Farag, F; McDermott, P and Huelin, C A (2016) The development of an activity zone conceptual framework to improve social value implementation in construction projects using human activity systems. In: Chan, P W and Neilson, C J (eds.) Proceedings of 32nd Annual ARCOM Conference, 5-7 September 2016, Manchester, UK.
Abstract
The delivery of social value outcomes has been surrounded with confusion for publicly procured construction projects recently. A conflict between public clients' and main contractors' perspective of social value was found to be due to their opposing motivations. Public clients' perceptions of social value are grounded in visions of long term impact due to them being rooted in local contexts for more than the duration of construction. Whereas, contractors, have a short term perspective of social value usually grounded in a transactional view of their association with projects and wider stakeholders. This view seems to prevail even where clients have moved more towards relational forms of contracting. In addition, the lack of understanding of management methods to measure and deliver social value was seen as a hindrance to the process which is reflected in the selection, implementation and assessment phases of procurement.This paper discusses how the use of Human Activity Systems (HAS) models, as part of Soft System Methodology (SSM), was used to create a conceptual model of social value delivery in construction projects procedure based on different phases of the project from inception to contract management. The benefits of using SSM and HAS in overcoming the problems of social value outcome delivery has been reported elsewhere, by the authors. The researchers used focus groups/expert panels to gather information from experts about social value delivery in the UK local construction context to gain their perspectives about the phenomenon and to build the HAS models. The empirical data is presented here.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | social value delivery- sustainable construction-human activity systems-soft systems methodology-process mapping-new product development |
| Index terms: | conceptual framework, public client, duration, implementation, human activity, construction project, methodology, mapping, management method, social value, new product development, motivation, main contractor, soft systems methodology, focus group, contract management, sustainable construction |
| Subjects: | spatial and geospatial analysis, research methods, management, theoretical framing, contract management, sustainable construction, production management, sociology, project controls, data collection methods, innovation studies, practitioner, psychology, contractual arrangements |
| Topics: | Stakeholder Management, Roles and Professions, Procurement, Sustainability, Business Strategy, Project Management, Research Practice, Contract Administration, Time Control, Urban Studies, 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