Conflicts and management styles in the Sri Lankan commercial building sector

The Sri Lankan commercial building industry is currently experiencing a construction boom after thirty years of civil war. Creating a dispute free environment through well conflict management is one of the main ways to keep the continuous demand and development of construction. However, the Sri Lankan construction sector is arranged in such a way that they directly approach the dispute resolution rather than avoiding the dispute initially through proper conflict management. The aim of this research is to understand the prevailing conflict management styles in Sri Lankan commercial building industry from the main stakeholders’ perspective. The dual concern theory is applied to this study as a theory foundation. Four cases are selected for this study with the intention of conducting meetings with three main stakeholders of each case who represented client, consultants and contractors respectively. The research findings reveal that compromising is the most common conflict management style used by the industry. Forcing style obtained the second place in the ranking whereas obliging and avoiding received third and fourth places. This study is conducted to provide a full picture of conflicts faced by the Sri Lankan commercial building industry and their proper management so that the future projects will use this information to diminish the destructive effects of conflict situations and provide a real value for money. Key Words: Conflict Management; Dual Concern Theory; Commercial Building Sector; Sri Lank

MINIMIZING CONFLICTS IN BUILDING CONSTRUCTION THROUGH PROPER PROCUREMENT ARRANGEMENTS

Occurrence of conflicts, claims and disputes within the construction projects is very frequent. Conflicts cause to inefficiencies and losses to the final project in all three terms of cost, quality and time. Poor procurement arrangements are root causes for most of the conflicts. Conflicts can be avoided at two particular stages, either before arising through pre-designed mitigation means or after the arrival through proper functioning of an improved procurement arrangement. The research has used case study approach to identify common conflictive situations which arise in traditional and design and built procurement systems. Findings revealed that, introduction of a separate party to the project team for project co-ordination and to keep detailed project daily records, improving client’s knowledge upon the projects arrangements, providing the project team with end products performance specifications and initial appointment of project members which would be useful to minimize and to handle conflict resolution fairly in Sri Lanka.Keywords: Conflicts, Improvements, Procurement Arrangement, Sri Lankan Construction Industry.For full Paper: [email protected]