Project Team Diversity, Interpersonal Conflict, and Implementation of Building Construction Projects in Kajiado County, Kenya

Abstract

Economic growth coupled with urban population rise have necessitated the need for construction of buildings. The process of implementing construction project in the building sector is usually undertaken by individuals with diverse values, knowledge, and socialcategories. This study mainly looked at how diversities among members of a construction project influences the implementation process. This was studied by looking at how diversities among the workers involved in implementation of the project in terms of their knowledge differences, value differences, and differences in their social categories, influence the whole implementation process. It further looked at the influence of the three diversities combined on the implementation process of the construction projects via a moderation of interpersonal conflicts. Pragmatic paradigm and a descriptive research design were used in the study. 657 staff made up the population of target for the study, out of which 251 were sampled. Collection of data was by use of semi-structured questionnaires and conducting interviews. Data of quantitative nature was analysed for descriptive and inferential statistics, while that of qualitative nature was analysed thematically, then the results triangulated. The results from the quantitative data analysis were presented in tables as percentages, frequencies, means, and standard deviations. It was established that all the three diversities, that is, diversity in knowledge, social-categories, and values had positive changes of 10.4%, 5.8%, and 16.1% respectively on implementation process of building projects. When combined, the diversities accounted for 25.6% of the changes in the process of implementing construction projects of building nature. The moderation effect of interpersonal conflict was also found to be positive. The study recommends that while recruiting teams a mix of diverse attributes should be considered, since their differences complement each other. For further research, the study recommends that a longitudinal study be carried out to gain more insight the relationship between team diversity and implementation of building projects over a period