Abdul Nifa, F A (2013) Development of a framework for partnering through aligning organizational cultures in the Malaysian construction industry. PhD thesis, University of Salford, UK.
Abstract
In line with the main awareness of partnering in solving the many issues within the global construction industry, the Malaysian government has call upon the local industry to embrace and adapt partnering practices in their project delivery. Although culture has been noted as one of the main enabler for partnering, there is lack of research in highlighting the role of culture in partnering and virtually no evidence of a partnering framework established for a multi-ethnic and racial workforce in a developing country such as Malaysia. This research aims to develop a framework for partnering that aligns organizational culture in the Malaysian construction industry. This exploratory research studies the basic concept of partnering and the influence of culture to partnering success. This research seeks to identify which partnering enablers are readily available in the Malaysian construction industry at present. Apart from that, this research also explores the current organizational culture which affects the level of engagement in partnering among private SME consultant firms in particular and the industry in general. The private SME consultant firms are highlighted in this research due to the evidence that indicates the critical role of the consultants in driving the innovations in the industry, which is also cited as one of the outputs from successful partnering. This research leans towards interpretivist epistemological standpoint with an inductive approach and employs a convergent parallel mixed methods survey design in order to answer the research questions. In this research, 14 semi-structured interviews were conducted with top and middle managers in 4 private SME consultant firms and 69 questionnaires were completed by practitioners from various segments of the Malaysian construction industry. As the design suggests, findings from a critical literature review, semi-structured interviews and questionnaires are merged to form a foundation for the development of framework in this research. This research contributes not only to expanding the knowledge in the concept of partnering but also for the implementation of partnering in the construction industry particularly in Malaysia through the framework developed. The practical implication of this thesis is to provide the construction practitioners with the method to establish, enhance and maintain a network of successful partnering relationship in Malaysia.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | consultant; developing country; foundation; government; innovation; interview; Malaysia; novation; organizational culture; partnering; survey; workforce |
| Index terms: | mixed method, Malaysia, partnering, consultant firm, exploratory research, global construction, project delivery, implementation, construction industry, developing country, interview, manager, construction practitioner, survey, inductive approach, literature review, evidence, questionnaire, practitioner, organizational culture |
| Subjects: | professional development, industry analysis, partnership management, sociology, data collection methods, data analysis and analytics, project delivery, Geography, development economics, research methods, practitioner, evaluation and assessment methods, strategic management, organization, contractual arrangements |
| Topics: | Procurement, Geographical Context, Stakeholder Management, Roles and Professions, Information Management, Research Practice, Organizational Design, International Construction |
| 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