An incentive motivational approach to enhance successful delivery of construction projects

The South African construction industry is faced with challenges which impede on successful project delivery. While incentives have been recognised as motivational tools for individual employees to achieve certain goals, the South African construction industry has not fully exploited the various avenues to initiate motivational approaches aligned with project objectives to enhance successful delivery of construction projects. This study is therefore aimed at exploring which monetary and non-monetary incentives would compel construction and consultant team members to improve successful project delivery. The study adopted a deductive approach whereby hypotheses were formulated based on motivation theories and applied them in construction project team situations. In this regard, the extensive literature related to motivation theories such as the hierarchy of needs, incentives, organisational commitment, and teamwork environment were reviewed. A web survey was adopted for the empirical data gathering by means of a questionnaire e-mailed to nationwide selected construction and consultant firms. Data analysis was done by means of ranking, paired sample test, T-Test, ANOVA test, Mann- Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis test of association, and the Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The reliability test was done using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of reliability. In total, 164 respondents participated in the study. It was revealed that there was a statistically significant difference between mean rankings of motivational factors, and organisational commitment was perceived as the most important motivational factor that compelled construction and consultant team members to achieve project success. There was no statistically significant difference between various demographics (gender, qualification, and experience) pertaining to self-development needs, organisational commitment, and teamwork environment motivational factors, except age groups, which displayed a statistically significant difference in self-development needs and teamwork environment. There was a statistically significant difference between mean rankings of monetary and non-monetary incentives, and non-monetary incentives were preferred to monetary incentives in achieving higher performance. There was no statistically significant difference between various demographics (gender, age, qualification, and experience in the construction industry) of construction and consultant team members pertaining to monetary and non-monetary incentives. There was no statistically significant difference between mean rankings of primary project objectives aligned with monetary incentives, where time was perceived as the most important. There was no statistically significant difference between various demographics (gender, qualification, and experience in the construction industry) of construction and consultant team members pertaining to project objectives aligned with incentives, except age groups which displayed a statistically significant difference in project objectives aligned with monetary and non-monetary incentives. Two models have been developed based on the PCA results of project objectives aligned with monetary and non-monetary incentives. Each model consisted of four parts, namely project objectives, demographic information, short-run project-based interventions, and long-run interventions. The PCA results showed monetary incentives could be a useful project-based intervention mechanism in the short-run to achieve secondary project objectives, such as the provision of work opportunities to SMMEs. In the long-run, this confirms the usefulness of the CIDB initiative consisting of the provision of work opportunities to SMMEs through the National Contractor Development Programme (NCDP) guidelines. The PCA results showed non-monetary incentives could be a useful project-based intervention mechanism in the short-run to achieve primary project objectives, such as quality. In the long-run, a continuous improvement mechanism by various construction industry stakeholders is deemed necessary to maintain project delivery standards