Risk allocation on building projects in the Zambian Construction Industry (ZCI)
Date
2018
Authors
Tembo, Chipozya Kosta
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Abstract
Desirable project delivery is normally hampered by risks; when risks eventuate they make it difficult for a project to be delivered within time, budgeted cost and to the expected quality. This is exacerbated by risk misallocation between contracting parties in the form of incomprehensive allocation or inappropriate allocation, or wrong or inappropriate resources or methods of allocation. The literature is unclear as to why misallocations persist in the construction industry and the discourse of this research is the identification of reasons of why this persists and the rectification thereof. This research is an exploratory and explanatory study aimed at uncovering why risk misallocation is recurrently contributing to project failure in the Zambian building sector, with a view of devising a mechanism for aiding risk allocation. To achieve this, purposeful semistructured interviews, a questionnaire survey and document analysis across building projects using different contract forms were used to uncover sources for risk misallocation, using structuration and Gilbert’s management theory as theoretical lenses. The approach used was both inductive and deductive to varying extents. The nature of misallocation in the industry includes resource misallocation, unbalanced and unfair allocation, and inappropriate allocation mechanisms. It was found that current contract practice (reflected in selection criteria and contract conditions) and risk practice (reflected in unsystematic and un-formalised risk management practices) are contributing to risk misallocation, resulting in poor performance of the building sector. This realization led to the devising of a systematic process model to serve as an interventionist tool to ameliorate this challenge. This deemed to be useful in providing guidance for desirable risk allocation outcomes. The mechanism was validated by using a questionnaire with purposively sampled industry professionals in the Zambian construction industry and Delphi expert panel using a questionnaire which took an introductory round and 2 main rounds.
Description
A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Quantity Surveying to the Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2018
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Citation
Tembo, Chipozya Kosta (2018) Risk allocation on building projects in the Zambian Construction Industry (ZCI), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, <http://hdl.handle.net/10539/6653>