Vennström, A (2008) The construction client as a change agent contextual support and obstacles. PhD thesis, Luleå University of Technology, Sweden.
Abstract
The purpose of this research is to understand how the construction client can contribute to the development of the construction process. In this PhD project, literature reviews and three empirical studies were conducted in order to investigate the research questions and thereby fulfil the research purpose. In this thesis the theories regarding the role of a change agent and the role of a construction client are examined. Other fields that were reviewed are the context of the construction process, such as the briefing process. All these different theories and fields of literature are well suited for the analysis of the different aspects of the contextual situation for the construction client. The research presented in this thesis contributes to theory and practice in two main ways. 1) The theoretical conceptual model, describing the role of a construction client and the role of a change agent, adds knowledge to further understanding of the complexity of governing the construction process. 2) The empirical evidence shows that there are substantial obstacles for the construction client to address in order to become a change agent. The first two research questions deal with how the contextual situation influences the construction client's actions. The answer to this research question shows that the contextual situation does affect the construction client's possibility to act as a change agent. The third research question focuses on the extent to which the construction client can affect the construction process as a change agent. The possibilities are displayed and discussed from a general perspective and a more specific evaluation of the construction client's role is described. The role that the construction clients possess does support implementation of initiatives, but the implementation needs to be supported by a construction client function with competences on change processes.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | competence; complexity; briefing; client |
| Index terms: | literature review, competence, construction process, evidence, agent, briefing, complexity, construction client, empirical study, implementation |
| Subjects: | building construction, systems engineering, research methods, personnel development, contractual arrangements, data analysis and analytics, evaluation and assessment methods, scope management, practitioner |
| Topics: | Procurement, Engineering Principles, Project Management, Site Management, Human Resources, Roles and Professions, Research Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCA |
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