The construction industry has, over a long period, been criticised for its short term “hit-and-run” relationships which are focused on win-lose situations and poor
performance. Despite the wide recognition of these problems the industry persistently resists the radical change demanded of it. This paper attempts to investigate why this
might be the case by reviewing prevailing safeguarding practices within the current commercial systems and structures through literature review and industry observation. Findings reveal that clients and decision makers often tend to safeguard their project specific
assets, against opportunism and exploitation, through the deployment of formal contractual arrangements and governance structures. These arrangements and
structures typically dominate the management of the project delivery often to the detriment of the project itself; but because there is a belief that interests are safeguarded, clients and decision makers feel they have taken the best course of action. This goes a long way to explaining the coherence of the current construction model and provides the basic information for preparing a route to the radical change required to move to lean methodologies
