Collaboration in construction consortia

Abstract

The current construction market is segregated, under-performs and becomes more complex. Often leaving the client helpless when projects go wrong. Consortia arise to handle the complexity and segregation, while improved collaboration between contractors can raise performance, but do consortia solve these problems? This research examines whether consortia affect the collaboration between contractors and if the client can influence this collaboration. Therefore, research objective is: ”Improving collaboration in construction consortia in the Netherlands by gaining insight in (different client and contractor related) factors, which influence unanticipated key moments”. The research question that is answered to reach the research objective is ”How does the client’s influence, on decision-making by contractors in key moments, differ when working with a consortium instead of a main contractor with subcontractor?” The research considered three factors and five hypotheses that have been derived from literature. The factors are expected to be influential for collaboration, be- ing: management style, relational capability and contractual context. All include more specific, measurable sub-factors. The hypotheses are expected consequences of working with a consortium and relate to collaboration between contractors and to the involvement of the client. The influence of the client on the factors has been assessed, as has the factors’ influence on collaboration. This is done in four Dutch construction projects, using a combination of semi-structured interviews and sur- veys. Two of the projects are consortia and two are executed main contractor – sub-contractors (MC-SCs). Collaboration is examined using an ’unanticipated key moment’-approach, where two unexpected decision (during execution) were analysed. The decision-making process is traced to find which factors were of influence in which project and whether the client had an influence on them. The influences have been gathered and combined per case to conclude which factors influence decision-making and whether the client has an influence on this. The findings were then compared cross-case to draw better founded conclusions and to find what is affected by working in a consortium. This includes confirming or rejecting the hypotheses. As a last step, the results are validated using an expert panel of tender and contract managers from the client’s side. The research found that, though all factors influenced decision-making, the client’s influence was limited. Relational capability has the highest influence on decision- making and the client has the most influence through the contractual context (i.e. incentives and contract type), the broadening of solution space and improving the contractor’s higher management commitment. Though, the differences between MC-SCs and consortia were small for the factors, the hypotheses gave more insight in the differences. Working with a consortium does not improve the relation between contractors, neither does it improve goal alignment or reduces negative impact of conflicts. Working with a consortium does reduce the influence of the client on decision-making. Knowing that working with a consortium reduces the client’s influence and knowing that the contractual context, broadening of solution space and improving higher management commitment are possibilities for the client to influence decision-making, it is recommend to the client to use a combination of these if a larger influence is wanted. Above all, even though consortia are sometimes seen as a remedy against segregation, they are definitely not a guarantee for good collaboration and integration.