Perceived Effects of Prevalent Errors in Contract Documents on Construction Projects

One of the highly rated causes of poor performance is errors in contract documents. The objectives of this study are to investigate the prevalent errors in contract documents and their effects on construction projects. Questionnaire survey and 51 case study projects (mixed method) were adopted for the study. The study also involved the use of Delphi technique to extract the possible errors that may be contained in contract documents; it did not however constitute the empirical data for the study. The sample of the study consists of 985 consulting and 275 contracting firms that engaged in the construction of building projects that were completed between 2013 and 2016 and were above the ground floor. The two-stage stratified random sampling technique was adopted for the study. The data for the study were analysed with descriptive and inferential statistics (based on Shapiro-Wilk’s test). The results of the study indicate that errors in contract documents were moderately prevalent. However, overmeasurement in bill of quantities was prevalent in private, institutional and management procured projects. Traditionally procured projects contain 68% of the errors in contract documents among the procurement methods. Drawings contain the highest number of errors, followed by bill of quantities and specifications. The severe effects of errors in contract documents were structural collapse, deterioration of buildings and contractors’ claims among others. The result of the study implies that, management procurement method is the route to error minimization in developing countries, but it may need to be backed by law and guarded against overmeasurement

Farmers or Slaves: Contract Production

This paper discusses the pros and cons of contract production of agricultural products and specifically investigates contract pig production in the USA. Discussion includes the impact that contract production will have on the traditional farm life as many think of it. The author discusses the major global trends impacting the role of the farmer and concludes that agriculture at the farm is continuing its rapid change. Farm families of the future will be required to change rapidly and to adapt to changes in farm management structure.Farm Management,

The Social Contract and Dispute Resolution: The Transformation of the Social Contract in the United States Workplace and the Emergence of New Strategies of Dispute Resolution

In recent years, a significant amount of public and academic attention has been devoted to the unravelling of the so-called \u27New Deal\u27 social contract and the emergence of a new social contract between workers and employers in the United States of America (US). In our paper, we will identify the forces of change that undermined the New Deal social contract during the post-World War II era and led to the reformulation of the workplace social contract in the US. It is our thesis that the transformation of the workplace social contract in the US significantly affected the resolution of employment disputes, giving rise to alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and other new approaches to conflict management. After briefly describing the origins of the New Deal social contract, we will assess the alignment of forces that resulted in the reformulation of the social contract in the 1990s. This new social contract has had historic consequences for most dimensions of the employment relationship, including job security, methods of pay, unionisation, and supervision, but its effects on workplace dispute resolution are especially noteworthy

Did Producer Hedging Opportunities in the Live Hog Contract Decline?

The paper assesses the usefulness of selective hedging strategies when combined with forecast techniques in the live hog contract. The use of routine futures and options hedging is not attractive relative to a cash-only strategy. However, forecasting and hedging can contribute to price risk management improvement for risk-averse producers. Consistent with previous research, the results indicate that the live hog contract continues to offer producers attractive pricing opportunities. The findings suggests that the success of the new lean value carcass contract may depend on its ability to attract trading volume from outside the traditional production sector.hedging, forecasting, risk management, live hog futures, lean hog futures

Stochastic Dominance Analysis of Bioenergy Crops as a Production Alternative on an East Tennessee Beef and Crop Farm

This study evaluated prices and incentives for switchgrass stated in a biorefinery’s contract terms that induce switchgrass production on an east Tennessee representative farm when compared with traditional enterprises. The alternate contract terms imitated current subsidies/incentives offered as well as incentives and cost share terms not in the BCAP.switchgrass, contract, risk aversion, net return, Farm Management, Production Economics, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q12,

Project Contract Management and a Theory of Organization

This paper attempts to develop concepts of project and contract organization to predict the selection of contract type on infrastructure projects. Conventional wisdom is that at low risk fixed price contracts are best, moving to remeasurement and then cost plus as risk increases. We started trying to predict this from a transaction cost perspective, and such an analysis confirmed conventional wisdom. However, it does not fit with current practice. Further, the differences in transaction costs are small compared to differences in contract out-turn cost that occur under the different motivational effects of different contract types. We therefore take a different perspective. We assume the purpose behind a project contract is to create a cooperative project organization, in which all participants, clients and contractors, are motivated to achieve common objectives, their goals are aligned. This analysis confirms modern practice, and shows selection of contract type is related to uncertainty in the project's deliverables, and uncertainty in the process of their delivery. Build only remeasurement contracts are used where uncertainty of both product and process is low. Design and build fixed price contracts are used where uncertainty of the product is low, but the uncertainty in the process of delivery is high. Fixed price contracts should be used where both are high. We extend the analysis to show when the client should be involved in the project organization in an alliance contract, and when they should not, as in a traditional project contracttransaction costs;alliancing;contract selection;contract type;goal alignment

Representing Difficult People

[Excerpt] Few stewards would argue that most of their union work flows directly from problems with management. Contract misinterpretations and outright violations, thoughtless supervision, paperwork foulups and a million other things go wrong all the time, adding up to a real handful for stewards. That’s why it can be such a frustration when some of your most difficult problems come not from management, but from your own ranks

Veggies 4U's Energy Pricing Dilemma

Veggies 4U is a young and dynamic family-run greenhouse: Lucy and her husband run the business with the help of a small group of friends and colleagues who serve on the company's Board of Directors. Lucy is preparing a report to the Board to recommend a natural gas supply contract for the next three years. The company has received four different contract offers, ranging from a simple forward contract, to a maximum cost contract with a price floor. The case focuses on the pricing and risk management opportunities offered by an integrated North American natural gas market. Lucy has to assess the different supply contract offers received by the company and to reverse engineer them in order to benchmark their cost with that of potential synthetic alternatives Veggies 4U could build. Once Lucy has decided what to recommend, she has to sell it to the Board.Energy price risk, Natural gas supply contract, Financial engineering, Risk, Demand and Price Analysis, Risk and Uncertainty,