Factors influencing completion of building projects in Kenya, ministry of land, housing and urban development, Nairobi county

Abstract

The construction industry is a key industry in the economy of any country worldwide. It is one of the biggest industries in the world contributing to around 10% of the global GDP. Developments in the construction industry are increasing in size, technology complexity, interdependencies, and variations in demands from clients. The success of any project is highly dependent on its completion time from start to delivery of results. This has a direct bearing on management decisions such as budgets, targets and standards. In any construction organizations, the quality and delivery of the final product to the community can play a crucial role in improving future development and long term survival of such organizations. Completion of a given project along the three critical dimensions of time, cost and quality, requires detailing all the planning requirements. This could be achieved by identifying preconstruction planning factors and describing them in a process that takes into account all the preconstruction planning aspects. It is in this line that this study explored the factors influencing the completion of building projects in Kenya. The design of this research was a descriptive survey research. The population for this study was composed of 136 managers from the Ministry Of Land, Housing and Urban Development, Nairobi County. The study used a semi structured self-administered questionnaire to collect data from the managers in the Ministry Of Land, Housing and Urban Development. Questionnaires items were closed ended or open ended type. The study also used interview guide to obtain answers from representatives in the Ministry Of Land, Housing and Urban Development. Questionnaires were delivered to the respondents and were collected by research assistant. Face to face interviewing was adopted to obtain answers from representatives in the Ministry of Land, Housing and Urban Development. The collected data was analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative data analysis methods. Quantitative method involved descriptive analysis. Descriptive analysis such as frequencies, percentages were used to present quantitative data in form of tables. Data from questionnaire was coded and logged in the computer using Statistical Package for Social Science. The study found out that there is a positive relationship between completion of building projects and business related factors, project procedures, project management factors and human related factors of magnitude 0.638, 0.764, 0.622 and 0.529 respectively. The study recommends that organizations must provide clear guidance on how to measure the outcome of a building project. The project managers must always bear in mind that successful project management techniques will contribute to the achievement of projects, but project management will not stop a project from failing to complete. Project managers need to be aware of their project technology preferences and provide the tools and equipment to the project team as they can be more motivated. Further research should be conducted all building firms to investigate into the challenges facing project implementation.