RESPONSIVENESS OF CONSTRUCTION PARTICIPANTS TO BUILDING COLLAPSE IN LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors influencing the responsiveness of construction participants to building collapse in the Nigerian construction industry. There has been a general type of response to incessant menace of building collapse among construction participants which is, playing the blame game. This is worrisome considering its attendant psychological effect on the affected persons and cost implications to the industry at large. Design/methodology/approach – Literature review conducted identified forty-nine (49) factors that can influence the responsiveness of construction participants to building collapse, which were employed to design a questionnaire survey. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics, mean score, Kruskal–Wallis test of ANOVA and multivariate techniques such as factor analysis. Findings – The descriptive and empirical analysis showed disparity of ranking of the 49 factors among the groups studied. There was statistically significant difference (ρ < 0.05) in 35 representing 71.4% of the factors influencing the responsiveness of participants in the construction industry to building collapse while the remaining 28.6% was not significantly different. Therefore, irrespective of the individuality of response from each group of construction participants, they still demonstrated a reasonable level of agreement in their responses to the factors influencing the responsiveness. Among the significant factors based on the mean score rankings are quality of materials, availability of experienced professionals, adequate enforcement of building code, design and specifications changes, financial capability of clients and budget allocation for building projects. Through factor analysis, the study categorized the forty-nine factors influencing the responsiveness of participants in the construction industry into six general factors. The factors are: client related; project procurement related; economic management related; ethical values related; construction management related and policy management related. Practical implications – The investigation into the factors influencing the responsiveness of participants is with a view to mitigating continuous occurrences of building collapse in Lagos State, and Nigeria as a whole. This is a very useful information on the roles and duties of all construction professionals and other stakeholders in the construction industry. Also, stakeholders in the academia can carry out a review of the curriculum for tertiary institutions based on the information on factors influencing responsiveness of construction participants. Originality/value – The study was able to categorise all the forty-nine factors into six basic groups using the factor analysis, and this could be used to develop measures for mitigating occurrences of building collapse. hence, it has successfully provided insightful knowledge base regarding the basic factors influencing the responsiveness of participants in the construction industry to building collapse, especially in Lagos State, Nigeria.