Project Team Planning and Performance of Housing Projects in Kenya

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of project team planning on the performance of housing projects in Kenya. Methodology: The study applied mixed methods research design. The study target population was 675 strategic registered contractors in the housing projects in Nairobi metropolitan, Kenya. Based on Yamane Formula adopted the sample size for this study was 251 respondents. Purposive sampling was used to select the 251 from the list of 675 contractors. The respondents consisted of the project managers; engineers; architects; contractors; and the site supervisors. The study used both primary and secondary data using semi structured questionnaires and interview guides. The study used SPSS version 25 software to analyze the data where both descriptive and inferential analyses were obtained. Results: The inferential analysis results revealed that project team planning had a significant and positive influence on the performance of housing projects in Kenya at p<0.05. This indicates that project team skills, project team experience, communication plan and project team efficacy are vital in the performance of housing projects. The study used analysis of variance to determine whether the model is significant and shows the good fit for the data. The Coefficient of determination R2 of 0.513 showed that 51.3% of housing project performance is explained by project team planning. Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: While the existing competency theory used in this study was validated, the study recommends that contractors in Kenya should consider project team planning as an important aspect in housing projects as has been observed by majority of the contractors. The study recommends the government to make appropriate policies in housing implementation in the ministry of housing which promote the establishment of comprehensive project teams that include experts in various domains such as architecture, engineering, finance, and project management.