BTQS3053 Project and Dissertation I

Impacts of Covid-19 Pandemic in the Malaysian Construction

Industry

BY

Teo Shek Ven

DEPARTMENT OF QUANTITY SURVEYING

FACULTY OF BUILT ENVIRONMENT

TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

KUALA LUMPUR

2021/2022
Impacts of Covid-19 Pandemic in the Malaysian Construction Industry

By

Teo Shek Ven

Supervisor: Dr. Sia Mal Kong

Project dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the

award of the Bachelor of Quantity Surveying (Honours)

Department of Quantity Surveying

Faculty of Built Environment

Tunku Abdul Rahman University College

Kuala Lumpur

2021/2022

Copyright © 2022 by Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

All rights reserved. No part of this dissertation may be reproduced, stored in

a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the

prior permission of Tunku Abdul Rahman University College

 DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY

“The project submitted herewith is a result of my own investigations. All information that

has been obtained from other sources had been fully acknowledged. I understand that

plagiarism constitutes a breach of University College rules and regulations and would be

subjected to disciplinary actions.”

Signature

Joeyteo
Teo Shek Ven

Date: 12/4/2022

ii
 ACKNOWLEGMENT

First of all, I would like to use this opportunity to express my deepest appreciation and

gratitude for the people, individuals and even for the organization who lend their hand to

support and help on completing my final year project. It was a great chance for me, and I

will never forget to thank them for their guidance and assistance.

Secondly, I did like to offer my sincere appreciation to the Faculty of Built Environment

in Tunku Abdul Rahman University College for providing me with the chance to conduct

this research. Next, I did want to convey my gratitude to our esteemed supervisor, Dr Sia

Mal Kong, for all of his assistance in completing my assignment, especially the

referencing and format part. He also took the time to answer my questions. Therefore, I

am grateful to you for providing us with this opportunity.

Other than that, I would also like to express my thankfulness to my fellow friends and

classmates as they are open for sharing their personal experiences or providing some

necessary advice and guidance on my research paper. Last but not least, I am appreciative

of my parents as they always give unlimited support and encouragement for every

decision and step that I wish to make. All of these help, I am able to complete my PD 1

on time which I really appreciate.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY ......................................................................... ii

ACKNOWLEGMENT .................................................................................................. iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................................. iv

LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................ vii

LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................... viii

LIST OF SYMBOLS/ABBREVIATION ..................................................................... ix

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................... 1

1.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 1

1.2 Background Information .................................................................................... 1

1.3 Problem Statement ............................................................................................. 3

1.4 Research Questions ............................................................................................ 4

1.5 Research Objectives ........................................................................................... 5

1.6 Scope of Research .............................................................................................. 5

1.7 Methodology ...................................................................................................... 5

1.8 Research Significance ........................................................................................ 6

1.9 Summary ............................................................................................................ 7

CHAPTER 2 LITREATURE REVIEW ....................................................................... 8

2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 8

2.2 Impacts of Covid-19 Pandemic .......................................................................... 8

2.2.1 Impacts on Workers .......................................................................................... 8

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 2.2.2 Impacts on Company ................................................................................ 11

2.3 Strategies of managing and mitigating the spread of Covid-19 pandemic ...... 14

2.4 Effectiveness of SOP in preventing the Covid-19 pandemic ........................... 20

2.4.1 Covid-19 Screening Test .......................................................................... 21

2.4.2 Social Distancing ...................................................................................... 22

2.4.3 Wear a mask.............................................................................................. 23

2.4.4 Maintain hygiene ...................................................................................... 24

2.4.5 Reduce 50% worker’s capacity................................................................. 26

2.4.6 Vaccination of Covid-19................................................................................. 27

2.5 Summary .......................................................................................................... 28

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY......................................................... 29

3.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 29

3.2 Research Process .............................................................................................. 30

3.3 Technic Data Collection ........................................................................................ 30

3.3.1 Primary Data Collection ................................................................................. 30

3.3.1.1 Qualitative Approaches ............................................................................... 31

3.3.1.2 Quantitative Approaches ............................................................................. 31

3.3.1.3 Mixed Method Research .............................................................................. 32

3.3.2 Secondary Data Collection ............................................................................. 33

3.4 Research Design .................................................................................................... 33

3.5 Questionnaire Design ............................................................................................ 34

3.6 Research Sampling ................................................................................................ 37

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 3.7 Data analysis technique ......................................................................................... 38

3.8 Summary ............................................................................................................... 40

CHAPTER 4 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................... 41

4.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 41

4.2 Discussion on objectives .................................................................................. 41

4.2.1 Discussion on impacts of Covid-19 pandemic to the construction industry

41

4.2.2 Discussion on strategies of managing and mitigating the spread of Covid-

19 pandemic in the construction workplaces. .......................................................... 42

4.2.3 Discussion on effectiveness of SOP in preventing the Covid-19 pandemic

among construction workers. ................................................................................... 43

4.3 Summary ............................................................................................................... 44

4.4 Project Planning .................................................................................................... 45

REFERENCES.............................................................................................................. 46

APPENDICES ............................................................................................................... 52

Appendix A: Survey Questionnaire ............................................................................ 52

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 LIST OF TABLES

Table 2. 1 The Detailed Labour Productivity.............................................................................. 11

Table 2. 2 Phase 1 in National Recovery Plan ............................................................................ 16

Table 2. 3 Phase 2 & 3 in National Recovery Plan ..................................................................... 17

Table 2. 4 Qualitative Approach VS Quantitative Approach...................................................... 32

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 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2. 1 Labour Productivity of First Quarter 2020 ............................................................... 10

Figure 2. 2 Malaysia's GDP from Q1 2017 to Q1 2020 .............................................................. 13

Figure 2. 3 Weekly Covid-19 cases VS weekly recoveries in Malaysia ..................................... 20

Figure 2. 4 Working hour loss estimates for the first 3 quarter and projections for the fourth quarter

of 2020 ........................................................................................................................................ 26

Figure 2. 5 The infection and symptomatic for partially and fully vaccinated ........................... 28

Figure 2. 6 Research Process (Dudovskiy, 2022) ....................................................................... 30

Figure 2. 7 Proposed Timeline .................................................................................................... 45

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 LIST OF SYMBOLS/ABBREVIATION

ABC Associated Builders and Contractors

CDC Centres for Disease Control and Prevention

CIDB Construction Industry Development Board

CIVac Construction Industry Vaccination

CLQ Centralised Labour Quarters

CMCO Conditional Movement Control Orders

EMCO Enhanced Movement Control Orders

EOT Extension of Time

ERT Emergency Response Team

GDP Gross Domestic Product

ILO International Labour Organisation

KKR Kementerian Kerja Raya

L&E Loss and Expenses

MCO Movement Control Order

MITI The Ministry of International Trade and Industry

MOH Ministry of Health

NRP National Recovery Plan

OHSA Occupational Health and Safety Committees

RMCO Resumption of Movement Control Orders

SOP Standard Operating Procedures

SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences

WHO World Health Organization

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 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

In this particular chapter, it will discuss the background information and problem

statement that comes with research objectives, scope of research. Not only that, this

chapter will also discuss the methodology, research significance and summary in respect

of impacts of Covid-19 pandemic in the Malaysian construction industry for better

enhancement of the research.

1.2 Background Information

2019 Coronavirus disease which also known as Covid-19, was declared as a pandemic by

the World Health Organization (WHO) in March 2020, with many economic implications

for business around the world (Ogunnusi, Hamma-Adamma, Salma & Kouider 2020, pp.

120-128). The pandemic resulted in the imposition of a total lockdown in many countries

after a significant peak of positive Covid-19 cases was detected. In Malaysia, the

government implemented a restrictive approach called "Movement Control Order'' (MCO)

on 18 March 2020 to curb and suppress the spread of the virus (Ain Umaira Md Shah,

Syafiqah Nur Azrie Safri, Nor Kamariah Noordin, Azmanwani Abd Rahman, Zamberi

Sekawi, Aini Ideris & Mohamed Thariq Hameed Sultan 2020, pp. 108-116). This

lockdown has led to the country facing a major socio-economic crisis as many sectors

have needed to be temporarily closed in order to assist government decision-making.

Without a doubt, the construction industry is also one of the sectors which are affected

(Naomie Salim, Chan, WH, Suhaimi Mansor, Nor Erne Nazira Bazin, Safiya Amaran,

Ahmand Athif Mohd Fauzi, Anazida Zainal, Sharin Hazlin Huspi, Khoo, E.J.H. & Shaekh

Mohammad Shithil, 2020).

1
During the period from 2020 to 2021, government has made an attempt to implement

several measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in the society, such as Enhanced

Movement Control Orders (EMCO), Resumption of Movement Control Orders (RMCO)

and Conditional Movement Control Orders (CMCO). In the meantime, Malaysia has not

won the war against the Covid-19 pandemic yet (Kaos & Chung 2020). As we all know,

the construction industry is one of the most significant industries that can encourage the

nation's development. It requires many workers to work concurrently in order to carry out

the work properly and successfully (Mohd Shahidan Shaari, Faiz Masnan, Nur Salimah

Alias & Razinda Tasnim Abdul Rahim 2021, p.020058). Nevertheless, all of this

instability has brought the construction industry into a critical status. There are a lot of

projects that were forced to stop and shut down during the whole restriction period as it

jeopardizes personal safety especially for construction site workers (Biswas, Ghosh, Kar,

Mondal, Ghosh & Bardhan 2021, p.012054).

The reason for choosing this topic for research is that Covid-19 pandemic had caused

many implications for the construction industry. Although some movement control orders

implemented by the government allowed the construction industry to resume their

operations and work progress within conditions of complying with the Standard

Operating Procedures (SOP), the long shutting down period has caused huge effects such

as delaying the projects (Bailey, J, Bouchardie, N & Madelena, I 2020). It has not only

brought an impact on the construction project itself, but also created a precarious situation

for all the companies, workers and society involved (Mohd Shahidan Shaari et al, 2021).

Not in addition to that, the construction industry needs to be more vigilant in

implementing mandatory safety measures and guidelines to overcome and additionally

2
reduce the risk of Covid-19 spreading throughout the construction industry when it is

allowed to resume in the future (LoBue, L.B. & Lua-Valenicia, J.L. 2020).

1.3 Problem Statement

The construction industry was significantly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic due to the

various lockdowns imposed by the government nationwide from 18 March 2020

(Flanders Trade, 2021). In order to curb the spread of the virus, stop-work orders were

issued to all construction sites in certain states of the country when MCO were

implemented, with the exemption of certain works that belong to the list of essential

services for the construction industry (Bernama, 2021). The construction industry was

greatly affected during the pandemic due to the various lockdowns and restrictions

enforced by the government. Many construction projects were being delayed due to the

need for contractors to follow and comply with these restrictions. The pandemic also

pushed many construction companies to the border of bankruptcy due to the temporary

suspension of construction sites during the lockdown. This is a critical issue that will

directly lead to a drop in the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the construction

industry contributes significantly to the country's economy (Biswas et al. 2021).

Consequently, it is important to identify the impact on the construction industry so that

the government will be able to put in place some recovery plans to help the struggling

construction companies during this economic recession.

As cases of Covid-19 continue to rise, it is necessary to carry out various strategies on

construction sites to curb the spread of the virus among workers. The Construction

Industry Development Board (CIDB) has introduced a complete SOP guide for the

different stages of MCO in order to effectively control the infection rate on construction

sites. Yet, many contractors are still not adhering and following the SOP during their

3
operations. Based on Teoh (2021), a total of 150 construction sites were under stop-work

orders for non-compliance with SOPs during MCO 3.0. Due to the proliferation of Covid-

19 cases, it is essential to pay attention to the enforcement of SOPs in the workplace by

contractors. It has been reported that SOP best practices can work to help avoid the spread

of viruses on construction sites, thus allowing construction projects to continue and

stimulating the country's economic development (CIDB, 2020).

According to the data from the Ministry of Health (MOH), it was revealed that 11.56%

of Covid-19 cases were from construction sites and it shows that it is under Top 3 of most

infection rates among different sectors in Malaysia (Codeblue 2021). As per Afiq Aziz

(2020), it shows that there are 630 new positive cases which were detected and found

from the Damanlela construction site in Kuala Lumpur. The high volume of cases has

drawn attention to the effectiveness of the SOP which is implemented in the construction

industry, especially construction sites.

1.4 Research Questions

Based on the Section 1.3 problem statement above, several research questions should be

emphasized:

I. What are the impacts of Covid -19 Pandemic in the construction industry?

II. What are the strategies of managing and mitigating the spread of Covid-19

Pandemic in the construction workplaces?

III. What is the effectiveness of implementing Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)

in preventing the spread of the Covid-19 Pandemic among construction workers?

4
1.5 Research Objectives

The aim of this study is to carry out research on impacts of Covid-19 pandemic in the

Malaysian construction industry. The research objectives are:

I. To identify the various impacts of Covid-19 pandemic to the construction

industry.

II. To investigate the strategies of managing and mitigating the spread of Covid-19

pandemic in the construction workplaces.

III. To investigate the effectiveness of implementing Standard Operating Procedures

(SOP) in preventing the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic among construction

workers.

1.6 Scope of Research

Basically, this research will aim on construction field worker’s satisfaction and comments

on how the Covid-19 pandemic impacts the Malaysian construction industry. The

evaluation of construction field workers’ satisfaction will only comment and cover the

topic surrounding impact of Covid-19, satisfaction of strategies that manage and mitigate

the spread of Covid-19 and the effectiveness of implementation of Standard Operating

Procedures (SOP). The targeted population are the construction field workers such as

Developer, Quantity Surveyor, Architect, Contractor, Engineering, even for the

construction site workers as well in Malaysia.

1.7 Methodology

In this research, all the data and findings are collected from primary and secondary

sources. By using these two sources, it is able to achieve the objectives of the research.

The primary sources of data are collected from online questionnaires by using quantitative

5
research methods. Basically, the questionnaire survey method is frequently used in order

to collect the data and information from the respondents about the research objectives.

Not only that, his method can be productively used by researchers in order to obtain

primary data from a wide range of respondents. Therefore, the distribution of

questionnaires will be targeted to the respondent of construction field workers with

specific positions such as the Site Supervisor, Quantity Surveyor, Contractor or some

office workers who have a minimum one-year experience on the construction field in

Malaysia. After collecting the data through questionnaires from respondents, it will then

evaluate and analyse by using appropriate software and technology such as Statistical

Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software in order to achieve the research

objectives.

1.8 Research Significance

Covid-19 was a serious crisis that brought the global economy and society to a critical

state. This pandemic had many repercussions in the short and long term. Therefore, the

significance of doing this research is to figure out and further understand the impact of

Covid-19 pandemic in the Malaysian construction industry. Not only that, it will also be

able to know the strategies of managing and mitigating the spread of Covid-19 in

construction workplaces such as offices, sites and so on. By investigating the strategies,

this research will also investigate the effectiveness of implementing Standard Operating

Procedures (SOP) in preventing the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic among construction

field’ workers so that the people especially construction workers will be able to

understand the importance of implementing Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) to

prevent the spread of Covid-19.

6
1.9 Summary

In a nutshell, the background information has shown Malaysia's government

implementing certain measures such as lock downs to curb the pandemic of Covid-19 and

how the Covid-19 impacts the country which brings the country facing a major socio-

economic crisis.

Besides that, the problem statement has mentioned that the construction industry was

greatly affected during the pandemic due to the various lockdowns and restrictions

enforced by the government. It also mentioned that it is necessary to carry out various

strategies on construction sites to curb the spread of the virus among construction field’

workers such as Developer, Quantity Surveyor, Architect, Contractor, Engineering, even

for the construction site workers as well in Malaysia.

Therefore, the research objectives that focus on impacts of Covid-19 pandemic, the

strategies of managing and mitigating the spread of Covid-19 and the effectiveness of

implementing Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) among construction workers.

Furthermore, the questionnaire will be then distributed to the construction field’ workers

such as Developer, Quantity Surveyor, Architect, Contractor, Engineering, even for the

construction site workers as well in Malaysia in order to reach the objective of this

research and study. The collected data will then be analysed by appropriate technology

which is Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) software.

Throughout the whole research, the reader will be able to understand the impacts of

Covid-19 pandemic in the Malaysian construction industry.

7
 CHAPTER 2 LITREATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

The construction industry in Selangor has finally been able to fully resume operations on

18 October 2021 after many movement controls have been imposed since Selangor

reached Phase 4 in the National Recovery Plan (NRP). This chapter will be aimed to

discuss the impacts of Covid-19 pandemic in the Malaysian construction industry and

suggest some strategies to managing and mitigating the spread of Covid-19 pandemic in

the construction workplaces. Not only that, this chapter will also investigate the

effectiveness of implementing Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) in preventing the

spread of the Covid-19 pandemic among construction workers. In order to identify the

various impacts of Covid-19 pandemic that brings to the Malaysian construction industry

in this research, the literature review is then carried out by using several sources such as

journal articles, newspaper, electronic publications and so on to identify the research.

2.2 Impacts of Covid-19 Pandemic

2.2.1 Impacts on Workers

In the beginning of Covid-19 Pandemic that occurred in Malaysia, the construction

industry activities had been controlled and affected by the movement control that was

implemented by the government such as MCO, EMCO, CMCO and RMCO. The

movement control’s SOP is not allowing the construction site works to operate as usual

or restrict the workforces with low rates of productivity in construction works for

complying with the SOP. Based on Construction Plus (2021), the whole industry has

experienced total stop construction work durations which are up to 199 days and the

8
restriction of low rates productivity durations is up to 380 days which is more than a year.

Based on the Table 2.1, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (2020) shows that the

labour productivity of total employment has decreased dramatically from Quarter 4 2019

with 1.4% of value added per employment to -0.8% of value in Quarter 1 2020 in

Malaysia. According to Araya (2021, p. 105022), the construction workforce has

decreased around the range of 30% to 90% for the construction projects due to the Covid-

19 pandemic. Based on Figure 2.1, it shown that the labour productivity has dropped in

Quarter 1 in 2020 compared to Quarter 4 in 2019 (Department of Statistics Malaysia

Office Portal 2020). Based on what Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof said, the construction

works are not allowed to operate as usual during the whole nationwide lockdown unless

the work is deemed as critical or emergency which stated in The Star (30 May). For

example, the traffic lights that will affect the road user safety can be repaired during the

nationwide lockdown period as it will bring inconvenience or hazard to the environment,

workers and public as well. As the public infrastructure is also one of the critical

construction works, therefore the construction site is able to continue operating during

the lockdown period. He also mentioned that there are limitations of only 60% worker’s

capacity allowed in the site for the construction works in order to comply with the SOP

that was announced by the government in Malaysia. These strict SOP has caused the

construction site workers to lose their job in total of losing 30% of manpower and income

from the construction industry (Afizah Ayob 2021). As the construction companies

themselves are facing the difficulties in the financial problem, therefore there are many

workers who are not able to get paid by the company or even being laid off by their

employers as well. Thus, all of these have resulted in many construction workers for

losing their job and facing economic hardship in the meantime (Biswas et al. 2021).

Normally the workers that work in the construction site will be paid hourly or monthly

9
depending on the work scope and experiences. Due to the limitations of worker’s capacity

in construction sites, some of the workers are only allowed to work for a certain day in a

week or some of the workers will not be needed totally in the few months due to the

restrictions especially for the general workers. This bad situation has brought the workers

into serious conditions as they have faced the huge deductions of income for a day, even

more than a month. It is a worse situation for the migrant workers as they are normally

paid by lower rates which according to their own productivity in the construction sites

during the whole Covid-19 pandemic (Wahab 2020).

Figure 2. 1 Labour Productivity of First Quarter 2020

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 Table 2. 1 The Detailed Labour Productivity

Labour Labour Gross Total Total

Sector Productivity Productivity Domestic Employmen Hour
Per Per Hour Product t Worked
Employmen Worked
t
Agriculture -8.9 -7.1 -8.7 0.1 -1.8
Mining & -0.4 3.8 -2.0 -1.7 -5.6
Quarrying
Manufacturing -0.2 2.2 1.5 1.6 -0.7
Construction -5.3 -1.6 -7.9 -2.7 -6.4
Services 0.5 3.7 3.1 2.5 -0.6
Total -0.8 2.1 0.7 1.6 -1.4

2.2.2 Impacts on Company

In the effect of Covid-19 Pandemic, it has brought and pushed many companies in

different kinds of sectors to their toughest time in their whole managing business life. The

Ernst & Young (2020) mentioned that there are having 32% of big and listed companies

have suffered their downtime in daily operations and 31% of small and medium sized

enterprises experienced delays in completing their construction project due to the various

lockdown and movement control. Based on the For Construction Pros (2021), it shows

several types of construction such as non-residential building, heavy and civil engineering

construction, residential building and so on are facing an employment decline growth in

February 2020 versus February 2021. Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) from

U.S. The construction industry with cooperation of the Bureau of Labour Statistics in the

U.S. has analysed data which shows the construction industry employment rate is having

significant changes in this big country, therefore Malaysia supposedly will suffer more

than that. Not only that, according to the sources from GlobalData, it shows that there is

a significant decrease in the global construction output with up to 3.1% in 2021 which

contrasts with the forecast and prediction that did before this (Marsh 2021). The National

House Buyers Association (HBA) from Malaysia has come up with a report showing that

11
there are 17,000 companies affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and all of these companies

are the main drivers of the Malaysian construction industry (National House Buyers

Association 2020).

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Malaysia is now experiencing the worst economic

downturn in its history just as other developing countries are facing a deep recession

(Landau, 2020). Figure 2.2 has shown the GDP of Malaysia in Quarter 1,2020 has

decreased around 7.9% (Department of Statistics Malaysia Office Portal 2020). Therefore,

many business owners are facing a financial crisis especially for the construction

company. It is clear that the pandemic has brought many impacts to the construction

industry such as the shortage of supply of the construction materials by the supplier due

to the country's restriction rules and conditions in order to curb the spread of Covid-19.

As (Construction Market Experts 2021) said, there is an increasing trend happening in the

price of raw materials for the construction industry in the end of 2020 and the first quarter

of 2021 as the disruption of supply chains from other countries has caused the limited

stock availability in the market. Some countries such as China implement their own

restrictions rules on shipping material to other countries to stop the spread of Coronavirus

and resulting in increasing the shipping prices and the material prices will be increasing

accordingly as well. There is research that proves that some of the material prices will be

increasing 7% to 8% such as steel, timber that are expected to increase double in a year

(Dunkling 2021). Construction materials shortage and double price increase have resulted

in many construction companies not able to afford the increased price of construction

materials and end up with non-completion of construction works or being forced to delay

their works due to the insufficient working capital (Hoffer 2021). An investigation was

produced by Ernst & Young showing that only 2% of construction companies have

prepared well for the pandemic of Covid-19 (Harapko 2021). All of these impacts will

12
lead the construction companies to lose their profit (Hoffer 2021). Thus, the construction

company should use their best endeavours to avoid the delayed project happening in the

construction projects (Marsh 2021).

Figure 2. 2 Malaysia's GDP from Q1 2017 to Q1 2020

In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, CIDB has released a list of SOP for the construction

industry to resume operations during the lockdown period (CIDB, 2020). In this list of

SOP, there are many restrictions that have been forced by the Government in order to

curb the spread of Covid-19 in the construction industry. For example, the number of

workers shall be reduced to the minimum level of only 50% of capacity and are allowed

to work as usual no matter in construction site or construction office. They are

encouraging the management to have home virtual meetings to minimise the contact

between employer and employees. Therefore, all of the construction companies should

make a major effort to adapt the strategies to comply with the SOP enforced by the

Government. As (Hoffer 2021) said, up to 75% of construction companies need to adjust

their working operations and working process to continuously improve and follow the

strategies on curbing the spread of Covid-19 such as practising the social distance

13
between employer and employees. The construction company has the responsibility to

ensure on providing the safe and covid-19 free working environment for their employees

in order to protect them during the working time (Marsh 2021).

In a construction project, there is a contractual relationship that will involve a legal

framework and relationship in order to complete the whole construction project. The

contractual relationship can be between the Employer and Contractor, Employer and

Consultant, Contractor and Subcontractor and so on (Designing Building 2020). The

parties will be entering the mutual contractual arrangement that is enforced by law with

written up an arrangement on the terms and conditions. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic,

the government has implemented various types of lockdown and restriction to mitigate

the spread of Covid-19 and the result is that the construction works need to postpone and

delay for complying with the SOP that was announced by the government. As a result,

both of the contractual parties have suffered the impacts that brought by the pandemic.

The Contractor needs to suffer from deploying the labour, procuring the materials of site,

management of the personnel in the construction projects and the Employer need to suffer

from facing the project delays which affect their financial turnaround (Rahmat Lim &

Partners 2020). Before the PAM Contract 2018 (With Quantities) and P.W.D Form, it

shows that the Covid-19 pandemic is defined as Force Majeure, many contractual parties

will argue and dispute to get Extension of Time (EOT) and Loss and Expenses (L&E) in

order to minimise their loss in the unexpected event.

2.3 Strategies of managing and mitigating the spread of Covid-19 pandemic

Based on what Farah Solhi (2021) stated in her articles, there are 91 percent of total cluster

in Selangor area are come from workplace which 80 percent of cluster are come from

factory and 11percent of cluster are come from construction workplaces. Not only that,

14
there is one research that mentioned that the construction workplace is having higher

transmission risk as compared to other industries. The construction industry required all

the workers to have physical contact to carry out the construction task, therefore it was

considered as high transmission risk of Covid-19 among each other (Pasco, R.F, Fox, S.J,

Johnston, S.C, Pignone, M & Meyers, L.A. 2020, pp. e2026373-e2026373). As Biswas

et al. (2021) mentioned, the construction industry is one of the most important sectors

since it is major in providing economic advantages to the country. As a result, Malaysia

implementing the various types of nationwide lockdown during the early years of 2020

has caused the whole country as well as construction companies to be facing a significant

financial crisis. At the beginning of outbreak Covid-19 in Malaysia, the prime minister’s

office announced that the whole country will be entering into FMCO, where only the

essential service and some of the economic sectors which include the critical construction

work are able to operate as usual during the period (Skrine 2021). Drawing back to the

second half year of 2021, the prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin finally announced

that the whole country will be entering into the National Recovery Plan after the long

period of lockdown. This recovery plan will be helping all the economic sectors to resume

their operations and encouraging all the people to be corporate and concentrate in order

to achieve the recovering phase from Covid-19 pandemic. The Ministry of International

Trade and Industry (MITI) with cooperation of CIDB, has implemented and published a

full list of SOP for the whole construction industry in order to let the construction field

working during the Covid-19 pandemic according to the phase of National Recovery Plan

that the state is in which categories (Skrine 2021). Based on the SOP attached in Table

2.2 and Table 2.3, the state in Phase 1 of National Recovery Plan, the construction

industry is only able to resume operation if the work is critical such as maintenance and

repair work that will bring danger and harm to the people and public or environment, the

15
contractor that has Grade 1, 2, 3 and Grade 4 able to work with their construction project

as usual and so on. In Phase 2 of the National Recovery Plan, the site preparation works

such as site clearing, setting out and earthworks are able to resume. Not only that, the

highway and road work construction is also able to resume the work as usual during this

particular phase. Moreover, the state that entered Phase 3 of the National Recovery Plan

allowed all types of construction work to resume operations. The National Recovery Plan

is a measure that is able to assist the state and country to recover from the Covid-19

pandemic, at the same time it also will be able to stop and minimise the spreading of

viruses among all the workplaces (The Star 2021).

Table 2. 2 Phase 1 in National Recovery Plan

16
 Table 2. 3 Phase 2 & 3 in National Recovery Plan

Based on the SOP that was implemented by the CIDB, there are various types of steps

that need to be taken before entering the construction workplace which include that all of

the persons that wanted to enter the construction site need to undergo a Covid-19

screening test for ensuring they are safe enough to work. On top of that, the measuring of

temperature and screening of symptoms should be implemented by the Occupational

Health and Safety Committees (OHSA) trained companies for screening every day and

record down results every day for keeping the period of at least 3 months (Zul Rafique &

Partners 2020). Wearing the face mask will be compulsory for entering the construction

workplace even though they have no any symptoms of Covid-19 as the face mask will

slow down the spread of Covid-19 and protect each other in the construction workplace

(CDC 2021). Furthermore, the employer has the responsibility of ensuring all the staff
17
and employees that work in the construction workplace need to practise social distancing

which is at least 1 metre between each other when the situations allow. As the government

poses the limitation that all the construction workers are only able to have movement

between home and the workplace, the construction companies are forced to adjust the

transport arrangement for the workers to travel between their home and the workplace.

As a result, the construction companies need to undergo the sanitization and disinfection

procedures before and after every use for the vehicles that are used to transport the

construction worker to the workplace. In addition, the construction workplace is

encouraged to prepare and provide the sanitizer equipment such as hand sanitizer which

contain more than 60% of alcohol, fogging machines, hand soap and clean water supply

for the workers to emphasise hygiene. In the same way, the construction companies are

compelled to reduce their number of workers to the minimum or at least 50 percent

capacity of the current workers and encourage those construction office workers that did

not require any physical activities work from home to minimise the spread of Covid-

19. In addition, the employer is advised to hold a meeting or provide proper training

regarding the preventive measures and accurate information to ensure all the employees

in the construction field are aware of the risk of becoming Covid-19 positive and how to

avoid the spread of the virus as well (CIDB, 2020). On the other hand, there is still the

possibility of getting infected by the Covid-19 in the construction workplace even though

all of the parties have been working together to minimise the risk. Zul Rafique & Partners

(2020) has come up with a guideline for the Centralised Labour Quarters (CLQ) and

worker accommodation during the whole MCO period. Once there are any of the workers

having the symptoms of Covid-19 such as sore throat, coughing, body temperature higher

than 37.5 Celsius or difficulty breathing, the companies shall arrange the worker to isolate

themselves in a special area with the cooperation of Emergency Response Team (ERT)

18
and site supervisor to immediately to stop the spread of viruses among each other

(Department of Occupational Safety and Health 2020). The CLQ has the responsibility

of monitoring the patient of Covid-19 closely during the whole quarantine period; if the

patient has not recovered and conditions have become more serious, he shall inform the

companies in order to arrange for the check up from the doctor. Not only that, the CLQ

is also responsible to track all the close contact or casual contact that directly or indirectly

ways with the positive Covid-19 patient and monitor them closely for safety purposes. It

is recommended that the construction site needs to be evaluated for the possibility of

shutting down the construction site and having Covid-19 screening test for all of the

workers before leaving the site, as this could result in a cluster of pandemics in

construction sites. Equally important, the construction company should hire a competent

team of sanitising and cleaning personnel for the affected area which complies to the

guidelines that are imposed by the Government. It is essential that the employer has to

collaborate with the construction involved parties in order to apply the best practices for

mitigating the loss and damages, as well as continually learn from the past mistake and

take more effective measures and efforts to prevent the Covid-19 outbreaks on

construction sites (Bohm & Miktus 2020). In June 2021, CIDB conducted a programme

called Construction Industry Vaccination Programme known as (CIVac). The

immunisation programme is under a Public-Private partnership with the Covid-19

industry. The aim of this programme is to make sure the construction workers are able to

return to normalcy so that they can continue and speed up their construction projects that

were stopped and delayed by Covid-19 pandemic (Birruntha Subramaniam, 2021). Up to

40,000 construction workers were offered voluntarily to participate in the vaccination

programme and the zones that aimed to get vaccinated are the central, south, east and

north Peninsula and Sabah, Sarawak as well. Jason Thomas (2021) also mentioned that,

19
70 percent are Malaysian and the rest percentage are the foreigner workers. This

programme ended on 28 September 2021 with a total of 100,180 construction workers

being fully vaccinated (Bernama, 2021).

2.4 Effectiveness of SOP in preventing the Covid-19 pandemic

As Syafiqah Salim (2022) mentioned in his article, Malaysia has recorded about 162,793

of Covid-19 confirmed cases on 11 February to 17 February 2022 which had an 85.75

percent increase compared to the previous week which were 4 February to 10 February

2022 as shown in Figure 2.3. This figures have become the latest new highest record of

Covid-19 since it hits our country in the early year of 2020 (The Edge Markets 2022).

Figure 2. 3 Weekly Covid-19 cases VS weekly recoveries in Malaysia

Ngui (2021) also mentioned that the Covid-19 daily confirmed cases has suddenly surged

up to five digits in the second half year of 2020 even though the country is implementing

the various measures and lockdowns to stop the spread of Covid-19. According to Kaos

Jr (2021) reports, there were 630 of Covid-19 confirmed cases in the construction site

which was named Damanlela Construction and it reached the highest number record in

the Kuala Lumpur area. Another article also reported that 428 of Covid-19 confirmed

20
cases were found in the construction workplace by the Health Ministry on 1st August

2021 as Chan (2021) mentioned in the article. As a result of cases increasing continuously,

many have questioned the effectiveness of implementing the SOP at construction sites.

Ngui (2021) also mentioned that the main cause of the outbreak is the emergence of the

extreme infections of Delta and Omicron variants, which are spread by airborne

transmission of the virus. According to the SOP that was implemented by the CIDB which

was also mentioned in objective 2 in this research for the construction workers to comply

with the rules and regulations set by CIDB such as Covid-19 Screening Test, social

distancing, wear a mask, maintain hygiene such as disinfection and sanitization and

reduce the 50% of working capacity in construction industry.

2.4.1 Covid-19 Screening Test

Kiniguide (2020) mentioned that the Bruce Aylward as an Assistant of Director-General

of World Health Organisation has mentioned in his article that he can prove that Covid-

19 screening test is the most effectives measures to detect the positives of Covid-19

patients as he has experiences in China. The screening test is not only able to test positive

for the Covid-19 but also is able to trace the person who is having direct or indirect contact

with the confirmed case patient and self-quarantine for monitoring their own situation in

order to confirmed there are any potential or symptomatic happened during quarantine.

In Malaysia, there are two types of swab tests available for the people to test the active

Covid-19 virus in the body during the whole pandemic. The first one will be RT-PCR

known as Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction which is tested by detecting

the virus with identification of genetic material (RNA) by using throats swab, nasal or

saliva testing that may be available in the public settings. The PCR test has been classified

as the gold standard by the Ministry of Health (MoH) for detecting the active Covid-19

21
infection in the affected people’s bodies. It is having a very high sensitivity with around

(not greater than 90 percent) compared to other screening tests, however there will be

limitations on it which is more expensive than other tests and need longer time to produce

the results. The second test is the RTK-Ag test which is also known as Rapid Test Kit-

Antigen Test. It is a test that is used to detect the Covid-19 infection virus by using our

viral proteins and commonly used by the public as this test has been announced as an

alternative test of PCR by the government which will have the result in a shorter time

(Caring, 2021). When all of the construction workers have taken the Covid-19 screening

test such as (RT-PCR) before returning to the construction workplaces, the likelihood of

Covid-19 transmission at construction sites will be reduced, and able to minimise the

spread of Covid-19 mentioned in Malaysiakini (23 March 2020).

2.4.2 Social Distancing

WHO has mentioned that the Covid-19 transmission will be spread over each other when

the peoples are having closer contact between each other in short range of airborne

transmission. The viruses normally will be spread from the infected person’s nose or

mouth with a few liquid particles that are not able to be seen by eyes easily. Once the

person has had close contact with the infected person that came from droplet transmission

such as direct contact to the nose, eyes and mouth, the person will be getting infected very

soon. Based on the SOP that was implemented by the CIDB (2020), it stated that there

are a minimum 1 metre of social distancing should be practised among each other

especially for those who are working in the construction site to practise social distancing

while they are performing their works in construction sites. Nevertheless, the latest

variants of Covid-19 such as Omicron and Delta are able to spread faster and more

contagious compared to Coronavirus, thus there is research that shows that it is best and

22
encourages the public to practising at least 2 metre of social distancing will be more

effective. Ueki, Furusawa, Iwatsuki-Horimoto, Imai, Kabat, Nishimura & Kawaoka

(2020, pp. e00637-20) demonstrated that the infectious virus may be identified 1 metre

away from the virus transmitter in airborne simulation trials. As a result, a one-metre

social distance is insufficient to prevent the virus from spreading, so construction workers

must maintain a physical gap of at least two metres between them.

2.4.3 Wear a mask

Mask-wearing is a very important step and measure for the construction workers to

prevent the spread of the Covid-19 virus in the construction workplace. The Mayo Clinic

(2022) has mentioned that wearing a face mask is able to slow down the spread of

coronavirus disease (Covid-19) if combined with other safety measures such as physical

distancing, hand sanitising and so on. Not only that, the U.S. Centres for Disease Control

and Prevention (CDC) highlighted that wearing a well-fitted and good condition mask in

public areas is compulsory if the area is a hotspot of positive Covid-19 cases, no matter

if the person has been vaccinated or not vaccinated. The article also mentioned that there

are several masks that are produced in the market that are able to stop the spread of

coronavirus. Medical masks which are known as surgical masks are meant and produced

for the wearer to avoid contact with sprays which contain germ or droplets which contain

virus from others when people sneeze or cough in front of us. The wearer shall make sure

the medical mask is able to have form-fitting and knotting the ear loops as well. KN95

mask is a type of mask respiratory protection that complies with the international

regulations. When the wearer inhales, it will able to filters out the large and minute of

particles which providing better protection than a medical mask. When purchasing a

KN95, you need to be wary because many imitation masks are sold that do not fulfil

23
quality standards in several platforms such as Lazada, Shopee and so on. On the other

hand, N95 mask is a type of respirator that complies with some country’s safety

regulations as the maximum level of protection is provided by a N95. When the wearer

inhales, it will able to filters out the large and minute of particles which providing better

protection than a medical mask, therefore the general public can use non-surgical N95s.

Another mask will be a clothing mask that is designed to catch the droplets when a person

coughs, talks or sneezes. Cloth masks composed of numerous layers of tightly woven

fabric, such as cotton, are the most effective. More droplets will not be able to get through

or escape from a mask with layers. As the variant of viruses such as Delta and Omicron

will be spreading faster through the air, it is recommended that wearing two layers of

mask will have more protections from the infection of coronavirus (Rashvinjeet &

Timbuong 2021). The purpose of the airborne simulation studies was to see how effective

various types of face masks were at preventing viral transmission. It was discovered that

N95 masks had the maximum protective efficiency, which ranged between 80 and 90

percent. Despite the fact that the N95 mask completely covered the face, the virus was

not completely blocked by the uninfected wearer. The infected N95 mask wearer, on the

other hand, exhibited a better protective efficiency against virus spread. As a result, both

the virus recipient and the virus spreader wearing masks were able to effectively stop the

infection from spreading (Ueki et al. 2020).

2.4.4 Maintain hygiene

As CDC (2021) said, the Covid-19 virus can appear anywhere and be able to land on any

surface. If people touch certain surfaces and then touch their mouth, nose, or eyes, they

may become contaminated. In most of the cases, touching a surface poses a little danger

of infection. The Coronavirus has been proven to be contagious for up to nine days on

24
inanimate surfaces such as glass, plastic and metal at room temperature (Vardoulakis,

Sheel, Lal & Gray, 2020). During the changing of working shifts, as well as at the

beginning and conclusion of using shared objects, surfaces such as shared equipment,

vehicles, tools and machines, must be cleansed and disinfected often. This can effectively

safeguard workers from a pandemic of Covid-19. Therefore, handwashing with soap and

water or using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer is the most effective technique to avoid

infection from surfaces and the infection can also be reduced by cleaning and sanitising

surfaces. CDC has come out with a guideline intended for buildings in community

settings and is not meant for healthcare facilities or other facilities with special cleaning

and disinfection laws or procedures. When cleaning the surfaces, it is recommended to

use the products which containing detergent or soap that able to reduce the virus and

germs which occurs on the surfaces by minimising the risk of infections from the virus

surfaces. Cleaning surfaces one time per day is enough for the spaces if there is no contact

of confirmed cases of Covid-19. On the other hand, if there are any Covid-19 patients

who tested positive in the construction workplace within 24 hours, then the companies

shall implement the sanitisation service to disinfect the affected areas. The companies

should ensure that the cleaning staff has been trained well on the proper way of using

products to clean and disinfect the common area in the construction workplace. As a

construction worker, it is important to keep on washing hands with soap and water for at

least 20 seconds immediately after removing the gloves that might contain viruses. In the

conditions of no soap and water, the construction workers shall use alcohol-based

sanitizer with at least 60% to sanitise the hand that will contain virus spread in

construction workplaces efficiently (CDC 2021).

25
2.4.5 Reduce 50% worker’s capacity

Based on the International Labour Organisation (ILO), it states that 81 millions of jobs

have been lost in the year of 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic nationwide among Asia-

Pacific countries. The Figure 2.4 shows the losses of working hours according to the

region and subregion in the first three quarters of 2020. Although it is a critical issue that

is brought to the world, the worker capacity will still need to be reduced in order to

mitigate the spread of Covid-19 in construction workplaces (Internal Labour Organization

2020). The Amir Yusof (2021) reported that 80 percent of workers in the public sector

and 40 percent of the workers in the private sector are forced to work from home to avoid

contracting with each other during the pandemic. Reducing the movement of workers (of

people) by reducing the worker capacity in offices is one of the strategies of the minister

to curb the spread of Covid-19. The main reason for imposing reductions on worker’s

capacity is that it will enable the construction workplace to be safe enough for the workers

to construct the works and this limitation is able to avoid the high risk of contracting and

spreading the Covid-19 as the construction workplace has been considered as a place of

gather large number of workers (OECD 2020).

Figure 2. 4 Working hour loss estimates for the first 3 quarter and projections for the
fourth quarter of 2020
26
2.4.6 Vaccination of Covid-19

The development of vaccine which prevent the Covid-19 virus is a global priority which

also outlining the potential of hurdles and stakes is crucial since regulatory and medical

choices are made based on benefit-risk calculations. Normally, a vaccine needs long

journey to develop but as the Covid-19 has become priority concerned serious virus,

therefore it is unprecedented that vaccination of Covid-19 needs to be approved and

distributed in a large scale before the end of 2020 or until 2021 (Graham 2020). At the

first phase, the vaccinations were aimed to the elderly as they are having a slow immune

response to the vaccination than other young individuals and they are the weakest

individuals to fight against the virus. Not later soon after the elderly, the young adults

need to get vaccinated as well to protect against each other from the spread of Covid-19

(Lipsitch & Dean 2020). CIVac programme which was undertaken by the CIDB and led

by the Ministry of Works known as Kementerian Kerja Raya (KKR) to give the

opportunity of vaccination to the construction workers on a voluntary basis and proved

that the vaccination will help on economy recovery in Malaysia if all the construction

workers get vaccinated (CIDB, 2021). There are several types of Covid-19 vaccines has

offered in Malaysia’s National Vaccination Programme such as AstraZeneca, Pfizer-

BioNTech, Sinovac, CanSino Biologics, Johnson & Johnson and the Spuntik V. Each of

them are coming from different origin such as United Kingdom (UK), United States (US),

China and so on with different kind of type but having a same objective which is to reduce

the spread of Covid-19 pandemic. By vaccination, it proved that the effectiveness of

reducing the Covid-19 patients as shown in Figure 2.4. According to the figure, it shows

that there are 88 percent of reducing the risk of infection and 86 percent for the

symptomatic disease (Codeblue 2021).

27
 Figure 2. 5 The infection and symptomatic for partially and fully vaccinated

2.5 Summary

In this particular chapter, there is some information which is related to the research topic

by using the literature review. A wide range of sources such as journal articles, reported

newspaper and electronic publications have been used and reviewed for getting all the

necessary information. The subject regarding the impacts that brought by the Covid-19

Pandemic, the several strategies that able to mitigate the spread of Covid-19 in the

construction workplace as well as other objectives of this research has been examined.

Based on the literature review that was obtained from secondary sources, there are two

categories of main impacts brought by Covid-19 pandemic and five (5) effectiveness of

implementing the SOP has been investigated and identified in this particular chapter.

28
 CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction

Kothari (2004) argues that in layman's terms, research commonly refers to the exploration

of knowledge and research methodology refers to a method for resolving a research

problem in a methodical and systematic manner. By using this research methodology, it

could be understood that the way of researching is able to be done scientifically. In this

particular chapter, it will show the definition and explanation of the method that was used

to collect data for carrying out the study goals and aim of this research. It consists of a

research process, data collection technique, sampling method, method of data analysis

and questionnaire design.

29
3.2 Research Process

Pick an area
of researh

Finalizing Developing the

the study research aim,
objectives including
research question or
fomulating hypotheses

Undertake
Conclusion
a litreture
of research
review

Picking the
Data
method of data
analysis
collection
Gather the
primary
data

Figure 2. 6 Research Process (Dudovskiy, 2022)

3.3 Technic Data Collection

3.3.1 Primary Data Collection

Normally, the primary data collection means the researcher will be collecting the data and

information from primary sources which is from those interviews, questionnaires, surveys

and so on to get the data directly. Formplus (2020) states that, the aim and objective of

the research and the population that needs to target for collecting data need to be identified

before choosing the appropriate data collection source. Basically, collecting primary data

sources can be done by using qualitative, quantitative or a mixture of qualitative and

quantitative approaches for exploring the aim and objectives of the research. In this

30
research, the quantitative approaches are used and adopted as the method of research. The

questionnaire survey approach is used to gather information or data which relating to the

research objectives from respondents. This method is useful for obtaining the primary

data from a large number of respondents by the researcher.

3.3.1.1 Qualitative Approaches

Qualitative research usually refers to obtaining data by using conversational type of

communication or open ended questions for the market research. The data collected

normally will indicate in word type such as understanding the thoughts, experiences or

concept from others. This approach is able to have a deeper understanding and gaining

wide insights on the research topic that is aimed with. The common methods for

qualitative approaches are interviews which ask some open ended with the targeted

respondents verbally, having discussion with the group of people regarding the topic in

order to exchange ideas and opinion together, literature review which searches other

author’s articles to gain more surveys.

3.3.1.2 Quantitative Approaches

Basically, the quantitative approaches are one of the methods that gathers all the data with

a systematic way of investigation. The data collected usually will indicate in numbers,

graphical data and so on. It enables us to collect the information by spreading out those

online polls, questionnaires and online surveys to the target population for filling up the

required information. These approaches can be used to develop the truth facts of a subject

for predicting the future potential of the service or product. The common methods for

quantitative approaches are sending out specific surveys which include multiple choice

31
or closed questions, observing the unchanged situation such as the natural environment

and so on.

3.3.1.3 Mixed Method Research

As the name implies, the mixed method is one of the ways which combines the qualitative

and quantitative methods for collecting the data of research. This method enables the

researcher to have more complete information rather than a standalone qualitative or

quantitative study as it has the advantages of both methods. Usually, the mixed method

research is used in some complexity and multidisciplinary settings of research. As it is a

combination of both methods, therefore it will consist of two types of collection data

methods which are interviews and questionnaires. The Table 2.4 has shown the difference

between Qualitative Approach and Quantitative Approach (Streefkerk 2019)

Table 2. 4 Qualitative Approach VS Quantitative Approach

Qualitative Approach Quantitative Approach

Mainly on exploring research ideas and Mainly on testing the hypothesis or theory
developing a hypothesis or theory

Data analysed by categorizing, Data analysed by statistical analysis and

interpreting and summarizing math

Proven by words Proven by graphs, tables and numbers

Only few respondent required Required more respondent

Normally will be open-ended question Normally will be closed, which is multiple

choice questions
The major terms: context, subjectivity, The major terms: measurement, testing,
complexity, understanding replicability, objectivity

32
3.3.2 Secondary Data Collection

Secondary data collection means by the data which is obtained from the primary data

collection and transferred to readily available for those researchers to apply on their own

research. The first priority of carrying out research is to conduct a literature review which

is known as data collection of theoretical data and for secondary data collection. The

literature review is able to address all the relevant research questions by integrating the

overall perspectives and findings. The main sources for the secondary data collection

which is literature review is studying all the available online sources such as journal

articles, books published by several researchers on the matter of impact of Covid-19 in

the construction industry.

In this research, Chapter 2 has highlighted all the literature reviews that related to the

impact of Covid-19 pandemic in the construction industry, the strategies of managing and

mitigating the spread of Covid-19 pandemic in the construction workplaces and the

effectiveness of implementing Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) in preventing the

spread of the Covid-19 pandemic among construction workers. All of this has resulted in

enhancing the knowledge of the research topic and creating a proper and appropriate

questionnaire survey in this research.

3.4 Research Design

The research design is the overarching method that is used to choose to integrate the

different components of the study in a logical and cohesive manner, ensuring that the

researchers might effectively address the research problem. Basically, it is the blueprint

for data collecting, measurement, and data analysis. The general strategy that is used to

decide on conducting the research is referred to as the research design. The purpose of a

research design is to guarantee that the evidence which gathers allows to successfully and

33
explicitly address the research challenge. Getting information relating to the research

subject in social sciences research usually requires determining the type of evidence

required to test a hypothesis, evaluate a programme, or adequately describe and assess

the meaning of an observable phenomena. While conducting the research, researchers

might use a variety of data collection methods, such as a case study, interview or

questionnaire. The most typical technique of collecting data in order to meet the goals of

this study is through the distribution of questionnaires and face-to-face interviews. As a

result, the distribution of questionnaires is able to save costs and speed up the whole data

collection process. However, there are some constraints or restrictions that the

questionnaire design must adhere to, such as the need for basic and straightforward

questions. Aside from that, some respondents or industries will likely disregard the

students' questionnaire because it is not their top priority for them to complete.

3.5 Questionnaire Design

For the questionnaire in this research, it will be divided into four sections which asking

closed-ended and consist Section A, Section B, Section C and Section D. The

questionnaire will be designed and set in “Google Form” as it only requires a few minutes

to collect the needed information from the targeted respondents which are easier and more

efficient than other platforms. Below is the arrangement of questionnaires that will be

spreading out to the targeted respondents:

34
 Measures to be implemented for the
construction indusry in Malaysia during
Covid-19 pandemic

Impacts of Covid- Strategies on Effectiveness on

Respondent's 19 pandemic to the mitigating and implementing SOP
Profile construction managing the spread on the construction
industry of Covid-19 pandemic industry

Q1 Q1 Q1 Q1

Q2 Q2
Q2 Q2
Q3
Q3
Q3 Q3
Q4
Q4
Q4 Q5 Q4

Q5 Q6
Q5 Q5
Q7
Q6 Q6
Q8

Q7 Q9 Q7

Q10

35
 i. Section A: Demographic information of the respondents

In this section, it will require the respondents to fill up their personal information such as

name, age, working position in the company, level of education and related working

experience. The targeted respondents will be the workers who worked with construction

companies located in Malaysia. The questionnaire will be asked with closed ended

questions which only have limited choice for the respondents to answer. In this section,

they are not expected to answer their opinion in the questionnaire. For example, the

question will be limited to “Male or Female” in closed ended questions form like the table

shown below.

What is your gender?

 Male
 Female

ii. Section B: Impacts of Covid-19 pandemic on construction industry

Section B is the most important section among other sections as it is used to show the

answer from objective 1 that was mentioned in literature review earlier. The question will

be asked with a checklist of questions with multiple answers so that the target respondents

can tick the related questions that they have suffered from the Covid-19 pandemic on the

construction industry on both impacts of workers themselves or the impacts of the

company.

iii. Section C: The strategies of mitigating and managing the spread of Covid-19

pandemic in the construction industry

Section C will be mainly focused on the objective 2 in literature review that mentioned

earlier by using 5-point Likert scale. The targeted respondents are able to express and

show their level of agreement with the statement of question mentioned in this section by

36
selecting from “Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly Agree” with the level from 1 to 5.

Following table shows the example of a question that will be included in the questionnaire.

Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly

Disagree Agree
50% reduction on
workers capacity at
workplaces

iv. Section D: The Effectiveness of implementing SOP in preventing the spread

of Covid-19 in construction industry

Section D will be similar to Section C which uses the similar method which is 5 point

Likert scale for the targeted respondents to answer the question. In this section, it will

mention the question which related to the last research objectives regarding the

effectiveness of implementing the SOP in the construction industry to stop the spreading

of Covid-19. The scale will be set from “Strongly Ineffective” to “Strongly Effective” for

the targeted respondents to express their thoughtfulness.

Strongly Ineffective Neutral Effective Strongly

Ineffective Effective
50% reduction on
workers capacity at
workplaces

3.6 Research Sampling

The sampling in a research means by it is a progress or a technique of choosing an

appropriate sample or a sample of a population that is used to determine the parameters

37
or features of the entire population. In this research, a sampling technique and process

will be used in a study to pick respondents from populations to create a sample size so

that the data obtained is reliable, narrow and relevant to the research's topic. For this

research, the method of sampling that will be used in the quantitative research is the non-

probability sampling method used to target the population with non-random ways for

obtaining the data for the research purpose. The non-probability sampling method

consists of four types of sampling which includes convenience sampling, purposive

sampling, quota sampling and the snowball sampling as well. In this study, non-

probability sampling with purposive sampling will be used. Purposive sampling is the

superior option when it comes to costs and time considerations because it allows the

researcher to seek out subjects with specific qualities. The target population for this study

is anyone in the construction sector with more than 1.5 years of experience and knowledge.

As a result, purposive sampling enables the researcher to choose the participant in order

to obtain more accurate data for the questionnaire. Since this method eliminates unneeded

participants, the approach helps to save a lot of time and money.

3.7 Data analysis technique

SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) is software that allows different sorts

of researchers to conduct advanced data analysis. Furthermore, this programme functions

as a phobia reducer for statistical and quantitative data from respondents and research

findings. The SPSS software is used in this study to provide output in the form of

graphs, charts, tables, and other visual aids to aid in a thorough comprehension of the

findings. This study employs a variety of statistical techniques, including descriptive

statistics, reliability tests such as inferential statistics, Cronbach Alpha and so on.

38
In a research paper or a study, descriptive statistics is one of the ways for listing and

recording the basic information and aspects of the data. It will serve as the foundation for

quantitative analysis of virtually all data using a combination of basic graphical analysis

in these statistics. Creating tables of means and quantiles, using the dispersion method,

and using cross-tabulations to test hypotheses are all examples of descriptive statistics

techniques. As a consequence, it is a good choice for generating the results for the above-

mentioned objectives one, two, and three because it describes and shows the data using

simple and relevant graphs with a summary directly.

Apart from that, Lee Cronbach invented Cronbach's Alpha, commonly known as

coefficient alpha in the early 1950s. It is a test that assesses the consistency and reliability

of multi-question scales such as the 5 point Likert scale (McLeod 2006). It may be

determined whether there is any similarity between the surveys and findings using a 5

point Likert scale, and if there is, it can be termed high reliability. In summary, a high

alpha value can be obtained by asking many questions in questionnaires; on the other

hand, a low alpha value indicates that the questionnaire is insufficient to provide a result

that is connected to the study purpose. One of the most important steps before distributing

surveys to respondents is to ensure that the value of alpha remains high. This value can

be maintained or reached by including questions about the various impact of the Covid-

19 pandemic on the construction industry, strategies for mitigating and managing the

spread of Covid-19 for the construction industry, and the effectiveness of implementing

SOP in preventing the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic among construction workers.

Aside from that, inferential statistics are utilised in the research to calculate with the goal

of generalising the results of a sample to the entire population of interest. Basically, the

researchers will frequently use it to create comparisons between groups and measures of

39
specific subjects in research from huge groups of people by examining and employing

smaller samples. In general, if simple statistics such as standard deviation or means are

used, inferential statistics must be used to draw a conclusion about the population and

confirm that the sample generated unbiased estimates.

3.8 Summary

In short, the research method that will be applied in this research is the quantitative

research approaches. The questionnaire will be distributing to all of the targeted

respondent through e-mail for filling up the information in order to obtaining data. Not

only that, this chapter has also discussed and explained the technique of data collection

in order to prepare questionnaire for the targeted respondents.

40
 CHAPTER 4 CONCLUSION

4.1 Introduction

In this particular chapter, it will conclude the summary and overview the three objectives

of the research that mentioned earlier and the method of how to achieve all these

objectives. Basically, the research questions that are going to be used in the questionnaire

will be using the points of view from literature review in order to collect data and the

outcomes of questionnaires are expected to be discussed in this chapter.

4.2 Discussion on objectives

In this research, there will be three objectives in total are developed as the following:

I. To identify the various impacts of Covid-19 pandemic to the construction

industry.

II. To investigate the strategies of managing and mitigating the spread of Covid-19

pandemic in the construction workplaces.

III. To investigate the effectiveness of implementing Standard Operating Procedures

(SOP) in preventing the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic among construction

workers.

In order to have a clear mind set of determining the design of questions in questionnaires

for the targeted respondents in an easier and effective way, the objectives will help with

data collecting purposes. Therefore, the questionnaire’s question needs to be related to

the relevant topic to meet the objectives.

4.2.1 Discussion on impacts of Covid-19 pandemic to the construction industry

The first objective in this research was to identify the various impacts of Covid-19

pandemic to the construction industry. The questionnaire will be distributed to the

41
construction field’s workers with specific positions such as the Site Supervisor, Quantity

Surveyor, Contractor or some office workers who have a minimum one year experience

on the construction field in Malaysia as the questionnaire will be mainly asking about the

impacts that are brought by the Covid-19. There are several types and methods of

literature review that have been identified and it will be used to apply in the questionnaire

for distribution to the targeted respondents in order to achieve the research objectives.

Based on the Appendix A attached, the questions that related to the objectives 1 will be

designed based on the impacts on workers themselves and the company as well. The

respondents are required to tick the relevant impacts that they faced during the covid-19

pandemic. After collecting data from the target respondents, the mean and the percentage

as well can be calculated to prove the most impacts of Covid-19 pandemic to the workers

with the highest mean and percentage. All of this result will help in clarifying the impacts

that brought by Covid-19 pandemic on the construction industry in Malaysia.

4.2.2 Discussion on strategies of managing and mitigating the spread of Covid-19

pandemic in the construction workplaces.

The second objective in this research was to investigate the strategies on managing and

mitigating the spread of Covid-19 virus in the construction workplaces. There are many

strategies that have been investigated and mentioned in the literature review by visiting

websites, articles, journals and so on. All of these identified literature reviews have been

used to conduct the questionnaire that aim to send for the targeted construction field’s

workers in Malaysia for achieving the objectives. Based on the Appendix A attached, the

questions that related to research objective 2 will be designed as 5 point Likert scale in

Section C and the scales will be the one point is equal to strongly disagree, two points

equal to disagree, three points equal to neutral, four points equal to agree and the last one,

42
five points equal to strongly agree. All of the targeted respondents will need to answer

one based on the question given in the questionnaire. After collecting data from the target

respondents, the data will be analysed by using SPSS statistical software to reveals the

most agreeable strategies and the least agreeable strategies on managing and mitigating

the spread of Covid-19 pandemic in the construction workplaces for achieving the

objective 2 in this research.

4.2.3 Discussion on effectiveness of SOP in preventing the Covid-19 pandemic

among construction workers.

The third objective in this research was to investigate the effectiveness of implementing

the SOP in preventing the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic among the construction

workers. In the second objective, it has been mentioning the strategies on managing and

mitigating the spread of Covid-19, therefore in this section, it will be used to investigate

the effectiveness of the strategies on preventing the spread of Covid-19. All of these

identified literature reviews have been used to conduct the questionnaire that aim to send

for the targeted construction field’s workers in Malaysia for achieving the objectives.

Based on the Appendix A attached, the questions that are related to research objective 3

will also be designed as a 5 point Likert scale in Section C as objective 2. As usual, the

scales will be the one point is equal to strongly ineffective, two points equal to ineffective,

three points equal to neutral, four points equal to effective and the last one, five points

equal to strongly effective. All of the targeted respondents will need to answer one based

on the question given in the questionnaire. After collecting data from the target

respondents, the data will be analysed by using SPSS statistical software to reveals the

most agreeable effectiveness on strategies of implementing the SOP in preventing the

spread of the Covid-19 pandemic among the construction workers and the least agreeable

43
effectiveness on implementing the SOP in preventing the spread of the Covid-19

pandemic among the construction workers for achieving the objective 3 in this research.

4.3 Summary

In this research, there are several objectives needed to investigate the Covid-19 pandemic

that has brought many deep impacts to the construction workers. The three objectives that

studied in this research paper are including the impacts of Covid-19 in construction

industry, the strategies on managing and mitigating the spread of Covid-19 pandemic in

construction work and the last objectives is the effectiveness of implementing the SOP in

preventing the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic among the construction workers. The

strategy that used to be applied in this research paper is the quantitative approaches as

these approaches are more reliable and able to minimise the consuming time of getting

results. The questionnaire will be distributed to the construction field’s workers with

specific positions such as the Site Supervisor, Quantity Surveyor, Contractor or some

office workers who have a minimum one-year experience in the construction field in

Malaysia. All of the research questionnaires will be solved and all of the objectives are

met by analysing the answers received from the surveys using SPSS Statistics. Not only

that, a timeline that mentioned data collecting and the process of analysing the data has

been planned and proposed in order to ensure the project dissertation 1 and 2 will be able

to conduct successfully and finish on time.

44
4.4 Project Planning

The Figure 2.5 has shown the proposed timeline for the Project Dissertation 2 in next coming semester.

4-Jul-22 14-Jul-22 24-Jul-22 3-Aug-22 13-Aug-22 23-Aug-22 2-Sep-22 12-Sep-22 22-Sep-22

Task Start Day Days to complete
Finalisation of Questionnaire 4-Jul-22 7
Distribution of Questionnaire
Finalisation of Questionnaire11-Jul-22 14
Data Collection 25-Jul-22 7
Data Analysis & Result 1-Aug-22 21
Distribution of Questionnaire
Conclusion & Discussion 22-Aug-22 14
Checking & Revise 5-Sep-22 7
Final Draft Data Collection
12-Sep-22 14
Submission due 26-Sep-22 3
Data Analysis & Result

Conclusion & Discussion

Checking & Revise

Final Draft

Submission due

Checking & Conclusion & Data Analysis & Distribution of Finalisation of

Submission due Final Draft Data Collection
Revise Discussion Result Questionnaire Questionnaire
Start Day 26-Sep-22 12-Sep-22 5-Sep-22 22-Aug-22 1-Aug-22 25-Jul-22 11-Jul-22 4-Jul-22
Days to complete 3 14 7 14 21 7 14 7

Figure 2. 7 Proposed Timeline

45
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51
 APPENDICES

Appendix A: Survey Questionnaire

Research title: Impacts of Covid-19 Pandemic in the Malaysian Construction

Industry

Section A: Demographic Information

Please tick (√) the answer at the appropriate box provided.

1. What is your gender?

Male
Female
2. What is your age range?

20-30
31-40
41-50
>50
3. How long have you been working in the construction industry?

< 5 years

5-10

11-20

> 20 years

52
4. Grade for contractor CIDB license.

Grade 1

Grade 2

Grade 3

Grade 4

Grade 5

Grade 6

Grade 7

5. What type of construction project you mostly involved in?

Renovation works

Residential buildings

Commercial buildings

Industrial buildings

Infrastructure and heavy construction

Other: Please specify

6. Have your company experiences the impacts of Covid-19?

Yes
No

53
Section B: Impacts of Covid-19 Pandemic in the Construction Industry

Which of the following are the impacts that you think it has affected by Covid-19
Pandemic in the Construction Industry?

You may tick (√) more than one box provided.

Please
Category Impacts tick (√)

Job Loss
Impacts on Reduction in monthly income
workers Difficult in paying daily expenses as no source of income
for consecutive months
Others:

Project delay due to restriction of rules and regulations

Impacts on Changes of workplace environment
company Construction material’s price increased
Financial problems
Others:

54
Section C: Strategies of managing and mitigating the spread of Covid-19 Pandemic
in the construction workplaces

Based on your perception, please indicate your extent of agreement on the strategies of
mitigating and managing the spread of Covid-19 pandemic in the construction
workplaces by ticking (√) in the boxes below.

Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly

No. Strategies Disagree Agree
1 2 3 4 5
 Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)
1 Covid-19 Screening
Test
2 Wear a mask
3 Social Distance
4 Surfaces sanitization
and disinfection
5 Maintain hand
hygiene
6 50% reduction on
workers capacity at
workplaces
7 Get Vaccinated
8 Others (please specify):

 Strategies to take if diagnosed and having symptoms of Covid-19

1 Isolate in special area
2 Evaluate the potential
of shutting down the
construction site
3 Hire professional
team to sanitize
4 Others (please specify):

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Section D: The effectiveness of implementing Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)
in preventing the spread of the Covid-19 Pandemic among construction workers

Based on your perception, please indicate your extent of effectiveness of implementing

Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) in preventing the spread of the Covid-19
pandemic among construction workers by ticking (√) in the boxes below.

Strongly Ineffective Neutral Effective Strongly

No. Strategies Ineffective Effective
1 2 3 4 5
1 Covid-19
Screening Test
2 Wear a mask
3 Social Distance
4 Surfaces
sanitization and
disinfection
5 Maintain hand
hygiene
6 50% reduction on
workers capacity
at workplaces
7 Get Vaccinated
8 Others (please specify):

Thank you for taking the time out of your day to complete this survey!

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