Labour Productivity and Performance of Building Projects in Nairobi County, Kenya
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Date
2017-05
Authors
Ndegwa, Kuruga Francis
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
Labour productivity is a key measure of efficiency in production process especially those that
are labour-intensive. An improvement in labour productivity is believed to lead to efficiency
thus improving on the overall building performances. The general objective of this Study was
to determine the influence of labour productivity underlying factors on the performance of
building projects in Nairobi County. The specific objectives were to find out the influence of
cost of labour, impact of the sources of building material, method of hiring labour and
influence of training construction officers on the performance on building projects in Nairobi
County, Kenya. Past relevant studies and theories on labour productivity and performance of
building projects were reviewed with clear research gaps identified and which formed the
basis for this research study. Descriptive survey research design was adopted. The target
population was 594 comprising private developers registered with Kenya Private Developers
Association (KPDA), Independent developers, Building contractors in class NCA 4 and
above and Projects Managers registered with the Kenya Association of Project Managers
(KAPM). Using Yamane (1967) formula, a sample size of 239 was arrived at and the
researcher personally administered questionnaires with 169 successful returns or 71% of the
respondent. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data.
Demographically, the research revealed that female participation in building projects is lower
than that of males, interest on labour productivity and performance issues increased with the
age of the participants and majority of the projects are supervised by persons who had
attained a diploma level of education. The study revealed that both mechanical and manual
labour have a major influence on building projects and that mechanized labour is cheaper
than manual labour. The performance in building projects in Nairobi County is also largely
influenced by the source of building materials, the method of hiring labour for building and
the level of training of construction workers. Overall the research revealed that building
projects that had been undertaken for the last five years in Nairobi County had been within
the projected budget on account of good labour productivity. The positive association
between labour productivity variables and performance of building project measures implies
that performance is largely dependent on labour productivity and findings suggests that
stakeholders in building projects should prior to commencement of any project interrogate
the labour productivity processes. The study concluded that the enhancements of; type of
labour, the source of building materials, the methods of hiring labour and the improvement in
the level of training of construction workers leads to positive performance of building
projects in Nairobi County. This study recommends enhanced use of mechanized labour as
opposed to manual labour. The developers interested in enhancing performance in building
projects should use a mix of both local and imported materials in their projects, consider
more the use of permanent labour as opposed to casuals and all participants in the projects
should enhance their level of training. However further studies should be carried out to
establish the influence of technology adoption in labour productivity and its influence on the
performance of building projects in Nairobi County.
Description
To the School of Business in Partial Fulfillment for the Award of the Degree of Master of Business Administration (Project Management option) of Kenyatta University.