developing the management practices and cultural values ... · given the purpose of conquas, the...

CIB2007- 424

Developing the Management Practices and Cultural Values for the

Deployment of Construction Quality Assessment Systems (CONQUAS):

the MP&CV-AM approach

Dr Nicholas Chileshe and Mr Yeong Liang Sim

ABSTRACT

This research paper aims to ascertain the different concepts of quality assessment systems between East and West countries. Although previous studies have tried to address the comparison of quality between east and west countries, however the emphasis has being more on qualitative whereas this study bridges the knowledge gap by providing a valid methodology for assessing the 'management and cultural' readiness of the eastern quality systems within the western context through the general application of management practices and cultural value indices.

The findings of the paper are based upon a comprehensive literature search and empirical studies conducted with 24 UK Construction Organisations currently utilising various modes of quality systems within their construction projects. Through a survey of data collected, this study empirically refines and validates 6 management practices and 5 Cultural values deemed necessary for the deployment of Construction Quality Assessment. The study reports on the operational framework of Management Practices and Cultural Values Assessment Model (MP&CV-AM), which can be used to examine the levels of critical factors relating to the deployment of CONQUAS. The findings indicate that the MP&CV-AM is both reliable and valid.

All the Management Practices scored medium levels (means score > 3.00) of readiness with the highest being 'Motivation and Rewards' and 'Vision'. On the other hand, the most important cultural values for CONQUAS deployment were found to be 'Harmony with People' and 'Harmony with Universe'. The least important (mean score < 3.00) cultural

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values were 'Respect for Authority' and 'Interdependency'. The findings suggest that the integration of cultural values and management practices as observed within the Eastern environment can be transferred within the Western environment with Total Quality Management (TQM) as the leverage for the deployment of CONQUAS. This would contribute to the enhancement of the quality performance within the UK Construction Industry. This paper concludes by presenting a new methodology for assessing the 'management and cultural' readiness of CONQUAS deployment for UK Construction Organisation. The frameworks presented in form of a hexagonal profile can be used to depict the levels of consideration of the management practices and cultural values desirable for the CONQUAS deployment. KEYWORDS: Assessment, Construction, Cultural Values, Quality Systems, Construction Organisations, CONQUAS, Total Quality Management (TQM)

1. INTRODUCTION

This paper presents the findings of an ongoing investigation into the awareness of the Construction Quality Assessment System (CONQUAS) approach within the UK Construction Projects. (Sim, 2006) The literature review establishes that much has already been written on CONQUAS within the Malaysian and Singapore context, however little research has been conducted to investigate the levels of awareness of this quality system within the UK context. Against this background and with the growing of international trade, customers have had a wider choice of products and services from around the world. Wider choices have elevated quality requirements and pose another challenge. In this dynamic and competitive marketplace, companies are under tremendous pressure to become more customer orientated and more cost effective and to continuously improve quality. There is therefore a need for quality management system that is ease of use, adaptable and flexible.

1.1 Overview of CONQUAS

The finished, or Quality awards models are operational benchmarking tools that can be used by companies in their internal educational programme and in their self assessment process. On the aggregate level it is obvious model for comparing best practices between countries. (Kristensen and Juhl, 1999). With the efforts expended by the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) Singapore to raise the quality awareness within the industry, quality has gained new level of recognition. Building

CIB World Building Congress 2007 1267

Construction Authority (BCA) Singapore has developed a kind of quality assessment system called 'Construction quality assessment system' or simply CONQUAS. (BCA, 2000). The following section subsection summarises the purpose and usage of CONQUAS as well as its elements and assessment. 1.2 Purpose of CONQUAS The primary purpose of CONQUAS is to have effective change management in quality management. Abraham et. al (1998) in discussing the key factors predicting effectiveness of cultural change and improved productivity stated some guidelines for effective change management. They are vision, communication, recognition and awards, management practice, system support and quality and behaviour. Other authors such as Nadler (1981) discussed various types of change such as those incremental and the change focus only on specific subsystem of the organization and strategic change. Other purposes of CONQUAS include Competitive Advantage (Kam and Tang, 1997); Studies and Trials conducted to fine tune its new test technique and assessment standards (BCA, 2000). Accordingly the three main objectives of CONQUAS are: • To have quality assessment system for construction projects • To make quality assessment objective by measuring constructed works

against workmanship standards and specification and; • To enable quality assessment to be carried out systematically within

reasonable cost and time It's also acknowledged as the 'de facto' national yardstick for the construction industry. According to Balakrishan (2001), CONQUAS was designed to benchmark the quality of construction works against the workmanship, standards and specification. 1.3 The Weight ages System Given the purpose of CONQUAS, the following section examines certain core concepts of CONQUAS from the significant contributing factors that are promoted by quality gurus in one form or another in managing quality. CONQUAS is actually an evaluation of project performance by using numerical scores to assess on different components of a project. The CONQUAS assessment is divided into three main components - • Structural Works • Architecture Works • Mechanical and Electrical Works.


In CONQUAS, the weight ages for Structural, Architectural and M&E works are allocated according to four categories of buildings as shown in Table 1.0.

Table 1: Weightings by Categories of Buildings Category (%) Component

A B C D Structural Works 30 35 45 40 Architectural Works 50 55 50 55 M&E Works 20 10 5 5 CONQUAS Score 100 100 100 100

Where the categories A to D are for the following; Commercial, Industrial, Institution & Others (Cat A); Condominium, Institution & Others (Cat B); Public Housing (Cat C) and Landed Properties (Cat D).: Having provided the literature review and overview of the CONQUAS, the following section presents the development and validation of the Management Practices and Cultural Values instrument.

2. DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF INSTRUMENT

In this section a discussion of the measurement instrument construction procedure, the characteristics of the sample and the methodology for data analysis is presented and discussed. 2.1 Development of the measurement instrument The importance of developing validate measures are articulated by several researchers (Nunnally, 1978; Saraph et al, 1989; Madu, 1998). Several dimensions of validity need to be addressed such as content validity, construct validity and criterion-related validity (Flynn et al, 1994). In order to achieve that, they are various steps to be considered in the instrument development process. Much of the earlier works in quality management such as Saraph et al (1989) adopted a 9 step approach. The steps taken in the development and validation of the MP&CV-AM are adopted from Sureshchandra et al (2002) seven step approach comprising the following: • Step 1 Expound the theory and concepts that underlie a particular

management philosophy • Step 2 Design of survey instrument by careful selection of the

representative items • Step 3 Pre-testing of the instrument • Step 4 Modifications, refinements and finalisation of the Instrument • Step 5 Data Collection • Step 6 Factor Analysis of Data


• Step 7 Proposed MP&CV-AM Measurement Instrument

According to Sureshchandar et al (2002), a critical aspect in the evolution of fundamental theory is the development of good measures to obtain valid and reliable estimates of the construct of interest. Step 1 which deals with expounding the theory and concepts that underlie a particular management theory involved the review of literature and the identification of existing job satisfaction measurement instruments. This formed part of the exploratory phase in phase of the research design. This issue have been presented in the earlier sub sections. Step 2 involved the design of the survey instrument by careful selection of the representative items. Step 3 dealt with the pre-testing of the instrument, either objectively or subjectively by experts in the field. According to Chileshe and Watson (2004), this is defined as content validity which forms part of the confirmatory factor analysis. Step 4 is addressed by the modifications (if any) to the existing measurement instrument found in literature such as the Management of Complex Change (Abraham et al , 1997), refinement and finalisation of the MP&CV-AM instrument which is provided for in the subsection dealing with the review of literature and existing instruments. Finally but not the least, Step 5 dealt with data collection through a self administered questionnaire to 24 UK Construction Organisation. Step 6 contains the three-stage continuous improvement cycle which according to Chen and Paulraj (2004) lies at the heart of the instrument development process and addresses the issues of Confirmatory Factor Analysis. This is equivalent to scale evaluation process which entails items generation, scale re-development and scale evaluation. The following sub section describes the process undertaken to determine the requirements of the steps in the development process. The undimensionality which is a mandatory condition for construct validity and reliability checking is addressed through a measurement model not shown in this paper was specified for the two constructs identified as management practices and cultural values. Confirmatory factor analysis is run for all the constructs. Content validity at the item level measures the target or content domain which it is supposed to measure and as the instrument has been developed based on the effective management of complex change (Abraham et al, 1997) and the 'Cultural Values', therefore ensuring validity since the instrument has been previously tested in several studies ranging from manufacturing to services. The reliability issues are addressed through the following measures is used in this paper for the reliability tests namely; Cronbach Alpha; Kaiser-Meyer-Oklin (KMO) Sampling measure of adequacy; and Barletts Measure. 2.2 Sampling Procedure Because of the small sample, a measure of the sampling adequacy using the Kaiser-Meyer-Oklin (KMO) was carried out and the results obtained was a value of 0.788 with the Barlett's test of sphericity yielding an approximate chi square of 2122.86 (df = 561, Sig = .000). It's


recommended that the value of KMO should be greater than 0.5 if the sample is adequate (Field, 2000). The above result of 0.788 indicates that the sample was adequate for each factorial or "factor analysis" determination. The KMO statistic varies between 0 and 1, and is defined as an index for comparing the magnitude of the observed correlation coefficients to the magnitudes of the partial correlation coefficients and for the original matrix. The sample for the study consisted of 120 UK constructional related organizations randomly selected from the Financial Analysis Made Easy (FAME) database. A total of 32 organizations responded giving a response rate of 27%. Eight of the responses were unusable due to incomplete data. The analyses are based on the remaining 24 organizations. An internal consistency analysis was carried out to each of the six management practices and the six cultural value factors. Both instruments had high cronbach alpha values with the motivation for certification achieving 0.753 whereas the Management Practice instrument adapted from Abrahams et al (1997) scored 0.702 thus indicating a high reliability of scales as values are > 0.7. (Nunnally, 1967). Unfortunately the Cultural Values instrument had low reliability (0.235). This item displayed a weak positive relationship to the total indicates the question that is poor on reliability and thus affecting the findings from the whole scale

3. DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS

Table 2.0 shows a breakdown of the construction organisations who responded to our questionnaire. The table shows the distribution of the respondent's position, experience in the construction industry and the size of the organisation. The information in Table 2.0 shows that the position of individual respondents were assessed and the majority of the respondents workers were sixteen quality managers and assistant quality managers (51%), eleven construction project managers (34%), two (6%) and another two (6%) with remainder being architects and senior quantity surveyors. While there is only 1 (3%) contract executive. The Architect and senior quantity surveyor were accepted as valid respondents based on their experience in the construction industry (more than ten years). Furthermore, each had been involved in the construction industry for a considerable period with a maximum of forty years and minimum of three years. This implies that they had enough knowledge and practical experience within the quality management system.

Table 2: Background of respondents


Frequency %

Size of Organisation < 10 employees 2 8.33 11 - 49 4 16.66 50 - 99 10 41.67 > 100 5 20.83 Not responded 3 12.51

24 100

Experience in the Construction Industry < 5 Years 1 4.16 > 5 -10 13 54.16 11 -20 2 8.33 > 20 6 25.08 Not responded 2 8.33 Position of Respondents Quality Manager and Assistant Manager 16 51.0 Construction Project Manager 11 34.0 Architect 2 6.0 Contract Executive 1 3.0 Senior Quantity Surveyor 2 6.0 Total 31 100

Therefore it can be concluded that this study represents the high level attainment of contributing to quality assessment systems within the UK construction industry. Table 2 also shows that the majority (41.67%) of the respondents (10) had between 50-99 employees. This is followed by 5 respondents in the more than (100) hundred categories with 4 respondents having a range of 11-49 employees.

While 3 respondents chose not to provide this information. Finally 2 respondents having employees under 10. This demonstrates that the majority of the respondents are considered to fall under small and medium sized companies. On overage, each organisation employed 68.26 employees.

Having provided the demographics of the respondents, the following subsection presents some of the factors contained within the 'Management Practices' and the 'Cultural Values'. 3.1 Management Practices


The means and standard deviations for the six management practices and five 'Cultural Values' motivational certification factors for the SME’s constructional related organizations are shown in tables 3 and 4. For the Management Practices, the means ranged between 3.00 and 3.63 while for the Cultural Values factors, between 2.34 and 3.00. A score of 4 or more indicates a high level of consideration would be provided for the deployment of the management practice and certification factor would equally be of more concern. A score of less than 2.0 indicates that the organizations would not give the particular management practice any consideration and that the certification benefit would be of less concern Table 3.0: Descriptive Statistics & Results of Internal Consistency Analysis for Management

Practices Management Practices Label Rank Mean S.D 1. Vision VI 2 3.42 1.176 2. Management Practice MP 4 3.08 .881 3. System Support SS 5 3.00 .885 4. Motivation and Rewards M&R 1 3.63 1.173 5. Communication COM 3 3.38 1.096 6. Quality and Behaviour Q&B 6 3.00 1.022 Average 3.25

The average scores given by respondents for each management practice were calculated. The higher the mean, the more likelihood of the management practice being deployed by the respondents. The three most important practices (with the highest means) are: (1) Motivation and Rewards (mean = 3.63) (2) Vision (mean = 3.42) (3) Communication (mean = 3.38) 3.1.1 Discussion of Management Practices The results of the survey (Table 3.0) are now discussed with to the framework proposed in Figure 1.2. • Vision The aim of this question was to measure the degree to which a quality vision was designed and articulated by top management. It also measures the clarity and depth of perception of this vision. The results confirm that motivation for CONQUAS really needs to be governed by vision from management practice point of view.


Since vision is the second most important element (mean score = 3.417) and has a significant effect on motivation for CONQUAS (p = 0.023 < 0.05). According to Abraham et al (1997) Vision is the perceived clarity of goals, means and values for change. The higher mean score indicates that Vision is possibly one of the most important elements in CONQUAS deployment. This can be equated to leadership as used in other studies (Chileshe and Watson, 2003; Chileshe and Watson, 2004; Chileshe, 2004, Tan, 1997; Sim, 2006). The high standard deviation (sd = 1.176) for the vision indicates that there might be a low rate of concern for this practice among the respondents. This finding is consistent with Chileshe and Watson (2003) who found that Leadership in TQM requires the manager to provide an inspiring vision, make strategic directions that are understood by all and to instil values that guide subordinates. • Management Practice This section dealt with the identification of a critical mass of top level support for change, and the action by this key group to initiate and manage the change process. Management practice had the fourth highest overall mean (mean score = 3.08) for CONQUAS deployment. The results prove that motivation for CONQUAS really needs the support from the management practice itself. The p-value (< 0.05) indicates that management practice will have a significant effect on the motivation for CONQUAS. • Systems Support

System support analysis investigates the way in which the change process is supported through transition management network, appropriate financial and human resources, and clear timetable, for achievement of construction project target and induction process. Although it was fifth ranked with a mean score of 3.00, it still has a significant effect (p < 0.05) on the deployment of CONQUAS. The low ranking is hardly surprising as other studies (Chileshe, 2004; Chileshe and Watson, 2003, Watson and Chileshe, 2003a,b) found training and human resource management related issues to have a low priority among construction organizations seeking TQM implementation. This finding is contrast with the study by Tan (1997) who states that for TQM to work; the workforce must not only be trained, but must be "trusted" to make informed decisions on how to improve the work process continuously. • Motivation and Rewards Motivation and Rewards (M&R) was the highest ranked and only one of the practices that scored a mean of more than 3.5 (mean score = 3.63). M&R


investigated the motivation for respondents in adapting to the new quality culture, and the rewards used to support that culture. Ishikawa (1985) identified one source of human motivation at work as task Motivation and social Motivation. Task motivation is the good feeling that comes from accomplishing things and seeing them actually work. Social motivation is the energy that comes from co-operation from others on a shared task and the incentive provided by recognition from others. Rewards, on the other hand, viewed as '‘monetary'’ and '‘esteem'’ might be considered motivation force in this particular study. The result indicates that the level of consideration for motivation and rewards is essential for CONQUAS. The findings for the motivation factors are consistent with Lo (2002) who provided a scenario of negative feedback from eastern construction contractors claiming QMS is a burden to the normal operation, but later concluded that the incentives for QMS are to improve quality image of a company and to satisfy client requirement. • Communication Communication measures the extent to which various communication approaches were used to emphasize a quality theme and the effectiveness of each of the approaches. Examination of table 3.0 indicates that communication was third ranked (mean score = 3.38) and that it is an important and significant (p < 0.05) element towards the motivation for CONQUAS. • Quality and Behaviour Quality and Behaviour was identified as the weakest area and least considered (rank = 6th; mean = 3.00) in comparison to other management practices. Q&B defined as providing some output variables where respondents could record their perceptions of tangible gains achieved through the change to a quality orientation.

Having provided the descriptive statistics for the management practices that require consideration for the assessing the readiness of CONQUAS deployment, the following section identifies the desirable Cultural Values for enhancement of quality performance levels in Construction Projects. 1.3.2 Cultural Values Table 4.0 summarises these cultural values necessary for the deployment of CONQUAS.


Table 4.0: Descriptive Statistics & Results of Internal Consistency Analysis for Cultural

Values Cultural Values Rank SE Mean Mean S.D 1. Flexibility 3 0.306 2.86 1.466 2. Harmony with People 1 0.294 3.09 1.411 3. Harmony with Universe 2 0.251 3.00 1.206 4. Interdependence 4 0.299 2.65 1.434 5. Respect for Authority 5 0.298 2.30 1.428 Average 2.78

Each and every of the culture factors is considered having significant effect on CONQUAS implementation. These are shown by mean value ranging from 2.304 to 3.087. (Refer table 4.0) However, just two highest mean values on top of the list will be selected for analyst. The reason behind is to incorporate only the cultural values that is consider more important into the research framework. Therefore, only two variables are chosen - ‘Harmony with People’ and ‘Harmony with Universe’ which have mean value of 3.087 and 3.000 respectively. Hexagonal below (Figure 1.1) try to communicate the relationship of the culture values.

0.00

0.50

1.00

1.50

2.00

2.50

3.00

3.50

4.00Flexibility

Harmony with People

Harmony with UniverseInterdependence

Respect for Authority

Figure 1.1 Hexagonal Cultural Values.

Source: (Sim, 2006) 3.1.2 Discussion of Cultural Values The results of the survey (Table 4.0) are now discussed as follows: • Flexibility Yang (1986) in his discussion of the temperamental characteristics of Chinese personality, pointed out that the Chinese have been characterised


as valuing common sense approach and utilitarian ways of thinking. Many of the problem solving tools used in quality management requires pragmatic minds, which are able to adapt to changing situations in the environment. (Noronha, 2002) In term of flexibility, the mean score is just 2.8261. This is low if compared to ‘Harmony with people’ and ‘Harmony with Universe’. It will have a lesser impact on cultural value towards implementation of CONQUAS. P-value of less than 0.005 proves that this variable will have a significant effect on the success implementation for CONQUAS. The 95% confidence interval for mean extending from 2.1920 and 3.4602. • Harmony with people The successful implementation of group activities such as quality control circles depends on the synergistic effect that harmonious human relations can bring about. Furthermore, quality management stress on total participation and involvement for the good of the entirety, the harmonious relationships between management and labour and among co-workers are essential. (Noronha, 2002) ‘Harmony with people’ ranks the highest culture factor to implementation of CONQUAS. This is shown by the mean value of 3.087. P-value of less than 0.005 proves that this variable will have a significant effect on the success implementation for CONQUAS. Therefore, this factor will be constituted into the research framework of CONQUAS implementation. The 95% confidence interval for mean extends from 2.4766 and 3.6973. • Harmony with Universe Noronha (2002) described the ancient Chinese were primarily peasants and their sowing and harvesting relied much on the occurrence of natural phenomena and the nature of the four seasons. Quality management is essentially a long term journey with substantial hardships at beginning which Juran, 1988 (in Noronha, 2002) calls ‘sporadic spikes’. This positive view on uncertainty provides the basis for a healthy attitude toward quality assessment systems. ‘Harmony with universe’ ranks the second highest culture factor to implementation of CONQUAS just after ‘Harmony with People’. This is shown by the mean value of 3.000. Thus, these factors will be incorporated into the framework to be analysed with other variables. P-value of less than 0.005 proves that this variable will have a significant effect on the successful implementation of CONQUAS. The 95% confidence interval for mean extends from 2.4785 and 3.5215.


• Interdependent This principle is described as ‘doing favours’ which can be considered as ‘social investments’ for which future returns are expected. (Noronha, 2002) this value is related to customers and contractor relationships. To provide defective goods and low quality is actually to lose business in front of peers and customers. On the other hand, to provide high quality goods and services is to do others favour and to maintain reciprocal treatments. Mean value of 2.652 shows ‘Interdependence’ does not have significant effect on implementation of CONQUAS. Thus, this factor will be excluded from the framework to be analysed with other variables. P-value of less than 0.005 proves that this variable will have a significant effect on the success implementation for CONQUAS. The 95% confidence interval for mean extends from 2.0322 and 3.2721. • Respect for Authority The mechanism of the relations is based on the rules of proper behaviour or propriety, so that rights and responsibilities for each are entailed. In quality management, top management should take the lead role in disseminating quality consciousness down the organisation hierarchy. When authority is valued, top management visions and directives are more easily and smoothly accepted. ‘Respect for Authority’ ranks the second to lowest culture factor to implementation of CONQUAS. This is shown by the mean value of only 2.304. Thus, this factor will not be incorporate into the framework to analysis with other variables. P-value of less than 0.005 proves that this variable will have a significant effect on the success implementation for CONQUAS but unfortunately only two on top of list will be chosen to incorporate into the framework. The 95% confidence interval for mean extending from 1.6868 and 2.9219.

4. MODEL DEVELOPMENT APPROACH

The model development approach applied in this study is shown below (Figure 1.2). This model is being developed through a detail consideration of each factor. All the items being discussed are further divided into two major sections which are the process (independent) factors and the outcome (dependent) factors. The management practice items and the culture values are considered as the determinant factors of motivation for CONQUAS. It is necessary to address this approach to develop the conceptual thinking of the research.


Motivation for CONQUAS

• Increased Sales

• Improving Team Spirit

• Reduce Material Wastage

• More Advantages in

Tendering

• Increased Efficiency

• Reduce Operational Costs

• Clearer working Procedure

• Shorter Delivery Lead Time

• Attract More Customers

(Local and Overseas)

• Received Less Complaints

• Increased Corporate Image

Outcome (Dependent)

Process (Independent)

Organisational Culture (5 Items)

• Harmony with People • Harmony with Universe • Interdependence • Flexibility • Respect for Authority

Management Practice (6 Items)

• Vision • System Support • Quality & Behaviour • Management Practices • Motivation and Rewards • Communication

Figure 1.2 MP&CV-AM Model Development Approach. The permeable boundaries of process and outcome factors show that this approach is flexible and adaptable. Dependent variables (Motivation for CONQUAS) are the variables that might affect by or dependent on the independent variable. In other words, while independent variables measure the potential effects. On the other hand, independent variables (management practice and culture values) are the variables whose effects on something else that are trying to evaluate, and they are independently controlled by the researchers, in this case, the author as the experimenter.

5. SUMMARY OF DISCUSSIONS

Based on the quantitative result analysis by using Statistical Package for Social Scientist (SPSS), in this research, two major theoretical models


were hypothesized. One was to combine all of the six CONQUAS motivation implementation constructs into one independent variable, which was used to test the relationships between quality management implementation and motivation factors. The other model was to investigate the relationships between the three management practice constructs and cultural values

The result of analysis by Noronha (2002) suggested that culture values such as adaptability, harmony with people, interdependence and respect for authority are found to be positively associated with Quality Management Systems (QMS). While on the other hand, the values of ‘Harmony with universe’ may incorporate passive fatalism. This finding is partly confirmed by this particular research. It suggests that harmony with universe do not contribute much towards the nurturing of a quality climate.

6 .CONCLUSIONS

To conclude, data from 24 construction companies were used to test the awareness of CONQUAS within the construction industry. Contrary to what was hypothesised in the models, a number of hypotheses were not confirmed by the data. This disconfirmation does not imply these constructs are useless or unimportant. Instead, there’s a need to identify the problem areas of these constructs and implement them more effectively. The training and CONQUAS education must be in action to ensure the motivation of CONQUAS.

Six management practices associated with the effective management of complex change are correlated with six different cultural values factors for CONQUAS deployment. In summary it can be stated that the overall level of readiness of CONSQUAS deployment within UK Construction Organisations is medium The authors acknowledge that several studies (Barad, 1995; Ahmed et al , 2005; Low and Leong, 2001; and Xia and Proverbs, 2002) have tried to address the comparison of quality between the east and western countries, however the emphasis is more on qualitative whereas this study bridges the knowledge gap by providing a valid methodology for assessing the readiness of the eastern quality systems within the western context through the generation of the indices reported in this paper.

Thus, the objective of this paper which was ‘To propose a conceptual framework for the evaluation and adoption of CONQUAS within the UK construction industry’ has been fulfilled, both in an objective and subjective way. The study provided a raft of contributions, both theoretical and practical. The literature reviews for primary objectives define the concept of CONQUAS, as the concept is not clearly defined by previous researcher in the quality implementation. Chapter two clearly identified the essence and nature of the quality assessment system in the quality organisation.


The six constructs identified as the motivation for CONQUAS are just one of the pillars for the building. Motivation without the way of practices is meaningless. The data collected for management practice identified three more constructs, namely; vision, motivation and rewards and communication. the in depth review from the literature is therefore important to support and sustain the constructs mentioned above.

Again, the extensive literature review managed to identify some cultural values such as harmony with people and harmony with universe which may interrupt the successful implementation of CONQUAS. Therefore, two more constructs were identified making the interpretation of these variables (constructs) more valid. Finally, there is a model framework being produced for the evaluation and adoption of CONQUAS within the UK construction industry. This framework is totally formulated on the basis of the results from the research. With the motivation factor as the independent variables and management practice as dependent variables; and with the management practice as the independent and cultural values as dependent variables.

Although the descriptive statistics used in this research paper are taken from within the UK Construction Industry, the impact of Management Practices and Cultural Values and its associated benefits of CONQUAS deployment are universal and of interest to the South African Construction Industry.

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