Construction management on one large project in London: A case study

This paper explores the organizational and personnel issues emerging from the relationships between the management contractor and trade contractors on one construction project in London. The aim is to provide feedback about the effectiveness of the relationship between management contractors and the trade contractors and to explore some of the factors that inhibit 'good' relationships and those that promote 'bad' relationships. The data was collected by using two research instruments. The first was a short psychological test - the FIRO-B - which unearthed the compatibility between individual managers of trade contractors and the construction managers' staff. In short, the FIRO-B evaluated the quality of the relationships between members of the construction team and indicated areas for potential interpersonal conflict. The second instrument was the semi-structured interview. Here the construction manager's staff and a small sample of trade contractors were interviewed. The interviews were designed to enrich the data about sources of interpersonal conflict. The results illustrate the importance of creating compatible teams to generate effective teamwork. Conflicts between trade contractors and the construction managers were noted in the following areas: 1. Concerns over the clarity of the requirements of trade contractors within a work package and between work packages. 2. The level of 'unlearning' of traditional subcontractor behaviour to accommodate a new autonomous status by trade contractors. 3. The uncertainty about the role to be played by trade contractors' site managers in respect of the construction managers. 4. The uncertainty of the trade contractors about their influence over project decisions. 5. The uncertainty about the level of input from the client. The research found that there was a dichotomy between trade contractors who may be described as 'traditional' and those who were 'specialist'. The latter showed a more positive approach to the new role and status. These differences influenced the outcome of the project and the research determines some forces that 'drive' or 'restrain' changes in the behaviour of trade contractors on construction management projects.