An Investigation into the Factors Influencing the Performance of Contractors in Kenya
Monicah Wairimu Chonge1, Titus Kivaa2, Abednego Gwaya3

1Monicah Wairimu Chonge Student: M.Sc. Construction Project Management, Jomo Kenyatta, University of Agriculture & Technology (JKUAT). (Juja) Kenya.
2Dr. Titus Kivaa Mbiti. PhD (RMIT, Australia), Construction Management, Project Management & Construction Research, (Juja) Kenya.
3Dr. Abednego Gwaya. Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Civil Engineering Construction, Contract Documentation, (Juja) Kenya.

Manuscript received on March 12, 2016. | Revised Manuscript received on March 22, 2016. | Manuscript published on May 05, 2016. | PP: 1-8 | Volume-6 Issue-2, May 2016. | Retrieval Number: B2822056216
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© The Authors. Published By: Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Abstract: The performance of contractors in the construction industry is very crucial. This is because contractors are the ones responsible in actualizing the dream of the clients. However, the problem of poor performance by contractors has been a challenge in the construction industries of the world. Measured by the various performance indicators of time, cost, quality, client satisfaction, productivity, community satisfaction, profitability, project participants’ satisfaction, sustainability of the development, health and safety, communication, environmental protection and functionality of the development, contractors have been found to underperform on most of the aspects. The situation is not different in the construction industry in Kenya. Here, most projects fail to meet the time, cost, quality and the other performance measures. This study thereby sought to find out the degree of influence of the factors that influence the performance of contractors in the construction industry in Kenya. The study employed the mixed method strategy as well as the cross-sectional research design. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected through the use of structured questionnaires which were administered to the local contractors of NCA 1, NCA 2 and NCA 3. These contractors were sampled using the stratified random sampling and systematic random sampling techniques. The data gathered was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS for windows, version 20). The methods used for data analysis were; descriptive statistics and the ranking of the factors using the relative importance index (RII). The analysis of the study revealed that, the factors influencing on the performance of contractors can be clustered in to eight sub factors; financial, labour, construction management, material, design, project management, construction technology and external factors. Financial factors were found to have the greatest degree of negative influence on the performance of contractors with an RII=0.778,followed by; construction management factors (RII=0.622), labour related factors (RII=0.613) and design related factors (RII=0.612). Construction technology factors were found to have less negative influence on the performance of contractors in Kenya with RII=0.533. This was followed by external factors (RII=0.557), materials factors (RII=0.584) and project management factor (RII=0.589). In conclusion, the study recommends that the Kenyan construction industry stakeholders should look into seriously on the four factors that negatively influence on the performance of the contractors if their performance is to improve.
Keywords: Contactors performance, Construction industry, Performance determinants