Social-Cultural Factors and Performance of Roads Construction Projects in Nairobi City County, Kenya

Abstract

The Kenyan Government is on the spot over stalled and poorly done roads construction projects especially in the Nairobi City County. Successful road construction is an impetus to economic development for Kenya as enumerated in the Kenya Vision 2030. However, there has been need for these road construction projects to update their systems due to the ever changing environment factors. Thisstudy therefore sought to determine the relationship between social-cultural factors and the performance of roads construction projectsin Nairobi City County, Kenya. The underpinning theory was the open system theory. Thisstudy used a positivist research philosophy. This study used the descriptive and explanatory research design. In this study, Nairobi City County refers to the five counties in the Nairobi Metropolitan Area namely, Nairobi County, Kiambu County, Kajiado County, Machakos County and Murang'a County. The target population of this research was the 176 completed roads construction projects in Nairobi City County by Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KERRA). The unit of observation was the road engineers, project planners and directors (KERRA), road supervisors, road inspectors, road surveyors, contractors, and project implementation teams’ members (KERRA). The unit of analysis wasthe completed roads construction projectsinNairobi City County. Proportional stratified sampling was used to derive a sample size of 253 respondents. A structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data. Data that was collected from the field was filtered, sorted and cleaned in line with research objectives. This study adopted both descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statisticsincluding frequencies, percentages, mean scores, and standard deviation was produced for all the quantitative data. The results were presented using tables. Inferential statistics were done using the multiple linear regression. The study established a positive significant relationship between socio-cultural factors (t=2.417, p < 0.05) and project performance. The study concludes that human relationship influences project performance since projects operate within the society. Project culture is developed by communicating priority, status, and the alignment of official and operational rules. The study recommends that project leaders should be sensitive and aware of multicultural preferences guided by individual identity and role within the project versus family of origin and community, verbal and emotional expressiveness, relationship expectations, style of communication, language, personal priorities, values, and beliefs and time orientation.