The Influence of Trust in Traditional Contracting: Investigating the "Lived Experience" of Stakeholders

The traditional procurement approach is ever-present within the construction industry. With fundamental design principles founded on definitive risk allocation, this transactional based approach fails to acknowledge or foster the cooperative relationships considered to be vital to the success of any project. Contractual design encourages stakeholders to defend their own individual interest to the likely detriment of project objectives. These failings are not disputed, however, given that trust is a fundamental requirement for human interaction the influence of trust is potentially important in terms of stakeholder relationships and ultimate project success. Trust is therefore examined within this context. A conceptual framework of trust is presented and subsequently used to code and analyse detailed, semi-structured interviews with multiple stakeholders from different projects. Using a phenomenological investigation of trust via the lived experiences of multiple practitioners, issues pertaining to the formation and maintenance of trust within traditionally procured construction projects are examined. Trust was found to be integral to the lived experiences of practitioners, with both good and bad relationships evident within the constructs of traditional procurement mechanisms. In this regard, individual personalities were considered significant, along with appropriate risk identification and management. Communication, particularly of an informal nature, was also highlighted. A greater emphasis on project team selection during the initial stages of a project would therefore be beneficial, as would careful consideration of the allocation of risk. Contract design would also be enhanced through prescriptive protocols for developing and maintaining trust, along with mandated mechanisms for informal communication, particularly when responding to negative events. A greater understanding regarding the consequences of lost trust and the intricacies of trust repair would also be of value. 

Bellcurve: Built Environment Lifelong Learning Challenging University Responses to Vocational Education: Lifelong University for the Built Environment

BELLCURVE (Built Environment Lifelong Learning Challenging University Responses to Vocational Education) is a European Commission funded research project conducted at the School of the Built Environment, University of Salford, UK, in collaboration with Department of Construction Economics and Property Management, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Lithuania and Department of Building Production, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia. This project addressed issues associated with the mismatch between graduate skills and labour market requirements as this mismatch has been identified as one of the main factors behind graduate unemployment and employer dissatisfaction, particularly in the Built Environment (BE) sector. BELLCURVE considered ‘student engagement’ as a continuous through-life process rather than a temporary traditional engagement limited by the course duration. This through-life studentship defines the essence of the new innovative “Lifelong University” concept, whereby providing an opportunity for learners to acquire and develop skills and knowledge enabling responds to changing construction labour market needs on a continuous basis. This requires a reform in governance systems to respond labour market needs effectively while promoting the lifelong learning agenda

Leadership styles of women managers in the UK construction industry

This paper is part of an ongoing doctoral study about exploring the contribution of women managers towards the construction industry. UK construction is typically portrayed as a male dominated industry. Women are highly under-represented particularly at the managerial and technical sectors of the construction industry. This research intends to explore the contribution women managers could bring to the construction industry. Exploring the benefits women could bring to construction will help to recruit more women workforce to construction industry which in turn will help to address the skills shortages in the industry by bringing in a wide range of skills and talents. Women’s presence in managerial workforce is growing and continues to motivate research on the leadership styles typically exhibited by women to determine if women have their own ways of leading. Further leadership is considered as an important quality for those who occupy managerial positions in organisations. In this context this paper takes the leadership styles exhibited by women managers in construction industry as the primary unit of analysis. Thus this research fall under three major knowledge domains namely gender, leadership and construction. In order to ensure the comprehensiveness and completeness of this study, an expert knowledge capturing exercise has been undertaken. This paper shares the captured expert opinions about the identified knowledge domains

Contribution of women managers towards the construction industry: Preliminary findings

UK construction industry faces many challenges such as low performance, high dissatisfaction among clients, low productivity, poor image, high fragmentation etc. Recruiting employees, particularly for senior/ middle level management, to fulfil the skills and labour shortages has also been a challenge faced by the industry for many years. The gender segregation pattern of the construction industry seems to be highly according to the societal expectations of the traditional gender roles. In evident to that, more than 85\% of the women who are attached to the UK construction industry hold administrative or secretarial positions which are not construction specific occupations. This typical gender segregation has led the industry being unable to benefit from the diverse skills that women could offer. In this context, increasing the number of women managers may have an impact on the typical gender segregation pattern of the industry and in turn may help the industry fulfilling their skills needs. However, it needs to be assured whether the increment in the number of women managers will make the industry better. This research, therefore, explores and investigates the contribution of women managers towards the construction industry. The contribution of the women managers are analysed based on the leadership styles that woman managers typically exhibit in the construction industry. This research adopted case study as the research strategy and used questionnaires and semi-structured interviews as the research techniques. Based on the preliminary analyses of the case studies, all the women managers have demonstrated certain level of leading roles such as commanding, motivating and coaching while maintaining a balance between work and personal life. In terms of gender qualities, all women managers were found to be strong in both their masculinity and femininity adjectives. Further, the women managers perceive themselves as using transformational leadership styles more often than the transactional styles. The above mentioned preliminary findings of the case studies are presented in this paper