Adequacy of Regulatory Framework to Minimize Disputes in Construction Projects

The construction industry is a competitive, complicated environment where people with various skills, perspectives, and levels of knowledge. Conflicts are unavoidable in this complicated setting due to differences in perspectives among project participants. Conflicts quickly develop into disagreements if they are not handled properly. The end goals of every construction project are to reduce cost, improve quality, and complete the job on schedule. One of the biggest things that prevents the construction project from being successfully finished is disputes. Construction conflicts have become significantly more common and complex in recent years. Consequently, it's critical to understand what leads to disagreements. However, in the event of a dispute, Dispute Resolution Methods are implemented to resolve differences and prevent the breach of relationship and communication between the parties to achieve the construction project in the desired time, budget, and quality. The purpose of this study was to identify and evaluate the main factors that contribute to building disputes. Through a comprehensive literature review, 39 root causes of construction disputes were identified under seven categories namely client-related, contractor-related, design-related, contract-related, human behavior-related, project-related, and external factors. The responses gathered from construction industry specialists in Sri Lanka via a questionnaire survey were used to determine the significance of those indicated factors by converting them to the Relative Importance Index(RII). Results showed that the project-related category is the most significant category that causes disputes in construction projects. Additionally, correlation analysis shows that there is a strong relationship among the dispute-causing categories. Also, the respondents are familiar with “arbitration” as the dispute resolution method and they are satisfied with the “conditions of contract” as a Regulatory framework for dispute resolution. The findings support the notion that construction disputes are a source of concern for every project and that the best way to address this issue is to prevent and cautiously manage them to ensure the smooth operation of the construction process.