Analyzing the effect of building permit issuance on the housing delivery system in Ghana

A building permit serves as a green light in housing development schemes. Hence, without the requisite consent from the relevant local authorities, no housing development can legally take place. In Ghana, it is widely known that the waiting period for permit approval is too long as it routinely takes years to get a building permit. As a result, the housing delivery system is badly affected and thus it causes an ongoing increase in housing deficits on an annual basis. Ghana requires an additional 140,000 housing units annually and current supply is only about 45,000 units per annum. This paper posits that prolonged delays in the permit process are one of the main factors leading to housing deficits in Ghana. While planning workflow could be streamlined, the paper theorizes on how organizational structure could influence the performance of the property development’s workflow. The objective of this paper is to identify potential areas for improvements in the current Ghanaian building approval process. It concludes with recommendations towards improving organizational and permit process as it relates to the various building authorities in Ghana

Streamlining of building permit approval processing of town and country planning department in Ghana

To date, the Ghanaian development control system has proven unsuccessful in delivering quality planning application approvals in a timely manner and it is doubtful whether it is possible to achieve that basic goal in its current form. Planning application approval assessment is performed conjointly by various planning organizations spearheaded by Accra Town and Country Planning Department (TCPD). The success in delivering quality approvals in a timely manner therefore depends on the inter-organizational task interdependency, collaboration, and teamwork of the various planning agencies that form the Accra Metropolitan Assembly. The paper puts into perspective the TCPD organizational workflow and knowledge flow based on their strategies, size, leadership style, organizational complexities, and their competencies to contribute to the success of the approval process. Further, this paper examines the reasons behind the increasing amorphous planning and unapproved development/construction and identifies the various planning approval problems. Finally, it offers modalities to curtail planning approval delays

Streamlining of planning approval workflow process for town and country planning department of ACCRA, Ghana

In a complex planning (service) organization such as the Town and Country Planning Department (TCPD) in Ghana, proposing a restructured model to streamline the planning approval process and curtail delays entails consideration and questioning of many established techniques and protocols—this is a challenge because of the sensitivity surrounding the intended actions. The proposition that ‘knowledge’ should be considered as a contingency factor whereas ‘discontinuous’ and ‘reach’ should be considered as organizational design parameters (individual, group, organization and inter-organization) was an early effort by Ibrahim & Nissen (2007) to fit the complex environment within the Contingency Factors outlined by Burton & Obel (2004). However, while Burton & Obel's Contingency Factors support organizational performance optimization, this study agrees with Ibrahim (2005) who found them deficient in their ability to improve or optimize service organizations such as those involved in property development or urban planning agencies. Therefore, this study was drawn towards a phenomenon concept by Ibrahim & Paulson (2008) who also described an operating environment called discontinuity in organization (DIO) where a member of a project team would enter when needed or leave when a task is completed during the progression of a project. The DIO phenomenon is detrimental to organizations such as planning agencies as succinctly put by Ibrahim & Nissen (2007) that “knowledge flow enables workflow and workflow drives performances”. Building on the operational concept by Ibrahim & Nissen (2007) which posited that “the explicitness level of knowledge is key to determining how effective and efficient an organization would be in various properties and structural configuration fit”, the TCPD and planning agencies must anticipate in ‘what different and various streamlined’ strategies an attempt can be made to find better solutions. Such solutions can curtail identified delay directness issues and thus broadens the chances of better solutions. Using housing deficits as a motivational question, the study explores and answers the organizational root cause of the delays in the building permit issuance by TCPD. Exploring this in only one way is not recommended because the study finds such a limited approach may skew the potential solutions offered. Therefore the study used two methods of approach to arrive at strong empirical findings. The first approach utilised a Case Study qualitative analysis method while the second adopted system analysis method using the Virtual Design Team’s (VDT) (Jin & Levitt, 1996) computational organizational simulations. The data was collected through multiple sources of evidence to investigate into the workflow process of a planning approval delayed case. Using a COT software called SimVision™ for COT modelling, the study restructured three sequential workflows of the current approval procedure of TCPD into a single workflow. The current project duration was considerably reduced from a total of 161 days to 39 days in the final Alternative Restructured Model. A presentation of the proposed Alternative Restructured Model to a group of 16 professionals and key members of the TCPD and STCM planning approval system in Ghana was also conducted to gain validation accounts. Results from the validation processes affirmed that the restructuring recommendations are possible. However, feedback highlighted which recommendations would be easy to implement whilst also highlighting others which would require legislative approval. The results provided empirical support to show that in a dynamic organization such as the TCPD — ‘organizational streamlining’ success depends on the relative emphasis of discontinuous membership as structure configuration as per parameter property reach (individual, group, organization and interorganization). Consequently, this study contributes in providing empirical support for Ibrahim & Nissen (2007) where they had earlier recommended further studies to determine if knowledge can be the seventh Contingency Factor to Burton & Obel’s (2003) organizational design—with discontinuous as a new structural configuration. Additionally, it contributes towards closing the problematic fracture between organizational theory versus the practicalities and capabilities of service organizations by addressing the issues of organizational structural rigidity. The study also proposes alternatives in terms of operational fitness that could evaluate specific strategies for ‘streamlining’ and ‘applicability’ in the essence of various theories applied. The study finally concludes with a summary of how it contributes in two major disciplines: organizational and management

Workflow complexities of fit criteria on strategy applications and structure adaptations

In studying the correlation between structure–strategy and workflow process, empirical research has shown that knowledge flow has an influence on professional team workflow performance. Using multiple sources of case study evidence, we propose a contingent model of a criteria fit in which the effect of structure on strategies is efficiency of Knowledge Applicability (KA) and effectiveness of Knowledge Adaptability (KA). A case study analysis of building permit approval processing by the Town and Country Planning Department (TCPD) and the various planning agencies in Ghana finds strong support for the model explaining that structure is the measurement attribute determining the efficiency and effectiveness of knowledge flow. A framework of four types of KA is outlined. These show that the viability of organisations is contingent on adaptations of efficient structure and applications of effective strategies. With an emphasis on two organisational environmental variables (uncertainty and equivocality) and structural configuration, we demonstrated the impact of formalisation and centralisation on knowledge flow and workflow process using Virtual Design Team Computational Organisational Theory (VDTCOT)

Workflow Complexities of Fit Criteria on Strategy Applications and Structure Adaptations

In studying the correlation between structure–strategy and workflow process, empirical research has shown that knowledge flow has an influence on professional team workflow performance. Using multiple sources of case study evidence, we propose a contingent model of a criteria fit in which the effect of structure on strategies is efficiency of Knowledge Applicability (KA) and effectiveness of Knowledge Adaptability (KA). A case study analysis of building permit approval processing by the Town and Country Planning Department (TCPD) and the various planning agencies in Ghana finds strong support for the model explaining that structure is the measurement attribute determining the efficiency and effectiveness of knowledge flow. A framework of four types of KA is outlined. These show that the viability of organisations is contingent on adaptations of efficient structure and applications of effective strategies. With an emphasis on two organisational environmental variables (uncertainty and equivocality) and structural configuration, we demonstrated the impact of formalisation and centralisation on knowledge flow and workflow process using Virtual Design Team Computational Organisational Theory (VDTCOT)