Risk-Level Assessment of Construction Risk Management Among the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Contractors

Projects are delayed due to a lack of construction risk management practice. Construction risk factors (e.g. labour and equipment, material, design, financial and administrative) affect contractors resulting in time delays and cost overruns. Inadequate, substandard and inferior quality of construction, changes in project scope, dispute and total abandonment, cost and time overrun, clients’ inadequate variations and lack of contractor’s skill and experience for site management are key risks linked with construction projects in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. There is a need for a robust and reliable scale for examining and accessing the degree of risk management in the construction sector for proper handling of construction risks. Current research evaluates degree of risk management of construction industry among 303 largest contractors’ (> 250 number of employees) companies working in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia using descriptive statistics. For this study, simple random probability sampling is employed with a 5-point Likert scale. Multi-collinearity test, Common Method Variance (CMV) and non-response bias tests are performed as preliminary analysis. Construction risk factors are prioritized using Relative Importance Index (RII) technique. Results depict an overall mean score of 2.587 construction risk management in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which falls in the medium category. The top 5 construction risk management factors are linked with a safety inspection, modification of contract after bidding, material transportation, monetary losses and quality control. Methodologically, this study is practicably first to inspect, examine and investigate the degree of risk management in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia contractors. The current framework establishes benchmarking in managing performance based on the degree of construction risk management among Kingdom of Saudi Arabia contractors.