Resource Management Practices and Performance of Commercial Housing Projects in Nairobi City County, Kenya

Abstract

Housing projects have gained a lot of attention in almost every country both industrialized and developing economies. This is because it is one of the basic human needs and a source of income to the housing developers. It is one of the big four agenda to the current government of the republic of Kenya. However, many commercial housing projects in Kenya are facing performance challenges in the sense that some projects remain stalled; others get completed late beyond the planned time, reduced scope while others collapse because of poor quality. This study sought to examine the effects of resource management practices on the performance of commercial housing projects in Nairobi City County, Kenya. Particularly the study aimed to establish the effect of human resource management, financial management and material management on the performance of commercial housing projects in Nairobi City County, Kenya. The survey made use of descriptive research design. It targeted a population of forty commercial housing projects within Nairobi City County, Kenya completed between the years 2017 and 2020. The respondents were top housing projects managers (engineers, contractors and quantity surveyors), housing projects supervisors and housing projects owners in these selected projects. Collected data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Results were presented using tables and graphs. The results indicated that human resource management, financial resource management, and material resource management were highly significant at p=0.0430, p=0.0436and p=0.0451respectively.On the human resource management this study recommends that commercial housing projects in Nairobi City County should match their human resource management strategies with dynamic environment in order to achieve projects which are completed within scope, completed within budget, completed within time and achieve quality of the houses. On financial resource management, the study recommends that Nairobi county management needs to adhere to financial resource management practices as it enhance performance of commercial housing projects. It is therefore recommended that the county should carry out financial resource management in the manner that is approved by the IFRS. On material resource management, the survey makes a recommendation that there should be a centralized material management team co-ordination between the site and the county Project management. Keywords: Resource Management Practices; Performance; Commercial; Housing; and Projects DOI: 10.7176/JESD/12-10-06 Publication date: May 31 st 2021