This study investigates the causes of delay of building construction projects in Ghana to determine the most important according to the key project participants; clients, consultants, and contractors. Thirty-two possible causes of delay were identified from the literature and semi-structured interviews of 15 key players in the implementation process. These delay factors were further categorised into nine major groups. The list of delay causes was subjected to a questionnaire survey for the identification of the most important causes of delay. The field survey included 130 respondents made up of 39 contractors, 37 clients and 54 consultants. The relative importance of the individual causes and the groups were calculated and ranked by their relative importance index. The overall results of the study indicate that the respondents generally agree that financial group factors ranked highest among the major factors causing delay in construction projects in Ghana. The financial group factors were delay in honouring payment certificates, difficulty in accessing credit and fluctuation in prices. Materials group factors are second followed by scheduling and controlling factors.

Studies have indicated that mass housing projects (MHPs) possess unique multiple site management features (MCS) that significantly induce communication challenges among the project team in its delivery. However, the paucity in these studies is the failure to determine the extent and nature of the communication challenges and ineffectiveness that are inherent in the multiple site management features of MHPs. Through the use of structured questionnaire survey, this study used structural equation modelling to determine the nature and extent of the contribution of the MCS features of MHPs to communication performance among the MHP team. The results showed that the MCS features of MHPs significantly induce both information flow and information composition communication ineffectiveness. The results further revealed misunderstanding, inaccuracies, distorted communication and difficulty in communication dissemination as the dominant inherent MCS communication ineffectiveness among MHP teams. The findings provide empirical support for the general hypothesis that multiple site management features of MHPs significantly contribute to project team information flow and information-composition-related communication ineffectiveness among project teams. The understanding of the related communication challenges inherent from the MCS features of MHPs is thus very essential towards evolving and adapting effective communication planning, management strategies, concepts and approaches necessary to engender managerial and communication efficiencies in mass housing delivery.

Purpose Communication ineffectiveness inherent in the unique attributes of Mass Housing Project (MHP) features is well admitted in the body of literature. However, the understanding of the extent and nature of this influence of the unique features of MHPs requires an empirical insight. The aim of this paper is to identify the communication ineffectiveness induced by the unique features and delineate the implications of the findings for mass housing practitioners and stakeholders towards engendering effective communication performance. Design/methodology/approach Through a structured questionnaire survey, data were elicited from mass housing stakeholders and project team leaders. The data were subsequently analysed using structural equation modelling, and the communication effectiveness evaluation model was developed. Subsequently, the model was validated through a questionnaire survey on ten experienced mass housing practitioners, researchers and stakeholders. Findings The results revealed significant, moderate and weak effects of the unique features of MHP team communication performance. This suggests that the unique features of MHPs have varying degree of influence on the communication performance among project teams’ delivery. The findings provide practical, empirical insights and understanding into the inherent communication ineffectiveness on MHPs, and thus are very useful in communication management and planning in MHP’s delivery. Originality/value Against the backdrop of the need to gain an in-depth understanding of the inherent communication challenges towards improving communication performance in MHP delivery, the findings have rigorously revealed and provided clear insight into the nature of communication ineffectiveness inherent in the unique features of MHPs. The findings and insights provided by this study are thus useful for aligning communication management planning and strategies to the unique MHP environment to engender communication success. Practitioners can also use these findings towards the development of their communication behavioural skills and communication infrastructure for MHP delivery.

To cite this article: Titus Ebenezer Kwofie, Emmanuel Adinyira and Frank Fugar. (2016) Abstract: Studies exploring success on mass housing projects (MHPs) continue to cite communication ineffectiveness inherent from the unique attributes of mass housing as a major problem in the delivery. Unfortunately, these studies fail to establish the nature and extent to which the observed communication ineffectiveness is attributed to the unique characteristics displayed by MHPs. Here, this study aims at exploring the influence of the housing design unit contract packaging (HDP) features of MHPs on project team communication performance. By adopting a questionnaire survey and the use of structural equation model (SEM), the study used empirical data collected from project team leaders on mass housing project sites in Ghana to assess the communication ineffectiveness inherent in the HDP attributes. The evidence gathered from the empirical study indeed supports the hypothesis that the HDP features of MHPs significantly contribute to communication ineffectiveness related to information flow and information composition among the project team. These findings affirm the uniqueness of MHPs and suggest the need for project teams and stakeholders on mass housing to adopt communication methods, medium, strategies and management approaches that fit the mass housing project environment to engender managerial and communication efficiencies in mass housing delivery.