Investigating risk management capability of construction firms in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries

Implementing risk management (RM) effectively in construction projects and organisations has long been recognised as key to ensuring successful project performance. Therefore, it has become increasingly vital for construction organisations to have RM as an integral part of their project management practice. Such necessity has driven significant increase in research on RM practice in the construction industry. However, little research has been conducted to systematically investigate the RM implementation in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)'s construction industry. Therefore, this research study was aimed at thoroughly investigating RM implementation in this industry toward developing an appropriate framework for improving existing practice. Specifically, this research study has developed a RM framework for enhancing RM implementation practice in construction firms and an informed list of best practice recommendations, all of which aid as a road map for implementing an effective RM system, thereby contributing to the enhancement of practice. In addition, the research has developed a RM maturity model purposely for measuring firms' existing RM maturity level and identifying key areas for further improvement. Mixed method approach was chosen for the purpose of addressing the research aim and objectives. The first stage of the approach involved a comprehensive review of relevant literature. Then, a pilot study and two questionnaire surveys were designed and distributed to professionals from construction organisations in the GCC countries. Moreover, six case studies from real-life projects were conducted. The RM framework was validated through a series of experts' interviews. This research has identified and ranked 62 key risk factors affecting construction project performance, and were categorised under four levels, namely: country level, industry and market level, firm capability level, and project implementation level. Also, this research study has identified 28 RM maturity criteria and 15 critical barriers to RM implementation. These were used to develop a comprehensive RM maturity system, which can serve as a guide for determining the RM capability of construction organisations to enable them decide on the most appropriate implementation strategies. Moreover, the case studies provide rich in-depth qualitative data that explains, among others, the status of RM implementation in practice and the level of maturity displayed by GCC construction organisations on this subject. The cross–case comparison results substantiated the survey findings, and highlighted the influence of the firms' characteristics on the RM implementation. Also, the findings serve as a case-study from GCC countries from which other countries in the Middle East and developing world can benefit immensely from the lessons learnt, since these countries share a lot in common as far as RM practices are concerned. The empirical results and outcomes of this research are arguably the first to be presented for the GCC construction industry, and therefore have a high potential of contributing significantly to the existing body of knowledge and understanding in RM. The results of this research do not only fill a major gap in the literature on the subject of RM practice in this industry, but also offer greater awareness and understanding of RM implementation in construction firms. Future studies would be conducted to assess the RM maturity in other projects or in other countries and to investigate the relationship between the RM maturity and improvement in project performance. For instance, the case studies would be performed to uncover RM implementation and the associated managerial implications which will allow practitioners to understand the real implementation issues in practice and the experience of firms that is worth learning from.