Achieving exemplary quality in the UK construction professions

The object of the research was to develop an understanding of how UK construction professionals achieve exemplary quality in the services they offer. The aspirations and outlook of purchasers and providers of services were discussed, recorded, examined and compared.The initial hypothesis was "that practices with a "culture" of quality are more likely to produce excellent quality in the eyes of the purchaser, and thus be regarded as an exemplary firm, than those that rely upon rules and procedures, with or without quality assurance."A methodology was developed which aimed to establish and analyse: (i) What is "exemplary quality of service" in the eyes of a professional client? (ii) How do the firms identified as providing such an exemplary service achieve this level of service delivery? (iii) As a dynamic perspective on (ii), how do the firms manage, and benefit from their experience of handling, unforeseen changes or errors? Three purchasers of services were selected and interviewed. They were each asked to nominate the two firms which they believed offered the most exemplary levels of service quality. These firms were interviewed, and two of their projects were monitored over a period of six months. All interviews followed a predetermined structure which included key questions, whilst also allowing free expression of any views which the interviewee deemed relevant. The thesis analyses the considerable amount of data which was gathered, and concludes that the most powerful motivational drive in the firms studied was the desire to be "best in class". They did not regard meeting the client's expectations as the final measure of exemplary quality.