Dispute Avoidance in Public Construction Projects

The public construction industry brings together diverse groups of subindustries with multiple stakeholders, all of whom should ideally endeavor to deliver a project without any disagreement. However, stakeholders attempting to protect their interests in accordance with a predetermined agreement and departmental code enter a potential zone of dispute. If all stakeholders understand and comply with their contractual obligations, the number of disputes in public construction projects could be reduced. To this end, it was hypothesized that a determination of success factors could be helpful in avoiding disputes. A questionnaire-based survey resulted in 14 success attributes that exhibit a significant influence on avoiding disputes. Analysis was undertaken using a one-way ANOVA. Applying varimax orthogonal rotation of principal component analysis on the attributes yielded three primary success factors for avoiding disputes: understanding of scope and effective monitoring; top management support; and competence of the contractor's design consultant. The present study covers only public construction projects, and the uniformity of the respondents' perceptions was maintained by selecting only professionals involved in public construction projects. A comparison of the success factors obtained was made with the findings of an independent expert committee for validation purposes. The results are expected to guide practitioners so that they focus on the selected success factors and mitigate the potential for disputes.