Towards a quality culture in Malaysian construction industry

Abstract

The construction industry is being viewed as one with poor quality emphasis compared to other sectors like the manufacturing and service sectors (Kubal 1994, Kanji & Wong 1998, Wong & Fung 1999). Many criticisms have been directed to the construction industry for generally shoddy workmanship. It not only the final product that is subject to criticisms but the processes, the peoples, the materials etc are under tremendous pressure for better quality in construction. This is mainly the result of the industry’s failure to achieve the expected performance level in delivering its finished product and its customer service. The accelerated change in nearly every aspect of the economy, driven by technological developments in the manufacturing and service industries, has fuelled several paradigm shifts in business management. However, construction is singled out as one that is still dominated by attitudes, technologies, processes, and a culture that are at least half a century old (Dulaimi et al. 2001).