Civil Engineering & Public Works: Building Bridges, Ports & Road Networks - Essay Sample

Introduction

Civil engineering and public works are responsible for building large bridges, ports, aqueducts, pipelines, and road networks. There are various segments within the public works and construction industries, ranging from homebuilders to organizations that support big government projects. Similar to defense and aerospace programs, large infrastructure construction programs have features that assist them in managing the overall plans that include thousands, if not hundreds of subcontractors, which provide different services and subcomponents (Yao & Roesset, 2014). In such industries, these are known as system integrators because they operate with other small firms.

In the construction and public works sectors, the role is sometimes known as construction, procurement, or engineering. Such companies include Fluor, Bechtel, and Jacobs. The distinction between the two organizations is the understanding that many specialists and specialists come together to organize and develop an organization. Usually, infrastructure takes time and uses finances to build and design to support the population or maximum use that has a finite lifespan (Yao & Roesset, 2014). In other words, the private and public sector planners have accurate predictions concerning infrastructure usage and population density to make sure that the built systems support everyone in the future. The overview of this essay is to focus on Bechtel and Fluor companies in their roles under the Weber theory and if they can fit as private or public companies.

The Definition of the Two Organizations

Fluor Corporation

One company known to be the world's largest procurement, maintenance, construction, engineering, and project management firms located around California is Fluor Corporation. The organization has over 50 companies all over the world. The organization prides itself because of building the 800-mile Trans-Alaska pipeline considered today as the most extensive floating and prefabricated berth in the world. The company also offers construction and design management services to BMW for automaker purposes in the U.S plant (Fluor.com, n.d.). Creative communities and Government agencies, in this case, trust this company when it comes to accomplishing critical tasks. From performing decontamination to delivering base life support to soldiers, environmental, and decommissioning remediation, Fluor offers comprehensive services and global strength to clients that rely on them.

The Bechtel Group

Bechtel is a global construction, project management, and engineering company based in America. The company is proud to have made it to the world's leading biggest construction companies on the countdown (Bechtel.com, n.d). The competitor companies were European and Chinese contractors. Bechtel is known to construct and expand the Dulles Airport Siler line and building the Hoover Dam.

Private-Public Partnership

Large infrastructures are sometimes private-public partnership at some point as their capital and duration requirements often need sponsorship from the government. Such projects also involve public goods or public property such as transportation, power, and water networks. In the U.S, for instance, various private infrastructure comes in the form of power plants and toll roads (Ferk, 2018). However, extensive support still depends on government sponsorship.

According to Weber, the Bureau franchising is to disaggregate two types of public sector transactions into personal and financial relations. The reason behind Weber's claim is that commercial association as to whether the government funds should provide public service is usually highly powered by fixed budget allocations and contracting rights (Ang, 2016). In other words, personnel relation on whether the government should become a private contractor or a public employee lies within the political apparatus of the company franchising the contract.

The two dimensions of personal and financial contractual relations are derived from several public sector organizations. One of them is private contracting, which revolves around individual and market-based transactions. In this case, the private contractors are only entitled to profits gained through public provision. Even though the Weberian model features low-powered incentives and risks, it is also accompanied by high risks (Ang, 2016). In short, the theory talks about how entrepreneurs involve the government in delivering administrative services in exchange for earning the income earned.

Task Specialization

Companies are involved in many tasks that are divided into simple categories that act as the basis of functional and competencies specialization (Ferk, 2018). Every worker, in this case, is responsible for what they do and what is expected of them. Under this theory, Weber elaborated it by dividing them based on the company's direct benefit and specialization. There is also a delineation of the task and how managers are supposed to approach their employees to make sure that their assignments are done (Ang, 2016). Going beyond such responsibilities, in this case, is not permitted under any bureaucracy.

In any strategic review, every company should have concluded divestitures that simultaneously improve the financial stability that allows the company to remain focus business-wise in construction, maintenance, and engineering services in the core markets. The company also needs to initialize plans that sell the government business and construction company to monetize non-core investments and real estate (Ferk, 2018). Fluor Company is one organization that anticipates such actions to generate enough income that would aggregate their proceeds.

The reason why Fluor Corporation does this is to avoid being publicized by the government. The company also went to the extent of reducing the dividend to $0.10 per share to generate long-term value to all shareholders in every project they planned to execute (Fluor.com, n.d.). In other words, the company used a portfolio risk and project management approach to strengthen the balance sheet, ensure there is adequate liquidity, and to improve the firm's credit rating for future operations.

Private Development

Most large infrastructures grow through private-public partnerships but through private companies that are ready to take large projects without being sponsored by the government. Residential complexes and large commercials are excellent examples of individual projects. In megacities and big cities, such multibillion-dollar projects also go through the same risks that infrastructure projects go through (Ferk, 2018). Most projects that are privately funded are prone to a higher risk that those that support themselves. This is the reason why most significant projects are found in major cities because they have companies that are stable and confident of meeting the long-term projections

According to Weber, virtual organizations are developed to bring quality and cheap solutions under quick demands (Ang, 2016). The company also appears to be geographically available by looking like a unified, single company with a real and physical location. Usually, the organization is target-oriented by forming a temporary network of companies that unit to explore fast-changing opportunities. The company, in short, can be described as an alliance of companies united together through modernized technological information that has the same focus even though they come from different backgrounds. The equal company also becomes a competitive advantage because they know they are unable to achieve their dreams alone. Such a move does not mean that they are sponsored by the government but act as sponsors to others.

Fluor Corporation is an excellent example and one company that invested in building the programs and strategies that encourage and strengthen society. The organization supports initiatives that refurbish or build affordable housing, provide job training, and offer serving programs and facilities which build character, resilience, and leadership skills in youth (Fluor.com, n.d.). The initiative aims to create youth capacity through effective communication in military programs to support their skills and make them more resilient, happier, and more robust. As elaborated in Weber's theory, it is evident that Fluor Corporation cannot be established as a public company as it relies on what it has projected and funds available.

Technology

The construction and public works companies are continually being innovated through technological aspects. In most cases, such technologies come from new materials, while others are derived through the technique and procedure based innovations. Organizations that have a balanced change with risk and safety become the ones that adopt higher chances due to new technologies (Ferk, 2018). At Bechtel, projects are the heart of their business. Most employees work across six continents on mega projects that are so significant that the business cannot stand alone (Bechtel.com, n.d). Any company of such a capacity and dispersion has developmental and learning small departments. The role of the department is to create courses that will be used as learning materials to connect to their projects, track results, and finish the challenge of innovative learning.

Undaunted by such obstacles, the company launched the Bechtel learning platform by using Web 2.0 not only for learning but also to connect with the audience (Bechtel.com, n.d). Even though the system challenged the company, most employees used it to improve their learning abilities. However, the challenge became extremely painful, but due to the technical quality, it attained favorable attitudes by the senior management.

Weber's theory clarifies this issue by stating that material sciences are categorically a technological innovation that fits both the construction and infrastructure companies. Both nanomaterials and additive manufacturing, in this case, can create significant change once the company uses technology to further their maturity levels (Ang, 2016). System integration, program management, and testing software are other types of categories that are vital in construction and infrastructure organizations. Such connection allows for efficient designing, planning and model-based testing to assist builders decrease mistakes and optimizes space. Bechtel company can privatize it 'self by installing systems that will allow internal communication to take place in a particular order.

Unknown Future Usage and Timelines

Extensive infrastructure and building take time to be designed and built up to not less than 20 years. A bridge, for instance, takes several years because of the assumption of usage patterns and specific traffic. Their road has fewer cars that use the bridge; then, the process will take longer (Ang, 2016). If the bridge has many heavier vehicles, then a lot of repairs must be done before it is replaced. Using this kind of example, it shows that it is essential for a public company and official planners to estimate the patterns used. Power plants, public infrastructures, dams have complex usage models because of the demographic trends and the population in that area. Both companies (Bechtel and Fluor Corporation), in this case, have no obligations but must involve the government when doing such projects.

The reason behind this claim is that they are all under the government when it comes to being involved in areas that do not permit them. Also, such projects require a lot of money, and however, big the companies can be, they must work together with the government (Ang, 2016). In most cases, the government funds such projects to avoid ownership of such areas in the future. The plans also remain the government responsibilities, but since it i...