CHANGE MANAGEMENT CAPABILITY MATURITY MODEL FOR CONSULTING FIRMS IN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY IN EKITI STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study assess the change management capability maturity level of consulting organizations in building projects and develops a change management capability maturity assessment model for construction consulting firms in Ekiti State with a view to improving their capability in managing project change. The study identifies the significant factors contributing to changes in building projects and also identifies the features of capability maturity models in general. The population sample for this research included the list of construction consultancy firms in Ekiti State. The population of this study was six Architectural consultancy firms, one project management consultancy firm, ten Quantity Surveying consultancy firms, five Mechanical Engineering consultancy firms and four Structural Engineering consultancy firms making a total of twenty six consultancy firms. A survey questionnaire was administered among the respondents and the responses were analyzed using SPSS analytic statistical tool to determine the frequencies, mean, standard deviation, and also fuzzy synthetic evaluation method was used to determine the overall change management capability level of the respective consultancy firms. From the result of the fuzzy synthetic evaluation analysis, the answers received (via questionnaire survey adopted) assess the consultancy organization’s capability maturity through measuring its performance against these areas (Leadership, Application, Competences, Standardization, Socialization, Change Readiness, Client/end user requirement) so that problems in these areas are identified and prioritized for improvement. The overall maturity of a consultancy organization’s change management capability is defined based on the result of the fuzzy synthetic evaluation and this is measured against the five-level maturity scale. Overall capability maturity level of the firms were evaluated and this determines the level at which the firm operates i.e. level 1- Initial, level 2- Repeatable, level 3- Defined, level 4- Managed, level 5- Optimizing. The overall change management capability level was 4.44 which is above level 4 on the maturity level scale. This invariably shows that the consultancy organizations in Ekiti State are at maturity level 4 (The managed level). This invariable show that the consultancy firms in Ekiti state still needs to improve on their construction change management skills. These consultancy firms can as well be a good representation of consultancy firms in the Nigerian construction industry owing to the fact all the attributes identified are common to all consultancy firms in the construction industry therefore the areas that needed to be improved upon as identified by these research work can be documented and referenced for other consultancy firms in the construction industry.