MAJOR CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS IN THE BIBLE AND THE PROJECT MANAGERS BEHIND THEM

Abstract

Can wisdom contained in the Bible be applied to modern-day construction projects or are they restricted to the realm of the religious? This dissertation sets out to explain how Biblical principles can be applied and is applied in modern-day church redevelopment projects. These principles will be categorized under two categories; namely, three Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) Areas, i.e. Human Resource Management, Integration Management and Communication Management and Four Leadership Strategies as proposed by Bennis and Nanus (1997), in the book Leaders: Strategies for taking charge. A brief description of some common leadership theories is also presented. Thirty survey questionnaires were sent to churches undergoing or have underwent redevelopment, to find out the importance and applicability of the Biblical principles in their projects. A correlation test, using the Pearson's product moment correlation, was used to find the extent of correlation between “importance” and “applicability” of each Biblical principle. It can be concluded that a majority of the principles have a high correlation between “importance” and “applicability”, with r-values ranging from 0.8 to 1, indicating that Biblical principles are still followed to a large extent by church members in their church redevelopment projects today. This further emphasizes the Bible’s applicability to the many different facets of modern-day life.