Abstract
Decision-making among multi-disciplinary construction stakeholders of various cultural, ethnic group, nationality, and language are often indispensable in the execution of construction projects. The diversity of construction stakeholders in professions, culture and world views makes the evaluation of sensitive matter like corruption a daunting task because what is regarded as bribe to some people and countries may be considered as gift in other places. The porous legal system, poor oversight mechanism, bad leadership, pluralistic ignorance, and so on also contribute to various forms of corruption in Africa construction industry. Most African countries are rated as highly corrupt by international corruption assessment institutions such as Transparency International, World Economic Forum (WEF), Global Infrastructure Anti-Corruption Centre (GIACC), amongst others. The constant corruption cases contributed to infrastructure deficit, building collapse, loss of lives and properties, time and cost overrun.The case of corruption in Nigeria and her construction industry is more alarming among other African countries. All forms of corruption such as collusion, fraud, front companies, and so on are constantly reported in news and mass media in Nigeria. The anti-corruption organisations and law enforcement agents in Nigeria are also involved in corruption practices. Unfortunately, corruption is conceptualized as a way of life in Nigeria because of the poor legal actions against people caught in such unethical acts. In fact, some people accused or guilty of corruption are either left unpunished or unprosecuted. It is important to note that corruption thrives on the certain influencers lurked at people, project, organisation, or social levels which later affect decision-making process and also result in stakeholder dissatisfaction, poor project performance, tainted organisation reputation and social injustice. Research on the bedrock of corruption practices, i.e., corruption influencers, is rare, and worth investigating to address the brink of corruption actions in the construction industry. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate the corruption influencers peculiar to construction projects and its resultant effect on outcomes of construction projects, and the impact of logical decision-making process (i.e., value management (VM) techniques and team behaviours) on corruption. The outcome of the study would be beneficial to minimizing corruption, assist in logical decision-making process to the advantage of construction projects, industry, and the society at large. On the other hand, the construction stakeholders can identify influencers of corruption for appropriate and transparent decision-making process.
To ensure the validity and reliability of the study, multiple research methods were applied, including focus groups, questionnaire survey, and case study. Extensive literature on corruption, systematic VM techniques, team behaviours and outcomes were reviewed to develop a conceptual model. Five groups of 30 construction stakeholders including six consultants, six contractors, five developers, five government officials, and eight clients were gathered in an online focus group using Zoom to identify the key corruption influencers affecting decision-making process and outcomes of construction projects in Nigeria. The corruption influencers (e.g., personal values, project complexity, project secrecy, organisation-government alliance, unethical professionalism, social pressure, social norm, and social ties) inhibiting decision-making process and the outcomes namely satisfaction, project performance, organisation reputation, unofficial payment, and social justice on construction projects were mentioned by various focus group participants. These decision-making outcomes at people, project, organisation, and social levels are fundamental, and are often targeted and affected by corruption actions. Based on the excerpts of the focus groups study discussion, a refined conceptual model was developed.
A questionnaire survey was administered to construction professionals in the Nigerian construction industry to investigate the complicated relationships between decision-making process, corruption influencers, and outcomes. The questionnaire for this study was administered online through the institutions of construction professionals in Nigeria because of the location constraints and outbreak of Coronavirus pandemic. Of the 377 questionnaires retrieved, 306 valid questionnaires were used to conduct various statistical analyses namely factor analysis, reliability test, Pearson correlation, multiple regression analysis and structural equation modelling (SEM). The primary model for the study was developed based on the relationships confirmed by Pearson correlation, multiple regression, and SEM.
In order to cross-validate the results of the questionnaire survey, four case studies of construction projects in Nigeria were conducted to collect qualitative data. In total, sixteen construction stakeholders on the four case studies were interviewed online via Zoom. The interviewees were asked various question to investigate the subjective relationships between decision-making process, corruption influencers, and outcomes factors in respect to the four case studies. The final Decision-making Process-Corruption Influencers-Outcome model was developed from the quantitative and qualitative data analyses through questionnaire survey and case studies interview. The final model confirmed that VM techniques such as preparation, information, evaluation, development, presentation, and follow-up impacted corruption influencers negatively, and team behaviours (i.e., commitment, communication, specificity, conflict manifestation and conflict resolution) had effect on corruption influencers negatively. In addition, interrelationships existed between VM techniques, namely preparation, information, creativity and evaluation; in the initial stage of decision-making and the techniques in the final decision-making such as development, presentation and follow-up. Moreover, VM techniques (i.e., preparation, information, evaluation, development, presentation, and follow-up) influenced team behaviours positively, while analysis techniques affected communication negatively. On the other hand, VM techniques such as preparation, creativity, evaluation, development and follow-up impacted outcomes positively, while preparation techniques contributed to unofficial payment, and team behaviours (i.e., commitment, communication, and specificity) had positive effect on outcomes. Finally, conflict manifestation between stakeholders discouraged unofficial payment; corruption influencers, namely personal values, project complexity, project secrecy, and organisation-government alliance affected outcomes negatively, and corruption influencer, i.e., social pressure impacted outcome positively.
Based on the findings of the study, practical recommendations were proposed to encourage the applications of VM techniques on construction projects for clients, government, and contractors, such as:
•Selecting experienced construction professionals and public participants in construction team decision-making,
•Allow sufficient time to review all project documents and data,
•Engage VM experts to use function analysis techniques appropriately on projects,
•Encourage innovative thinking via creativity techniques,
•Use multiple evaluation methods to select the suitable ideas,
•Engage all multi-disciplinary stakeholders in the preparation of reports,
•Send all the report to all decision-makers on time, and organise meeting for team members to respond to queries, and
•Use electronic monitoring devices to track implementation of ideas and their performance.
Through certified VM professionals engaged in team decision-making process on construction projects, the team behaviours can be harnessed among construction stakeholders to achieve the desired outcomes such as satisfaction, project performance, reputation, and social justice. Therefore, it is suggested to:
•Ensure that all the ideas are communicated with less technical words to obtain feedback from stakeholders with less experience in the construction industry.
•Sufficient conflict should be stimulated by the team leaders to generate out-of-box ideas from multi-disciplinary stakeholders.
•The specific goal and objectives of team members should be communicated to all stakeholders during preparation and information phases of decision-making.
•Transparent information sharing between team members and the public is encouraged.
The use of transparent and logical VM approach with independent VM experts in team decision-making process on construction projects can minimize giving of unofficial payment to any team members and other corruption influencers. Hence, it is recommended to:
•The personal value of each construction stakeholder should be used to the advantage of the project.
•Less emphasis should be placed on superiority and avoid gender sentiment in team decision-making process.
•Set various monitoring mechanisms to oversee complex projects.
•Avoid giving private information to any construction stakeholder.
•Discourage filial relationships between government officials and construction firms.
•The public should be given access to project information, and the process to lodge complaints and queries should be simple to understand.
•Punish construction professionals that engage in corruption behaviour and unethical conduct on construction projects.
•Young professionals should not be pressured by parents and colleagues to acquire wealth on construction projects.
•Construction professionals should not believe the mindset and norm that corruption is being practiced by everyone.
•Relationships between construction professionals, bidders and influential society members should be carefully evaluated to discourage corruption in the construction industry.
The limitations and further research were also addressed. The focus groups used to explore the variables of corruption influencers in this study composed of thirty participants from Nigerian construction industry mainly. The preliminary results of the survey also indicated that there may not be significant difference on the variables of corruption influencers in African countries. However, there may be other corruption influencers peculiar to other countries which can be investigated in future studies. This study did not engage professionals with practical experience in VM workshops because of inadequate VM experts in the Nigerian construction industry, and the fact that traditional decision-making process contains major components of VM. However, stakeholders of construction projects where systematic and logical VM process were applied can be investigated in the future to determine the impact of VM techniques in minimizing potential corruption. This study provides an invaluable insight to understand the bedrock of corruption in the construction industry for improving the desired outcomes. The findings of this study can be useful to construction industry in other nations with similar construction patterns because corruption is a global phenomenon, and decision-making process is fundamental to achieving any desired outcomes.
| Date of Award | 14 Sept 2023 |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
|
| Supervisor | Mei-yung LEUNG (Supervisor) |