Taimu, M (2020) A contractor-driven stakeholder relationship management framework for botswana's construction industry. DBL thesis, University of South Africa, South Africa.
Abstract
Evidence from relevant literature indicates that abandoned and failed projects have become prevalent in the Botswana context. Poor stakeholder management has been identified as a salient contributor to this challenge. To this end, various stakeholder management (SM) frameworks, models and methodologies have been developed. Nevertheless, the increasing incidence of project failure and abandonment in the Botswana construction industry indicates significant underperformance of these SM methodologies. A cursory appraisal of SM models highlights the linearity of the stakeholder relationship management (SRM) curve, i.e. between the client, consultants and contractors, with SRM responsibilities being domiciled with the client or their representative in most cases. Also, the dynamics associated with changes in stakeholder attributes during project delivery are not catered for by extant SM and relationship management models. In addition, extant SM models focus on the relationship between the project stakeholders on the one hand and the external stakeholders on the other, and others cater for project stakeholders alone. This implies that the models currently deployed for SM in the Botswana construction context remain defective. Contracting organisations (contractors) have been blamed for their inability to manage relationships with projects and external stakeholders during project delivery. Yet, these entities are not at the epicentre of SRM on construction projects. This study provides answers to the gaps highlighted. As its central objective, this study set out to develop and validate a contractor-driven stakeholder relationship management framework (CSRMF) for the Botswana construction industry. The emergent framework which leverages on the attributes of the customer relationship model (CRM) overcomes the shortcomings mentioned previously.An interpretivist philosophical paradigm was adopted in this qualitative case study research study based on pre-determined case selection criteria. Owing to the need to attain analytic generalisation through adherence to replication logic, a multi-case study research design was utilised. Six contractor organisations categorised according to scale and operating within Gaborone were selected. The unit of analysis centred on the relationship between the contracting organisations and other project stakeholders on selected projects being procured and delivered under a diverse range of contracting strategies. Data was collected through a sequential multi-method approach in which semi-structured interviews were conducted with project managers representing these construction contracting organisations on the selected projects. To enable replication, care was taken to select two contracting organisations per level – large, medium and small according to prevalent grades. Samples across the different sizes of the contractors allowed for better generalisability.Relevant projects and organisational documents were reviewed. Furthermore, data from the various stages was analysed using the qualitative content analysis technique. The findings of the study show that most of the contractors in Botswana related to their project stakeholders without a model or framework when handling relationship management with project stakeholders. These findings are a reflection of the small, medium and large construction contractors in the Botswana construction industry. There was further indication that the small, medium and large contractors had a way of managing stakeholder relationships and resolving conflicts, and thus the level of experience and knowledge within the contracting firm had a significant influence on how they managed their project stakeholder relationships in the course of project procurement and delivery.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Awuzie, B O and Ngowi, A B |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Botswana; case study; client; conflicts; content analysis; failure; project delivery; project stakeholder; selection criteria; stakeholder |
| Index terms: | relationship management, paradigm, dynamics, reflection, project delivery, construction industry, selection criteria, case study, project manager, contractor organization, project failure, Botswana, research design, project stakeholder, documents, evidence, methodology, construction project, project procurement, stakeholder management, contracting organization, appraisal, construction contractor, external stakeholder, interview, abandonment, content analysis, strategy |
| Subjects: | project delivery, participation process, data analysis and analytics, research design and methodology, data collection methods, profession, sociology, systems engineering, industry analysis, management, education and knowledge transfer, professional development, contractual arrangements, organization, project completion, evaluation and assessment methods, practitioner, completion, research methods, tendering, factor and component analysis, production management, Geography |
| Topics: | Procurement, Project Management, Geographical Context, Engineering Principles, Organizational Design, Human Resources, Stakeholder Management, Roles and Professions, Business Strategy, Research Practice, Information Management |
| 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