SCENARIO-BASED MODEL OF CHANGE ISSUE LEADING TO CONFLICTS IN BUILDING CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS IN CAMBODIA

Abstract

Change is inevitable and becomes one of the critical issues in construction projects. Although many research papers have been conducted in the areas of causes, impact and management of changes, project practitioners still have the difficulty to manage changes. Novel concept of change management should be proposed by focusing on the relationship of conflict aspect. This research attempts to identify change issues leading to conflicts related to time, cost and quality between owner and contractor in building construction projects in Cambodia. It also aims to develop scenario-based model of a significant change issue leading to different levels of conflict. The questionnaire with five-point Likert scale was selected as a tool for data collection in the first part. One sample t-test was analyzed to identify the level of importance on significant change issues. The research findings reveal that the top change issue leading to time conflict is schedule change due to poor planning or scheduling from contractor. The most critical change issue for cost aspect is schedule change by owner. Change due to construction errors is the most important issue in terms of quality conflict. In the second part, scenario-based model was developed by morphological analysis. This part focused on exploring conflict situations from aspect of change due to poor and incomplete design. The technique breaks down each collected case in order to determine crucial attributes and conditions. Those attributes and conditions were used to simulate the scenarios that created the tendency of conflict in different levels. The scenario-based model provides clear understanding to project parties about the relationship between change issues and conflict levels under different situations.