Construction industry clients: A survey of their attributes and project management practices

The recent growth of interest in the strategic decisions made by clients as to how to organize and manage their projects has not as yet been matched by any extensive and systematic analysis of clients' attitudes and approaches towards project management. This paper seeks to help redress this imbalance by presenting findings from a survey of 138 client organizations drawn from both the private and public sectors. Focusing upon their experiences on a recently completed, comparatively large (£1 million plus) project, the paper examines similarities and differences in the ways in which clients organize and manage their projects and assesses the impact of these practices on project performance. Differences in the type, size and typicality of the projects are also taken into account in the analysis. The main conclusions drawn from the data are that client experience has an important impact upon many of the decisions made, that strategic decisions are often internally driven as opposed to project-based, that additional work and inadequate briefing still continue to cause problems during construction, and that there is little direct evidence in favour of alternatives to traditional managerial and contractual arrangements.     

利用Excel电子表格进行材料管理

分析了造成国内基础设施建设和工程项目中甲供材料施工承包模式及其材料供应管理混乱的原因,就运用Ex-cel电子表格进行甲供材料管理做出详细的介绍,并结合工作经验提出了一套有效的管理方法,以供参考借鉴。     

Analysing construction project coalitions: exploring the application of social network analysis

The construction industry is currently in transition as a result of innovations in procurement and project management approaches, in particular, the utilization of supply chain management, and technology or work clusters in the context of partnering relationships between project coalition actors and the client organization. These new strategies require an analytical method that deals with actor interdependence and provides an appropriate level of detail and quantitative data in relation to the non‐linear, complex, iterative and interactive process that construction projects comprise. The construction project is conceptualized as a number information exchange networks, classified according to the principal project functions and supported by performance incentive and contractual relationship networks. The point centrality of the project actors within these various networks provides quantitative data and graphical representation of the governance of construction projects and the changes brought about by innovations in procurement and project management techniques. Social network analysis (SNA) provides an important new quantitative approach in the comparative analysis of procurement and project management of construction projects. SNA enables traditional project coalition management approaches to be compared with those associated with innovative management approaches. Quantitative analysis relates to the appropriateness and effectiveness of both financial incentives and contractual conditions involved in the governance of construction projects.     

Politics,public servants,and profits: Institutional complexity and temporary hybridization in a public infrastructure alliance project

Public infrastructure projects must comply with the divergent and even conflicting demands of multiple institutional logics causing institutional complexity. Despite the increasing interest in different forms of complexities in projects, we lack empirical illustrations and rigorous theorizing of mechanisms for responding to institutional complexity. This paper demonstrates how public buyers of a tunnel construction project formed a hybrid organization of a multi-party project alliance to respond to institutional complexity. We delineate a process of temporary hybridization through which the competing logics of a bureaucratic state, corporate market, and multiple professions were combined within the temporary project alliance organization. Such temporary hybridization not only focused on selective coupling with external demands but also mitigated internal tensions. Our findings emphasize a blended organizational structure, jointly formed governance and incentive systems, and the facilitation of social interaction to build a temporary yet sustainable hybrid organization capable of combining conflicting institutional logics.     

Learning approaches for housing,service and infrastructure project organizations

Capturing and sharing experiences that may be applicable in several projects is generally recognized as a way of enhancing the performance of construction projects. Several studies have reported difficulties in applying learning approaches that could be applicable for a wide range of projects. The learning behaviour in three types of construction project: housing, service and infrastructure, is examined by the means of a questionnaire study including 51 construction projects and more than 800 responses from clients, designers, contractors’ managers, contractors’ workers and subcontractors. The effects of leadership, openness and influence are considered. Based on a factor analysis, three approaches to learning were identified: organizing for learning, experimenting and networking. While housing project organizations do not demonstrate any specific preferences, service project organizations show a focus on networking and infrastructure project organizations show the highest interest in experimenting. On the basis of these results it can be concluded that learning approaches are dependent on the type of project. Thus adopting different learning approaches for different types of construction project seems to be a more relevant strategy than implementing a ‘one size fits all’ learning approach for all construction project organizations.     

Applying institutional theories to managing megaprojects

This paper contributes to Rodney Turner's initiative to develop a theory of project management from practice. Organizational scholars studying strategy suggest that more attention needs to be paid to practices involved in organizing, as well as the institutional contexts in which these practices are embedded. Taking a cue from strategy-in-practice approaches, it is proposed that institutional theories can be used to address some questions that have not been answered adequately regarding megaprojects. Institutional theories also seem to be gaining the attention of scholars investigating large, global, infrastructure projects as reported in engineering, management and construction journals. Increasingly, it is evident that the problem areas attached to these projects stretch beyond technical issues: they must be considered as socio-technical endeavours embedded in complex institutional frames. The authors suggest that studying how to deal with institutional differences in the environment of megaprojects has both theoretical and practical implications.     

Changes and change management in construction and IT projects

Modelling for change management in construction might benefit from experiences from other industries. This study compares reasons for change as well as change practices in interorganizational relationships in construction and information technology. Sixteen contractual relationships have been studied through a questionnaire and interview survey conducted among both clients and providers. Project-type relations are contrasted with more continuous service support contracts. More than their providers, clients tend to ascribe high change frequencies to an increase in technical understanding during projects. Early provider participation is associated with lower change frequencies, while the strength of incentives is less influential. The ease of transforming changes into new projects varies between technologies. Irreversibility is important, as well as relations between pre-investigations and the successive revealing of initial conditions, together with the life-cycle of formal and informal communication. Findings can be used for transfer of agile practices.     

Fairness in interorganizational project relations: norms and strategies

There is a strong preference for fairness in human interaction, so that people who experience unfairness tend to react with anger, resentment and loss of motivation. Concerns to appear fair influence the behaviour of both individuals and firms. Perceptions of fairness are susceptible to framing and may be influenced by various norms for outcome distribution as well as by decision processes and interpersonal relations. This paper deals with causes and effects of fairness perceptions in construction project relations, mainly fixed price contracts procured by competitive tendering. In such projects, uncertainty results in continuous post contract award problem‐solving and negotiations, and fairness concerns may have incremental but significant influence on the terms of exchange. Case studies of client–contractor interaction in two projects are used to discuss of how fairness norms relate to strategies and industry culture. It is concluded that that an intuitive cost‐based norm of fair pricing shapes interaction in construction projects, but that consequences vary between projects. The norm may favour contractors, but is also related to poor risk management and client distrust. To improve performance, clients need to design procurement practices and communication so that perceptions of contractor losses are counteracted.     

我国政府投资项目管理的制度变迁

我国投入了大量财政资金进行基础设施建设,但政府投资项目管理中却存在比较严重的超支、质量和腐败问题,这与管理制度不健全有很大关系。我国政府投资项目管理模式随经济体制改革经历了一个复杂的变迁过程,可被分为三个阶段:在计划经济阶段主要采用自建模式、国有企业模式和工程指挥部模式,体制转轨阶段出现了项目法人制,市场经济初期出现了政府采购模式、代建制和私人融资模式。这些模式的运作机理各不相同,适用的项目类型和管理效果也有显著差异。对这些模式的比较分析表明,政府投资项目管理模式改革应遵循资金来源合理、政府职能合理、采购透明、节约管理成本、积累管理经验、制约腐败六项原则。随着市场经济体制的不断完善,应允许代建制、政府采购模式、私人融资模式、项目法人制等共存,并应根据项目具体情况合理选择管理模式。     

Designing for construction workers’ occupational health and safety: a case study of socio-material complexity

Drawing upon an empirical analysis of the design and construction of a food processing facility, a theoretical understanding of the impact of design decision-making on the occupational health and safety (OHS) of construction workers is developed. It is argued that current policy and legislative approaches to Construction Hazard Prevention through Design (CHPtD) are inherently limited because they do not adequately reflect the socio-material complexity of decision-making in construction design. Specifically, the simplistic attribution of responsibility to a single socio-technical actor, ‘the designer’, does not reflect the multiple and disparate influences that impact upon OHS outcomes. Nor do existing CHPtD policy frameworks, management processes and tools recognize the manner in which the interactions and associations between relevant project stakeholders and various non-human artefacts shape (and are also influenced by) the evolution of design decisions. Drawing on actor-network theory (ANT) and using embedded units within a case study approach, the interactions between human actors and non-human artefacts are explored in relation to the design of four components of the food processing facility. The way in which design decisions unfolded and shaped OHS experiences during the construction stage of the project is revealed. The research highlights limitations inherent in current approaches to the management of CHPtD and the need to develop a more robust theoretically based approach to integrating OHS considerations into construction design practice.     

高校基建工程声像档案管理的问题及对策研究

高校基建工程声像档案是校区规划、设计、施工和竣工验收等建设过程中工作的真实纪录,是高校基建工程建设和发展的重要历史依据。然而,高校基建工程声像档案存在拍摄内容不完整、拍摄技术性差、声像档案收集归档难度大、声像档案管理不规范等问题,本文就如何管理好高校基建工程声像档案管理,提出了完善高校基建工程声像档案管理的一些对策。     

Challenges when implementing BIM for industry change

Public clients have been identified as drivers of architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) industry change through their implementation of building information modelling (BIM). Yet, little is known of this implementation process and the associated challenges. This study aims to increase the understanding of what intra- and inter-organizational challenges that arise when a large Swedish public infrastructure client implements BIM to change the work practices of the actors in the Swedish AEC industry. The IT business value model allows for understanding the public client’s implementation of BIM as an IT-supported change process and for understanding the associated intra- and inter-organizational challenges. The findings show nine categories of intra- and inter-organizational challenges related to, for example, demanding BIM in procurement and creating incentives for BIM implementation. The findings show that intra-organizational challenges related to a top-down implementation of BIM, while inter-organizational challenges related to a bottom-up implementation. The impact of these challenges on the public client’s ability to drive AEC industry change by implementing BIM is discussed. The findings contribute with the client perspective to studies on BIM implementation and with an increased understanding of the challenges associated with implementing IT-supported change processes.     

Co-creating social value through cross-sector collaboration between social enterprises and the construction industry

Emerging social procurement imperatives are driving new forms of cross-sector collaboration between private, public and social enterprise sectors in the construction industry. Yet there is little understanding of how and why social enterprises and private construction firms collaborate in meeting new social procurement imperatives and of the institutional and organizational factors shape these practices. Drawing on theoretical insights from governance, management and policy studies and three case studies of major organizations from across the construction social value chain, the organizational and institutional factors that drive cross-sector collaborations are explored. Documentary analysis of social procurement strategy and policy, non-participant observation of social procurement initiatives in action and in-depth interviews with senior social procurement champions suggest that existing processes of social value co-creation through supply chain relationships more closely reflect a cooperative than a collaborative model, are largely driven by commercial concerns and influenced by industry norms and institutional imperatives. It is concluded that there are significant differences in experience and opportunity for collaboration based on supply chain position and organizational scale and that these have notable effects on the co-creation of social value and the legitimacy of different social benefit providers in the construction industry.     

Institutional projects and contradictory logics: Responding to complexity in institutional field change

We develop a theory of institutional field change with project organizing at its heart by posing the question of how projects contribute to institutional field change. We do this by bringing together recent literature on institutional projects with that on institutional logics and institutional complexity to show how institutional projects can act as vectors of change in institutional fields by offering bounded spaces for working through the implications of institutional complexity. We then explore this contention empirically by examining the implementation of strategic field change in a mature, complex, institutional field. We contribute to theory in project organizing research in four ways. First, we show how projects can be complements to hybrid organizations in fields displaying volatile complexity to achieve institutional field change. Second, we respond to the call to link institutional projects with institutional logics and thereby place project organizing at the heart of change in complex institutional fields; third, we demonstrate how change in the institutional field both shapes and is shaped by interactions across the commercial interface between project owner organizations and project-based firms. Fourth we show how the development of institutional theory in project organizing research depends upon a full theorization of the institutional field in which the project is embedded.     

Structural equation model for investigating factors affecting delay in Indian construction projects

The rapid growth of the Indian construction sector over the last few decades and recurring failure in on-time delivery highlight the need for a systematic analysis of the factors influencing delay. A theoretical structural equation model representing the influence of four key latent variables on project delays in the Indian construction industry has been developed. Data collected from a questionnaire survey and personal interviews, with 77 valid responses from clients, contractors and designers or architects, were used to further formulate and analyse the model. The results of the structural equation model suggest that client’s influence is one of the most significant factors affecting time performance on Indian projects. Client’s influence is also found to be one of the key contributing factors resulting in lack of commitment and contractor’s inefficiency in the project. Lack of efficient construction planning plays the second key role in adverse time performance. While the effect of lack of commitment on contractor’s inefficiency is highly significant, neither of these two factors has any direct impact on time delay in projects. Contrary to the notion that the contractor is the only party responsible for delay in construction projects, the results clearly highlight the importance of the role of clients and technical expertise in planning in achieving satisfactory time performance on Indian projects. It is hoped that these research findings will contribute significantly to the Indian construction industry’s efforts in addressing the root causes of delay and enhancing the time performance on projects.     

Clients’ assessment of architects’ performance in building delivery process: Evidence from Nigeria

The overall intent of this research is to provide architects with information that can be used to improve their performance so as to optimally satisfy the client's requirements and achieve high-quality overall project performance in Nigerian construction industry. Architect performance criteria were identified based on literature within the domain of architect responsibilities. The assessment of architects’ performance was carried out through a questionnaire survey of clients of recently completed building projects in Nigeria. Analysis of data includes comparison of criteria using importance–performance index analysis. Factor analysis was carried out on criteria where architects are falling below average, to group and explore the latent structure of the criteria in the data. The results showed that the architect needs to focus on management skills and ability, buildability, design quality, project communication, project integration and client focus. These results would encourage architects to perform better within their full responsibilities in the building delivery process and deliver high-quality projects within Nigerian construction industry.     

谈如何优化企事业单位基建档案管理工作

阐述了基建档案是在项目建设工程中直接形成的,对基本建设工作的真实记录和历史凭证,也是日后对项目进行维修、改建、扩建和管理评估的依据,是建设管理的重要组成部分,通过对当前基建档案建档过程中存在的主要问题及原因进行分析,提出了如何加强基建档案科学化管理的建议,以指导实践。     

Client satisfaction and quality management systems in contractor organizations

The construction industry is predominantly project based and quality is one of the client's prime concerns in their construction projects. Many clients, especially those in the Hong Kong public sector, require their contractors to have a Quality Management System (QMS) certified under ISO9000. Also, several contractors as well as clients themselves voluntarily implemented an ISO9000-based QMS in their respective organizations in order to target the various benefits perceived from such initiative. It was considered timely and worthwhile to explore the effectiveness of ISO9000-based QMSs in the Hong Kong. This paper portrays the key findings from a focused study that relate to the client satisfaction aspects from implementation of the ISO9000-based QMSs in the contractor organizations.     

Applying the dynamic capabilities framework in the case of a large public construction client

Public clients in the construction sector face a number of challenges in designing, procuring and managing major construction projects. The client’s role in bringing about project delivery has more recently been emphasized, particularly with respect to developing capabilities that facilitate the coordinating of projects through its different phases. In line with these developments, this paper sets out to examine the management of capabilities in a client organization through the lens of the dynamic capabilities framework. In particular, what is investigated is how the client organization senses, seizes and transforms opportunities. In pursuit of this objective, an exploratory case study approach is adopted which examines one of Sweden’s largest public client organizations. The study explores the concept of dynamic capabilities and its applicability to the public construction context. Although the usefulness of dynamic capabilities as an interpretive framework is recognized, it is suggested that the concept of dynamic capabilities is inadequate for addressing the specific context in which public client organizations operate. Particularly with respect to the project-based characteristic of these organizations and the difficulty in framing what constitutes “competitive advantage” for public organizations.