Attitudes of Owners which Impedes Firm's Growth: A Case of Small and Medium-sized Construction Firms in Ghana

Abstract

Owners of small and medium-sized construction firms are mainly classified as individual, group of people or institution ownership. Attitudes of owners who operate these firms do impact positively or negatively towards the growth of their businesses. This study sought to identify the specific attitudes of owners of construction small and medium size (SMEs) firms that impede growth. Interview with selected construction SMEs owners via snowball sampling was adopted in order to achieve the purpose of the study. Data was analyzed using descriptive analysis. The results suggested that majority of construction SME owners have an attitude of being profit oriented and do not concentrate on the growth of their firms. Also, negatively characterized owner attitudes such as anger, hatred, cynicism, inferiority, distrust, antagonism, resentment expressed towards personnel hinder growth of a firm. Further, the low level of educational qualification of owners has established attitudes that compel them to exhibit non-standardised managerial practices which result in poor human relations among employees thereby affecting firm's growth. An additional conclusion from the study indicates that attitudes of construction firm owners composed of three components namely cognitive component, affective/emotional component, and behavioral component.