A study of the management and procurement of building services work

This paper is concerned with the performance of nominated and domestic subcontractors in building services in the Hong Kong construction industry. It maps out the variables influencing overall project performance, and tests for factors involved in the selection of subcontractors which in turn are likely to influence project performance. The study had two objectives: first to investigate the relationship between project management actions and the achievement of reduced costs and completing on time; second, to explore the most appropriate procurement method for building services for particular types of project. To achieve the first objective, the investigation used systems and contingency theory to view managerial actions, and it was hypothesized that the way that the procurement form was managed would determine the project's performance. Moreover, the nature and structure of the temporary multi-organization (TMO) would determine the most appropriate form for optimum performance. In short, appropriate organization management leads to higher performance of building services subcontractors. The second objective was addressed by considering the roles and responsibilities afforded to the specialist contractor. The methodology for the research was a case study format that enabled the problems experienced in each project to be reviewed. Six case studies of high rise commercial buildings have been carried out. Although the sample was small, it did provide sufficient data to test the methodology. However the small sample did make it difficult statistically to test the data with confidence. The managerial actions that have been observed arose from a cross-sectional study of data collected by structured interview and a questionnaire that used a standard scoring system. Data on the profile of the subcontractors undertaking the work were also gathered and management actions of the subcontractor and project performances were appraised.