Exploring Corruption Factors Inhibiting Team Decision-Making on Construction Projects

Construction projects are actualized through the involvement of multidisciplinary stakeholders from various cultural and ethnic groups or nationalities who have different levels of exposure to civilization, languages, and world views. Their cultural diversity makes the evaluation of corruption a daunting task and subsequently can adversely affect the team decision-making process, disrupt collaboration among stakeholders, reduce project quality, and hinder outcomes of construction projects. The constant occurrence of building collapse, in which about 83% are linked to corruption, cost overrun, time overrun, and risk to lives in construction projects, often point at corrupt behaviors among construction stakeholders during decision-making, which remain unabated. Construction team members with a corrupt mindset may jeopardize the required standards, specifications, manipulate construction bid, inflate construction cost, distort information, and thorough supervision of projects. In fact, discouragement of foreign investors in the construction industry, which often affects the reputation of the industry, can further exacerbate if not curbed. Past studies mainly focused on forms of corruption in the construction industry, while understanding the factors that triggers them can lead to the practical recommendations for minimizing corruption. Therefore, this study used focus groups to explore corruption factors and the ways they inhibit team decision-making on construction projects in Africa. Hence, five focus groups of a total of 30 construction professionals were conducted virtually with consultants, contractors, government officials, developers, and clients in the Nigerian construction industry. The discourses in the focus groups were summarized and analyzed using contextual analysis. The participants identified 15 corruption factors that affected the team decision-making processes on construction projects, and those corruption influences were classified into four main types: (1) individual people's values (e.g., unity, tolerance, harmony, superiority, etc.); (2) project factors (project complexity and project secrecy); (3) organizational variables (organization-government alliances and unethical professionalism); and (4) societal factors (social pressures, social norms, and social ties). The study's findings build an understanding of the critically important corrupt actions that negatively influence construction projects. Even more importantly, the findings can be used to design public enlightenment campaigns against corruption and in favor of project monitoring. Practical recommendations are given, such as positive applications of human values, with utmost sincerity, to achieve the expected goals of team decision-making. The deliberate involvement of female construction professionals in project teams is also advised. In summary, the corruption factors that we investigated in this study form a basis for a future larger-scale study; meanwhile, the approach we employed is suitable for drawing necessary inferences. The bane of corruption in the construction industry is alarming, especially in developing countries. In this research, the factors of corruption affecting team decision-making on construction projects were explored in an interactive discourse among groups of construction stakeholders. For minimizing the corrupt actions and improving the completion of construction projects within cost, time, and quality, values of individual stakeholders and projects can be the fundamental components in the industry. Transparency in the construction team decision-making process must be ensured by making all contract information available to the public for monitoring and progress tracking. It is expected that corrupt actions as a result of alliances between construction organizations and government officials can then be uncovered and minimized. The construction institutions must also ensure that unethical professionalism among members is punished adequately without favor or prejudice, and every opportunity for corruption to thrive in the society must be discouraged.