Oyemomi, B; Hare, B and Tong, M (2018) Exploring public-private partnership challenges and the effects on the construction workforce: A Scotland study. In: Gorse, C and Neilson, C J (eds.) Proceedings of 34th Annual ARCOM Conference, 3-5 September 2018, Queen’s University, Belfast, UK.
Abstract
The construction industry is well established in practice and research as a critical contributor in the economic, social, political, environmental, infrastructural and developmental prosperity and wellbeing of countries around the world. These accolades have been particularly argued to be significantly public sector driven because of the social, economic and intellectual investments and inputs attributed to the public sector. On the crusade of 'innovation' and 'adaptability', the shift away from sole execution of public sector construction projects by public construction organisations towards the implementation of variants of public-private partnerships has been widespread. These have come along with intended and observed advantages such as improved innovation, efficiency, quality, finance and risk sharing for public construction projects; these benefits have been occasionally questioned. While literature is saturated with perceived benefits, the challenges remain and provide room for research to contribute improvements to public construction procurement. Following these arguments, this research explores the challenges faced by construction professionals, who are important stakeholders, in public construction procurement and the likely effects on construction project delivery in Scotland. The need for a distinct understanding for Scottish public construction procurement is expanded upon in this paper, although this research does not provide a comparison with other countries in the United Kingdom. Fifteen (15) purposively sampled individuals participated in in-depth semi-structured interviews which were transcribed verbatim. The thematic analyses of these interviews provided research contributions that showed an absence and uncertainty of leadership from project clients, lack of clarity and specificity on project identity and culture, presence of a rigid project environment and an excessive dependence on disincentives/penalties for improved project performance. The presence of these challenges is reiterated to be damaging to human resource motivation, client/contractor relationships and the eventual goal of construction project delivery in Scotland.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | human resource; procurement; public-private partnerships; public sector; Scotland. |
| Index terms: | project client, interview, efficiency, penalty, partnership, United Kingdom, public sector, motivation, construction project delivery, human resource, construction project, public construction, construction professional, well-being, project performance, Scotland, identity, presence, adaptability, thematic analysis, construction industry, implementation |
| Subjects: | data collection methods, user focus, mental health and wellbeing, environmental science, contractual arrangements, psychology, methods and analysis, Geography, production management, project management theory and practice, professional development, management, performance management, regulatory law, industry analysis, administrative law, project controls, partnership management, sociology, building construction |
| Topics: | Time Control, Design Practice, Legal Issues, Quality Management, Human Resources, Stakeholder Management, Procurement, Sustainability, Health and Safety, Research Practice, Project Management, Geographical Context, Information Management, Engineering Principles |
| 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