The Role Of Control Modes In The Performance Of Australian And Pakistani Construction Projects

Abstract

Project performance and satisfactory delivery have remained a fundamental challenge in the field of project management throughout. Despite phenomenal advancement in the technological landscape and work processes and practices, projects continue to remain challenged in all domains of project management including construction. Construction and infrastructure development are recognized as the key drivers that fuel the global economy and will continue to do so in the coming decades. Considering the huge proportion of the global resources that are injected in the construction sector, this sub optimal delivery remains a major concern. Poor project governance and improper control are seen as some of the main causes leading to the unsatisfactory project performance. Whether and how control can be effectively implemented to enhance project performance has emerged as an active topic in project research in WEIRD (Wealthy, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) environments. There are not many studies that have been conducted to explore the project control and performance connect representing the construction sector of the developing countries. This study not only aims at responding to that call actively, but, was also launched with an objective to compare the results drawn from the study of control and project performance association for a relatively developed construction market i.e Australia and a developing market i.e Pakistan. Building on control theory, in the backdrop of requirements uncertainty, this study explores the role of diverse modes of control for construction project performance across the two different industries mentioned above. To the best of our knowledge , this is one of the earliest studies that has attempted to draw such a comparison. To address the gap a survey questionnaire was specifically devised and launched in English to collect the construction projects related data from the project professionals based in the two countries. The primary data was collected by means of an online questionnaire. 120 responses to the survey were received from the respondents. 77 of these were received from Pakistan and 43 surveys were submitted by the Australian construction practitioners. The thesis fundamentally presents a positivist perspective and a deductive approach towards the data collection and analysis. Once the primary data was collected, mainly using the Likert scale, quantitative data analysis approach was adopted for statistical analysis. Considering its currency , and wide spread use owing to its suitability , reliability and evolution, powerful second generation data analysis technique partial least square structural equation modelling ( PLS – SEM) was relied upon to carry out the statistical data analysis and to test the hypothesis. The software was used to analyze the measurement and structural models for the data collected from Pakistan and Australia independently. When only the direct association between the modes of control and project performance is analyzed while ignoring the influence of requirements uncertainty, PLS-SEM analysis manifests that both formal and informal modes of control show a positive significant impact on the performance of Australian and Pakistani construction projects. The association, however, is stronger between the formal modes of control and project performance in case of Australian projects. In case of the Pakistani projects, the association between the informal modes of control and project performance measures to be stronger. When analyzed while factoring in the moderating effect of the elements of requirements uncertainty, while the results of the Pakistani construction projects continue to show the similar trend and association, in case of the Australian projects , the significance of the association between the informal modes of control and project performance is reduced and approaches the borderline . These results demonstrate that effectiveness of different modes of control are likely to vary depending on the maturity of the construction market considering whether the construction project is being executed in a developing or a developed construction market. The findings provide insights into the potentially divergent roles of different project control approaches in different project settings, market conditions, and work environments. Although the study was subject to various limitations, these results show implications both in the sphere of practice and literature.