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Studying the Effects of Social and Cultural Issues on Construction Quality

Afshari, Alireza | 2014

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  1. Type of Document: M.Sc. Thesis
  2. Language: Farsi
  3. Document No: 46637 (09)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology
  5. Department: Civil Engineering
  6. Advisor(s): Mortaheb, Mohammad Mehdi
  7. Abstract:
  8. The construction industry is viewed as one with poor performance from the point of view of quality as compared to other industries such as service and manufacturing. Earlier field studies performed in Iran show low construction quality. Experts suggest that cultural factors are among the most important factors that lead to the difference between what is planned and what is constructed.
    Unlike many other industries, the construction industry is yet to achieve wide-scale automation of processes. Therefore, majority of construction processes is heavily dependent on workers. In order to achieve higher performance in terms of quality and productivity, the practitioners and researchers should pay attention to the factors that impact the workers’ performance. Culture is defined as what human beings are and do as a society. Focusing on culture is essential in achieving them ambitious quality performance objectives as it significantly affects the outcome of work performed by workers.
    In this study, literature review and interviews with experts in the field of culture and construction industry are used to identify the cultural factors affecting the construction quality. A standardized questionnaire is used to rank the identified factors. In the next step, the first 9 important factors were chosen for further analysis. The findings of this research suggest that the main cultural issues affecting the construction quality are workers’ and managers’ disregard for standards as well as costumers’ disregard for the standards by customers due to their willingness to sacrifice long-time benefits to avoid current costs. Among other cultural factors affecting construction quality are the style of negotiating and bargaining common in eastern cultures, absence of heavy penalties for failing to meet standard of care, diminishing work ethics, and a tendency to use the workforce in tasks outside their area of expertise. A critical contribution of this research is the presentation of evidence showing the decreased level of attention to engineering ethics among the younger generations of engineers
  9. Keywords:
  10. Culture ; Quality ; Construction Quality ; Construction Industry Projects

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