Search results

Clients in Nigeria have continuously questioned the quality of services being rendered by architectural firms in building projects. This study aims to investigate the areas of service responsible for determining client satisfaction.

The study uses questionnaire for data collection on perceived service quality and indicators of clients’ satisfaction.

The results of descriptive statistics suggest that efficient analysis and compliance with client brief along with buildability, flexibility and comprehensiveness of the design are the main technical determinants of clients’ satisfaction. Management measures for engendering clients’ satisfaction include team communication and collaboration as well as regular site visits when required. The study established a significant relationship between the perceived service quality and client satisfaction. At technical level, economical design and compliance with budget, buildability, optimal and error-free design and timely delivery have significant correlation with the perception of service quality, which could engender client satisfaction. At management level, collaboration and coordination, integrity and trust, regular site visits and project management knowledge and skills had significant relationships with perceived service quality.

To improve overall client satisfaction, architects are expected to focus on these factors in the process of service delivery. Architects’ expertise and skills can be further harnessed through continuous training and understanding of the project environment.

The prominent role of traditional contract and design‐build methods in the procurement of projects and the importance of planning in the success of the projects prompt this study. The study evaluates the levels of use of project documents and their influence on the outcome of projects procured by the two methods. The purpose of this paper is to assist stakeholders in comparing the documents prepared and the performance of projects procured by traditional contract and design‐build methods.

The study adopted a questionnaire survey approach to achieve its purpose. A field survey of 84 projects made up of 42 traditional contract projects and 42 design‐build projects selected by purposive sampling was conducted. Three categories of variables namely: procurement method, project planning and project outcome were used. Data were collected with the aid of structured questionnaires and analysed to derive and compare the levels of use of selected project plans, levels of project inception, design, tendering, construction and overall planning in projects procured by traditional contract and design‐build methods using percentage, mean and t‐test.

The results reveal that the levels of project stage and overall planning in projects procured by the two methods investigated are the same. However, the levels of use of specific plans and project outcome in the two categories of projects are significantly different. The study considers the difference in the levels of use of project plans to be responsible for the lower delivery time and cost of projects procured by traditional contract method and higher quality standards in projects procured by design‐build method.

The paper has revealed the level of efforts put into the planning of projects procured by traditional contract and design‐build methods and their influence on the performance of the projects. The results will make project stakeholders aware of how to improve their efforts, thereby improving the outcome of the projects.

The skills and knowledge of site supervisors play an important role in the outcome of construction projects. Evidence gleaned from the literature indicates that poor performance of construction projects remains a central concern for stakeholders in the construction sector. This suggests that the site supervisor’s training is important in the construction project outcomes. Various training programmes are available for site supervisors, yet construction firms are not satisfied with them. The purpose of this study is to determine the key training practice indicators for optimal site supervisor’s usage in construction firms.

This study adopts a cross-sectional survey research design. In the approach, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were used to determine the key training practice indicators for site supervisors. Data were collected from 218 construction site supervisors using a questionnaire.

Findings show that training practices are a multidimensional concept consisting of training needs assessment, training delivery, training evaluation and transfer. From the 50 training practice variables, this study establishes 12 key training practice indicators for training site supervisors in construction firms.

Future research should adopt a longitudinal survey for examining training practices in construction firms.

The identified key training indicators can inform the policies and practices used in the training of site supervisors.

This study contributes to knowledge by establishing 12 significant training practice indicators for optimal site supervisors’ usage in construction firms.

The purpose of this paper is to promote full involvement of construction project leaders in the attempt by Nigerian banks to develop new branches and expand the scope of their services to customers whose banks were either liquidated or merged after the 2005 consolidation exercise.

Structured questionnaires are used to collect data on status, professions, services and leadership roles of construction project leaders from a sample of 80 clients' representatives selected randomly from the 24 Nigerian banks that survived the liquidation exercise.

The study discovers that Nigerian banks appoint mostly their staff who may not be project managers as project leaders and engage them mostly with services which relate to the day to day running of their new projects. It also discovers that the authority giving to project leaders is not full rather the control over the delivery of banks' projects is shared with the banks and this does not influence the banks' perception of the performance of project leaders. While this finding may appear as if the control giving to project leaders is not important in their performances, the study reveals that the performances of project leaders have significant influence on the performance of other project team members.

Although, there have been studies on project leadership in the construction industry generally, specific attention has not been given to project leadership in the banking industry as done in this paper.

The study considers the development as unhealthy because it will not encourage construction project leaders to regard the success or failure of the projects as their responsibility and will not motivate them to perform their duties effectively. It therefore advocates that clients in the Nigerian banking industry should adopt a practice whereby project managers instead of any construction professionals are the ones to be appointed as construction project leaders and that more authority and leadership functions on the delivery of the projects than those retained by clients be delegated to them.

The results of the study have identified some of the shortcomings in project leadership practice in the Nigerian banking industry which will spur changes that promote greater achievement of the goals of the banks for developing new projects.

Service quality is a major determinant of business performance. Empirical evidence from the literature indicates that, to attain a high level of customer satisfaction, a high standard of service quality should be provided by the service provider. This study aims to examine the relationship between the perceived service quality and the indicators of client satisfaction with particular reference to engineering consultancy services in building projects.

A survey research approach was adopted using a semi-structured questionnaire as an instrument of data collection. The questionnaire survey formed the basis for the descriptive and inferential (Pearson correlation and multiple regression) statistics that were used to evaluate the relationship between engineering consultants’ service quality and clients’ satisfaction indicators.

The study identified 10 key technical indicators and 10 key managerial indicators for measuring client satisfaction. Statistical analysis shows a positive significant relationship between the perceived service quality and all the indicators of client satisfaction. The positive correlation values show that as perceived service quality increases, both technical and management indicators of client satisfaction equally increase.

The results offer opportunity for professional service providers to continuously develop the technical and management indicators, embrace personnel training and key into continuous professional development for better service quality.

This paper aims to assess COVID-19 (C-19) pandemic influence in the 37 factors identified from extant literature as factors influencing the viability of local construction firms (LCFs).

A sample size of 65 staff of 31 LCFs that were awarded construction projects contracts in institutions in Nigeria was purposefully selected and accessed based on relevant predetermined criteria. Respondents’ views on factors determining the viability of LCFs were obtained. Factors known to be influenced by C-19 are 25 of the 37 factors rated on a five-point Likert scale of importance by the respondents. Mean scores were used to rank the factors and principal component analysis was used to obtain key component factors (CFs) influenced by the C-19 pandemic.

Six of the first ten “extremely important” and “very important” factors are known to be influenced by C-19 pandemic. A total of 8 CFs having 20 variables with factor loadings of more than 0.5 each were known to be influenced by C-19. The C-19 pandemic influenced LCFs’ cash flow and management of construction labour, plant and equipment amidst variables that had above 0.8 factor loading.

A limitation of this study is the inability to conduct close contact interview during this period to obtain personal views on the influence of C-19 on LCFs. However, this does not reduce the quality of findings of this study, as there are valid literature basis hinging this study findings.

The paper recommends that all stakeholders pay prompt attention to the factors adversely affected by the C-19 pandemic to improve or at the least sustain the viability of LCFs.

This paper fulfils a present pertinent need of assessing the influence of the C-19 pandemic on various factors influencing the viability of construction firms.