Sporrong, J and Kadefors, A (2014) Municipal consultancy procurement: New roles and practices. Building Research & Information, 42(5), pp. 616-628. ISSN 0961-3218
Abstract
The shift in municipal procurement of construction-related services from technical departments to central departments of procurement has significant impacts on the selection criteria and processes. These new roles and decision-making contexts (increased regulative complexity, stricter control and outsourcing of wider ranges of municipal services) are examined for how they shape procurement practices for architectural and engineering services in Swedish municipalities. Based on a critical theoretical review of policy implementation and inter-professional collaboration, the purchasing practices of five Swedish municipalities are examined and compared through case study interviews to understand the relationships and practices that occur between technical and procurement staff. Resource constraints and stricter control are found to lead to a strong preference, especially among technical staff, for simplified procurement models with a high emphasis on lowest price, whilst procurement staff favour more advanced methods for quality assessment. However, differences in knowledge and professional culture between the technical staff and procurement staff have created barriers to communication and competence integration. To develop a procurement practice that rewards supplier competence, clearer guidelines and changes to procurement roles within the client organization are needed, as well as increased resources. Procurement policies need to be more closely tied to their implementation.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | architectural and engineering services; implementation theory; local government; outsourcing; professional services; public procurement; public sector |
| Index terms: | quality assessment, purchasing, public sector, client organization, interview, procurement policy, local government, outsourcing, case study, implementation, selection criteria, preference, consultancy, municipality, complexity, collaboration, competence, policy implementation, integration, professional service, decision-making, resource constraint |
| Subjects: | contractual arrangements, operations management, public policy, data collection methods, organization, client relations, policy studies, business, procurement strategy, administrative law, systems engineering, quality assurance, organizational analysis, decision analysis, personnel development, management, tendering, decision-making and reasoning |
| Topics: | Engineering Principles, Research Practice, Project Management, Risk Management, Stakeholder Management, Governance, Procurement, Legal Issues, Quality Management, Human Resources, Organizational Design |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCE |
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