Fahy, P (2007) Cross cultural training and the effective integration of the construction supply chain. PhD thesis, University College London, UK.
Abstract
Most professionals working within the UK construction industry are familiar with the recommendations of both the Latham and Egan reports, their conclusions called for improvement to the service that the construction industry delivers both for its clients and for the profitability of the enterprises involved. Their recommendations were the impetus for the drive within the industry to use strategic partnering as a replacement for competitive tendering and supply chain management as a means of improving the design process and reducing conflict, in order to achieve greater integration between enterprises involved in business transactions within the construction supply chain. It is however noteworthy that to date few suggestions have been made as to how to achiev e integration of partner enterprises and project teams once an agreement is made or a team formed and thus this paper seeks to investigate why fragmentation is necessary how it adds value to the overall labour process how cross-cultural training techniques can be used as a structured means of achieving the integration of partner enterprises or project teams by reducing conflict. The investigation will follow several paths. First it aims to identify the barriers to successful integration of enterprises within the construction supply chain. Second it reviews the various different techniques by which cross-cultural training is currently carried out and its effectiveness as an assimilation tool. Thirdly it looks at the effectiveness of the application of cross-cultural training in the construction context through an action research exercise carried out on a live project.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | action research; conflict; construction supply chain; design process; effectiveness; partnering; project team; supply chain management; tendering; UK |
| Index terms: | construction industry, project team, construction supply chain, investigation, profitability, effectiveness, partnering, Latham, exercise, replacement, integration, fragmentation, action research, design process, competitive tendering |
| Subjects: | data collection methods, business, materials science, construction logistics, health behaviours and lifestyles, design methods, economic analysis, project delivery, tendering, performance management, industry policy reports, partnership management, organizational analysis, industry analysis |
| Topics: | Health and Safety, Project Management, Engineering Principles, Procurement, Quality Management, Supply Chain Management, Business Strategy, Research Practice, Stakeholder Management, Governance, Design Practice, Organizational Design |
| 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