Balancing contractual and relational approaches for PPP success and sustainability

Useful synergies are targeted by proposing a convergence of hitherto parallel international endeavours towards: (1) developing better and sustainable relationships for more productive construction project teams, in general; and (2) optimising the necessarily long term contractual arrangements of PPPs in particular. Examples are drawn from Africa and Latin America to reinforce reported PPP experiences from other regions, in building up a case for injecting ‘relational contracting approaches’ in order to develop more productive and sustainable PPPs. Strong and sustainable relationships are shown to be essential, and complementary to appropriate contractual incentives, that would together empower PPP project teams to focus on developing sustainable infrastructure and ultimately on overall sustainable development. These propositions are merged into a basic model that merits further investigation and development, in order to ensure that planned PPPs benefit the community at large, in respect of both present and future generations

Which governs - the relationship or the contract?

According to the transaction cost economics literature, a firm’s external contractual relationships must be ‘fit for purpose’. What is a ‘fit for purpose’ contractual relationship should not be a normative decision, but an objective one, to be made with regard to achieving transaction cost efficiency, while defending the core competencies of the firm. Data from a Hong Kong case study is used to examine whether or not the client’s choice of contractual relationship is ‘fit for purpose’ and also to evaluate the impact of such a choice. The findings suggest that maintaining a relationship of high quality as a strategic policy not only reduces recourse to the contract but, also improves the quality and predictability of project performance and, is an antidote to ill-aligned contractual elements. These findings lend support to the growing trend towards relationship or relational contracting in construction

Taking forward public procurement reforms in Ghana

The construction industry in Ghana, like many others worldwide, has had its fair share of damning independent reviews. Huge and unsustainable foreign debt, excessive budget deficits, huge contractual payment arrears, poor construction performance, corruption and pressure from international financial institutions, forced the government to commit to a reform of public procurement, which culminated in the passing of the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663). The paper outlines the events leading to, and features of, the public procurement reform in Ghana and analyses its potential impact and the unique challenges it presents. Comparisons are also drawn from relevant scenarios in other countries. The paper concludes that while the Procurement Act sets out the legal, institutional and regulatory framework to secure fiscal transparency and public accountability, the sole reliance on traditional contracting and price-based selection limits the scope for the value for money achievable. Expanding the reforms to cover procurement and project delivery methods and strategies, with a focus on ‘best value’, will increase the potential and likelihood of achieving value for money in public construction in Ghana

Evaluating success levels of mega-projects

Today's mega-projects transcend the traditional trajectories traced within national and technological limitations. Powers unleashed by internationalization of initiatives, in for example space exploration and environmental protection, are arguably only temporarily suppressed by narrower national, economic, and professional disagreements as to how best they should be harnessed. While the world gets its act together there is time to develop the technologies of such supra-mega-project management that will synergize truly diverse resources and smoothly mesh their interfaces. Such mega-projects and their management need to be realistically evaluated, when implementing such improvements. This paper examines current approaches to evaluating mega-projects and questions the validity of extrapolations to the supra-mega-projects of the future. Alternatives to improve such evaluations are proposed and described

Demographic Characteristics of Consumers who Read Grocery Brochures Regularly and Those who are willing to Switch Supermarkets to Buy Advertised Specials: An Analysis.

This study analyzed the influence of demographic and behavioral characteristics on the likelihood of a consumer to read food advertisements in grocery brochures and the likelihood of a consumer to shop at more than one store to purchase advertised specials. Overall, 73% and 46% of respondents read food advertisements and shop multiple stores to purchase advertised specials, respectively. Consumer characteristics which are shown to influence the reading of food advertisements and shopping at more than one food store to buy advertised specials were the possession of education beyond the 2/4 year college degree and the tendency to read ingredient labels.Consumer/Household Economics, Marketing,

A probable case of sodium valproate monotherapy induced drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms syndrome: a case report in Indian population

Drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS) syndrome is a drug-induced hypersensitivity syndrome most commonly caused by anti-epileptics like carbamazepine, phenytoin. It usually manifests as maculopapular rash, fever, eosinophilia, generalized lymphadenopathy, hepatitis, atypical lymphocytosis, and leucocytosis with the involvement of other organs. Valproate, a broad-spectrum antiepileptic, also used in bipolar disorders and migraine prophylaxis, is generally well tolerated. To date, very few cases of valproate monotherapy induced DRESS syndrome have been reported worldwide and here we are reporting one such rare case in a 72 years old Indian woman with a history of generalised tonic convulsions. The patient was classified as a ‘probable’ case of DRESS syndrome using the WHO-UMC criteria and Naranjo scale. Discontinuation of the offending medication and treatment with intravenous (IV) fluids, antihistamines, and steroids helped in recovery of the patient. Healthcare practitioners must be aware of valproate monotherapy induced DRESS syndrome and take effective measures to avoid severe side effects.

Networking for Success in Cyberspace

Several key technologies are converging to create the emerging cyberspace. We characterize this convergence process as one of cumulative synthesis and suggest that the network mode of organization is the most appropriate for facilitating convergence.Information Systems Working Papers Serie

Effects of teamwork climate on cooperation in crossfunctional temporary multi-organization workgroups

In this study, the formative roles of common goals, equal status, integrative interactions, and authority support as the optimal factors for engendering individuals’ cooperation with their proximal cross-functional project workgroups are examined. The four factors are properties of the workgroup environment, and have each been highlighted as being important in previous conceptual and critical success factors (CSFs) studies of project effectiveness. However, until now, there has been no systematic empirical test of the interactive effects of all four factors in a construction temporary-multi organization (TMO) workgroup setting. The four factors are conceptualized in this study as the reflective dimensions of a superordinate multidimensional latent construct, teamwork climate. An integrative test was undertaken of the construct validity of this multidimensional construct, its substantive utility relative to its dimensions, and of specific hypotheses connecting the multidimensional construct and its dimensions to individual’s in-role, extra-role, compliance, and deference behaviour; the test was performed using two cross-cultural samples of built environment professional managers (UK, N = 381; and Hong Kong, N = 140) and structural equation modelling. The results showed convergence in support of the multidimensional 18 conceptualization of teamwork climate, and also show that teamwork climate significantly and positively influences workgroup members’ in-role, extra-role, compliance, and deference behavior. These findings provide compelling indication that teamwork climate is an important and efficient determinant of cooperative behavior within TMO contexts and, in so doing, make an important contribution to the extant and construction engineering and management lines of literature on work climates. This study also makes an important contribution to the debate in the extant literature about how to model the four climate dimensions, in so far as it shows that a superordinate multidimensional conceptualization maximizes predictive utility, theoretical parsimony and bandwidth. Finally, this study makes an important contribution to practice, as it focuses project managers’ attention on creating the generative project environments for the four optimal conditions for teamwork

Selecting sustainable teams for PPP projects

Inherent complexities and high strategic impacts of public private partnership (PPP) projects call for careful team selection methodologies. While project-specific selection methodologies have been previously developed, it is shown that there is now a clear need for an integrated approach, which for example ties in Past Performance Scores on technical, sustainability and relational criteria into a unified framework for decision-making. This paper proposes such a framework. The first phase of the validation of this framework was carried out using a Delphi-type survey of industry and academic experts. The findings indicate a high consensus among experts on the suitability of the basic framework for further development. Following expansion and full operationalisation of the technical, sustainability and relational components, the developed framework will again be conceptually validated before recommending it for field testing and implementation