The Assessment of Prudence Practice of Built Environment Professionals in Construction Project Management

Abstract

Purpose – Construction industry is experiencing an increasing challenge in project performance due to many factors with owners expressing dissatisfaction with delivery of project objectives thus, a call to prudence practice as a new strategy to solving construction project challenges.

Design/methodology/approach – Twenty-seven (27) prudent practice criteria used to test the prudence of fiduciaries were adapted for the instrument used in a cross-cultural (occupational) research instrument adaptation to assess the prudence practice of construction project managers. A total 122 questionnaires were successfully retrieved using stratified random sampling in a quantitative research approach using descriptive statistics and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) for data analysis.

Findings–Project managers performed typically in eight of the prudence practice criteria including awareness of their duties and responsibilities. The Quantity Surveyors were ranked as project managers that displayed high prudence practice among other professionals

Research limitations– This study is limited due to its novelty and dearth of literature that specifically address the prudence of construction professionals engaged in project management and therefore, further research would be necessary.

Theoretical/Social/Practical implications – The construction project management practitioners need to fully exploit the potentials of prudence practice for education and training of future project managers. The new adapted instrument is useful for practical application in the assessment of prudence practice of project managers.

Originality/value – The outcome of this study provides basis for assessing the prudence of project managers and also gives information about the performance of prudence practice across built environment professionals. Thus, prudence of project managers becomes measurable rather than subjective.