Construction professionals perception of risk assesssment and management practices: Does length of service in construction industry matter

This study seeks to investigate the impact of the length of service in the Construction Industry (LSCI) on whether it influences the Construction Professionals perception of the likelihood of occurrence of risk variables within medium to large-sized enterprises (MLEs). A survey conducted in May 2009 of randomly selected samples yield responses from 103 construction professionals drawn from 34 contractors, 46 consultants and 23 clients or owners (private and public) within the Ghanaian construction sector. Response data was subjected to descriptive statistics and subsequently analysis of variance (ANOVA) and other non-parametric tests were also used to examine the differences in the perceptions of the identified 25 risk variables. The descriptive and empirical analysis demonstrated a disparity of the ranking of the risk variables. There was a statistically significant difference at (the p < 0.05) in the levels of agreement scores for the 5 of the 25 risk variables of the five different groupings based on the length of experience as follows: (group 1: less than 1 year; group 2: 1-5 years; group 3: 6-10 years; group 4: 11-15 years; and group 5: more than 15 years) as follows; 'financial failure', 'design changes', 'weather conditions', 'vandalism', and 'local laws'. The less experienced professions (group 1) reported higher scores on the likelihood of occurrence whereas the more experienced professions (group 5) reported fewer score on all the 5 variables. Furthermore, 'financial failure' and 'weather conditions' were the two risk variables having the highest mean scores. The study provides insights on the impact of experience of construction professionals in risk assessment implementation across the Ghanaian construction sector. The Managerial implications to be drawn is that Construction Organizations should be cognisant of the experience of the professions when assessing the likelihood of occurrence of risk variables on construction projects.