Effects of interpersonal relations on public sector construction contracts in Vietnam

Public owners and private contractors and consultants are expected to maintain arm’s length relationships with each other to avoid any accusation of corruption. In the context of public construction projects in Vietnam, this study examines: the relational contracting (RC) related behavioural patterns that lead to better interpersonal relations during the construction stage and at the end of the project among public project owners, and private contractors and consultants; and the extent to which better interpersonal relations affect project performance. Using a questionnaire survey, data were collected from public owners and private contractors and consultants in Vietnam. Correlation analysis shows that there exist several behavioural patterns that significantly affect interpersonal relations among project team members during the construction stage and at the end of the project, and the general harmony during the construction stage. It was also found that cost performance is significantly correlated with project harmony level. Schedule performance is significantly correlated with interpersonal relations between project team members during the construction stage, and at the end of the project. The findings indicate the important role that interpersonal relations play in project outcomes and vice versa. The behavioural patterns that are found to be significantly correlated with harmony during the construction stage and/or relationships among project team members suggest that concrete actions may be taken by owners, consultants and contractors to improve relationships, and thereby improve cost and schedule outcomes. It is recommended that owners, consultants and contractors adopt some of the behavioural patterns identified.     

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.     

Alternative approach to credit scoring by DEA: Evaluating borrowers with respect to PFI projects

Private finance initiative (PFI), as a form of public/private partnership (PPP), helps to contract the private sector to governmental projects. In contrast to traditional public financed projects, PFI projects are procured by allowing a private sector entity to take the responsibility to design, build, finance, and operate (DBFO) an asset for a contract period of up to several decades. Moreover, banks are perceived to take the leading role in financing PFI projects. Since project financing involves credit assessment of loan applicants, banks have employed popular credit scoring models to assess their creditworthiness. Although the existing models are useful for credit scoring, new models have to emerge in response to ever-changing business practices. This paper therefore aims at introducing the application of data envelopment analysis (DEA) as an alternative credit-scoring model. Unlike traditional credit-scoring building on a formula where weights to a set of criteria are assigned subjectively, DEA will automatically generate the relative weights for analysis. However, incorporating DEA demands additional considerations, which are discussed in this paper. Finally, examples are demonstrated for illustrating this alterative approach to credit scoring by DEA.     

Emotional intelligence: A preventive strategy to manage destructive influence of conflict in large scale projects

Insufficient empirical and theoretical attention has been given to the influence of emotional intelligence (EI) in determining performance and the mechanisms underlying this relationship among project team members in large-scale infrastructure projects. This research explores the association between EI and project performance in the context of large-scale infrastructure projects. Specifically, it proposes a model demonstrating a positive link between EI and project performance through adverse relationships with three negative conflict types (relationship, teak, and process). Further, it hypothesises that trust plays a moderating role. To test the model, we collected data from 365 project team members in large-scale infrastructure projects. The empirical results demonstrate that EI is positively linked to performance in large-scale infrastructure projects, and that this association is facilitated by EI's negative link to three conflict modes (task, relationship, process), which are negatively connected to performance. Additionally, inter-personal trust was found to moderate the negative relationship between conflict and project performance. This paper concludes with a discussion of the research and practical implications of the study's findings, and suggestions for future research directions.     

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.     

The association among project manager's leadership style, teamwork and project success

This study aims to examine whether the impact of teamwork on project performance was moderated by the following data class variables: industry sector, total installed cost, owner regulation, initial site, team size, complexity, project type, and international involvement. Additionally, this study also investigated the relationships among the project manager's leadership style, teamwork, and project success. To address the primary aims, a questionnaire-based survey was used to measure the project manager's leadership style, teamwork, and project success in terms of schedule performance, cost performance, quality performance, and stakeholder satisfaction. The analyses suggest that increases in levels of leadership may enhance relationships among team members. The results also indicate that teamwork exhibits statistically significant influence on project performance. Finally, the findings suggest that project type has a moderating effect on the relationship between teamwork dimensions and overall project success.     

Implementation constraints in social enterprise and community Public Private Partnerships

Public Private Partnership (PPP) employs private sector expertise and skill to provide public goods and services. We examine three community PPP projects to identify critical success factors of the project outcomes. Two conclusions particularly stand out: first, the project must be aligned with both the public and private parties' business and service plans, and second, appropriate management structures and procedures must be established for obtaining this alignment. The latter effect recognizes the need to implement appropriate project governance practices including management discipline and expertise. We investigate these ideas further and present specific guidelines for PPP project design and implementation.     

Design-and-build contractors' service quality in public projects in Singapore

In the construction industry, total quality comprises corporate service quality, project service quality and quality of the constructed facility. This study investigates the project service quality of design-and-build (D&B) contractors when undertaking projects for public sector clients in Singapore. Service quality is operationalized into five determinants: reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangible. From these, 34 attributes that may affect project service quality in D&B projects are identified. A questionnaire is used to ascertain clients' service quality expectations of these 34 attributes. The clients were also asked the extent to which D&B contractors achieve project service quality. It is found that D&B contractors did not meet clients' expectations in all the five dimensions of service quality. This means that D&B contractors are not giving clients the satisfaction that they hope for. This study offers D&B contractors feedback relating to clients' expectations of their service delivery and the areas of service that need to be improved in order to provide quality service that will satisfy public sector clients.     

A socio-cognitive approach to leading a learning project team: A proposed model and scale development

This article proposes a theoretical model and measurement scale for leading a learning project team. While leadership is largely recognized as one of the most important mechanisms for transferring learning from individuals to projects, there lacks a succinct measurement scale for project members to report on project leaders’ behaviors that promote collective learning in projects. Drawing from rich theories on multilevel learning, socio-cognitive conflicts, and leading diversity, we develop a measurement scale that captures project members’ experiences of how their leaders (a) support the identification and communication of project members’ individual mental models, (b) support the resolution of differences in mental models among project team members, and (c) create opportunities and time for team members to interact with others outside the project team. Collectively, these three dimensions form a new scale for leading a learning project team. We cautiously conclude sound psychometric measurement properties from an initial sample of 94 valid responses to a questionnaire distributed to project members through international professional project management networks. This study highlights the multi-level nature of leading a learning project team and provides tentative empirical support for the reflective three-dimensional scale predicting learning in project teams better than transformational leadership.     

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.     

公共项目私人融资新途径——PFI

ＰＦＩ是一种新的公共项目私人融资方式。它鼓励私人部门营建基础设施项目或政府公共项目,并以此为基础提供公共服务的一种区别于传统政府公共项目的出产方式。它能够广泛地适用于许多政府的公共项目领域,在英国该方式已成为政府获得高质量、高效率的政府项目的主要工具。ＰＦＩ的应用有二个基本必须遵循的原则,一是要能够实现安全可靠的经济价值;二是项目的风险能够在政府部门和私人部门之间合理分配。     

Knowledge integration in IPPD project: role of shared project mission,mutual trust,and mutual influence

Project integration is an important management issue related to product development performance outcomes. Design, development, production, and commercialization of new products and services require a project team's ability to acquire and integrate different knowledge bases of internal capabilities, customers, and suppliers. A literature gap exists regarding critical drivers of knowledge integration and shared knowledge in product development projects that needs to be identified and scientifically validated. Based on goal setting, social exchange, and information processing theories, the current study identifies antecedents of knowledge integration in terms of a shared project mission, mutual trust, and mutual influence, and investigates key relationships among these antecedents to determine the effect of knowledge integration on integrated product and process development (IPPD) project outcomes. Proposed hypothetical relationships among these constructs were tested on primary data collected from 191 respondents (OEM project managers and team members, suppliers, and customers) from IPPD projects from the U.S. automotive industry. With regards to the antecedents of knowledge integration in IPPD projects, our results indicate a statistically significant positive association between shared project mission, mutual trust, mutual influence and knowledge integration. Further, our results indicate a positive relationship between knowledge integration and performance outcomes measured in terms of IPPD project success and IPPD product success. Our results also indicate a partial mediating effect of mutual trust and mutual influence between the relationships of shared project mission and knowledge integration. Discussion of our empirical results, limitations, and recommendation for future studies in the area of knowledge integration in the area of IPPD projects are also provided.     

Exploring the communication breakdown in global virtual teams

Virtual matrix-managed teams with geographically dispersed members are becoming increasingly common in the high-tech sector. These teams, referred to as global virtual teams (GVTs), are generally described as culturally diverse, geographically dispersed, electronically-communicating workgroups. They rapidly form, change, and dissolve due to dynamic changes in the market. In addition, most GVTs today have team members spread among several projects with competing priorities. Communication breakdown can wreak havoc on a project as team members struggle to effectively communicate and work with one another. As a result, project delivery risks with distributed teams tend to be greater when compared to co-located teams. To address this critical issue, this study investigates the types of factors that significantly contribute to communication breakdown by identifying five distinct areas through a series of interviews with project team members in high-tech companies. These areas are trust, interpersonal relations, cultural differences, leadership and technology. These criteria are analyzed using mathematical Decision Models taking expert opinions from professionals who worked in GVTs.     

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.     

HRM in project groups: The effect of project duration on team development effectiveness

The literature has found contradictory results regarding the impact of human resource management on project success. This paper focuses on one important human resource management process – team development – to investigate its importance in the project environment. Results show that most team development practices that work well in the operational business environment do not have a significant influence on project success. However, project duration was found to moderate the relationship between team development and project success: the effectiveness of team development increases in longer projects. The paper identifies and analyzes team development practices that have a positive impact on project success exclusively in long projects.     

Enabling and measuring innovation in the construction industry

Innovation is vital to successful, long-term company performance in the construction industry. Understanding the innovation process, how innovation can be enhanced and how it can be measured are key steps to managing and enhancing innovation. The factors that affect innovation on a project were identified, as well as how these factors can be used to measure the level of innovation on a project, and the practices and processes that encourage and facilitate innovative changes. Case studies of construction projects in the United States revealed three necessary components of innovation: idea generation, opportunity and diffusion. A variety of practices are used to optimize each component including support and commitment from the owner/client and firm upper management, workforce and project team integration and diversity. Applying the practices identified in the research leads to enhanced innovation through better communication among project team members, integration of the design and construction disciplines, more efficient designs, development of unique ways of completing work and sharing of the lessons learned. The end result of innovation will be projects that successfully meet and exceed cost, quality, schedule and safety goals.     

The predictive ability of Bromilow's timecost model

Bromilow's log-log time-cost (BTC) model is tested and refitted with a new set of data for Australian construction projects completed between 1991 and 1998. It is shown that, as anticipated by earlier research, different parameter estimates are needed for different project types, with smaller industrial projects taking less time to complete than the smaller educational and residential projects. This results in the development of two separate models, one for industrial projects and one for non-industrial projects. No changes in parameter estimates are needed for projects with different client sectors, contractor selection methods and contractual arrangements. Alternatives to the log-log model failed to produce any improved fit. Finally, the results are compared with previous work to indicate the extent of changes in time-cost relationships in Australian construction projects over the last 40 years. This indicates a clear improvement in construction speed over the period. Furthermore, the ‘public’ sector group in particular has exhibited a greater variation (up to 132%) over the years.     

Should the public sector play a greater role funding brownfield redevelopment projects? A transatlantic comparison

In the US and Germany, various public funding tools are available to make brownfield redevelopment projects financially feasible. The practices of private or public sector involvement differ from an international perspective. The following discussion will explore funding practices in the US and Germany. In Germany, there is a long tradition of public sector involvement while the US is predominately driven by private sector funding. A comparison will help identify long-standing practices in Germany and how they might be adapted to the US context. In a manner similar to the previous chapter on policies and programs, findings in this chapter are discussed at federal US, state of Michigan and local municipal levels, and European Union, Germany, and local-level funding.     

Knowledge sharing in information systems development projects: Explicating the role of dependence and trust

This study provides empirical evidence for the role of dependence and trust in knowledge sharing in information systems projects. As critical antecedents of dependence and trust among team members, four constructs are included in the study—environmental complexity, domain expertise, similarity of project value, and communication frequency. Partial least square analyses are conducted, using data collected from 135 project teams in two large IT firms. The results confirm that dependence and trust maintain a strong impact on knowledge sharing, leading to good team project performance. This study uses a cross-sectional survey as a research method. Longer term exploration seems necessary to further explore how trust and dependence are actually formed among team members. Findings indicate that team members share their knowledge when they trust their partners and when they feel dependent. Feelings of dependence and trust are influenced by the communication frequency, perceived similarity of the project's value, and the perceived expertise. Project managers need to pay attention to these variables in order to increase the level of knowledge sharing among team members especially in information systems development projects where primary tasks are critically knowledge-intensive.     

Preferred risk allocation in China’s public–private partnership (PPP) projects

As part of a comprehensive research into PPP implementation, a two-round Delphi survey was conducted with experienced practitioners to identify the preference of risk allocation in China’s PPP projects. The results show that the public sector would take sole responsibility for the risk “Expropriation and nationalization”, and take the majority of responsibility for 12 other risks related to government or government officials and their actions. Fourteen risks which neither the public nor private sector may be able to deal with them alone are preferred to be shared equally. The private sector would take the majority of responsibility for 10 risks that are at the project level. Interestingly, no risk fell into the category that should be solely allocated to the private sector. Further analysis of the reasons behind these allocation preferences was then conducted. Recommendations on commercial principles and contract terms between the public authorities and private consortia are also made.