An Investigation into On-site Labour Productivity in Uganda: Case Study of Kampala.

Abstract

Uganda’s construction sector is mainly traditional and not modern in a way that most of the projects done are labour based; this labour is mainly uneducated and semi-skilled and highly unproductive. Labour unproductivity is a crucial factor in determining the success of any project being run in Uganda. This is attributed to the fact that many of the construction firms hire semiskilled labour that is majorly not educated or provided with the right set of skills to do the job since they focus on cheap labour have put a strong pressure on construction entities to continually improve their productivity and performance, consequently the objective of this research is to investigate how to improve the on-site productivity of labour in Uganda, a case study of Kampala. Productivity investigation, assessment, analysis and subsequent measurement criteria vary from project to project, despite much work on the subject, there is no commonly agreed framework of productivity measurement and improvement of on-site labour. The study explored the significance of key contributing factors in the perspective of various construction stakeholders (Consulting Engineers, Project Managers, Site Engineers, Foremen and Clerk of Works) and to elicit perceptions of their relative importance. The literature review embarked on was thoroughly invested to develop and come up with different factors believed to affect onsite labour productivity. The questionnaire survey developed had 40 factors which were identified and categorized into 5 groups for efficiency. A total of 100 questionnaires were distributed to four (4) key groups of project participants; namely Site Engineers, Clerk of Works, Consulting Engineer (Project Manager) and Foremen. 25 data collection sheet were used by the researchers to obtain MPDM data to obtain more information. 65 questionnaires were returned showing a 65% response rate, among these 17 Site Engineers (26.2%), 11 Clerk of Works (16.9%), 25 Foremen (38.5) and 12 Project Managers (28.5%) gave feedback. The data from these returned questions were analyzed by The Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) to obtain the key factors affecting onsite labour productivity. The researchers also used the Method Productivity Delay Model data collection sheets to collect information from the 25 sites and they considered casting of columns and laying of bricks along with courses as the parameters of the study. The method resulted in key factors being identified as was done with SPSS. Spearman’s Rank Correlation method was used to rank the key factors affecting onsite labour productivity between the two approaches. Findings from the analysis revealed that the key factors affecting the productivity of onsite labour in Uganda with an emphasis in Kampala in order of their relative importance as perceived by the stakeholders are: labour, environment, equipment, materials and management factors.