Understanding The Challenges Associated With Risk Mitigation In Construction Projects

The rationale of the study

Discuss about the Understanding The Challenges Associated With Risk Mitigation In Construction Projects.

Construction industry is one of the industries that houses some of the resource consuming projects (Kerzner and kerzner 2017). The resources here refer to the organisational resources such as the financial resources, effort by the human resources, time, inventory and other prominent resources of the organisation. Hence. It becomes of great prominence that projects undertaken as the construction projects are successful because failure will cause sustainable damage to the organisation (Han et al. 2016). The major causes that are associated with the failure of the project can differ according to situation. The failure causes may have its association with the change in the organisation, conflicts, natural or manmade damage or any other prominent cause. All of the discussed threats can be mitigated by adopting a risk mitigation strategy (Oliveira and Handfield 2017).

Risk mitigation strategies are those strategies that take account of the threats that a project may face and their potential solutions (Bommer, Crowley and Pinho 2015). The discussed strategy has proven to be a viable tool for ensuring the success of the project. In the discussed strategy a strategy is developed by taking account of the different risks that may be associated with a project. The risks may be internal risks, external damage risk, legal risk, stakeholder associated risk, uncertainty risk and multiple other risk (Kerzner and Kerzner 2017). The strategy considers all the possible situation and develops a suitable strategy that include tools & techniques which can be adopted to mitigate the threats associated with successful completion of the project.

Different scholars and researchers have attempted to discuss the potential solution for the risks associated in a project individually or as a whole (Oliveira and Handfield 2017). The discussion has also been laid upon the risk and their mitigating strategy in the construction industry. However, one of the prominent gap that has been identified in the literary work of past and present that discusses the risk & risk mitigation strategies is that of the challenges that are associated with the risk mitigation strategy. Very little or no journals or articles has discussed challenges that may be associated with the risk mitigation strategies, tools & techniques.

The understanding of the challenges that may be associated with the risk mitigation strategy would enable the project owner and managers to adopt the risk mitigation plan with adequate approach and in the process leverage the adoption (Pap and Homolya 2017). The reason for the above stated statement lays base on the fact that the understanding the challenges will enable the understanding of the approach that needs to be taken to mitigate the challenges that may have association with the risk mitigation strategies (Frascadore et al. 2015). It will also assist in leveraging the return from the resources consumed in devising and implementing the risk mitigation plan. Additionally, taking consideration of the construction industry and the major impact that the failure of the project or even a part of project will cite on the project owners and stakeholders is a discussion that demands attention and the proposed paper will attempt to cite that light.

Significance of the study

This finding of this research shall assist in providing the knowledge of risk management in construction projects especially to the novice project managers, stakeholders and the students of project management (Padgett 2016). As we know that sometimes the occurrence of risk becomes inevitable (Qazi et al. 2016). And, once such risks are identified, it is difficult to completely suppress it. The risk mitigation processes have been offered by different articles, journals and others to mitigate the risk however, are those mitigation strategies full proof. Or are there any challenges associated with the implementation of the mitigation strategy in the construction industry. Therefore, this research aims to provide the challenges that may be encountered during risk mitigation. With these challenges now identified, it would not just help in identifying an appropriate risk mitigation procedure but could also ease the application of entire risk mitigation process. In this research, a brief study of various risk management methods is carried out with a purpose of identifying the problems that are likely to arise. It will prove to be crucial for the project managers, project owners and the individuals that are willing to educate themselves in the project management and the factors with it. Hence, it will be justified to state that the significance of the research work will be very impactful for the projects.

The following sub-sections have offered an insight into the some of the academic and scholarly work that had been assessed in the past over the factors and subjects that are relevant to the proposed discussion and its objective.

Factors Affecting the risk attitude of contractors’ in construction:

Wang and Yang (2011), in the review article has attempted at discussing the factors that are responsible for formulating the risk attitude of the contractor in the construction projects. The selection of the discussed article as part of the review can be justified by the fact that unlike other journals that focuses on the risk management success, the deemed article has focused on the attitude that defines the risk attitude of the decision makers. It was one of the crucial discussion that needs some light and the article has provided the readers the desirable facts and figures.

The reviewed article adopted the mixed data collection method to collect the data. Literature review was done to collect the secondary data while primary qualitative data was collected through interviews and the primary quantitative data was collected through questionnaire. The approach adopted by the paper was deductive and mixed sampling method was adopted for sampling of the collected data. Statistical analysis and factor analysis were adopted for enhanced analysis and verification of the findings.

Preliminary literature review

The findings from the paper reveals that three crucial factors are associated with the objectives of the reviewed paper. The factors in discussion are “consequences of decision making”, “engineering experience”, and “completeness of project information”. Further using factor analysis, the findings were categories as “knowledge & experience, contractor’s character, personal perception and the economic environment”. The review of the article will assist the author of the proposed paper to understand the risk perception of the decision makers. How it will affect the mitigation strategy and will their negative perception act as a challenge for risk mitigation strategy. The paper is concise but very well-focused on its objective. Hence can be considered as a well-documented and useful article.

Hwang, Zhao and Toh (2014), in the reviewed paper has focused on the risk management in small construction projects. The discussion has focused on the status, impact and the barriers that are associated with the risk management in the construction projects. It has been done to understand the perception of the SME’s (small and medium enterprises) in the adoption and other crucial factor od risk management. It was one of the direly needed research because it is known that the SMEs’ are not capable of investing its resources in management processes in comparison to the construction giants. Hence, the challenges associated with the SMEs will be different than that of the construction giants.

The reviewed article adopted the primary quantitative data collection method to attain its objectives. The collection of data was done through distribution of a questionnaire survey among different risk management professionals and out of them 668 project associates responded from 34 organisations. The data then collected were analysed to determine the findings. The approach of the reviewed paper was deductive and the sampling was done with assistance of the statistical tools using the likelihood sampling method.

The findings from the paper reveal that the status of the risk management implementation is very low in the SMEs and the barriers that are responsible for the same are the time restriction, low budget, low margin of profit and the “not economical”. “Not economical” out of all the factors was the most dominant because the project owners believed that there was no need for risk management and hence it would be waste of organisation’s financial assets.  

The review of the paper enabled the author of the propose paper to understand that the challenges that are associated with the risk mitigation strategies may differ according to the size of the industry. Finally, the reviewed paper is well-documented relevant and is a good reading journal for the readers.

Iqbal et al. (2015), in the reviewed paper has focused on the evaluating the risk management in the construction industry. The authors have even focused on the prominence of the factors such as the cost, quality and time to claim them as the most dominant factor for the risk. Additionally, the paper has its base laid upon a third world country Pakistan. The selection of journal on a third world country will enable the author to understand the factors that are the driving force for the challenges in risk mitigation.

The paper adopted primary quantitative method for the collection of the data for the research paper. The data was collected from the construction work of Pakistan. The paper has followed inductive approach to identify the risk management status in the construction projects of Pakistan.

The findings from the paper reveal that the country generally pursue two type of risk management approach one is the preventive technique which aims at preventing the risk from arousal and the other is the remedial approach which is adopted post the risk has been identified. Though, it was also evident that the construction projects of the country did not believe in the adoption of risk management programs.

Finally, it can be stated that the review of the paper has assisted in identifying a gap in literature that is “Perception of risk mitigation strategy in developed, developing and underdeveloped countries”. The paper is well-structured and documented though some grammatical errors were identified which can be considered as the only disadvantage of the paper.

The topic of discussion in the reviewed paper by Senesi, Javemick-Will and Molenaar (2013) is the benefits and barriers that are associated with the risk analysis of the construction and engineering project. The probabilistic risk analysis has been taken in consideration to discuss the objective of the paper. Pursuing the objective of the research paper the authors have cited some potential measures that are capable of mitigating the challenges that are associated with the probabilistic risk analysis.

The paper pursued a mixed primary data collection method were both the primary qualitative and primary quantitative data were collected to attain the research objective. The phased approach was selected as the approach to sample the collected data and reach on a conclusion.

The findings from the discussed paper reveal that the benefits are mostly associated with mitigation of the risk while the prominent constraints are the tools required for the probabilistic analysis along with the cost, effort and time consumed. The benefits can be leveraged by training the employees, procedures for risk management and adopting process along with a regular communication with the project stakeholders.

The review of the paper reveals that there are some constraints that block path for the risk analysis and in the process risk mitigation and hence can prove to be crucial for the proposed research paper. Finally, the research paper is well structured and documented however, the findings of the paper are based on responses from only 127 respondents and that too who are associated with a single institution which raises question over the reliability of data and its application in a global context.

The research questions that the paper will pursue are listed as follows:

• RQ 1. What are the challenges associated with the risk mitigation in the construction industry?
• RQ 2: which specific risk mitigation method would be appropriate for a given project?

The research objectives that the paper will pursue has been listed as follows:

• RO 1: Identification of challenges associated with the risk mitigation.
• RO 2: Does the identified challenges differ according to the size and area off establishment of the organisation
• RO 3: Identification of potential remedial measures.
• RO 4: Impact of risk factors on the risk mitigation approach.

The approach for the discussed be based on the mixed methodology that will take account of secondary data collect ion and primary data collection. As part of the primary data collection both qualitative and quantitative data will be collected. The reason for the selection of the secondary data collection lays base on the fact that secondary literature that has association with the subject can enable the author to develop a platform for the research work (Johnston 2017). Additionally, the secondary data will offer a huge set of static data and that too at a global scale which can cite some distinctive facts and figures that will assist in development of a reliable paper (Stage and Manning 2015). While the primary quantitative data will be collected to get response from the professional that holds adequate and real-life knowledge about the risk management and mitigation. The reason for selection of the primary quantitative data is based on the fact that project and risk management are witnessing changes distinctively and the secondary data cannot be relied upon for kinetic data (Palinkas et al. 2015). Finally, the primary qualitative data will be collected and the justification for the collection is based upon the fact that risk mitigation involves assessment of the organisational stakeholder and their role in the process of mitigation. Additionally, human factors are capable of citing abstract data along with the scientific data and hence their perception cannot be limited to a specific set of answers, they deem freedom to express themselves which can be offered by the primary qualitative data and hence the selection (Palinkas et al. 2015).

It has been discussed in the section above that mixed data collection process will be adopted to collect the data. The first step would be to collect the secondary data, it will be collected through the online sources and the most prominent source will be the google scholar. The resources for the secondary data will be selected based upon their relevancy with the subject. The keywords such as “risk mitigation in construction industry, stakeholders associated challenge in risk management, risk factors in construction industry” and similar other keywords will be used. Post collection of the data, it will be analysed using thematic analysis which will assist in structuring the findings (Johnston 2017). Though there will be some limitations to the discussed data collection and that will be economic based. Most of the online journals and articles are paid version and they need to be bought before accessing them and hence will be a constraining factor. Hence, the journals that are free, relevant to the subject and accessible for reading will be used. Another prominent use of the secondary data in the proposed research work will be develop the questionnaire (Johnston 2017).

The data collected from the secondary means will be evaluated and using thematic analysis will be structured to determine the most prominent results. Based upon those findings and their relevancy to the research objectives, the questions for the primary quantitative data will be developed (Cope 2014). The reason for taking such measure is based upon the fact that secondary literature has assessed similar topics and it will be of great assistance for the author to develop a questionnaire based upon it. The developed questionnaire will be reliable and will consist most of the questions that needs to be addressed (Stage and Manning 2015). Post the development of the questionnaire it will be distributed among different project management professionals through electronic means. The professionals taken in context will be the professionals who are working in real life scenario and the professionals who are taking academic classes to develop knowledge about the subject. The discussed measure will be less effort consuming and will also offer reliability. The reliability will be based upon the fact that the real-life knowledge and academic knowledge may differ from each other. Hence, the data from the working professionals and the academic professionals may differ. However, on analysis a generalised finding can be determined and that finding will be considered for future assessments.  The analysis of the data collected through the survey questionnaire will be analysed using MS excel tool. Another notable assistance that the primary quantitative data will offer apart from concluding the paper will be in development of the core questions for the primary qualitative data collection (Palinkas et al. 2015).

The data collected from the primary quantitative data will be analysed to determine the core questions that will be asked to the qualitative data collection participants (Flahety, Honeycutt and Powers 2015). The developed questions are not the primary and may be changed according to the participant and their response to the previous answers (Schöne et al. 2017). Post development of the primary set of questions to be asked in the interviews, the participants will be approached. The participants will be the professionals who are willing to participate in the interviews. The invitation for participation will be distributed along with the questionnaire for quantitative data collection. However, the invitation letter for the interview participation will only be sent to the professionals who are very well versed in the proposed subject of the research work and easily approachable by the author of the proposed research work. The invited participant may include the professional project managers, project team members and the professors who are associated with teaching the project management, risk management and other crucial factors associated with it. After the data has been collected the data will be sampled based on non-likelihood method and critical thinking.

Final step of the data collection and analysis will be to analyse the data as a general and determine a generalised finding. Hence, it can be stated that the data analysis procedure for the proposed work will be the meta-analysis design (Clark, Tanner-Smith and Killingsworth 2016). The philosophy for the proposed research work is the interpretivism philosophy because the paper will consider both the scientific and social data while the approach will be deductive (Nsinano 2018). It is also informed that additional tools and techniques may be adopted to analyse the data based upon the findings and if any such tool or technique is adopted then it will be mentioned in the final research report.

The research works are done to mitigate challenge and propose tools and techniques for future enhancement of the subject and hence it becomes mandatory to maintain ethical aspect to conclude the research work. Taking the above mentioned fact in consideration the paper will take adequate consideration of the ethical values and as part of it the following points will be taken in context (Mutch 2013):

• The participants will be informed about the nature and purpose of the research work. They will be informed using an information and instruction sheet that will be attached along with the questionnaire. Additionally, a consent form will also be attached to cite witness for their informed consent.
• The author will also take adequate attention to keep his attitude unbiased and racism free while analysing the findings and concluding the paper.
• The author will also avert data manipulation.
• The data collected will only be used for the academic purposes and no commercial use of the data will be done.
• The data collected from secondary means will be referenced with its source to avoid any ethical issue from development.
• Other ethical considerations will be taken in consideration.

The proposed research work will offer ample of scope for future studies as it can be considered as a platform for future researches in development of mitigation strategy for the challenges that are associated with risk mitigation in construction industry. Additionally, it findings from the research can also be used to identify threats in other industries over the subject.

The limiting factor for the proposed research work are the financial aspects that will limit collection of data, approach which may limit the association with participants for data collection and the geographical limitation that will limit the findings to the Australian context. To minimise this effects, it will be ensured that the secondary data will be collected in a large number so that a global context is taken in consideration. For the approach limitation the mentor of the proposed research work will be approached for guidance.

 The Gantt chart has been attached in the appendix section.

References List

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