Causes behind Poor Written Communication Impact on Contractor’s Quantity Surveyor Practices in Post Contract Stage

Abstract

Effective communication among different stakeholders is a vigorous characteristic of successful construction industry practices. Written communication provides documentary evidence for strengthening key contractual relationships among such stakeholders. Compared to other forms of communication, written communication is a source of great comfort to Quantity Surveyor's royalty in the field of construction. Although many researchers discussed the causes behind poor communication in the construction industry, there is a substantial gap in analyzing the causes behind poorly written communication which impact post contract quantity surveying practices. Hence, this research primarily focuses on investigating the significant causes behind poorly written communication which influence contractor’s quantity surveyor practices in the postcontract stage. A detailed literature survey was conducted and identified 26 causes behind poor communication in the construction industry. Then, 3 preliminary interviews were conducted and customized the literature findings in line with the contractor’s quantity surveyor practices in the post-contract stage. Accordingly, 7 main contractor related causes, 5 sub-contractor related causes, 8 consultant related causes, 4 client related causes, and 4 communication tools related causes were formulated and tested with the use of a detailed questionnaire. Data collection was limited to a census of 60 quantity surveying professionals who were working on construction projects in the Colombo district belongs to ABC major constructing company. 57 of them were responded and the Relative Important Index (RII) method was utilized to analyze the data. The study revealed the communication tools related causes as the significant causes behind poor written communication in post-contract stage contractor’s qantity surveying practices.