Nallaperuma-Arachchige, W; Hadiwattege, C and Hulathdoowage, N D (2023) Conflicts with external stakeholders in irrigation construction projects in Sri Lanka: A narrative analysis. International Journal of Construction Management, 23(15), pp. 2570-2582. ISSN 1562-3599
Abstract
Irrigation Construction Projects (ICPs) in Sri Lanka usually face conflicts with various external stakeholders, i.e. general public, government authorities. Such conflicts are most likely to end as court cases in litigation, which is a time and money-consuming process. With the view of avoiding conflicts at its first instance, this research assessed causes of conflicts and consequential influences of such conflicts over the lens of case-study research strategy. Four case-studies were evaluated via 21 expert interviews. The main conflict zones in ICPs are obstructions from government authorities, public protests, effects of government policy changes and political influences, difficulties of project area occupancy, and financial limitations. The origin for most causes of conflicts is poor coordination between stakeholders. Time-overrun is the most frequent consequential-contractual-influence. Causes of conflicts, solutions to overcome such causes, and consequential-contractual-influences were presented in cognitive-maps towards facilitating decision-makers in ICPs. This research recommends to utilize detail design and feasibility stage to avoid most conflicts in the construction stage.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | case-studies; causes; cognitive-map; conflicts; consequential-contractual-influences; external stakeholders |
| Index terms: | construction project, coordination, government policy, interview, face, litigation, external stakeholder, narrative, maps, Sri Lanka, overrun, strategy |
| Subjects: | management, qualitative and interpretive research, Geography, production management, public policy, sociology, project controls, spatial and geospatial analysis, data collection methods, dispute resolution, psychology |
| Topics: | Research Practice, Business Strategy, Legal Issues, Stakeholder Management, Geographical Context, Governance, Time Control, Organizational Design, Project Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here