Decision making and negotiation: Establishing social order on a construction site

On October 1st 1997 a warehouse belonging to a large pharmaceutical company in the Midlands, STUBBS', burnt down. The client company wanted an urgent replacement in order to minimise lost profits. Textbooks on management and organisational theory advocate various strategies for overcoming the veritable problems resulting from relations between client, main contractor and sub-contractor in running construction projects. Such strategies include partnering and this was the performed option here. Using data elicited from interviews with both site and office-based personnel, and field-notes made from attending meetings, I attempt an ethnography of organisational culture and endeavour to describe what running a construction project looks like, in detail. Also, where seen as relevant, I examine what a partnering project looks like when an array of managers attempt to implement a new management process, in tandem with running a construction project on a day-to-day basis. I also attempt to chart how resistant 'the organisation' is in taking these concerns on board, concerns that are seen as chronic practical problems within the industry. This thesis attempts to show the vagueness of these strategies and suggests an alternative approach that focuses on the what the workers of these organisations, as displayed in their talk to one another, is manifested through the day-to-day interaction. Far from being 'merely' a 'subjective approach', the resulting descriptions of how members actually constitute the world of work through their talk and action throws an alternative light on the actual practices of the workforce.