Tawalare, A and Laishram, B (2020) Factors hindering effective partnering in Indian public sector construction organizations. Journal of Financial Management of Property and Construction, 25(1), pp. 83-105. ISSN 1366-4387
Abstract
Purpose: The Indian public sector construction industry is normally driven by traditional contracting practices. Though no formal partnering agreement is being used in public sector projects in India, improvement in Indian public sector organizations could be observed in the post-liberalization era, as they get the opportunities to work with multinational companies from countries with experiences in partnering. The purpose of this study is to explore the extent of partnering strategies being adopted by Indian public sector organizations and identify factors hindering the adoption of formal partnering. Design/methodology/approach: Critical success factors for successful partnering were first identified through literature review. This guided the collection of primary data through semi-structured interviews with 36 top management personnel and secondary data in the form of organizational documents and site reports from several site visits of four public sector construction organizations. The evidence collected from four cases were arranged and compared against organizational strategies of successful partnering. Findings: Most of the strategies adopted by the organizations were found to be in line with the suggested partnering practices. However, partnering performance of these organizations was found to be not satisfactory. This study has identified 14 factors hindering effective partnering such as reservations over joint risk-sharing process, limited bid evaluation criteria, difficulty in time-bound payment to contractor, absence of incentive mechanism, obsolete training procedures and absence of time-bound dispute resolution mechanism. Research limitations/implications: The research findings are based on a case study with four public sector organizations only. Additional cases need to be undertaken to generalize the findings. Further study should also be undertaken to explore partnering relationships between contractors and subcontractors in public sector projects. Practical implications: To improve project performance, top management of public sector organizations in India can take these factors into account while formulating strategies on introduction of project partnering in their organizations. Originality/value: The work is novel providing insights into organizational strategies promoting and hindering partnering in Indian public sector construction organizations.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | case study; cross-case analysis; Indian partnering; public sector |
| Index terms: | secondary data, public sector, bid evaluation, traditional contracting, dispute, case study, partnering, construction organization, India, resolution, construction industry, project performance, liberalization, public sector organization, literature review, strategy, personnel, interview, organizational strategy, subcontractor, critical success factor, cross-case analysis, evidence, documents, top management, methodology |
| Subjects: | control systems, practitioner, dispute resolution, evaluation and assessment methods, data collection methods, organization, business, contractual arrangements, data analysis and analytics, economic analysis, Geography, project management theory and practice, professional development, management, tendering, research methods, industry analysis, administrative law, conflict resolution, partnership management |
| Topics: | Human Resources, Legal Issues, Organizational Design, Information Management, Research Practice, Project Management, Geographical Context, Business Strategy, Procurement, Roles and Professions, Stakeholder Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
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