An Investigation into the Significant Causes of Disputes in the Sri Lankan Construction Industry

9 pages•Published: September 25, 2020

Vajira Edirisinghe, Dianne Marsh, Fiona Borthwick and Alison Cotgrave

Abstract

Disputes in construction projects affect not only delay in construction progress but also its cost and potentially its quality. The construction industry of Sri Lanka contributes significantly to its economy and the cost of construction disputes can influence its economic welfare. It is important to understand the significant disputes in the Sri Lankan construction industry in order to mitigate this cost. A qualitative descriptive study has been conducted through semi-structured questionnaires analyzed using a thematic approach. The sample comprised of 10-construction industry professionals all involved in the dispute resolution process. The literature identified 7 main dispute causes as being owner related, contractor related, project related, design related, contract related, human behavior related and consultant related. The interviews identified sub themes from each, which were then ranked in order to identify those that were most significant. It was found that many of the sub themes were inter related and that one cause could be the creation of another. The lack of appropriate communication between parties and lack of team spirit were identified as the genesis of disputes in the Sri Lankan construction industry. The next stage of this research is to identify the dispute resolution methods specific to Sri Lanka in order to develop a framework for cost optimization of dispute resolution methods that link specifically with the causes of dispute as identified in this study.

Keyphrases: communication, construction, disputes, team spirit

In: Tom Leathem (editor). Associated Schools of Construction Proceedings of the 56th Annual International Conference, vol 1, pages 347-355.

Links:	https://easychair.org/publications/paper/zp1N
	https://doi.org/10.29007/vbwk

BibTeX entry

@inproceedings{ASC2020:Investigation_into_Significant_Causes,
  author    = {Vajira Edirisinghe and Dianne Marsh and Fiona Borthwick and Alison Cotgrave},
  title     = {An Investigation into the Significant Causes of Disputes in the Sri Lankan Construction Industry},
  booktitle = {Associated Schools of Construction Proceedings of the 56th Annual International Conference},
  editor    = {Tom Leathem},
  series    = {EPiC Series in Built Environment},
  volume    = {1},
  publisher = {EasyChair},
  bibsource = {EasyChair, https://easychair.org},
  issn      = {2632-881X},
  url       = {/publications/paper/zp1N},
  doi       = {10.29007/vbwk},
  pages     = {347-355},
  year      = {2020}}

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