Undesired Contractual Behaviour of Key Participants in Civil Engineering Projects

Abstract

The most important key participants in a construction project are the integration between different entities comprising client, the multidisciplinary consultants (architect, engineers, surveyors) and the contractors. Thus, the contract is needed to protect the contracting parties against opportunistic behaviour and other risks in business relations besides to govern the project implementation in achieving the project goals. Unfortunately, literature has replete with the problems rendered in construction projects caused by the behaviour of key participants who do not duly adhere to the contract in the project implementation. Therefore, this paper aims to identify the common undesired contractual behaviours of key participants in civil engineering projects which largely reported as one of the major factors affecting the project performance. 288 feedbacks received out of 700 questionnaires distributed to the G7 CIDB registered contractors and professional engineers registered under the Board of Engineers Malaysia. Descriptive analysis and Mann-Whitney U test were used in data analysis. The findings revealed that among the seven (7) undesired contractual behaviours investigated in this study, the delay in making payment was ranked as the highest occurrence followed by the delay in work progress, delay in issuing drawings and information and delay in site possession. Poor communication and unauthorised instruction were considered as moderate while client direct instruction was a very low occurrence in civil engineering projects. In the attempt to observe the performance of civil engineering projects in Malaysia, the four high occurrence contractual behaviours are critical to be put more concern.KeywordsCivil engineeringContractual behaviorContractProject performance