Investigating the Causes of Variation Orders in Egypt

Perspective of Medium and Small-Sized Companies

Abstract

Introduction: Variation order became one of the major issues that is presented in construction projects. The nature of work in the construction industry is complex and difficult. Thus, variation order is expected to occur in every project due to its nature. The purpose of the study was to investigate the causes of variation order in construction projects in Egypt according to the perspective of professional parties working for medium and small sized construction companies. The main method used for data collection was a questionnaire survey with experts working in the Egyptian construction industry. 62 participants from 18 construction companies were invited to take part of the study, 51 of them accepted the invitation. The findings showed the top ranked causes of variation order according to small and medium sized construction companies were poor communication, omissions in the design, financial limitations of the owner, additional work requested by the client, and contractor’s desire to gain more profits. Thus, the proper understanding of the causes of the problem can be helpful towards establishing a suitable criterion for reducing variation orders in construction projects in Egypt. The contribution of this study lies in the fact that only a very limited number of research explored the perspective of medium and small sized construction companies in Egypt. The study can be useful for other countries with similar working conditions and still suffering from the adverse impact of variation order.