Identifying Issues of Change Leading to Cost Conflicts: Case Study in Cambodia

It is impossible to avoid changes in construction projects. Construction changes have minor and major effects on the success of a project, particularly on its cost. A detailed study of change is needed to alleviate such effects on project cost. This paper introduces the identification of specific change issues regarding costs that may lead to conflicts between the owner and the contractor of a project. Such identification would help project practitioners be aware of change issues and manage them effectively as well as open up alternative viewpoints of change by the two parties. To achieve the research objective, a 16-item questionnaire with a five-point Likert scale was conducted to collect the necessary information. The data were collected from respondents in Cambodian building construction projects. Responses from 53 professionals working for contractors and owners were analysed with the aid of software package, Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). The result of tests passed internal reliability of the scale and significant agreement among the respondents. The analysis of a one sample t-test showed that there were fifteen significant and important change issues. The five top priority change issues related to project costs are changes in scheduling made by the owner, project scope change made by the owner, change due to poor and incomplete design, change in design functions required by owner/client, and change in material specifications. The research findings would be beneficial to all project participants for gaining a deeper understanding of specific change issues so that change management can be carried out more efficiently. In addition, project stakeholders would be more perceptive about the consequences of any changes.