Vaux, James S (2014) Relationship conflict in construction management and how it affects performance and profit. PhD thesis, Washington State University, USA.
Abstract
The construction industry is a large and complex industry involving multiple stakeholders with divergent interests who often experience conflict that is detrimental to all involved. Interpersonal conflict know as relationship conflict produces outcomes that are detrimental to performance as seen in the project schedule, morale of the management team, and the budget. The construction industry recognizes there is a problem with relationship conflict but little research has examined the topic to understand what construction management professionals experience and the effects on performance. This qualitative grounded theory research examined the effects of relationship conflict on performance and budget in construction management, through 25 interviews with construction management professionals, conducted in 18 northwest construction firms. The professionals interviewed included, three superintendents, 11 project managers, three senior project managers, and eight project executives. The goal of the study was to understand from the construction industry's perspective what the antecedents and outcomes of relationship conflict were for the firms and individuals involved. Key antecedents that produced relationship conflict were lack of communication, old school attitude, and lump sum contracts. The primary players who produced relationship conflict were the owner and owner's representative, subcontractors, and superintendents. Resulting from relationship conflict, the major detrimental outcomes were schedule delays and budget increases, while factors that mitigated relationship conflict were, good communication and trust. Performance was also negatively affected on a personal level as management professionals experienced the effects of relationship conflict through mental, emotional, physical, and family-life disruption.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Kirk, W M |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | grounded theory; communication; construction firms; morale; performance; owner; professional; project manager; stakeholders; subcontractor; relationship conflict; trust; interview |
| Index terms: | schedule delay, project manager, relationship conflict, morale, owner, grounded theory, executive, construction industry, interview, construction firm, profit, subcontractor |
| Subjects: | project controls, sociology, industry analysis, management, data collection methods, profession, leadership, theoretical framing, economic analysis, organization, practitioner |
| Topics: | Stakeholder Management, Roles and Professions, Business Strategy, Research Practice, Time Control, Organizational Design, Human Resources |
| 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