Analysis of Success and Failure Factors in Nigeria’s Building Industry
Chapter One
Objectives of the Study
General Objective
The main objective of the study was to evaluate success and failure factors in building industry in Nigeria. Furthermore, the objective has delivered a conclusion on critical feedback to construction project owners and provided a decision-making process in the management of infrastructure projects.
Specific Objectives
This study has believed to attain the following objectives specifically
- To investigate what does the existing construction failure look like in the case of selected building construction industries in Lagos, Nigeria
- To determine what are the factors influencing success of construction projects in the case of selected building construction industries in Lagos, Nigeria
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Introduction
This section covers review literature of different scholars and authors that have been reviewed in the area of construction projects with special focus on success and failure factors in building industry. It deals with both theoretical and practical findings of various researcher’s concepts related to quality, quality in construction projects and success and failure factors in building industry. It deals with the review of related literature gathered from different secondary sources such as published books, articles and related websites. In this regard, efforts were exerted to include as much significantly related literatures as possible by reviewing available documents that exhibits points, targeting at the attainment of the research objectives.
Theoretical Literature Review
Quality
The success of a project found in the literature depends on the project quality as a key concept (Romeo et al., 2014). (Arditi and Gunaydin, 1998) define the concept of quality as meeting the legal, aesthetic, and functional requirements of a project. (Eng and Yusof, 2003) explain quality as both a philosophy and a set of guiding principles that represents a continuously improving organization.
Quality can be translated into the quality dimensions that include: levels of quality, reliability and safety, quality performance, durability, and serviceability (Mc Goerge and Plamer, 2000); (Luu et al., 2008); Wanberg et al., 2013). (Jung and Wang, 2006) argue that it is the role of management to ensure the achievement of established requirements in a project as competition increases and change occurs in the business world. Understanding how closely the project conforms to its requirements, a high quality project can be described by such terms as ease in understanding drawings, level of conflict in drawings and specifications, construction economy, ease of operation and maintenance, and energy efficiency (Arditi and Gunaydin, 1997). According to (Al Nofal et al., 2005), quality requires radical change to traditional management practices. Quality is one of the most complex practices for any company; it requires implementing a new way of managing business and culture which not only affects the whole organizational process and employees but also the allocation of significant resources (Santos et al., 2002; Jung et al., 2009).
Quality needs control which is the specific implementation of the quality assurance program. Effective control for quality reduces the possibilities of change, mistakes and omissions, which in turn result in fewer conflicts and disputes. Most of the engineers and architects were in total control during the design phase. During the construction phase, they carried out a role described as “supervision,” insuring that the owner received his money’s worth in terms of quality. Recently, owners became increasingly concerned with cost and schedule, areas where design professionals were not providing good control. Engineers and architects must work together to achieve specified goals of quality and liability control, recognizing that each person and each activity affects and in turn is affected by others. As competition increases and changes occur in the business world, companies look for high levels of effectiveness across all functions and processes and choose quality management as a strategy to stay in the business.
Quality in Construction Projects
In a construction project, quality management has been widely used by world-class companies to ensure successful projects delivery (Ahmed, S.M., 2012). The interactions and interrelationships between key participants (e.g. the client, the architect, and the contractor) largely determine the overall performance of the construction project. Notwithstanding this mutual dependency, the performance of individual participants remains important because the overall performance is a function of the performance of each participant (Lianying and Weijie, 2013).
According to (Arditi and Gunaydin, 1997; Turk, 2006; Hiyassat, 2000), quality in the construction industry can be defined as meeting the requirements of the designer, constructor and regulatory agencies as well as the owner. Based on the three studies above, quality can be characterized based on meeting the requirements of the owner (e.g. functional adequacy, completion time, budget; and lifecycle costs), design professional (e.g. well-defined scope, qualified staff, adequate information prior to design, provisions for decisions by owner and design professional, and contracting to perform work), constructor (e.g. contract plans, specifications, timely decisions, and contracting to perform work), and regulatory agencies (e.g. public safety and health, environmental considerations, protection of public property, and laws and regulations). Moreover, one should also differentiate between product quality (the physical product itself) and the process quality (the activities that causes the product to be either acceptable or not) in a project (Culp et al., 1993). For example, “product quality” in the construction industry may refer to achieving quality in the materials, equipment and technology that go into a structure building, where “process quality” may refer to achieving quality in the way the project is managed in the three main phases of construction process which are planning and designing phase, construction phase, and operation and maintenance phase (Burati and Oswald, 1993; Arditi and Gunaydin, 1998; Lai and Cheng, 2003).
CHAPTER THREE
METHODS OF THE STUDY
Research Design
The research design was adopted because it describes the state of affairs, as it exists at present in the study (Kothari, 2010). The availability of time, cost as well as the skill of the researcher was taken into consideration for deciding the research design and how to get sufficient information for the research purpose and hence only individuals who have in depth knowledge of the research topics were contacted. The scientific way of dealing with the sample design and operational design were taken into consideration while dealing the research design and procedure. The study intends to apply this design to evaluate the relationship between design factors and quality of construction projects for the selected area. This design is very useful in studying the inter-relations between the variables already mentioned in the conceptual framework. A survey approach is appropriate because the population of the study is in different geographical regions within selected building construction industries in Lagos, Nigeria. A total of 310 respondents were identified with the required knowledge and experience in the area of monitoring and evaluation and project management considering the independent, moderating and dependent variables. Therefore, the research was designed in both descriptive and explanatory features of study. The descriptive study allowed the researcher to describe those data and helps to know the event that was taken place whereas explanatory study to examine the relationships between variables.
Sources of Data
Primary Data
The data required to validate the proposed hypotheses and carry out empirical examination for this study are specifically concerned with success and failure factors in building industry: in the case of selected building construction industries. However, there is little existing information and data on success and failure factors in building industry: in the case of selected building construction industries research. Furthermore, in empirical studies, data are often obtained directly by the researcher for a particular research project (Saunders et al., 2009). This is commonly referred to as primary data collection, where original primary data are obtained directly by the researcher through various methods such as questionnaires, interviews and direct observation (Bryman and Bell, 2015).
Generally, the use of primary data is suggested when the required data is not available to the researcher from published sources (Bryman and Bell, 2015). Most of the available secondary data comprised general information on success and failure factors in building industry in building construction industries, which were considered not applicable for this study. This necessitated a need to collect primary data for this study which furnish the paper with the appropriate and up to date information required to answer the research questions. Therefore, based on the discussion above, this study suggests the use of primary data. Primary data collection is always associated with selecting appropriate sampling techniques, as it is not possible to collect the required original data from an entire population (Saunders et al., 2009). In general; the required data for this study was collected using primary data collection methods. Primary data was collected from top management of construction companies, contractors, country inspectors, national government officials and project owner’s by using a five point Likert scales self-administered questionnaire that consist of closed ended questions that was designed to collect responses for qualitative and quantitative analysis respectively.
Population and Sample
A researcher draws a sample from a larger pool of cases, or elements. A sampling element is the unit of analysis or case in a population (Newman, 2007). Random assignment involves assigning participants to groups within a research study in such a way that each participant has an equal probability of being assigned to any of the groups within the study (Kazdin, 1992). In stratified sampling, a researcher first divides the population into sub populations (strata) on the basis of supplementary information. After dividing the population in to strata, the researcher draws a random sample from each sub population. He or she can sample randomly within strata using simple random sampling technique (Newman, 2007). Sample size determination is an important element in any survey research, although it is a difficult one (Adams et al., 2007).
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
Background Information
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Summary
According to the data analysis in the previous section, summary of the findings presented as follows.
The study determined the influence of four collective building blocks (Site engineer engagement, Contractor engagement in planning, Project inspector’s engagement, and Quantity surveyor engagement) of stakeholder engagement on failure and success of building construction projects in Lagos, Nigeria and all of the items for the stakeholder engagement that affects success of building construction project scores a total mean of mean of four collective building blocks (Site engineer engagement, Contractor engagement in planning, Project inspector’s engagement, and Quantity surveyor engagement) of stakeholder engagement is 3.76, which implied that the respondents agreed to the fact that the stakeholder engagement affects success of building construction project at the level of great extent, and found that stakeholder engagement greatly influence success of building construction project.
The study further evaluating the extent to which the three collective building blocks (Cost of funds, Source of finance, Adequacy of finances) of project funding influence success of building construction projects in Lagos, Nigeria and all of the items for the project funding that affects success of building construction project scores a total mean of mean of three collective building blocks (Cost of funds, Source of finance, Adequacy of finances) of project funding is 4.08, which implied that the respondents agreed to the fact that the project funding affects success of building construction project at the level of great extent, and revealed that project funding greatly influences success of building construction project.
The study also assessed the influence of five collective building blocks (Source of materials, Poor performance of quality tools, Cost of materials, Material/Equipment specification, Quality of materials) of construction materials on failure and success of building construction projects in in Lagos, Nigeria and found that all of the items for the construction materials that affect success of building construction project scores a total mean of mean of the five collective building blocks (Source of materials, Poor performance of quality tools, Cost of materials, Material/Equipment specification, Quality of materials) of construction materials is 3.92, which implied that the respondents agreed to the fact that the construction materials affect success of building construction project at the level of great extent and found that construction materials greatly influences success of building construction project.
The study in addition explored to what extent that seven collective building blocks (Conflict management, Leadership, Lack of Management commitment, Lack of motivation, Low effective project management system, Team management, Solutions development) of project management ability on failure and success of building construction projects in in Lagos, Nigeria and found that all of the items for the project management ability that affects success of building construction project scores a total mean of mean of seven collective building blocks (Conflict management, Leadership, Lack of Management commitment, Lack of motivation, Low effective project management system, Team management, Solutions development) of project management ability is 3.84, which implied the respondents agreed to the fact that the project management ability affects success of building construction project at the level of great extent and found that project management ability greatly influences success of building construction project.
The study also evaluates the extent of influence of three collective building blocks (Length of the project, Complexity of the project, Size of the project) of project distinctive on failure and success of building construction projects in in Lagos, Nigeria, and found that all of the items for the project distinctive that affect success of building construction project scores a total mean of mean of three collective building blocks (Length of the project, Complexity of the project, Size of the project) of project distinctive is 3.83, which is implied the respondents agreed to the fact that the project distinctive affect success of building construction project at the level of great extent which found that project distinctive greatly influences success of building construction project.
Finally, the statistical results of study from the correlation and regression analysis confirm and explore that there is a strongly significant positive correlation at the level of 0.01 between independent variables (stakeholder engagement, project funding, construction materials, and project management ability), and moderating variable (project distinctive) with the dependent variable (success of building construction projects). The regression was conducted based on the conceptual framework that is between dependent variable (success of building construction projects) and implied that all dependent and moderate variables for the study have a positive impact and most largely and significantly associated with dependent variable. Regression analysis in addition revealed that that nearly 85.3% of the variance in the data for the study which revealed that of dependent variable (success of building construction projects) is explained by independent variables (stakeholder engagement, project funding, construction materials, and project management ability), and moderating variable (project distinctive).
Conclusion
Based on the responses majority of respondents agreed, based on the results of the study and the summary of findings the following conclusions are given:
The study determined the influence of stakeholder engagement, and concluded that stakeholder engagement positively and significantly influences success of building construction projects in Lagos, Nigeria,
The study further concluded that project funding greatly and positively influences success of building construction projects in Lagos, Nigeria,
The study also assessed the influence of construction materials and concluded that construction materials has a positive and significant influence on failure and success of building construction projects in Lagos, Nigeria,
The study explored the influence of project management ability and concluded that project management ability significantly influences the success of building construction projects in Ababa, Nigeria,
Finally, the study further deduced that of project distinctive is very greatly influence the success of building construction project in in Lagos, Nigeria.
Recommendation
Based on the study results and conclusions drawn above, some recommendations are proposed as a means of alleviating the problems found.
The study recommends that stakeholders and the construction industry should embrace transparency through information accessibility, clarity, accuracy and sharing of information which includes the progress of the building project as well as the financial usage, and they both must work together with all the stakeholders in the building industries in order to ensure success of building construction projects.
The study also pushes for the contractors and designers need to be compelled to follow strictly to the required standards of materials for building construction projects. This will ensure that the management ability is put into consideration by encouraging those in management to embrace risk management practices such as risk identification, quantification, monitoring and mitigation to help prevent risks and improve quality.
Providing financial incentives to encourage development of sustainable construction projects that should be emphasized by the relevant government authorities. Those encouragements ensure that the finances are adequate so as to allow the contractors and other people involved to deliver quality work and on time.
Finally, from the findings the study suggested that formulation and updating of laws and regulations that provide legal frame work for the development of safe sustainable quality of construction projects in the areas of building construction projects under the case study.
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