levels in the UK is as follows:
• Level 0 (also referred to as the Unmanaged CAD stage) employs 2D models using paper (or electronic paper) as the exchange mechanism.
• Level 1 (also known as the Managed CAD in 2 or 3D format using BS1192:2007) uses a collaboration tool that provides a common data environment with few standard data structures and formats.
• Level 2 (which is referred to as the Managed 3D environment) entails BIM tools with attached data, that is commercially managed by an ERP. Level 2 extends into 4D programme data and 5D cost elements as well as feed operational systems.
• Level 3( is the full-blown process of data integration that is enabled by web services compliance in conjunction with IFC/IFD standards. This is managed by a collaborative model server known as integrated BIM, that is iBIM.
3.0 MATERIALS AND METHODS
This study examines automation in construction firms as one of its readiness to the transformation in industry 4.0. It relates building information modeling to digitilisation and presents it as a necessary platform/software/technology that will aid the construction sector in attaining most of the advantages of artificial intelligence as obtainable in other industries. As a result, a quantitative research approach was adopted. This approach enhances determination of the relationship between facts derived in a study and the findings/theories from previous studies, therefore paving ways for further inquiries. Leadership, culture, structure, strategy and the environment are some of the major factors that determine firms’ outcome, growth, competitive advantage and sustainability. This study therefore assesses construction firms’ awareness and adoption of building information modeling as a platform for the enhancement of digital transformation, through the leadership of the firms. Construction firms thus become the population with construction managers/owners/CEO as the sampling elements. The population was drawn from three lists of construction firms totally 166. The sample size was calculated as 116 which were randomly selected.
Based on the review of the literature, a research instrument was developed. Culture was assessed as cultural orientation. Eight orientations each with a number of sentences describing its contents were set up. The statements range from 3 to 8 for all the eight sub-headings. A total of 50 statements were arrived at for the eight orientations. For the strategic capability, eight sentences describing a firm’s awareness and preparedness for transformation were developed. The transformation was measured as the level of awareness and adoption of BIM. For this, three Likerts scales of low awareness, moderate awareness and high awareness (1-3) was adopted. For the culture and structure, the respondents were requested to express their level of agreement or disagreement on a 5point-Likert scale of 1-5 indicating strongly disagrees to strongly agree.
The Cronbach’s Alpha values for cultural orientation and strategic capability are 0.946 and 0.637 respectively. The lower value obtained for strategic capability might be due to the lower number of the items measuring the construct. The value of 0.637 though questionable is neither poor nor unacceptable (69 ). For further reliability, the Bartlett’s test was conducted on the variables and were found satisfactory based on significance. The results are hereby presented.