Bennett, J and Ferry, D (1990) Specialist contractors: A review of issues raised by their new role in building. Construction Management and Economics, 8(3), pp. 259-283. ISSN 01446193
Abstract
The paper describes a study of the newly emerging role of specialist contractors in the UK building industry. It identifies a common strategy employed by specialists in dealing with the complexity and diversity of modern building. This is to maintain a consistent operating core insulated from the firm's environment. It also highlights particular problems which arise in current practice in respect of contracts, design responsibilities, coordination of work on site and the incidence of variations. It also shows that opportunities and problems arise from the power of modern information and the demands for quality assurance. All these individual issues give rise to a need to review the training of operatives and specialists' investment in research and development. For the rest of the industry, the study suggests a need to develop better ways of evaluating competitive design proposals from specialists.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | contracts; design; design competition; research and development; site coordination; specialist contractors; training |
| Index terms: | variation, research and development, specialist contractor, competition, complexity, proposal, strategy, quality assurance, building industry, operative, coordination |
| Subjects: | project planning, practitioner, research management, market analysis, quality assurance, systems engineering, industry analysis, management, contractual condition |
| Topics: | Research Practice, Project Management, Engineering Principles, Business Strategy, Roles and Professions, Quality Management, Contract Administration, Organizational Design |
| Descriptive scope: | 2 PC |
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