Market Convinced and What's Next? Prioritized Selection Criteria for Circular Economy Manager in Construction Projects and Model of Recruitment

An increasing pressure from construction industry on gaining competitive advantage in the rival market forces its players to search for new solutions including all variety of innovations. More environmental-friendly, sustainable and therefore effective production modes are considered to be the answer to such expectations. Circular Economy (CE), on the other hand, is a new economic model that is based on the assumption that the value of resources should be maintained in the endless circulation flow for as long as possible to ultimately reduce waste generation to a minimum. According to this concept, to avoid the unrestrained waste production, materials should be repeatedly re-put into production systems many times, often passing from one branch of industry to another. In order to make CE an effective, sustainable way of conducting business processes, especially in project based organizations like construction investments, all necessary administrative decisions are vital to their final success. It is suggested to employ a Circular Economy manager (CEMR), and place him in the organizational structure next to the risk manager who collaborate directly with the project manager. Therefore, it is crucial to perform an effective selection process for such post what can become sometimes quite difficult for the construction management staff, especially when CE is still enigmatic for majority, and its procedures for construction are in an embryonic stage. However, in this multi-criteria decision making problem an identification of selection criteria and their hierarchy are the most important steps. The article presents prioritized selection criteria for CEMR in construction projects based on the deep literature review, discovered after expert-based sessions, and supported by Monte Carlo simulations. An aim of the article is to support decision makers with a simple and effective selection method. This attitude enables for reaching higher levels of project management maturity by companies involved in construction projects.