174839-Article Text-447457-1-10-20180719
174839-Article Text-447457-1-10-20180719
174839-Article Text-447457-1-10-20180719
Alemu_Asnakew
Disclaimer:
Alemu_Asnakew1
Abstract
In this days project management knowledge and practices becomes very
essential due to the fact that managing projects have been emerged complex
and challenging from time to time. However, in Ethiopia, very little is studied
about critical project success factors, measuring criteria, project management
knowledge areas, tools and techniques. The aim of this study is to assess the
critical success factors and challenges of the overall railway construction
project success in Ethiopia. The study design was explanatory. Mixed
approach was used and both primary and secondary data were collected
using questionnaires. A sample of 79 respondents was selected from a
population of 264. The study findings show that project success factors such
as: leadership effectiveness, project team, Contractors. Competency, cost
Management, communication management, time management, quality
management, risk management, and stakeholder participation respectively are
found to be critical factors to the project success. The study also concluded
that the major challenging failure factors were: investment cost, skilled
manpower in the sector, project integration and stakeholder management,
contract administration, and land topography. Thus, it is recommended that
participation of relevant stakeholders such as: a farmer on the road sides,
people to be displaced and others that may be affected by the project is very
essential for successful completion of projects. The Ethiopian Railway
Corporation should give emphasis on improving contract administration
practices, integration project activities, and improving the project quality
management activities. In addition to this, Success factors that have
significant effect on the overall success of the railway project should be
managed selectively according to their effects.
1
Corresponding author's address: ethioalex68@gmail.com & Tel. (+251)911355712
Alemu Asnake 2
However, literature shows that 65% of megaprojects end up fail, either over
budgeted and/or behind schedule to be completed (Taylor, 2015). Other
Studies show us, more than 50% of time wasted during construction is
attributable to poor management practices (Koskela, 2000). This concludes,
delivery of megaprojects is an expensive, highly complex task that entails the
combination of leading-edge technology and multiparty governance that
demands high stakeholder commitment and multi- directional project
JBAS Vol. 8 No. 1 January 2016
leadership skills (Naomi and Giorgio, 2015). In Ethiopian case, some known
projects have been either delayed, have had cost overruns, poor in quality,
poor user satisfaction or did not meet the initial objectives (Fetene, 2008;
Tekalign, 2014).
Study hypotheses
Hypothesis 1: Project manager's leadership/Administrators effectiveness has
significant positive effect on construction projects success.
Hypothesis 2: Contractor’s competency has significant positive effect on
construction projects success.
Hypothesis 3: Project team effectiveness has significant positive effect on
construction projects success.
Hypothesis 4: Stakeholders Participation has significant positive effect on
construction projects success.
Hypothesis 5: Risk management has significant positive effect on construction
projects success.
Hypothesis 6: Communication management has significant positive effect on
construction projects success.
Previous research conducted in South Africa found that success for a public
construction project can be measured across six dimensions for infrastructure
project success which include: economy, environment, society, resource. In
Malaysia, public construction project success metrics include four
perspectives, which are a financial perspective, a customer perspective, an
internal perspective, and a learning and growth perspective. In Great Britain,
successful road infrastructure projects must be achieved according to
reliability, delivery on time, budget, safety, maintenance, environment,
customer satisfaction and value added to national development. Furthermore,
in Hong Kong, USA, Canada, Australia, Germany, and Korea, three
dimensions of success measurement such as: predictability, process, and
outcomes are identified in order to determine to what extent projects are
delivered successfully (Toor and Ogunlana, 2009; Lin et al., 2011; Cha and
Kim, 2011; Kaare and Koppel, 2012; and Ugwu and Haupt, 2007 cited by
Abednego, 2015).
Contractors Competency
Construction projects and their success are highly dependent on contractors
(PMI, 2004). Appointment of the right contractor will not only ensure the
overall quality of the project but also offer the opportunity of saving on costs.
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Wong (2003) showed that contractors with adequate plant resources are an
important and statistically significant factor affecting project success. The
scheduling model reveals that the adequacy of plant resources factor is a
statistically significant predictor of project success.
Stakeholder’s Participation
Stakeholders are those with a particularly significant interest in the project’s
outcome, including those providing funding or right of way for the project and
property owners who are affected by the project. Or it is an individual, group,
or organization who may affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be
affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project which have significant
influence on project success (PMI, 2013). Stakeholders should not be
considered simply as recipients of monitoring and evaluation reports. Rather,
they have the right and responsibilities to know what is happening in the
project, which aspect needs corrective action, what the results are, and which
lessons can be learned and shared with one another (MoFED, 2008).
response strategy, performing risk monitoring and control, and others are
very critical of the project success or failures (PMI, 2004; Kernzer, 2013).
According to Jha & Iyer (2006), the critical success factors obtained was:
project manager’s competence; top management’s support; monitoring and
JBAS Vol. 8 No. 1 January 2016
2
Full information can be accessed from www.railwaystrategies.co.uk
Alemu Asnake 14
Research Methods
For this study, survey method has been chosen as the appropriate method to
collect data in concerning project success factors concentrated on the
scheduling, monitoring and controlling process of the railway megaproject.
Furthermore, the survey method can cover interview, questionnaire method
and document review of the railway project management process. Survey
method provides with standardized answers allow easy comparison and
generalization; and also researcher’s control of the process and gives
opportunity to increase the speed of data collection (Creswell, 2013).
activities to fill it independently and returned for analysis. For the interview
purpose a group was organized holding key persons who have been working
in all project life cycles of the railway construction projects.
RESULTSAND DISCUSSION
To collect important information, 79_questionnaires were distributed for
selected respondents from this 76 were returned and analysed_with a response
rate of 96%. As indicated in table 1 below, the mean value of Project team
effectiveness, Project manager's leadership effectiveness, Contractors
competency and Project cost management were 4.04, 3.97, 3.96 and 3.91
prespectively having rated better followed by project time management, and
Communication management which have a mean value of 3.78, and 3.72
respectively. While project quality management, project risk management and
stakeholders participation have the smallest mean of 3.54, 3.5, and 3.46
respectively.
Table 1. Descriptive Statistics of Variables (n=76)
Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Mean
Variables N (%) N (%) N (%) Agree
N (%)
Project manager's Leadership/ 2(3) 9(12) 54(71) 11(15)
3.9737
Administrative Effectiveness
Project Contractors - 13(17) 51(67) 12(16)
3.9605
Competency
Project Team Effectiveness 2(3) 7(9) 53(70) 14(18) 4.0395
Stakeholder Participation 4(5) 21(27) 47(62) 4(5) 3.4605
Project Risk Management 4(5) 17(22) 49(65) 6(8) 3.5000
Communication Management - 13(17) 52(68) 11(15) 3.7237
Project Cost Management - 13(17) 52(68) 11(15) 3.9079
Project Time Management - 15(20) 48(63) 10(13) 3.7763
Project Quality Management 2(3) 19(25) 44(58) 11(15) 3.5395
Source: Own Survey
Alemu Asnake 16
This result shows, most of the factors have mean value of greater than 3.5
which is nearly 4. It is evident that, respondents have agreed most of the
project success factors were well practiced in the project management process.
As item no.1 table 1above showed, when agree and strongly agree are
summed up, 86 % (66) of them have agreed that project
managers/administrators have effective leadership ability and for project
contractor’s competency, 83% (63) of respondents have agreed there was
relatively effective contractor for the success of the project. This study also
shows 88% (67) of them have decided the railway construction project teams
were effective to complete the project successfully where only 3% (2) of them
were disagreed and 9% (7) of respondents have not decided (neutral). This
result has demonstrated that the project team was the most important success
factor of the project completion within time, budget and specification.
The result from table 1 item no. 4 has also revealed that the participation of
stakeholders was agreed by 67% (51) of the total respondents. However, in
this success factor 27% (21) were neutral and 5% (4) were disagreed. We can
conclude that stakeholder participation was the least contributing factor which
was not clearly decided by the mentioned respondents. The frequency
distribution from table 1 demonstrated that non- human success factors such
as: risk management 73% (55), communication management 83% (63) cost
management 83% (63), time management 79% (58) and quality management
73% (55) of the respondents respectively have agreed that these success
factors were also important in the project management process.
Based on the result of statistical tests, in table 2 above, the result of the test
showed that, collected data were consistent, reliable and the regression model
used was validated, and fit to this study.
The result of the test presented in Table 5 below at model 2, suggested that,
except Stakeholders participation, each of other factors has significant
relationship with Cost Performance of the railway project. The result of the
multiple linear regression coefficient of t-tests presented in Table 5 at model 3
below, demonstrated, except contractor’s competency and communication
management factors each of other success factors has significant positive
effect on quality Performance (project success criteria) of the railway project.
Hypothesis Testing
The Effect of success factors on time performance
The result of the multiple regression test presented in Table 4 above, model 1
suggested that, there was a significant relationship (F=17.87, p<0.05)
JBAS Vol. 8 No. 1 January 2016
between the railway project success criteria such as completing the project
within time and the six success factors in combined. In addition to this, the
combined association was relatively strong (R2=0.61), which means that 60.8
% of the total variation in time performance was affected by the six success
factors.
From the regression result in the table 5 below, it can be concluded that
project managers leadership/administrative effectiveness (β=0.28, t=4.43,
p<0.05), stakeholders participation (β=0.12, t=2.11, p<0.05), project risk
management (β=0.13, t=2.26, p<0.05) and communication management
(β=0.20, t=3.67, p<0.05) each have significant positive effect on project time
performance. However, contractors competency (β=0.07, t=1.18, p<0.05), and
project team effectiveness (β=0.07, t=1.18, p<0.05) has not significant
positive effect.
which means that 58.2% of the total variation in project quality performance
was positively affected by the six success factors.
From the βeta coefficients generated from regression of quality performance
in table 5 below, it can be concluded that project managers leadership
effectiveness (β=0.15, t=2.18, p<0.05) project team effectiveness (β=0.32,
t=4.90, p<0.05), stakeholders participation (β=0.13, t=2.07, p<0.05) and
project risk management (β=0.24, t=3.82, p<0.05) each has significant
positive effect on quality performance. But contractors competency (β=0.11,
t=1.6, p<0.05) and communication management (β=0.02, t=0.3, p<0.05) each
has not significant positive effect.
Note: (1) Dependent variable for model 1: Completing the project within time; dependent
Variable for model 2: Completing the project within budget; and dependent variable
for model 3: Completing the project with specification
(2) The variables denoted as PLE = Project manager's leadership / Administrators
effectiveness, CC= Contractors competency, PTE= Project team effectiveness, SM=
Stakeholders participation, PRM= Project Risk management and PCM=
Communication management
Regarding the above findings, the six success factors each has significant
positive effect on construction project success. Therefore, all the hypotheses
are accepted and the null hypothesis is rejected.
JBAS Vol. 8 No. 1 January 2016
controlling the work/process as per the plan to be with best quality. Some
Respondents wrote on the questionnaire “Due to Conflict of interests,
there were multiple interests of the stakeholders for example to gain
unnecessary economic advantage at the expense of the corporation costs”.
There were also Constraints of technology transfer. “There was
contractor’s unwillingness to transfer knowledge to Ethiopian engineering
professionals”.
7. Geological and weather challenges: difficulty of earth work particularly
at Beseka Lake, unexpected flood and destruction of culverts, etc. in the
down steams of the roots were Geological challenges of the railway
construction.
Summary of Findings
According to Saifur et al. (2014), leadership competency has positive impact
on the project success. The finding of this study revealed, that
leadership/administrative effectiveness has significant positive effect on
railway project success. This result is in line with the literature discussed
above. Regarding the project leadership practices, the interview participants
said “in this railway project, we have seen Strong political will and
commitment from the government”. There was a project steering committee
that was headed by core higher officials and members of it were ministers,
and more concerned sector authorities. In addition to this, the ERC board was
a responsible body to administer the overall project leadership to move
towards success”.“Both the steering committee and the board were
evaluating the performance of the project activities every fifteen days and
gave strong directions to the project leadership and also to the core
stakeholders (like ERC, Ethiotelecom, EEU, transport minister, regional
governments, Ethiopian revenue authority, and others)”.
These shows, there were strong project administrative activities which made
the project to be successful. We can say, the project managers had strong top
management support. The top management of the corporation was cascading
their vision and mission both physically and spiritually many more times to
their subordinates.
Both the quantitative and qualitative analysis revealed that project leadership
played significant role on the overall project success. In the descriptive
JBAS Vol. 8 No. 1 January 2016
frequency and mean distribution leadership and team effectiveness were the
most important success factor for project success. In addition to this, the
regression analysis demonstrated that the success factors tested has positive
significant effect on the railway project success. Furthermore, these results
have agreed with other researchers ((PMI, 2004; Kernzer, 2013; Belout and
Gauvreau, 2004; Wong et al., 2003).
The study findings has also concluded that Major challenges of the railway
construction in Ethiopia are: investment costs, skilled manpower, project
integration management, stakeholder management, scope management, contract
administration, and land topography which have been influencing negatively.
Based on the above finding and conclusion the researcher forwarded the
following recommendations.
The Ethiopian railway corporation (ERC) has to participate relevant
stakeholders such as: farmers on the road sides, people to be displaced and
others that may be affected by the project. ERC should give emphasis on
improving contract administration by developing skilled manpower and
project lesson development activities. Success factors that have significant
effect on the overall success of the project should be managed selectively
according to their effects.
Contract administration constraints such as implementing strong monitoring
and control practices, technology transfer and keeping quality according to
Alemu Asnake 24
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