Making changes in practice: An ethnographic study of a hospital project

Changes to client requirements are inevitable during the construction phase of a project. Dominant industry discourse is concerned with minimising and controlling changes. However, there is a lack of understanding about processes of making changes. In response to calls for more research to be undertaken into working practices, the aim is to explore how changes are made in a live project. An ethnographic study of a public hospital project was undertaken over an eight-month period in order to gain insights into these practices. It was found that there was a strong emphasis on following contract change control procedures, partly as a means of demonstrating best-practice and ensuring accountability, which was deemed to be important in the public sector project. However, it often overshadowed considerations about whether or not a change was required in terms of the functionality of the building. Drawing upon structuration theory, these practices were the product of, and reaffirmed, structures of legitimation in the construction industry and the public sector concerning change management. This representation of making changes highlights how contract procedures can be useful and insufficient and where attention can be focused to explore better change management practices.