Hong Kong relational contracting : an investigation into the attitudes and behaviours of contractors' project teams

Relational contracting has proven to have a wide range of acceptability in Hong Kong’s construction industry and around the globe. However, the issues of self-centred behaviours from contractor teams, delays, cost overruns and disputes remain the talk of the hour. Contractor teams could adopt and cultivate relational behaviour to achieve better collaboration and improved project performance. This study had two main aims. The first was to explore attitudes and behaviours beneficial for collaboration in relational contracting projects in Hong Kong. For this, a qualitative approach was adopted, using in-depth interviews; these were based on relationship of attitude-behaviour from the Theory of Planned Behaviour (Ajzen, 1991). The interviewees were ten mid-senior-level professionals with active involvement in relational contracting in Hong Kong construction projects. They included project directors, project managers, consultant advisors for relational contracting and quality managers. The interview data were analysed using thematic analysis procedures to identify themes for attitudes and behaviour, as suggested by (Braun et al., 2014, Braun and Clarke, 2006). The second aim was to test framework derived from the thematic analysis of the interviews. For this, a questionnaire survey was administered to project team members working on RC projects in Hong Kong. The questionnaire was conducted, either online or via postal survey, between April 2016 to June 2016. In total, 100 valid responses from individual members of contractor teams were analysed. Of these valid responses, 81% were from project managerial staff of contractor teams, such as project directors, project managers, construction managers, site managers, and design managers, and 19% were from non-managerial staff such as engineers, coordinators, and quantity surveyors. The responses were analysed using quantitative analysis techniques (i-e reliability, factor analysis and structural equation modelling). The findings of the study suggest that to enable collaboration among project teams in relational contracting, contractor teams could adopt relational attitudes by ensuring the commitment of senior management to the project and relational norms, demonstrating intentions for collaboration by integrating teams, and encouraging relational behaviour with teamwork, affective trust and extra-role behaviour. The study provides 34 items and 8 dimensions of the framework and a structured approach for adopting relational attitudes and relational behaviour for contractor team in relational contracting to promote collaboration and improved performance in relational contracting projects in Hong Kong.