Tijhuis, W (1996) Contractors at work or into conflict? Lessons from international collaboration: Dutch experiences into German construction industry. PhD thesis, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands.
Abstract
"Due to the Berlin wall in 1989, a large building market arose in the countries behind the former Iron Curtain. Various parties started to broaden their activities, particularly in areas in former East-Germany. Dutch enterprises were represented there too, as well as in several areas in former West-Germany. Various investigations in the building branch confirmed that it was necessary for Dutch (and other) building companies to enter into these markets to maintain a competitive position. However, entering into these markets pointed out not to be always that simple, which became very obvious by the fact that several foreign companies (including Dutch ones) have withdrawn their activities there during the past period. It would seem that operating on an international building market requires more than just working by different technical regulations or standards. This investigative research-project was therefore primarily aiming at the situation and experiences of building companies and project developers that started activities in the new German provinces with their Dutch backgrounds. During the preliminary research it turned out that these parties have quite some problems with the rather fragmented German building process, which they were not used to. In the Netherlands the common building process has a relatively integrated approach. The research was therefore especially oriented on differences between the Netherlands an German in the organisation of the building process, in which special attention was paid to the possible backgrounds of these differences. To realise a number of matters, partially participative research was carried out within building companies and project developers. This was combined with the analysis of various theories, such as those of Hofstede, Mintzberg, and Sanders and Neuijen. Besides that, there was participation in other international research, where comparison were made between project organisations within building companies in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Finland among others. These activities collectively contributed to the ascertaining of the fields of interest, in which differences and their possible backgrounds were brought to light. Mainly from in-depth interviews it appeared that the areas of contact, contract and conflict were of major importance."
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | standards; building process; markets; participation; Finland; France; Germany; Netherlands; participative research; market; project organisation; regulation; developer; interview |
| Index terms: | Finland, participative research, investigation, markets, construction industry, integrated approach, interview, France, Netherlands, project organization, collaboration, Germany, regulation, building process, Berlin |
| Subjects: | social issues and equity, data collection methods, economic analysis, contractual arrangements, management, Geography, organizational theory, building construction, political science, industry analysis |
| Topics: | Organizational Design, Site Management, Business Strategy, Project Management, Geographical Context, Research Practice, Procurement, Governance |
| 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