Wen, Q; Qiang, M and An, N (2017) Collaborating with construction management consultants in project execution: Responsibility delegation and capability integration. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 143(7): 04017021, ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
The professional consultancy services provided by construction management consultants (CMC) are important supplements to clients' management of project execution. However, CMCs' services, if not carefully managed, cannot bring salient contributions. This paper aims to empirically examine how clients' delegation to CMCs affects client-consultant capability integration in project management processes. Based on a comprehensive literature review, a conceptual capability integration model was developed. A triangulated approach was adopted to collect qualitative and quantitative data. Social network analysis (SNA) and case analysis provide exploratory evidence on the capability integration model. Partial least square based structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) analyses tested the model hypotheses statistically. The results suggest that both clients' and CMCs' capabilities contribute to project management processes, although clients' contributions are more significant. Delegating more responsibilities to CMCs better utilizes their capabilities and at the same time does not restrict clients' contributions. Theoretically, these findings provide empirical support to the theory of temporal project organization and map the client-consultant collaboration interface. In practice, clients should better utilize CMCs' capabilities by designing appropriate responsibility delegation systems based on the revealed capability integration mechanism.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | capability integration; construction management consultant; organizational issues; process capability; responsibility delegation |
| Index terms: | project organization, structural equation modelling, literature review, social network analysis, consultancy, partial least square, evidence, collaboration, integration, organizational issue, project management process |
| Subjects: | research methods, management, project management theory and practice, organizational theory, organizational analysis, statistical analysis, organization, business, evaluation and assessment methods, data analysis and analytics |
| Topics: | Project Management, Research Practice, Organizational Design |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here