Strategies for Managing Conflicts on Construction Sites in Abuja-Nigeria

Abstract

Construction industry universally demands the contributions of various individuals, with each person bringing forward its expertise required to successfully bring the project to completion. Although they have different interest but a common objective of project execution. However, when individuals of varying background come together, conflict is certainly not absent, as the members within the project have different interests, which would induced conflicts. The situation has adverse effects on the project delivery, especially when it is not well managed. Therefore, this paper aimed to assess the strategies for managing conflicts on active construction sites in Abuja through the self-administration of structured questionnaires. Findings revealed that inadequate communication among project teams with a mean score of 3.52 which could be deemed as high extent is among the causes of conflict on construction sites. In a related development, strategy such as jointly work with others to come up with consensual approach to with mean score of 4.34 is often used by the respondents in collaborating strategy. The paper concluded that the least favoured strategies adopted by the respondents were competing style as compared to collaborating style, compromising style, avoiding style and accommodating style. The paper recommended that a system should be implement to facilitate and to enhance a smooth transmittance of information from one individual to another within the project team like team meeting discussions, site review meetings, and project status reporting.