The impact of change management practices on construction project performance

Abstract

Changes in construction projects are inevitable and can affect projects positively or negatively. This has been an issue that makes many projects fail to perform with degrees of negative impacts. To minimize the impact of changes on a project, it is imperative to implement change management. This study aims to identify the various change management practices and their impact in the construction industry. Project constraints are, however, a key performance measure and a major determinant of project success. The common belief which is also the focus of the study is that construction change management practices have a significant impact on the construction project performance levels. However performance of construction projects is affected by several factors. Three groups; Clients, Consultants and Contractors involved in the management of projects were thus selected for the study. This study proposes to apply the mixed methods research approach which integrates both qualitative and quantitative methods. The method depicted will make use of survey questionnaires to collect qualitative data on the Project Change Management (PCM) practices carried out through extensive literature review. Secondly, the qualitative data on the practices will be organized into categorical statements and assigned numerical values by the use of a five point likert scale to enable a quantitative measurement. The effect of the Project Change Management PCM practices on projects performance will thus be determined through quantitative analytical methods. The entire fabric of the research work including questionnaire design, scale, sampling and piloting is then outlined. Subsequent data analysis and model development techniques like the KMO, Bartletts sphericity test and descriptive statistics of the performance mean will be depicted including using multiple regression and factor analysis techniques. Finally, Stratified sampling, snow balling and methods for validating and refining the developed model are introduced. A total of 200 questionnaires vi were distributed (purposively) to selected professionals as sourced from the snow balling list as they unfold. This was considered adequate for the purpose of inferential statistical analysis. This study employs the application of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software as the principal tool to analyse the data collected from the major survey. Performance indices were developed for measurement of the time, cost and quality performance. The method developed will involve an 11-point scale of 0.5 –1.5demonstrating the performance index achieved by projects. The data was analysed on 83 questionnaires submitted. The findings of the analysis establish that the impact of construction project change management practices on construction industry is relatively high while considerably, significant construction project performances of Time, Cost and Quality were observed. Identifying and appreciating the impacts of change management becomes a preliminary step in reducing negative impacts on project performances hence project success. It is however suggested that project team managers make strenuous efforts to advance their performance in applying change management practices that are identified as having significant association with project performance. Further research efforts focusing on providing a practical tool or expert system to address the practical issues for a wider range of professionals are also recommended.