The Impacts of Quality Management Success Factors on the Quality Performance of Construction Projects in the Lake Chad Basin

Abstract

In the Lake Chad Basin, the drivers of poor-quality performance of construction projects are multi-dimensional, which are compounded with issues related to insecurity and climate change. In the North-Eastern region of Nigeria, an estimated US$ 3.3 Billion was the cost of damages to housing and other public building infrastructures, with an estimated US$ 1.2 Billion needed for reconstruction and repairs to the damaged infrastructures due to activities of various terrorist organizations. Therefore, there is need to deliver projects of high standards as well as to device means to continuously assess their performance throughout the project life-cycle. Hence, this survey examined: the relative impacts of quality management success factors, and determined their effects on the quality performances of construction projects in the region. The study is limited in scope to the Anglophone speaking part of the region. A total of 80 questionnaires were distributed using both a convenience and snowball sampling techniques to the available respondents, ably represented by construction professionals with vast knowledge and years of working experience in the Nigeria’s state of Yobe, being a frontline state in the Lake Chad Basin, and 59 of the questionnaires were successfully retrieved, and analysis was done with the aid of SPSS, a social science analysis software. Findings indicates that, the quality management success factors with the highest relative severity index on the quality performance are: project manager’s previous work experience and supervision skills; project manager’s technical competence and good leadership skills; taking appropriate security measures on project site; project planning, monitoring and evaluation; project team technical capabilities; completeness and consistency of design document; and clear and well detailed contract documents. The quality management success factors will have an overall 59.7% significant cause-effects influence on the quality performances of construction projects in the region. Further findings revealed that, the most significantly impacted quality performance measures, are: minimal or absence of rework; time taking in rectifying defective components and services; satisfaction by end users’, customers and stakeholders; absence of observable defects after project completion; cost of rectifying defective components and services. This study has added to the existing body of knowledge, and has succeeded in bringing to light quality management success factors that are peculiar and applicable to areas devasted with challenges of insecurity and climate change.