Abstract
Change orders are common and clearly noticeable in Jordanian construction industry. Several studies have identified change orders as significant problem in Jordanian construction projects, and they mainly cause delay and cost overrun. This situation spurs the researchers for investigating the significant causes of change orders in construction projects. Thus, this paper aims to determine the main causes of change orders in the Jordanian construction private sector which responsible for significant cost overrun. Both qualitative and quantitative methods, i.e. interview and questionnaire techniques, were used to achieve this aim. Interviews were conducted as the first stage of data collection, and the results formed the basis of the questionnaire, which was distributed across the Jordanian construction sector. Content analysis was used to analyse the interview responses, while factor analysis, correlation and the Severity Index (SI) were used to analyse the questionnaire results. The findings identified three main categories of causes of change orders in private sector, namely engineering causes, causes related to the client, and circumstances of the project, with sub-causes in each category which are related to each other in significant ways and which affect each other.
Highlights
The construction industry has been facing greater challenges such as cost overrun, delay, duplication works, and change orders
This paper offers stakeholders to gain a fuller understanding of the major causes of change orders in the Jordanian construction industry, and this will prompt them to reassess their current practices in relation to change orders
It was found that changes requested by clients are the major cause of change orders in Jordanian construction projects, and have the highest Severity Index (SI), 93.42%, while shortages of materials has the lowest Severity Index (47.53%), which means this does not have a major impact on the number of change orders in the Jordanian construction industry
Summary
The construction industry has been facing greater challenges such as cost overrun, delay, duplication works, and change orders. According to Desai et al (2015) [1] the success of a construction project is influenced by controlling change orders and minimising their causes and impacts. Many organisations and researchers have defined change orders in construction projects. According to Charoenngam et al (2003) [2], change orders are referred to as “variation orders” in Institute of Civil Engineering (ICE) conditions, the term “variation order” is used by The International Federation of Consulting Engineering (FIDIC) [3]. A “change order” is defined as a modification to a construction contract, and the resultant impact on costs and time must be mutually agreed by the owner and the contractor (Sundar, 2013) [4]. Change orders might be a change in the work, a change in the quality of the work or in the construction schedule, or other forms of change that affect the nature of project
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