Modeling relational transaction and relationship quality among team members in public projects in Hong Kong

Prior studies have found that relational contracting (RC) practices are helpful in nurturing good relationships among project team members. These empirical studies, however, did not differentiate by project type (i.e., public or private projects). In reality, the situation faced in public projects would be different from that of private projects since for example, some public sector participants may be indifferent to, concerned about or indeed opposed to, building close relationships with private sector counterparts. In the context of public construction projects, this study aims to develop models to explain the association between relationship quality and the extent to which RC practices are adopted. Data were collected via a questionnaire survey in Hong Kong, China. Using Multiple Linear Regression and Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), models for predicting the relationship quality among project team members were developed. The mathematical equations were validated by a case study. The models show that the relationship quality among project team members can be predicted by the extent to which these RC practices are implemented: (i) adoption of flexible strategies; (ii) readiness to compromise on unclear issues; (iii) willingness to commit on a long-term basis; (iv) attitude towards teamwork; (v) trust among team members; (vi) sharing of project information; (vii) understanding among team members; and (viii) alignment of the objectives of different parties. The models are recommended to public clients, consultants and contractors that aim to achieve good relationships in public projects.     

Interpersonal trust and inter‐firm trust in construction projects

Working relationships are important in effecting project performance and cooperation is believed to be a behavioural consequence of trust. Trust, being a quality of relationships, involves people interacting at interpersonal and inter‐firm levels. This is investigated through 10 partnering and non‐partnering projects, using a validated trust scale. A case study approach is used to collect qualitative data through a quantitative approach to help understand the concept of trust. Data were collected from clients, contractors, consultants and subcontractors. Clients and contractors have a tendency to trust individuals whereas contractors and subcontractors have a tendency to trust firms. Inter‐firm trust is better understood than interpersonal trust; but both are associated with keeping commitments and demonstrating cooperation, even though interpersonal trust is considered more important. Partnering does not necessarily exhibit more trust than non‐partnering projects whereas clients and contractors have different emphasis on interpersonal and inter‐firm trust. Therefore, to promote trusting relationships in multi‐parties is to fulfil not only the technological and economical goals, but also the moral and social goals as expressed in people relationships such that a socially safe working place can be created. For this reason, middle managers need to know about trust because they face more relationship problems than others.     

Drivers and barriers to adopting relational contracting practices in public projects: Comparative study of Beijing and Sydney

When contracting parties adopt relational contracting (RC) as opposed to formal contracting stance, the construction project may achieve good outcomes. However, public projects usually face more constraints in adopting RC, as close relationships may lead to allegations of corruption. The aim of this study is to undertake a comparative analysis of drivers and barriers to adopting RC practices in public construction projects in two different markets viz. a centrally planned economy and a free market economy by investigating practices in Beijing and Sydney. The survey research design was adopted and data of public construction projects in Beijing and Sydney were collected using a structured questionnaire. The results revealed that relationship quality and level of harmony among contracting parties are significantly good in both cities. In Sydney, the level of inter-personal relations between contractors and consultants is significantly higher than in Beijing. It was found that the same 18 factors drive contracting parties in Beijing and Sydney to adopt RC practices, and in 6 instances, these are significantly greater drivers in Sydney. The barriers to adopting RC practices are totally dissimilar in both cities. Contracting parties in Beijing could not adopt more RC practices because of a lack of training in relational arrangement and public clients lack initiative in adopting RC practices. The conservative industry culture that encourages preservation of the status quo is also prevalent in Beijing. In Sydney, the only significant barrier is public sector accountability concerns. To cultivate readiness to embrace RC practices, it is suggested that industry professionals and the government adopt recommendations highlighted in this study according to the type of market structure.     

An empirical examination of project contractors' supply-chain cash flow performance and owners' payment patterns

Supply-chain (SC) cash flow performance is an essential component of SC performance management. Despite the panoply of approaches to SC cash flow modeling, relatively few published studies assess the effect of SC cash flow performance on a project contractor's financial performance. Little research thus explores the behavioral patterns in the project owner-contractor dyad in the context of payment-term negotiation for improving the SC cash flow performance of a project contractor. Using data from 42 Taiwanese construction project contracting corporations, this paper systematically quantifies the effects of SC cash flow performance on the financial performance of construction project contractors. Further analysis using data from 118 returned, usable surveys reveals important behavioral patterns of project owners regarding payment terms with project contractors during the contracting phase of construction projects. These behavioral patterns provide project contractors with a base for supporting implementation efforts for improving SC cash flow performance.     

基于信息不对称理论的电力工程施工阶段项目管理研究

将信息不对称理论引入到工程项目风险管理中,分析了电力工程施工阶段业主、承包商和监理人之间基本的委托代理关系,建立了三方委托代理数学模型,研究了最优激励与监督的机制设计问题,并从合作博弈、项目管理组织模式改善和创新的角度研究了如何降低工程项目管理中信息不对称。     

The role of multi-firm satisfaction in construction project success

Construction project success depends on the multi-firm project organizations involved working together satisfactorily. Yet, satisfaction within multi-firm relationships has rarely been examined as a determinant of construction project success. A pioneering study is carried out to evaluate the extent to which construction project participants’ perception of each other’s performance reflects on the owner’s perception of project success. The data represent 580 performance evaluations carried out among the project owners, project consultants, main contractors and designers. The owner-evaluated performance factors related to the project goals form a dependent variable called Project Success. Dependencies between Project Success and the various performance factors are identified based on Pearson’s correlation coefficients. Dependencies were discovered between Project Success and all owner-related relationships and all but one of the non-owner-related relationships. Preliminary sets of discipline-specific and evaluator-specific success factors are identified. The results support the proposition that satisfaction within both owner-related and non-owner-related relationships is reflected on success. Therefore, researchers and practitioners are encouraged to consider project success in terms of multi-firm satisfaction and to engage with multi-firm performance measurement to better understand the heterogeneous performance factors contributing to multi-firm project success.     

工程项目风险分担偏好及其潜在争议识别实证研究

工程项目风险分担偏好的认知可能具有主体差异性,从而成为未来风险分担潜在争议的根源。为此,对DBB项目实施过程中的主要风险因素的实际分担方案及分担偏好进行数据采集与分析。结果表明:风险实际分担与分担偏好总体上比较一致,但承包商仍然承担了过多的风险;业主与承包商之间的风险分担偏好具有显著性差异的风险因素,通常会导致未来的合同争议。     

Changing collaborative practices through cultural interventions

After a parliamentary enquiry into construction industry malpractice, changes occurred in collaborative practices between clients and contractors in megaprojects within the Dutch construction sector. The enquiry meant that both clients and contractors were forced to acknowledge illegal practices of collusion and fraud. For those engaged in public–private relationships, a process followed of attempting to change collaborative practices. Three interventions in collaborative practices are recounted: (1) organizing personal networks between clients and contractors; (2) a competitive dialogue procedure; and (3) the right of withdrawal. These three interventions helped to change ‘first order’ practice, such as increasing mutual trust between client and contractor, supporting a mutual understanding of role positioning and dilemmas, and creating an understanding of the nature of the conflict but failed to change ‘second order’ practices. Two contributions to the understanding of project management are provided. New empirical data are presented on the challenges that public and private partners face in their attempt to implement new collaborative practices. It is shown how power is entangled in the emerging of new collaborative practices. The findings are based on a longitudinal ethnographic study of public–private collaboration in the Dutch construction industry in the period 2006–11.     

Contractors’ perception of risk factors affecting cost overrun in building projects in Palestine

This study aims at identifying the risk factors affecting cost overrun in building construction projects in the West Bank in Palestine from contractors’ viewpoint. To do so, 31 contractors working on building construction completed a structured questionnaire survey. Forty factors were identified through a literature review. These factors were grouped into five groups: cost estimating, construction items, construction parties, environmental, and financing. The results indicated that the top five affecting factors are fluctuation in currency exchange rate, project financing, contract management, level of competitors, and cost of materials. The findings can support the government in improving the regulations to meet the construction market needs, owners in planning and designing and evaluating policy, contractors and managers in planning and taking external and internal risks when costing and scheduling contracts, consultants in applying comprehensive contract information, and workers in conducting their day-to-day activities. The results will fill an important research and practice gap.     

An analysis of success factors and benefits of partnering in construction

Partnering is increasingly being used on construction projects. Partnering involves the parties to a construction project working together in an environment of trust and openness to realise the project efficiently and without conflict. Using a UK-wide postal questionnaire survey, the opinions of different types of organisation — consultants, contractors, and clients were assessed in relation to the success factors and benefits of partnering. The study shows that UK contractors and clients are more positive about partnering than consultants. The research also indicates that certain requirements must be met if partnering is to succeed. In particular, trust, communication, commitment, a clear understanding of roles, consistency and a flexible attitude are necessary. It is recognised that nothing will change without considerable effort from all parties. Respondents believe that partnering can bring significant benefits, including fewer adversarial relationships and increased end-customer satisfaction, to the construction industry if all parties involved in a project strive for its success.     

基于寻租理论的工程项目主体三方博弈分析

针对我国建设监理制度下业主、工程监理和承包商之间的相互作用关系,依托公共寻租理论与委托代理理论,揭示了工程监理和承包商之间的寻租动机。运用博弈论,基于博弈方完全理性假设,建立了业主、工程监理与承包商三方静态修正博弈模型,建模方法首次将工程监理和承包商双方的决策行为分离,并提出共同寻租率的概念。通过求解三方博弈的混合策略纳什（Nash）均衡,引出若干影响各博弈方行为的关键参数,深入分析其作用机理,总结了寻租博弈的24 个结论,并在此基础上提出4 个命题,研究发现工程监理和承包商的决策行为存在一定的抵消机制,即双方的均衡共同寻租率存在“惯性”作用,以供学术界人士研讨和工程建设领域相关人员实际工作参考。     

跨专业BIM团队的工作程序与动态

BIM将技术与方法论相结合,整合了设计和施工团队,从而优化了生产力和项目成果。跨专业团队的本质特色在于来自不同领域的成员引领着不同的项目目标和进程。建筑和施工专业的教育工作者们正面临着让学生融入跨专业团队环境中的挑战。一项为期三年的研究对跨专业团队在课堂环境中,在多个项目上的工作进行了调查。本文论述了该研究所取得的结果,主要侧重于团队工作程序和团队动态两方面,其中,团队工作程序的内容包括目标设定,沟通方式、备选方案分析、决策制定以及冲突管理,团队动态的内容包括人际关系、信任、冲突、承诺以及凝聚力。这些团队证明了综合战略对项目表现和成果的优化作用。除了关于该项研究成果的讨论外,本文还建议培养一个侧重于团队工作程序和团队动态的跨专业学习环境。     

公共项目投资目标体系融合机制研究

目前,在我国进行公共项目投资活动时,所考虑的项目参与方主要指的是业主与工程承包方,而其他参与方的投资目标在项目战略中往往没有得到足够的重视。从项目决策整体最优的战略视角出发,分析公共项目各参与方（业主、建设方、政府、受影响的公众与社区居民等）对于投资工程项目的投资目标,并将其进行分类与归并,建立了一个评价指标体系;使用信息融合方法对指标体系进行再融合。在得到各一级指标数据之后,采用模糊综合评判融合模型处理数据,得到各个投资方案的总的投资效益,如果融合结果满足项目战略的要求,那么此时可以选择总投资效益最大的方案作为决策方案;如果某些指标不满足要求,则需要对投资方案进行调整,最终实现项目建设方案的优化     

The effect of leader emotional intelligence on leader–follower chemistry: a study of construction project managers

Extending Nicolini’s notion of project ‘chemistry’, a ‘leader–follower chemistry’ model associated with the quality of dyadic interpersonal communication in construction projects is developed. The focus is on the project manager as leader in an attempt to deepen understanding of the effect of a project manager’s emotional intelligence (EI) on the quality of interpersonal communication with their followers, being other members of the project team. While a project manager’s EI, with its associated emotional competencies, is often seen as critical in achieving good relationships with members of the project team, it remains a largely understudied concept, particularly in construction projects. Primary data collected using a series of analytical surveys and live observations of site-based project meetings was used to examine the relationship between a project manager’s emotional competencies, particularly sensitivity and expressiveness, and leader–follower chemistry. Overall, 68 construction professionals participated in the study. The findings suggest that a project manager’s emotional sensitivity and expressiveness (particularly head gestures) may explain variance in the quality of leader–follower chemistry. Based on the empirical evidence in the context of team communication, a leader–follower chemistry model is introduced, which emphasizes the importance of leaders’ emotional sensitivity and expressiveness in a leader–follower communication dyad. The model may be particularly salient in complex project networks with a large number of prominent actors.     

Project team resilience: The effect of group potency and interpersonal trust

Project teams are likely to work under a high degree of stress and interpersonal demands that usually diminish performance. The ability of a team to prosper in these adverse conditions has been studied using the construct of team resilience, but there is still little knowledge about the determinants of team resilience in a project-based environment. Therefore, we propose a model in which interpersonal trust (i.e., cognition and affect-based trust) and group potency drive the perception of team resilience in project team members. We tested the model in a sample of 214 construction project management team members belonging to 50 teams. Our results suggest that affect-based trust and group potency mediate the relationship between cognition-based trust and project team resilience. We discuss the implications of these results for research on project team resilience and, more generally, how these findings could help enrich the literature on project management.     

Achieving best value in private finance initiative project procurement

The wherewithal of achieving best value in private finance initiative (PFI) projects and the associated problems therein are documented. In the UK, PFI has offered a solution to the problem of securing necessary investment at a time of severe public expenditure restraint. In PFI schemes, the public sector clients must secure value for money, while the private sector service providers must genuinely assume responsibility for project risks. A broad‐based investigation into PFI risk management informs the discussion in this paper. It is based on 68 interviews with PFI participants and a case study of eight PFI projects. The research participants comprised of contractors, financial institutions, public sector clients, consultants and facilities management organizations. The qualitative software Atlas.ti was used to analyse the textual data generated. The analysis showed that the achievement of best value requirements through PFI should hinge on: detailed risk analysis and appropriate risk allocation, drive for faster project completion, curtailment in project cost escalation, encouragement of innovation in project development, and maintenance cost being adequately accounted for. Factors that continue to challenge the achievement of best value are: high cost of the PFI procurement process, lengthy and complex negotiations, difficulty in specifying the quality of service, pricing of facility management services, potential conflicts of interests among those involved in the procurement, and the public sector clients' inability to manage consultants.     

Contract strategy for design management in the design and build system

Project team members in design–build system, including owner’s representatives, design–build (D/B) contractors and architects/engineers, have to adopt new roles in managing the design of large-scale projects. The design responsibility is transferred from the owner’s organization to the D/B contractor who is responsible for the design management in the projects to be delivered by the design–build procurement system. However, there remains the concern of design management between the designer and the constructor within the D/B organization, or between the joint venture parties of a D/B project. This paper presents a study, which reviews the issues concerning the design liability and contractual provisions for design management between the designer and D/B contractor in the said contractual arrangements of design–build system. It disseminates the results of a questionnaire survey and structured interviews of three groups of project participants: owners, designers and D/B contractors. The roles and responsibilities of the parties involved in design and design management are less than clear in their respective engagement contracts. In order to improve the design management of design–build projects, this paper recommended some strategic items to be considered in drafting contracts between owners/D/B contractors, D/B contractors/designers and owners/independent checkers to address the issues.     

承发包模式的价值原理

理解建筑生产活动的原理,是比较和推行不同承发包模式的基础。文章将一个建筑工程项目生产活动划分为设计、施工和管理三种类型,并阐释了各自的工作原理,包括设计的三阶段划分、设计与施工的协作,以及工程管理的工作内容;进一步分析了各项活动对于业主的价值。文章为不同承发包模式之间的比较提供了一个分析的框架;为政府主管部门进一步研究市场准入、招投标、建筑许可等监管政策的改革,合理调整设计、施工单位的分工范围,促进行业按照建筑生产活动基本规律科学发展提供了理论上的支持;为业主选择合理的项目发包模式,建筑业相关企业探索各自发展方向提供了理论上的指导。     

虚拟施工的BIM应用:三大高校合作项目

越来越多的设施业主要求项目组移交竣工BIM模型,以便用于建筑的运营和维护。根据项目要求的不同,业主可能将竣工模型建立与移交的责任指派给总承包商。因此,施工队伍的各成员不但越来越需要熟悉BIM建模软件的应用,还需熟悉利用可靠的设施信息支持完整BIM的必要业务流程。竣TBIM模型的创建,要求承包商首先要基于建筑师、工程师和顾问等设计师所提供的图纸和信息的基础上,创建建筑,结构和设备模型。这要求承包商的组织机构内要有一名人员具备各与专业设计模型相关的技能和知识。一旦设计模型被创建(或重新创建),承包商可将这些模型用于开发施工用的BIM模型。一个完整的施工模型通常包括:成本估算,施工进度计划、冲突检测与分析以及现场物流。业主对设施管理用竣工模型提出新增要求,包括添加运营和维护用的具体数据。本文所述项目旨在为了更好地了解,在为业主实施BIM的项目上,承包商对项目所起作用的复杂性。为实现此目标,三所大学合作建立了数个校际团队,从每所学校各抽调一名学生分配至三个团队的一个,充当BIM商业建筑项目BIM应用里的承包商角色。本文从两个方面汇报项目的挑战和细节:导师——项目组织、学习目标和策略,学生——项目组织、团队合作过程以及策略。     

Patterns of interaction in construction team meetings

Sir John Egan's 1998 report on the construction industry (Construction Task Force 1998) noted its confrontational and adversarial nature. Both the original report and its subsequent endorsement in Accelerating Change (Strategic Forum 2002) called for improved working relationships—so-called ‘integration’—within and between both design and construction aspects. In this paper, we report on our observations of on-site team meetings for a major UK project during its construction phase. We attended a series of team meetings and recorded the patterns of verbal interaction that took place within them. In reporting our findings, we have deliberately used a graphical method for presenting the results, in the expectation that this will make them more readily accessible to designers. Our diagrams of these interaction patterns have already proved to be intuitively and quickly understood, and have generated interest and discussion among both those we observed and others who have seen them. We noted that different patterns of communication occurred in different types of meetings. Specifically, in the problem-solving meeting, there was a richness of interaction that was largely missing from progress meetings and technical meetings. Team members expressed greater satisfaction with this problem-solving meeting where these enriched exchanges took place. By making comparisons between the different patterns, we are also able to explore functional roles and their interactions. From this and other published evidence, we conclude that good teamworking practices depend on a complex interplay of relations and dependencies embedded within the team.