Causal relationship between project quality problems and communication

The Ghanaian construction industry faces numerous problems mostly associated with quality. Some of these problems are design changes, poor planning, poor supervision and low mechanization. Therefore, this study aims at exploring the relationship between quality problems and communication. With this aim, three (3) objectives were set which were to identify the quality problems that exist in the Ghanaian construction industry, to identify the factors that aids in effective communication in the Ghanaian construction industry and to identify the relationship between project quality problems and communication in the Ghanaian construction industry. With these objectives, an extensive literature review was conducted from which variables on quality problems and communication were identified. The variables were subsequently used in the development of a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed and forty-nine (49) were retrieved and used for the analysis of the study. The analysis was done using the mean score ranking and the multiple regression analysis. The findings of the first objective were that, the most significant problems as indicated by the respondents were inexperienced consultant, inexperienced contractor and time constraints. With the second objective of the study, the most significant factors that affect effective communication were unclear message, the timing of the communication, inappropriate medium, and semantic barriers. With the third objective, the complexity of the project, lack of sensitivity of the receiver, unclear messages, the number of companies involved and the process barrier shown significant relationship with the problems associated with quality. However, the complexity of the project shown the highest relationship with quality problems. The results indicated that, there is a significant relationship between communication and quality problems in the Ghanaian construction industry. With these findings, it was recommended that, a project manager must be experienced enough to spend a substantial amount of his time to formally or informally communicate at appropriate points in time to all stakeholders to enhance the project success. Also, a project manager must endeavor to adopt the appropriate communication medium at any particular point in time to expedite the communication process. Furthermore, the client and his advisors should be very keen in selecting a suitable project manager for the project as the selection of an incompetent project manager can affect the delivery of the project and the project manager must develop a strict and an appropriate communication system during the execution of complex projects to enhance communication effectiveness. The study was limited by the number of dependent variables that could be used. The regression analytical tool adopted could only be used for one dependent variable at a time. Therefore, further studies can also be conducted using a different analytical tool that can incorporate more than one dependent variable like the Structural Equation Model. Also, the study was limited to only D1K1 and D2K2 construction firms in the Sekondi-Takoradi and Accra metropolis. Therefore, further studies can he conducted using other stakeholders in the construction industry

Source: KNUST