A study into construction disputes and their implications for project efficiency and execution

Abstract

The rising cost, delays and time wasting as a result of construction dispute resolution prompted the author to look for efficient ways to prevent and manage these construction disputes. Prevention of disputes therefore can eliminate unnecessary crease in the cost of execution projects, delays, business relationship among the.1rticipants and finally save time. In Ghana, there has been lack of studies on ~0nstruction disputes prevention. This study therefore aims at developing appropriate strategies for disputes prevention on construction projects found in Ghana. It is important to understand the causes of dispute in the construction industry, its effects and measures to avert these conflicts that a construction projects is likely to encounter. Hence this research seeks to identify, evaluate and rank the most important and frequent factors responsible for disputes on construction projects from the perspective of Clients, Contractors and Consultants in Ghana and to identify and further develop appropriate strategies for disputes prevention in Ghana. The research comprised a questionnaire survey supplemented with face to face interview with the Clients, Contractors and Consultants with the aim of identifying the causes of disputes, effects and appropriate preventive measures to be developed to prevent the occurrence of construction disputes in Ghana. The data gathered were coded and analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17. Quantitative data were analysed by the use of relative importance index, descriptive frequency tallies and their corresponding percentage scores. Cross tabulations were further used to examine the relationship between some key variables relevant to the study. Qualitative data of the open ended questions from the questionnaire were categorised into common themes using thematic data analysis and transcription. Thus major causes of construction dispute include behavioural problems, constructural