Structural equation modelling to investigate the factors influencing quality safety and productivity in construction projects

The Indian construction industry has seen remarkable growth and it is an integral part of the economy with massive foreign investments because of liberalization, privatization and globalization. The pressure to reduce the time and cost of construction, increases the risk on the part of stakeholders with respect to quality, safety and productivity. Improving these key performance factors has become critical for the firm’s success as well as for setting standards and benchmarking. In developing countries like India, the problems such as low quality, decrease in productivity and poor safety, are serious and dangerous, which requires focus and attention for sustained growth in the construction sector. However, the magnitude and causes behind these failures in performances remain to be studied. Therefore, the type of strategy intermediations required to rectify the problem also remains to be studied. Research and studies in this field in India are few compared to worthy expected results. Many of the past researches have focused on identifying the key factors influencing quality, safety and productivity, but there is a lack of assessment of causal relationships among the significant factors. Hence this study focused on that research gap by carrying out the investigations in identifying and studying the causal relationships among the key factors influencing quality, safety and productivity in construction projects. In this study, three models of conceptual frameworks were developed to investigate the factors, based on quality awards like the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) and Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA). The research methodology for the present study has adopted questionnaire survey to investigate the factors and to test the three path models. Three separate sets of questionnaires were specially designed for this study to evaluate the factors, influencing quality, safety and productivity based on literature and pilot studies. Data were collected from the clients, contractors and consultants of the Indian construction industry. A structural equation modelling using component based partial least squares (SMART PLS 2.0 Software) approach was used to study the causal relationship among the key factors in the Indian construction industry. The final statistically validated path model was applied in five construction sites of the case organization to predict quality, safety and productivity levels of the firm by collecting the information based on semi - structured interviews with the project managers. The developed PLS path models to investigate the factors influencing the quality and safety included five enablers of EFQM framework, namely leadership, people, partnership and resources, policy and strategy, and process with one result criteria i.e., achieving the goals of improving quality and safety performance. The path model to investigate productivity factors included drivers and system elements of MBNQA framework, namely leadership, process management, people, strategic planning, and information and analysis with one result criteria i.e., achieving productivity enhancement in construction projects. A comprehensive review of literature enabled the formation of indicators for each construct that underpinned the conceptual framework of quality, safety and productivity. The final form of the conceptual frameworks was determined through a rigorous statistical analysis process, including a ranking of significant factors, by the Relative Important Index (RII) method, analysis of variance to identify the perspectives of clients, consultants and contractors, and then the application of the partial least squares method to confirm the adequacy of the framework. The conceptual model of quality and safety included eight hypotheses and the conceptual model of productivity included eleven hypotheses. T- Statistics values were used for checking the significance of the hypothesis. The findings of the path model of quality revealed that the leadership factor has strong total effect on people factor (Path coefficient = 0.77) and process factor has a strong effect in achieving the goals of quality performance improvement in construction projects (Path coefficient = 0.7). The results of the path model of safety suggested that leadership factor strongly influences people (Path coefficient = 0.52) and process factor strongly influences the goals of attaining safety performance improvement (Path coefficient = 0.68). The findings of the path model of productivity revealed that the leadership factor has strong total effect on process factor (Path coefficient = 0.69). It also indicated that, information and analysis has a strong total effect on strategic planning (Path coefficient = 0.55) and on the results of achieving the goals of productivity enhancement in construction projects (Path coefficient = 0.53). The Global Fit Index of the three models, suggested that the models have good reliability and validity and fits the data very well. The developed frameworks are proposed for implementation by the construction industry to better monitor and manage quality, safety and productivity in the future. This research is expected to provide insights into the adoption of the most important attributes in the Indian construction projects and their practical implications to construction professionals to enhance quality, safety and productivity through EFQM and MBNQA concepts.