Determinants of workmanship: Defining quality in construction industry

Quality is one of the key project objectives in the construction industry. Studies in the past have reported many factors that are responsible for the low quality of construction work at sites. Some examples are poor workmanship, use of unsuitable equipment, low quality of materials, etc.  The literature shows workmanship as the most decisive element to achieve good quality in the work at the sites. This is because; the workmanship is an interface between the materials, equipment, and the executed work. Despite this knowledge that the workmanship is a decisive factor, very few studies have explored the attributes that cause poor workmanship at the construction sites. Hence, this research aims to identify the determinants of workmanship affecting the quality of the construction work executed by the workers at the sites. This aim was achieved in two steps. First, the literature review was carried out, and the 12 attributes were identified. In the second step, critical attributes were determined from the identified attributes through two independent and parallel investigations covering industry professionals (top-down approach) and the construction workers (bottom-up approach) as experts. In the first investigation, the Delphi method was used with the help of 9 industry professionals, and the critical attributes were identified. In the second investigation, the questionnaire was circulated among the construction workers, and the critical attributes were determined through the use of descriptive analysis. The initial trend shows convergence in the results from both the investigations. The results of the study will help the training providers to strategically alter the existing training curriculum for the workers to focus specifically on the improvement of these critical attributes of the workers during training. This eventually would help the industry to resolve the problem of poor quality of construction at the sites.