M. Tech. Quantity Surveying (Structured) / Risk is a predominant phenomenon and an inherent challenge in the construction industry; the ability to control its occurrence minimises its impact on the operation of the industry and determines the profitability of the construction projects. This research was carried out to examine the project phases during which the construction industries in Swaziland carry out risk management, to identify and examine the methods, tools, procedures for and approaches to risk management. Furthermore, the research intended to identify the criteria for risk sharing amongst parties in the Swaziland Construction industries.

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D. Tech. Civil Engineering / Construction contracts have provisional clauses to control financial risks, but studies have shown that cost overruns are still common, which require the inclusion of additional management techniques to improve cost estimates. The research investigated, analysed and identified the shortcomings that exist within the current mechanisms to manage financial risk. A new risk ranking model that can be used to eliminate construction cost overruns in South Africa was developed. The study sought the views from a variety of construction professionals, based on knowledge and experiences within their own organisations, to explore new mechanisms to limit the risk impact of persistent cost overruns.

China’s civil nuclear power programme is a sensitive topic which has seldom been researched by social or political scientists inside or outside of China. In the past, public participation activities in relation to nuclear power issues in China were rare. However, in 2005, when the central government decided to promote civil nuclear development and build 40 more nuclear reactors within the next 20 years, the public started to become aware of the potential environmental risks that might be caused by nuclear power sites. Based on six months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2007-2008, this thesis represents the first in-depth study of local people’s ways of participation concerning a potential inland nuclear power project in China. It provides rich empirical materials to illustrate local people’s differing perceptions of nuclear power and its risks. The thesis reviews developments in the sociological theorisation of ‘risk’ and, by bringing this body of literature into dialogue with the empirical case study, explores its possibilities and limitations as a means of understanding the social construction of risk in contemporary China. In exploring the social, cultural and political context of risk construction, it illustrates how political power and social status influence local people’s participation in nuclear power issues. It also demonstrates that citizens’ growing environmental risk awareness helps to create space within which they can make their voices heard and, simultaneously, that generating open spaces for people to express their opinions helps to shape their awareness of environmental risk. The central conclusion of the analysis is that, in the context of Chinese society political power, by which I mean policy makers’ ideology and all levels of governments, plays a particularly crucial role in the definition, management and governance of nuclear risk.

To solve the conflict between limited fiscal funds and increasing demands to strengthen infrastructure construction, Public Private Partnership (PPP) was introduced by the Chinese government as an effective approach to make use of private investment to implement infrastructure projects. To provide services or facilities for public use, in PPP, participants pool their skills and resources while at the same time sharing the risks and rewards. The application of PPP could not only ease the government’s financial pressure, but also improve the efficiency of infrastructure construction and ensure the service quality of projects. Although PPP produces these benefits, the complexity and long-term features of PPP projects expose participants to more risks than in traditional projects. Therefore, risk management of participants is critical to the success of PPP projects. As an innovative procurement approach involves a variety of stakeholders over a long time span, it is necessary to investigate how to appraise and recognize PPP project success. In addition, although risk management has attracted much attention, few studies examine the detailed link between various dimensions of risk management and PPP project success. This research therefore intends to fill these two gaps. Compared with countries in the West, PPP was introduced into China relatively recently. A comparative study was employed in this research in order to understand the Chinese situation and to make use of the experience of other countries to critique PPP project performance in Mainland China. In this study, a two-pronged research program—comprising quantitative and qualitative approaches—was used to test and validate the tripartite theoretical model which was set up based on Transaction Cost Economics (TCE), Resource-based View (RBV) and Relational Exchange Theory (RET). In the quantitative study, questionnaire surveys were conducted concurrently in Mainland China and other places. Hierarchical Multiple Regression was used to explore the relationships posited in the research framework. To provide supportive and complementary evidence to the quantitative data, a case study of a PPP project in Mainland China was undertaken. Open-ended interviews and the thematic analysis technique were adopted in the case study. Taken together, the findings indicated that although the facets of risk management significantly affect project success, there are subtle different influences on different stakeholders’ benefits. For example, the uncertainty of social issues and economic issues will affect public partner’s benefits while the uncertainty of political & institutional issues, economic issues and project specific issues are directly influence private partner’s benefits. To maximize their own interests, different stakeholders should pay more attention to the influencing factors that are specifically associated with them. Meanwhile, it is demonstrated that individual efforts on risk management also contribute to the benefits of other stakeholders as well as to the whole industry development. In addition, the comparative study suggests that public partners of PPP projects in Mainland China could refer to the risk management experience of public partners from other countries to make an appropriate risk management commitment and better manage risks. On the other hand, private partners of PPP projects in Mainland China need to pay more attention to the macro-control of the government so as to protect their rights and interests. / published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2005.

Risk management (RM) is a knowledge area in project management (PM). The challenges of project complexity require astute RM. However, RM practices in Lesotho appear to lag behind international trends. Within the sub-Sahara African region, RM incompetence affects timely delivery of public projects owing to PM practices that do not address risks. This study, which adopts a case study approach, unravels the „how and why‟ of contemporary RM practices which are lacking in Lesotho, despite a poor record of project success in the construction industry. Through the reviewed literature and primary data collection, this study investigates three elements in order to determine the level of RM practice within Lesotho public sector construction projects. These elements were the basis of RM, the RM processes, and the peoples‟ perceptions which were essentially centred on the probability of risk and the impact thereof. The results from the study achieved through cross-case synthesis show that the level of RM practice in the Lesotho public sector construction projects is at variance with international practice. The notable gaps in practice include construction professionals who do not know about or who have not practiced project RM. The study thus propose that the Government of Lesotho (GoL) should invest in educating more people in the areas of construction project management or engage professionals with extensive project RM experience. The recommended initiatives should promote professionalism and accountability that are essential for bracing the RM practice in public sector construction projects.

This thesis is based on a study that was conducted in the Manicaland Province of Zimbabwe during the period 1996-1997. The main objective of the study was to identify factors in traditional midwifery that facilitate the vulnerability of both the birthing woman and the traditional birth attendant (TBA) to risks in childbirth. Traditional birth attendants in Zimbabwe, though for a long time a shunned and ridiculed cadre, have always been the custodians of maternal health in the rural areas. TBAs have traditionally relied on intuition and hands-on-experience in their day-to-day practice. With the government's adoption of the upgrading programme for TBAs as a Primary Health Care initiative to reduce infant and maternal mortality, TBAs in Zimbabwe have since incorporated some of the modern obstetric methods into their own traditional practices. There is yet another group of TBAs, who regardless of the training programme, have continued dependence on their experiential and intuitive knowledge for delivery of health. Traditional Birth Attendants, as well as the rural women with whom they share an explanatory model of birthing, were consulted in this study in order to get an emic understanding of risk construction, which in turn would inform intervention strategies. It was hoped that the fusion of these conceptual categories (indigenous with biomedical), would contribute to a body of knowledge which would be a foundation for culturally compelling interventions to reduce risks in traditional birthing practices. As this study unfolded, it became apparent that not only was the women's preference for the TBA determined by cultural forces, but that there were a myriad of additional, contextual forces at play. Macro-processes affecting TBA practices are noted, and issues analyzed from the broader perspective of critical medical anthropology (CMA). / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

It has been suggested that projects in the construction industry are subject to risks more than other industries. However, there is often little parity in allocation of risks in the construction industry. Usually, project participants allocate risks by aversion where owners tend to shift risks to the primary contractor, who in turn transfers them to the subcontractors. As a result of this, risks are not necessarily allocated/ re-allocated to the party that is best able to manage them efficiently and effectively. Risk allocation can significantly influence the behavior of the project participants and hence affects project schedule, cost and performance. Inappropriate risk allocation has led to adversarial relationships between contracting participants and has consequently increased project cost. The objective of this dissertation is to shed light on the current practices of risk allocation in the construction industry. The dissertation consists of three sections. The first section investigates and evaluates the problems of the current practice of risks allocation and their impacts on project performance. The second section investigates, identifies, and classifies barriers to optimal risk allocation. The third section looks into allocating construction risk from a more cooperative and rational perspective. The goal is to provide the construction industry with a rational decision-making mechanism that will provide an alternative to the current practice of typically allocating risks by aversion. To meet the objectives, structured survey questionnaires for Sections One and Two were used. The first survey found that the current practice of risk allocation has four major problems. These problems include: 1. Dispute, claims and tension leads to adversarial relationships. 2. Competitive relationship leads to aggressive relationships. 3. Subjective pricing of risk leading to higher contingency. 4. Allocation by aversion that leads to misallocation of risks. The second survey found thirteen barriers to optimal risk allocation, which were classified into three main categories: behavioral, technical, and organizational barriers. Lack of an efficient risk allocation mechanism ranks at the top of the identified barriers. These findings were linked, in causal-effects relationships, to formulate an analytic model for the current practice of risk allocation. This dissertation uses the research findings and the rational decision-making process to develop a practical mechanism for optimizing risk allocation. The developed mechanism was then fine-tuned and validated by a Delphi expert panel technique. The developed mechanism should aid construction industry professionals and construction project participants in making rational and economical risk allocation decisions to alleviate the identified above-mentioned problems, overcome the identified barriers, and improve project efficiency by minimizing the negative impacts of the current practice of risk allocation on project cost, schedule and overall project performance. / Graduation date: 2013 / Access restricted to the OSU Community at author's request from Jan. 4, 2013 - July 4, 2013

This research critically analyses and compares how the United Arab Emirates (UAE)1 Law and English and Welsh (EW) Law regulates obligations in a contract, for a thing that is to come into existence in the future, namely a construction contract. Uncertainty/speculation as to how an obligation is to be performed in UAE Law is termed gharar. The word that is synonymous with this terminology in EW Law is “risk”. The extent of gharar or ‘risk’ (these terms are used on an interchangeable basis in this thesis) in an obligation plays a fundamental role in the profitability of a construction contract. Where losses become unacceptable, particularly for the Contractor, a dispute will arise. These circumstances may be in conflict with UAE Law, which obligates parties to a contract to ensure circulation of wealth by maintaining the anticipated profit to be made from a contract. This analysis also reviews how the level of gharar or ‘risk’ can be increased by operation of two types of provision that are included in standard forms of construction contract such as the International Federation of Consulting Engineers, Geneva, Switzerland (FIDIC) Conditions of Contract for Construction for Building and Engineering Works Designed by the Employer 1st Ed. 1999 (FIDIC99). The first is a provision that releases the Employer from liability where the Contractor does not give timely notice of an Employer’s act of prevention. The second is a provision giving the Employer a discretion to act in an opportunistic manner, and exempt or limit his liability. It considers how FIDIC99 should be applied to control gharar or ‘risk’ in a positive way. It also identifies similarities between how UAE Law controls gharar and that of the notion of parties’ reasonable expectations in contract Law (herein referred to as parties’ expectations), and how relational contracts operate to ensure parties achieve their expectations.