Clarke, L and Herrmann, G (2004) Cost vs. Production: Disparities in social housing construction in Britain and Germany. Construction Management and Economics, 22(5), pp. 521-532. ISSN 01446193
Abstract
The nature of the labour process in the British construction industry is different from that in Germany. The rationale of the British system is based on controlling costs through overseeing contract relations, themselves circumscribing a range of narrow, clearly defined and priced tasks. The production process has become secondary and production expertise restricted. In contrast, in Germany cost aspects are incorporated into, rather than separated from, the production system, built on the interaction of capital and labour and on a high level of production expertise. Employment relations rather than contract relations predominate and circumscribe a set of skills drawn from the potential of the labour force and dependent on broad-based vocational education. A detailed investigation of social housebuilding projects and the firms involved in Britain and Germany reveals the need for more skills, and a qualitatively different constellation of skills, professional and operative, in Britain.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | comparison; Germany; housebuilding; skills; training |
| Index terms: | production process, production system, labour force, Germany, employment, social housing, construction industry, interaction, disparity, vocational education, operative, housebuilding, investigation |
| Subjects: | practitioner, data collection methods, Geography, economics, construction integration, manufacturing engineering, management, behavioral psychology, industry analysis, social justice, professional education, housing and residential development |
| Topics: | Education, Urban Studies, Supply Chain Management, Ethics, Human Resources, Roles and Professions, Business Strategy, Engineering Principles, Geographical Context, Research Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTA |
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