What impact did COVID-19 have on contractors working from home? The Malaysia main contractor’s perspectives

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is an unpredictable event that has had unexpected effects on many countries, including Malaysia. The Government of Malaysia implemented the Movement Control Order (MCO) to restrain the outbreak of the pandemic. As a result, MCO has had a huge impact on various industries in Malaysia, especially the construction industry. Therefore, time and cost become critical components in order to successfully deliver the project and are the factors most affecting by the COVID-19. This paper explores the impact of the main contractor’s awareness, perceptions, and readiness for the Covid-19 pandemic. Quota and snowball sampling methods were used. Total of 167 samples were collected and analyzed using SPSS software. This research presents the main contractor’s perception and readiness has significant correlation to the pandemic disruption in Malaysia while the main contractor’s awareness showing no correlation. The position level of main contractor’s traits shows no significant to the pandemic disruption. These results provide evidence that main contractor is significantly affecting by the pandemic disruptions, thus cultivating the main contractor’s traits in the construction industry is needed.