Vogelius, P and Storgaard, K (2016) Cooperation in construction: The role of values. In: Chan, P W and Neilson, C J (eds.) Proceedings of 32nd Annual ARCOM Conference, 5-7 September 2016, Manchester, UK.
Abstract
In Denmark there exists an extensive discussion on new forms of collaboration in construction with special emphasis on the execution phase. Addressing this debate, the study present a specific case describing a branch of a major construction company, where cooperation and its staging has been essential for the production process, from bidding on tender over construction and design to the final production on the building site. From a research angel the study is interesting because the model on several points include and combines industrial building production concepts with initiatives that are rooted in specific sub-areas such as health and safety, skills development and cooperation models, more than in traditional production logic. The analysis looks into how the contractor, already in the initial bidding phase, establishes cooperation between the subcontractors and how this participatory, value-based cooperation give rise to productivity. The company's model seems to contribute to the solution of key problems in construction in relation to productivity, quality and cooperation which highly inflect economy and profit.The paper does not does not pretend to give a full explanation on the mechanism behind the collaboration model, but tentatively work out an understanding of the participating companies (in the building project) as possessing social capital. The social capital was built up and maintained, through the actual constitution of cooperation between the individual parties (although the use of the concept “social capital” in project-based organizations demands special considerations). The management logic seemed to be based on a sociology inspired understanding focusing on norms and values rather than on contractual (law) and functional (engineering) logic.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | rationality; mode of communications; shared value; cooperation; social capital; normativity |
| Index terms: | social capital, profit, production process, construction company, project-based organization, building site, skills development, sociology, productivity, health and safety, rationality, shared value, subcontractor, bidding, norms, cooperation, Denmark, collaboration |
| Subjects: | practitioner, equitable outcomes, organization, economic analysis, bidding, psychology, personnel development, site and location studies, Geography, health safety and environment, social theory, decision-making and reasoning, management, manufacturing engineering, sociology |
| Topics: | Procurement, Roles and Professions, Geographical Context, Research Practice, Engineering Principles, Business Strategy, Health and Safety, Organizational Design, Human Resources, Value Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
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