Alzeraa, A (2018) Impact of project communications effectiveness on construction disputes. PhD thesis, Wayne State University, USA.
Abstract
The construction industry is crucial for all economies, driving the overall economy in many ways. At the same time the construction industry is complicated since it involves a variety of stakeholders, challenging environmental issues, complexities in terms of economic and political factors, and other similar features which may cause an conflicts and claims between projects participants. While successful completion of construction projects is a major goal for the stakeholders. Within the construction industry, construction conflicts and claims are so commonplace they generally are considered a crucial part of construction projects. Claims can be mostly witnessed in the process of handling construction events that are not specified in the contract, such as delays, accelerations, changed conditions, design changes, deficiency in specifications, disruptions, and quantity variations. While resolving the claim, if the claim is not accepted, then it will develop into a dispute. Poor communications are considered to play an important role in the causation of disputes in construction projects. This study was undertaken to investigate how communication effectiveness can help to prevent construction disputes in Saudi Arabia as a case study. Thus, a survey was conducted to understand the relationships between communication effectiveness and construction disputes. Then, we analyzed the survey by using some tools and techniques such as univariate analysis, bivariate analysis, Pearson Chi-square and risk matrix to investigate whether there is a significant relationship between variables. The results indicated that communication effectiveness was reduced when information received between the project participants was unclear, insufficient, and lacking timely responses and that will lead to increase the frequency of construction disputes. Experience level of participants, language challenges, poor documentation, conflicting interests, and distance between communicating parties were frequently occurring communication barriers produced high risks for project failures due to construction disputes.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Usmen, M A |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | effectiveness; failure; construction project; specifications; communication; conflicts; disputes; documentation; variations; stakeholders; Saudi Arabia; case study |
| Index terms: | construction project, variation, complexity, environmental issue, specification, project communication, design change, documentation, survey, political factor, effectiveness, construction industry, acceleration, construction dispute, project failure, case study, Saudi Arabia, dispute |
| Subjects: | project completion, environmental issues, contractual arrangements, Geography, production management, data collection methods, dispute resolution, performance management, contractual condition, professional development, project controls, industry analysis, systems engineering, political science |
| Topics: | Sustainability, Procurement, Engineering Principles, Geographical Context, Project Management, Quality Management, Legal Issues, Governance, Information Management, Research Practice, Contract Administration, Time Control |
| 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