An interpretive research methodology for assessing the appicability of western productivity techniques in Sri Lanka

The increasing global dominance of neo-liberal economics has served to erode the previously dominant view that the adopted management approach should be dependent upon context. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund often impose the ideology of free-market economics on developing economies. The currently accepted techniques of construction productivity techniques are shaped by this same ideology in that they rely on the concept of capital productivity. The applicability of Western productivity techniques to the labour-intensive Sri Lankan construction industry is therefore debatable. In Sri Lanka, capital intensive as well as labour intensive construction techniques have been employed for several decades. To date there has been little impact on overruns, delays, wastage of resources, labour unrest and low productivity. Although Sri Lankan constructors are well aware of the supposed advantages of Western productivity techniques, they will continue to give more emphasis to labour intensive construction methods because labour is cheap and readily available. A research methodology is described which investigates the extent to which these two approaches can be merged to seek more context-specific productivity goals.