Development of a dispute resolution framework to improve the efficiency of dispute resolution in Saudi construction projects

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has the one of the fastest growing economies in the Middle East, and the construction sector in the KSA has become the largest construction sector in the Middle East. This sector incorporates a variety of building, housing and infrastructure related projects and, over the past two decades, has witnessed an increase in the number of disputes. Such disputes impact the time, cost and quality of the work and may even cause projects to come to a halt. Resolving disputes takes a long time in Asia and Middle East, and they effect on the relationships between the parties involved. Industry reports suggests phenomenonal costs of these disputes, costing industry hugely in terms of productivity and efficiency. However, there is a clear knowledge gap in the research, in that none focuses on dispute resolution in Saudi construction projects, including the critical success factors for alternative dispute resolutions and the barriers to using alternative dispute resolutions. Thus, the main aim of this research is to improve the efficiency of dispute resolution in Saudi construction projects through the development of a dispute resolution framework. To achieve this aim, the researcher collected data through mixed, qualitative and quantitative methods. The researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 academics, arbitrators and experts in Saudi construction projects. These interviews were conducted face-to-face, by telephone and through Skype. The researcher used manual coding for content analysis and later used Survey Monkey to conduct a survey and collected data through social networks and face to face. According to the collected data, the primary causes of disputes in Saudi construction projects are financial, contractual, or related to the owner, the design, the contractor, behavior; disputes may be project-related and external. It is also found that the methods used to resolve disputes in the public sector are different from those used in the private sector. The methods of dispute resolution include negotiation, mediation, arbitration and litigation. In the public sector, litigation is often used, but it is rarely to use negotiation. In private sector, negotiation, mediation, arbitration and litigation are used, and the most used method is litigation. The researcher also identified four main barriers to alternative dispute resolution in Saudi construction projects: governmental, contractual, cultural and developmental, and rehabilitation. The researcher develops a disputes resolutions framework through interviews with academics, arbitrators and experts and by using interpretive structural modeling (ISM) to evaluate the critical success factors in alternative dispute resolution, through relative ranking between the factors. This research has several limitations, included limited literature, data collection and identifying the current conditions of Saudi construction projects. There are four contributions in this research; firstly, the study explored the current methods of dispute resolution in Saudi construction projects based on qualitative data, which conducted on 15 experts, arbitrators and academics. Secondly, the study provided ranking and rating between factors based on the quantitative data, which conducted with 327, responds. Thirdly, the study provided CSF ISM model that contributed to the understanding of the relationship between critical successful factors for alternative dispute solutions in Saudi construction projects. Forth, Development of dispute resolution framework is to improve efficiency of dispute resolution in Saudi Construction Projects. Finally, made recommendations for both academic and industrial sectors KSA.