UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA SABAH

Research proposal

Title: Impact of Ineffective Communication in

Construction Projects leads to Complicated

Litigation and Arbitration.

Submitted By: Malik Fahad

Student ID: MK2211002A

Academic Supervisor: Ir.Ts Dr Habib Musa Bin Mohamad

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Table of Contents

1 Introduction: .................................................................................................... 3

2 Problem Statement ........................................................................................... 4

3 Literature review: ............................................................................................. 5

4 Research gap: .................................................................................................. 7

5 Aims and Objectives: ........................................................................................ 7

6 Significance of research: ................................................................................... 8

7 Research Question: ........................................................................................... 8

8 Conclusion: ...................................................................................................... 9

9 References: .................................................................................................... 10

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1 Introduction:

Construction plays key role in development of any country. Construction industry

has great potential to create new job opportunities and to boost the country’s economy.
It has great potential to use the skilled manpower and labor’s and get the project done
in specific time frame as per contract rules (Cooke, 2013). Construction industries also
help in growth of related fields that are associated with it (Ahmed and Abid, 2013).
Construction industry is purely a project-based industry (Bresnen et al., 2004). The
projects in construction could be large or small scale and can consist of public facilities
like hospitals, schools, universities and private projects like cement plants, feed mills,
sugar mills, commercial plazas etc. There are different participants involved in
construction projects however their degree of involvement varies (Chinyio and
Olomolayie, 2010). A project is temporary in nature (A Guide to Project Management
Body of Knowledge, 2013) and the relationship between participants is also temporary
and fragile (Rowlinson and McDermott, 1999).
Construction projects are becoming more complex with the passage of time. More
complex project requires more manpower. Construction teams involves individuals from
different backgrounds, culture, and ethnicity but for project completion, they have to
communicate and work with each other. The three major participants at any construction
project which are, Client (Owner), Contractor and the Consultant (Acharaya et al.,2006).
All team communicate and exchange information regarding the project, between each for
project successful completion on time (Cheung et al.,2013). The information could be
financial or technical (Wong and Lam, 2011). This research will look into finding ways to
cope up with modern problems of construction industry in Sabah Malaysia. For
development of any country good infrastructures are required. This industry has great
job creation potential and it work as economy booster in the country. When skilled
manpower is being utilized in this business to complete the project on provided time
frame as per contract it creates greater opportunities (Cooke, 2013). With the passage
of time and due to modernization in construction project, they are becoming more
complexed. Due to the complexed nature more people are required to handle the project

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to deliv er that on time. In construction project people are working from different cultures,
ethnicity and backgrounds and they required effective communication during the project
life cycle. Generally, at any construction project three major players are involved which
are Client who own the project, Contractor who is doing execution and consultant who is
looking after the project execution (Acharaya et al., 2006). Effective Communication
between all these parties is important for project success. As all these team exchange
information, that can be related to technical or financial aspect of project (Wong and
Lam, 2011). If information is not being circulated properly this can lead to project delay
or failure and legal issue. Construction project has several types of contracts between
stake holders such as investigation contract, design contract, construction contract (Yang,
2012). There are 3 main elements of any contract which are BOQ’s, Technical
specification and Drawings of project. All these are important as each of them has its own
requirement for both parties. Sometime due to miscommunication it leads to arbitrations.
This research report will investigate the causes and effects of those miscommunication
and the impact of that on project health and how they lead to legal issues.

2 Problem Statement

Due to the rapid growth in population and urbanization of world construction is

becoming necessity of mankind. Construction projects are becoming complex with the
passage of time because of involvement of more and more people and money with the
increase in scale of projects. The people make teams, and they work together for their
personal benefits and for accomplishments of project objectives (Gunduz et. al., 2015).

According to the law reviews, in Malaysia annually 700-800 cases related to

construction sector are being registered in court due numerous disputes among stake
holders (Tse Wen, 2022). In case of construction projects, conflicts also arise which may
cause projects to partial or complete failure and one of the reasons behind is
miscommunication (Khahro and Ali, 2014). Ineffective Communication in Construction
Management leads to complicated litigation and arbitration consequently, the main
objective of this research is to look in those issues and formulate a better policy. There
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is very limited work done on this topic in Malaysia and specially Sabah, therefore this
research project will investigate effects and causes of ineffective communication in
construction management leads to complicated litigation and arbitration in region of
Sabah, Malaysia.
The existing literature is not sufficient to check the modern communication gaps
and the conflict caused by them. This research will aim to find better and possible solution
for these issues we need right polices and action with the help of communication between
all teams involved in project.

3 Literature review:

This section will look into the previous research done on “Impact of Ineffective
Communication in Construction Projects leads to Complicated Litigation and Arbitration”.
With the passage of time and due to the use of modern technology in construction
industry project success is based on several factors. Those diverse factors will be
applicable on throughout the project and effecting the success but still frequency of
project success is uncertain (Joslin & Muller, 2016).
Transfer of information from one person to another is referred as communication.
Many researchers have put emphasis on the importance of effective communication for
the success of an organization and its projects (Katz and Kahn et. al., 2000). Since
projects are temporary in nature, therefore a sufficient time is required for the team
members to have good and effective communication (Munns, 1995).
According to Monteiro de Carvalho to Because of lack of attention and negligence
of project managers, the communication processes formulated by management fail badly.
That’s why we see many projects failing because of improper communication (Stoica and
Brouse, 2013). It is also evident that project suffers because of lack of focus by leading
team members (Dvir and Shenhar, 2011). A study by Ofori (2013) shows “effective
communication” as a critical success factor for the accomplishment of project goals. In
order to make a project team highly performance and goal oriented, there is a certain
need to develop some communication processes and procedures (Nguyen, 2013).

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 Communication ensures understanding among project team members which leads
to accomplishment of the objectives of project on time and in effective way by also
increases the project performance which ultimately leads to project success (Henderson,
Stackman & Lindekilde, 2016). Regular communication will enhance the exchange of
information across team members of the team by which more information can be utilized
by team members to increases team performance. Through communication and trust
among parties will increase the likelihood of success (Ragatz, Handfield, & Scannell,
1997). This study will contribute the impact of project communication on project success
by discussing their positive relationship that project success is depended on project
communication which reflects that increase in project communication will also increase
the chances for a project to be successful. On the basis of these points, we concluded
that project success is total based on great level of communication between teams
involved in the project.
Berenger et. al. (2016) introduced two different categories of Project, Formal and
Informal. Daily Meetings, Reports Generation, discussion and drawings issues are the part
of Formal Communication, whereas Project in which Project Participants Come to know
Each other and other personal matters are the part of informal Communication (Butt et.
al., 2016).
An Effective Communication is a critical Component in case of Project-based
industry. Thus, the faster way of Communication method will increase the Pace of Project.
According to Han and Yang (2014), Effective Communication is key factor in Project
Management Since most of Project rely totally upon the teamwork, Therefore A
construction company need to have good communication strategies for Team work to
become fruitful.
Miscommunication always arise in the Project thus it is required to deal with this
Miscommunication as early as possible how if it is not dealt in time, it would definitely
increase the cost of Project and would be the cause of other mismanagements (Hwang
et. al., 2014). However, to eradicate all kind of mismanagement there is always needed
to recognize, understand and fulfill the needs of individuals (Emmitt and Gorse, 2007).

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4 Research gap:

A purely project base company is the one which is ruining on the project profit
thru proper channel. Any type of construction project has several teams designated for
different roles as per their skills and experience level. Commination between these teams
has a key role in project successful completions (Wu et al.,2017). If due to lack of
communication or by any miscommunication that occur during the project can cause can
led to delay in completion of task and may result in project delay. Furthermore, in worse
cases it can cause project failure.
Thru all over the world, literature is available on project success, conflicts, and
communication but there is hardly any study that relates the afore mentioned variables
in the context of construction industry of Sabah, Malaysia. The norms, culture, diversity,
and operating procedures affect the governing rules and regulation of construction
industry of any country so there is a need to investigate empirically the relation among
project success, communication, and conflicts in context of construction industry of
Sabah, Malaysia.

5 Aims and Objectives:

The aim of this research project is to evaluate the causes and effects of Ineffective
communication in construction project and how it leads to complicated litigation and
arbitrations.
Followings are the objective of this research project.
 To study formal and informal communication in construction projects of
Sabah Malaysia.
 To investigate the causes and effects of ineffective communication in
project management.
 To illustrate the causes of delays in IPA checking and payment issue’s
which leads to EOT.
 To address the legal issues caused by the ineffective communication.

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  Study the impact of law dispute on project health and formulation of
better strategy for effective communication.

6 Significance of research:

The study will analyze the effect of formal, informal communication and
communication willingness on success of a construction project in Sabah, Malaysia. It will
also help to study the role and types of conflict (i.e. task, process and relationship) as
mediator on the relationship between communication (types) and project success.
Furthermore, It will contribute to the literature by studying relationship among
communication, conflict types and project success together and empirically by
formulating a policy to avoid conflicts by enhancing communication thereby leading to
successful completion of a construction project.

7 Research Question:

 Does formal and informal communication have any impact of construction

industry?
 How delay in IPA verification and payment issues can lead to arbitrations?
 What is the impact of contract discrimination on project life cycle?
 In what cases ineffective communication can lead to legal concern and
involvement of local authorities?
 What is the impact of communication on discriminations of contract?

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8 Conclusion:

All in all, this research will look into modern ways of communication on project
success and will look into the mediating role of conflict in any construction project. Main
aim of this research is to get better understanding and finding best possible solution
according to the project. This research project will investigate causes and effect of
ineffective communication in construction project and how numerous types of conflict
between involved parties can lead to complicated litigation and arbitrations. According to
research it has been found that annual 700-800 case related to construction projects are
being led to arbitration. Through study will be conducted each element that involve
communication how to minimize the impact of conflict.
Main goal of this study is to examine how lack of communication or bad
communication have in impact of construction project. To gather data for this study,
different sources will be used in region of Sabah, Malaysia. Data will be collected thru
surveys, desk studies, existing statistics reports, and court cases, from previous studies
and thru local authorities. Mostly, conflict that leads to legal issues only occur in big
project such as, G3 to G7 grade therefore only these grade categories will be considered.
What is the best way for clear and transparent communication, so there a policy can u
formulated to avoid such conflicts in future.

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9 References:

Acharya, N., Dai Lee, Y., & Man Im, H. (2006). Conflicting factors in construction projects:
Korean perspective. Engineering, Construction And Architectural
Management, 13(6), 543-566. doi: 10.1108/09699980610712364
Allen, T. J. (1999). Communication networks in r & d laboratories. R&D Man- agreement,
1(1), 14{21.
Butt, A., Naaranoja, M., & Savolainen, J. (2016). Project change stakeholder
communication. International Journal of Project Management, 34(8), 1579-1595.
Cooke-Davies, T. (2002). The “real” success factors on projects. International Journal Of
Project Management, 20(3), 185-190. doi: 10.1016/s0263-7863(01)00067-9
Gunduz, M., & Yahya, A. M. A. (2015). Analysis of project success factors in construction
industry. Technological and Economic Development of Economy, 24(1), 67-80.
Henderson, L. S., Stackman, R. W., & Lindekilde, R. (2016). The centrality
ofcommunication norm alignment, role clarity, and trust in global project teams.
International Journal of Project Management, 34(8), 1717-1730.
Khahro, S. H., & Ali, T. H. (2014, July). Causes Leading to Conflicts in Construction
Projects: A Viewpoint of Pakistani Construction Industry. Paper presented at
International Conference on challenges in IT, Engineering and Technology, Phuket,
Thailand. doi:10.15242/IIE.E0714040
Ofori, D. F. (2013). Project Management Practices and Critical Success Factors–A
Developing Country Perspective. International Journal of Business and Management,
8(21), 14–31.
Ragatz, G. L., Hand_eld, R. B., & Scannell, T. V. (1997). Success factors for integrating
suppliers into new product development. Journal of Product Innovation Management:
An International Publication of the Product Development & Management Association,
14(3), 190-202.
Tse Wen, J. (2022). The Construction Disputes Law Review - The Law Reviews. Retrieved
2 October 2022, from https://thelawreviews.co.uk/title/the-construction-disputes-
law-
review/malaysia#:~:text=The%20number%20of%20cases%20registered,compare
d%20to%20816%20for%202019
Wu, G., Zhao, X., & Zuo, J. (2017). Relationship between Project’s Added Value and the
Trust- Conflict Interaction among Project Teams. Journal of Management in
Engineering, 33(4).
Yang, Z. (2012). The Study on Law Disputes in Construction Project Contract
Relationship. Physics Procedia, 33, 1999-2004. doi: 10.1016/j.phpro.2012.05.314

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Zhang, Q., & Zhang, J. (2012). Conflict Types, Resolution and Relational Satisfaction: A
U.S.- China Investigation. Intercultural Communication Studies, 21(3), 41-52.

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