Analyzing Risk Mitigation Challenges in Construction Projects

This research proposal identifies the challenges associated with risk mitigation tools and techniques in the construction industry, considering factors like organizational size and location. It uses a mixed-methods approach, combining secondary data for questionnaire development with primary qualitative data based on quantitative findings. The proposal outlines the study's rationale, significance, literature review, research questions, methodology, ethical considerations, and project management aspects, including a risk register and stakeholder analysis. It aims to provide insights for project managers and stakeholders, addressing a gap in existing literature regarding the challenges of implementing risk mitigation strategies in construction.

PPMP20015: Assignment 2 - Research Proposal
Unit Coordinator: Dr Samer Skaik
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

Research Project Topic
Understanding the challenges associated with risk mitigation in construction projects
Abstract
The aim of the paper is to identify the challenges that are associated with the risk mitigation
tools and techniques in the construction industry. Additionally, identification of the risk
factors and identification of differences between the identified challenges associated with risk
mitigation according to the size of the organisation and area of establishment. The research
objectives have been developed based upon the literature review and the gaps identified
within it. The proposed paper will take consideration of the mixed data collection
methodology to attain the objectives of the paper. The secondary data will be collected to
devise a platform for the research work and assist in development of the questionnaire. The
primary question set for the qualitative data will be devised based upon the findings from the
quantitative data. The research scope, limitation and time schedule has also been discussed in
the proposal to offer a better understanding of the subject and the process that will be adopted
to conclude the research work. It will also be ensured that the findings from the research
report will be reliable in nature and are free from any ethical challenges. Appropriate
referencing has been done to justify the claims that are made in the discussion as part of the
proposal.

Table of Contents
The rationale of the study...........................................................................................................4
Significance of the study............................................................................................................5
Preliminary literature review......................................................................................................6
Research question(s) and objectives........................................................................................10
Research Methodology.............................................................................................................10
Research Approach..............................................................................................................10
Data collection methods and analysis..................................................................................11
Ethics Statement...................................................................................................................13
Research project management..................................................................................................14
Project exclusions.................................................................................................................14
Project schedule:..................................................................................................................15
Risk register including analysis and response strategy........................................................17
Stakeholder analysis:............................................................................................................17
References List.........................................................................................................................19
Appendix..................................................................................................................................22

The rationale of the study
Construction industry is one of the industries that houses some of the resource
consuming projects (Kerzner and kerzner 2017). The resources here refer to the
organisational resources such as the financial resources, effort by the human resources, time,
inventory and other prominent resources of the organisation. Hence. It becomes of great
prominence that projects undertaken as the construction projects are successful because
failure will cause sustainable damage to the organisation (Han et al. 2016). The major causes
that are associated with the failure of the project can differ according to situation. The failure
causes may have its association with the change in the organisation, conflicts, natural or
manmade damage or any other prominent cause. All of the discussed threats can be mitigated
by adopting a risk mitigation strategy (Oliveira and Handfield 2017).
Risk mitigation strategies are those strategies that take account of the threats that a
project may face and their potential solutions (Bommer, Crowley and Pinho 2015). The
discussed strategy has proven to be a viable tool for ensuring the success of the project. In the
discussed strategy a strategy is developed by taking account of the different risks that may be
associated with a project. The risks may be internal risks, external damage risk, legal risk,
stakeholder associated risk, uncertainty risk and multiple other risk (Kerzner and Kerzner
2017). The strategy considers all the possible situation and develops a suitable strategy that
include tools & techniques which can be adopted to mitigate the threats associated with
successful completion of the project.
Different scholars and researchers have attempted to discuss the potential solution for
the risks associated in a project individually or as a whole (Oliveira and Handfield 2017). The
discussion has also been laid upon the risk and their mitigating strategy in the construction
industry. However, one of the prominent gap that has been identified in the literary work of

past and present that discusses the risk & risk mitigation strategies is that of the challenges
that are associated with the risk mitigation strategy. Very little or no journals or articles has
discussed challenges that may be associated with the risk mitigation strategies, tools &
techniques.
The understanding of the challenges that may be associated with the risk mitigation
strategy would enable the project owner and managers to adopt the risk mitigation plan with
adequate approach and in the process leverage the adoption (Pap and Homolya 2017). The
reason for the above stated statement lays base on the fact that the understanding the
challenges will enable the understanding of the approach that needs to be taken to mitigate
the challenges that may have association with the risk mitigation strategies (Frascadore et al.
2015). It will also assist in leveraging the return from the resources consumed in devising and
implementing the risk mitigation plan. Additionally, taking consideration of the construction
industry and the major impact that the failure of the project or even a part of project will cite
on the project owners and stakeholders is a discussion that demands attention and the
proposed paper will attempt to cite that light.
Significance of the study
This finding of this research shall assist in providing the knowledge of risk
management in construction projects especially to the novice project managers, stakeholders
and the students of project management (Padgett 2016). As we know that sometimes the
occurrence of risk becomes inevitable (Qazi et al. 2016). And, once such risks are identified,
it is difficult to completely suppress it. The risk mitigation processes have been offered by
different articles, journals and others to mitigate the risk however, are those mitigation
strategies full proof. Or are there any challenges associated with the implementation of the
mitigation strategy in the construction industry. Therefore, this research aims to provide the
challenges that may be encountered during risk mitigation. With these challenges now

identified, it would not just help in identifying an appropriate risk mitigation procedure but
could also ease the application of entire risk mitigation process. In this research, a brief study
of various risk management methods is carried out with a purpose of identifying the problems
that are likely to arise. It will prove to be crucial for the project managers, project owners and
the individuals that are willing to educate themselves in the project management and the
factors with it. Hence, it will be justified to state that the significance of the research work
will be very impactful for the projects.
Preliminary literature review
The following sub-sections have offered an insight into the some of the academic and
scholarly work that had been assessed in the past over the factors and subjects that are
relevant to the proposed discussion and its objective.
Factors Affecting the risk attitude of contractors’ in construction:
Wang and Yang (2011), in the review article has attempted at discussing the factors
that are responsible for formulating the risk attitude of the contractor in the construction
projects. The selection of the discussed article as part of the review can be justified by the
fact that unlike other journals that focuses on the risk management success, the deemed
article has focused on the attitude that defines the risk attitude of the decision makers. It was
one of the crucial discussion that needs some light and the article has provided the readers the
desirable facts and figures.
The reviewed article adopted the mixed data collection method to collect the data.
Literature review was done to collect the secondary data while primary qualitative data was
collected through interviews and the primary quantitative data was collected through
questionnaire. The approach adopted by the paper was deductive and mixed sampling method

was adopted for sampling of the collected data. Statistical analysis and factor analysis were
adopted for enhanced analysis and verification of the findings.
The findings from the paper reveals that three crucial factors are associated with the
objectives of the reviewed paper. The factors in discussion are “consequences of decision
making”, “engineering experience”, and “completeness of project information”. Further using
factor analysis, the findings were categories as “knowledge & experience, contractor’s
character, personal perception and the economic environment”. The review of the article will
assist the author of the proposed paper to understand the risk perception of the decision
makers. How it will affect the mitigation strategy and will their negative perception act as a
challenge for risk mitigation strategy. The paper is concise but very well-focused on its
objective. Hence can be considered as a well-documented and useful article.
Risk management in small construction projects:
Hwang, Zhao and Toh (2014), in the reviewed paper has focused on the risk
management in small construction projects. The discussion has focused on the status, impact
and the barriers that are associated with the risk management in the construction projects. It
has been done to understand the perception of the SME’s (small and medium enterprises) in
the adoption and other crucial factor od risk management. It was one of the direly needed
research because it is known that the SMEs’ are not capable of investing its resources in
management processes in comparison to the construction giants. Hence, the challenges
associated with the SMEs will be different than that of the construction giants.
The reviewed article adopted the primary quantitative data collection method to attain
its objectives. The collection of data was done through distribution of a questionnaire survey
among different risk management professionals and out of them 668 project associates
responded from 34 organisations. The data then collected were analysed to determine the

findings. The approach of the reviewed paper was deductive and the sampling was done with
assistance of the statistical tools using the likelihood sampling method.
The findings from the paper reveal that the status of the risk management
implementation is very low in the SMEs and the barriers that are responsible for the same are
the time restriction, low budget, low margin of profit and the “not economical”. “Not
economical” out of all the factors was the most dominant because the project owners believed
that there was no need for risk management and hence it would be waste of organisation’s
financial assets.
The review of the paper enabled the author of the propose paper to understand that the
challenges that are associated with the risk mitigation strategies may differ according to the
size of the industry. Finally, the reviewed paper is well-documented relevant and is a good
reading journal for the readers.
Managing of risk in construction:
Iqbal et al. (2015), in the reviewed paper has focused on the evaluating the risk
management in the construction industry. The authors have even focused on the prominence
of the factors such as the cost, quality and time to claim them as the most dominant factor for
the risk. Additionally, the paper has its base laid upon a third world country Pakistan. The
selection of journal on a third world country will enable the author to understand the factors
that are the driving force for the challenges in risk mitigation.
The paper adopted primary quantitative method for the collection of the data for the
research paper. The data was collected from the construction work of Pakistan. The paper has
followed inductive approach to identify the risk management status in the construction
projects of Pakistan.

The findings from the paper reveal that the country generally pursue two type of risk
management approach one is the preventive technique which aims at preventing the risk from
arousal and the other is the remedial approach which is adopted post the risk has been
identified. Though, it was also evident that the construction projects of the country did not
believe in the adoption of risk management programs.
Finally, it can be stated that the review of the paper has assisted in identifying a gap in
literature that is “Perception of risk mitigation strategy in developed, developing and
underdeveloped countries”. The paper is well-structured and documented though some
grammatical errors were identified which can be considered as the only disadvantage of the
paper.
Benefits & Barriers to Risk analysis:
The topic of discussion in the reviewed paper by Senesi, Javemick-Will and Molenaar
(2013) is the benefits and barriers that are associated with the risk analysis of the construction
and engineering project. The probabilistic risk analysis has been taken in consideration to
discuss the objective of the paper. Pursuing the objective of the research paper the authors
have cited some potential measures that are capable of mitigating the challenges that are
associated with the probabilistic risk analysis.
The paper pursued a mixed primary data collection method were both the primary
qualitative and primary quantitative data were collected to attain the research objective. The
phased approach was selected as the approach to sample the collected data and reach on a
conclusion.
The findings from the discussed paper reveal that the benefits are mostly associated
with mitigation of the risk while the prominent constraints are the tools required for the
probabilistic analysis along with the cost, effort and time consumed. The benefits can be

leveraged by training the employees, procedures for risk management and adopting process
along with a regular communication with the project stakeholders.
The review of the paper reveals that there are some constraints that block path for the
risk analysis and in the process risk mitigation and hence can prove to be crucial for the
proposed research paper. Finally, the research paper is well structured and documented
however, the findings of the paper are based on responses from only 127 respondents and that
too who are associated with a single institution which raises question over the reliability of
data and its application in a global context.
Research question(s) and objectives
The research questions that the paper will pursue are listed as follows:
 RQ 1. What are the challenges associated with the risk mitigation in the construction
industry?
 RQ 2: which specific risk mitigation method would be appropriate for a given
project?
The research objectives that the paper will pursue has been listed as follows:
 RO 1: Identification of challenges associated with the risk mitigation.
 RO 2: Does the identified challenges differ according to the size and area off
establishment of the organisation
 RO 3: Identification of potential remedial measures.
 RO 4: Impact of risk factors on the risk mitigation approach.

Research Methodology
Research Approach
The approach for the discussed be based on the mixed methodology that will take
account of secondary data collect ion and primary data collection. As part of the primary data
collection both qualitative and quantitative data will be collected. The reason for the selection
of the secondary data collection lays base on the fact that secondary literature that has
association with the subject can enable the author to develop a platform for the research work
(Johnston 2017). Additionally, the secondary data will offer a huge set of static data and that
too at a global scale which can cite some distinctive facts and figures that will assist in
development of a reliable paper (Stage and Manning 2015). While the primary quantitative
data will be collected to get response from the professional that holds adequate and real-life
knowledge about the risk management and mitigation. The reason for selection of the primary
quantitative data is based on the fact that project and risk management are witnessing changes
distinctively and the secondary data cannot be relied upon for kinetic data (Palinkas et al.
2015). Finally, the primary qualitative data will be collected and the justification for the
collection is based upon the fact that risk mitigation involves assessment of the organisational
stakeholder and their role in the process of mitigation. Additionally, human factors are
capable of citing abstract data along with the scientific data and hence their perception cannot
be limited to a specific set of answers, they deem freedom to express themselves which can
be offered by the primary qualitative data and hence the selection (Palinkas et al. 2015).
Data collection methods and analysis
It has been discussed in the section above that mixed data collection process will be
adopted to collect the data. The first step would be to collect the secondary data, it will be
collected through the online sources and the most prominent source will be the google
scholar. The resources for the secondary data will be selected based upon their relevancy with

the subject. The keywords such as “risk mitigation in construction industry, stakeholders
associated challenge in risk management, risk factors in construction industry” and similar
other keywords will be used. Post collection of the data, it will be analysed using thematic
analysis which will assist in structuring the findings (Johnston 2017). Though there will be
some limitations to the discussed data collection and that will be economic based. Most of the
online journals and articles are paid version and they need to be bought before accessing
them and hence will be a constraining factor. Hence, the journals that are free, relevant to the
subject and accessible for reading will be used. Another prominent use of the secondary data
in the proposed research work will be develop the questionnaire (Johnston 2017).
The data collected from the secondary means will be evaluated and using thematic
analysis will be structured to determine the most prominent results. Based upon those
findings and their relevancy to the research objectives, the questions for the primary
quantitative data will be developed (Cope 2014). The reason for taking such measure is based
upon the fact that secondary literature has assessed similar topics and it will be of great
assistance for the author to develop a questionnaire based upon it. The developed
questionnaire will be reliable and will consist most of the questions that needs to be
addressed (Stage and Manning 2015). Post the development of the questionnaire it will be
distributed among different project management professionals through electronic means. The
professionals taken in context will be the professionals who are working in real life scenario
and the professionals who are taking academic classes to develop knowledge about the
subject. The discussed measure will be less effort consuming and will also offer reliability.
The reliability will be based upon the fact that the real-life knowledge and academic
knowledge may differ from each other. Hence, the data from the working professionals and
the academic professionals may differ. However, on analysis a generalised finding can be
determined and that finding will be considered for future assessments. The analysis of the