The acceptance of quality assessment system in construction (qlassic) by Malaysian contractors and its relationship with building residents’ satisfaction

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Date
2014
Authors
Kenn Jhun, Kam
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This thesis studies the adoption of the Quality Assessment System in Construction (QLASSIC) by Malaysian contractors and its relations to the satisfaction of building residents. The lack of QLASSIC adoption has led to the interest in identifying the factors that influence the adoption and non-adoption of this system. The knowledge gap that concerns building elements affecting the satisfaction of residents must be addressed. Thus, the objective of this research is to understand the adoption of QLASSIC by looking into (i) the quality perception, awareness level, and QLASSIC adoption among contractors, (ii) the variables that influence adoption, (iii) the policies that would most effectively influence QLASSIC adoption and the preferred policies of contractors, (iv) the relationship between workmanship quality with project cost, and (v) the effect of workmanship performance of contractors on the satisfaction of end users, regardless of defects in the building elements. Quantitative research method was used in this study. The study population comprised of 5,786 contractors and 1,656 residents, among which 364 contractors and 400 residents became the survey respondents. The objectives of this research were achieved by the conduct of a series of tests using the SPSS software. The objectives were cross-referenced with each other to obtain the following accurate and valid conclusions. First, this study has found that the contractors were well aware of the importance of building quality, satisfaction of residents, and the introduction of QLASSIC in the construction industry. However, the ability and benefits of adopting QLASSIC remained doubtful. Second, the significant factors that contributed to the adoption of QLASSIC were ‘external motivation’, followed by ‘barrier’ and ‘internal motivation’. The perceived variables of the contractors were also revealed from this finding. Third, the contractors indicated that punishment approaches can influence the adoption of QLASSIC more effectively than reward approaches. However, preference was shown for the latter. Fourth, a significant relationship was not observed between the workmanship quality of contractors and project cost. Fifth, the satisfaction level of residents decreased as the occurrence of defects increased as a result of the poor workmanship of contractors. Furthermore, the satisfaction level of the residents increased as the QLASSIC score of a building also increased. The building elements that highly contributed to the level of defect occurrences were the floor, followed by the internal wall, door, and window. Meanwhile, a modelling software was developed in this study to determine the satisfaction index of residents. A benchmark was identified and the satisfaction of the residents toward on the workmanship of the contractors, regardless of the defect occurrences, would be predicted based on the Resident Satisfaction Index (RSI). In sum, this study clarified on the variables that affect QLASSIC adoption in the Malaysian construction industry and on the relationship between the building defect and satisfaction of residents using the satisfaction index modelling software. The result has addressed gaps in understanding the variables.
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