Although CP is considered to be an emergent approach to SCM application, it has been widely received in Australia and the UK construction industry. This formed the basis of analysing case studies on CP in these respective countries.
The adoption of SCM CP in international construction industry stems from being major contributors to their economy thus prompting remedial interventions to ensure it thrives and continues to enrich the economy.
Australia displayed a large presence of contractor in the industry thus providing a justification into case study evaluation of SCM CP. In Australia, collaboration is closely studied alongside relational contracting (RC) as it is believed to assist in forging deeper collaborative relationships among stakeholders. An assessment of comparative analysis of CP and RC provided commonalities between these philosophies which provided insight into the practice of researchers to use these terms interchangeably.
Three case studies were analysed to afford the study a better understanding of collaboration in the Australian construction sector. Due to the reputable status of these case studies, it became possible to follow criteria that would provide an informed assessment of CP in action. In the case of the National Museum of Australia, alliance approach was selected to accommodate the special needs warranted by the type of project undertaken. As a result an 11-step alliance selection process similar to a turn-key tender process highlighted a need for project specific KPIs as these enabled an informed partnership. However, these case studies looked at CP/alliance from the perspective of the overall project team (client, professional
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team and main contractor) as opposed construction teams (main contractor, subcontractor/supplier and their respective representatives). From the three case studies one aspect that came to the fore was the fact that alliancing approaches implemented as a response to a growing concern for advanced, innovative methods of appointing and subsequently tasking of those involved in the project. Project clients, the initiator of CP, relied on alliance experts to provide and facilitate the nature of alliance between participants. A detailed intense alliance process ensured a solid foundation to trust the successful outcome of the project and the relationship it forged in the process.
Australia considers CP to be a somewhat social science and while construction was designated to the professional of the industry, alliance was facilitated by social science and management teams who understood alliance but did not necessarily understand the construction industry. This move to encompass non-construction stakeholders raises a number of mixed assessments and possible impacts on site production, namely:
• Increased fragmentation with the inclusion of alliance facilitators.
• The need to establish a branch of alliance expertise among construction professionals. • Integration of external career participants into an already populated industry.
The UK construction industry is a success story to say the least. With the country headlining innovation in the construction community an assessment of the collaboration phenomenon called for an alternative approach to that followed in the Australian context. UK construction has invested much on research and government investment has established great benchmarks used on construction sites worldwide. Through government facilitation, the UK construction industry has seen a continued commitment to further research on matters of creating a non- adversarial team based working environment. The establishment of committees, compilation of reports has enabled the outlining of framework to govern CP over and above reliance on formal contract agreements. However, this paints an idealistic picture of CP and ultimately scepticism lingers over relying on the principle that commercial transactions are considered to be formal agreements thus eliminating the need for formal contractual agreements despite the fact that contractual agreements have encouraged professional commitment by all parties involved. Beyond the Latham (1994) and Egan (1998) reports, recent frameworks have been introduced as a means of ridding the industry off traditional patterns of interactions and replacing it with alternative power structures which incorporates knowledge platforms early in the relationship. Noteworthy is the Procure 21 framework introduced in 2009 as a revision
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of traditional roles played by various participants. Quite a number of construction project have been completed under the alliance agreements in the past two decades in the UK construction industry but advance application is still encouraged by government and regulatory bodies. While regulatory bodies are interested in non-contractual alliance agreements, the majority of construction projects completed under CP conditions included standard forms of contract agreements to govern their collaboration. Being a trailblazer in the SCM field, the UK construction industry appears to believe that more can still be done to apply CP on construction sites. As suggested by the Latham (1994) and Egan (1998) reports, instead of dismissing standard forms of contracts, regulatory bodies should be tasked with modifying existing contracts to enable CP.
Research has shown that South African construction industry is particularly similar to that of the international construction community. The issue of fragmentation reigns rampant in the South African construction industry but further challenges outside the construction sphere threaten the ability of the industry to survive in the global economy. These include:
• Public sector capacity
• Mismatches between available skills and required skills • Globalisation and critical global issues
• Procurement practices and the capacity for sustainable environment • Availability of suitable land for construction
• Poverty
The historically disenfranchised South Africans are thus the target for the many reforms in legislation regarding construction and infrastructure, particularly in SCM application. Although government has regulated SCM frameworks, these changes relate more to the generic SCM concept applicable to any industry. These SCM systems have gone a long way to building a more inclusive post-1994 society and enriched communities. However, one can question at what cost this has been.
The concept of collaboration is common in South Africa despite the fact that research has only recently explored this practice as an essential management philosophy. Benchmarking becomes a difficult exercise as research has only gone as far as flagging the challenges faced by the South African construction industry and establishing the existence of this practice. Interestingly, the study of CP from an international perspective has provided valuable insight into the possible application of SCM in the local South African industry, namely:
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• CP is common feature of construction relationships;
• Standard forms of contract recent modifications include collaboration;
• Lack of sufficient research interest does not necessarily imply an absence in collaboration examples; and
• The execution of a construction project under a collaborative agreement.
However, there are significant gaps that need to be bridged by researchers and stakeholders of the South African construction industry. These research gaps include:
• The role of government in regulating, funding and promoting collaborative practices on infrastructure development – as the gatekeepers of the country’s economy, it is in government’s best interest to regulate, promote and fund construction projects with collaboration agreements;
• The need for regulated framework and guidelines by institutional bodies in the industry – a stronghold for good practice, it is surprisingly a challenge to source out established framework and guidelines by the professional councils and committees to guide stakeholders in troubleshooting issues faced on construction sites;
• The adaptation and modification of existing forms of contract to cater for collaborative working – while standard forms of contracts are in constantly revised, not only are the these modifications seldom reported on but few research has surfaced to discuss the growing challenges face by construction stakeholders in implementing these contracts in a project;
• Awareness and subsequent edification of collaborative practices among industry professionals and stakeholders – collaboration in construction has been rarely deliberated as a remedial managerial philosophy, contemporary construction methods have thus far provided little on how this philosophy could be understood and subsequently applied by industry professionals;
• Exploration of existing construction projects completed with the successful application of collaboration tools and incentives – applied research into the study of existing construction projects to build a narrative of the outworking’s of construction relationships has only recently surfaced, implying a well-informed industry with little objective documented research to verify it;
• The need for project clients to establish project specific KPIs to enable collaborative environment- insufficient published literature on the South African construction sector present a difficulty in affirming whether project clients who set out KPIs achieved
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satisfactory outcome to those who kept to the traditional methods of construction management;
• The need to explore alternative forms of contracting to ensure minimal project variations in time, quality and cost – the South African construction industry has long adopted international forms of contract to govern local construction projects, however with very little evidence to suggest these standard forms of contracts can accommodate contemporary construction methods, it questions whether alternative forms of contracts would yield favourable outcomes;
• The need for leadership from industry regulatory bodies in transitioning from competitive tendering to more collaborative forms – a subject most professionals and stakeholders of the industry discuss, there has been very few emerging studies which explores the shift from competitive tendering to other all-inclusive systems; and
• Receptive measures of combating and adapting to the rapid increase fragmentation of construction activities – a prevailing issue in construction, research has sparingly explored philosophies to correct or better combat fragmentation of this industry.
Instead of dwelling on the deficiencies of the application of SCM in South African construction, research need to look at SCM and other management philosophies as positive approaches that can impact local construction as it has played out successfully for the international construction community. Therefore the comprehensive study of Australian and UK construction provide a narrative on how a common occurrence on site can evolve into a non-adversarial managerial tool practiced within formal structures.
4.5. LESSONS LEARNT
The South African construction industry has developed over the past two decades. The adoption of new regulations and policy relating to socio-economic matters has contributed in an important way to the industry’s role in the economy and county. As a result, the South African construction industry has seen an increase in public and private sector funding. As is with many countries, the South African construction sector is not without its challenges. Twelve commonly encountered challenges comprise of: public sector capacity; mismatches between available skills and required skills; globalisation and critical global issues; procurement practices and the capacity for sustainable development; access to affordable mortgages/credit and interest rate; poverty; technology; availability of suitable land for
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construction; availability of infrastructure; high rate of enterprise failure/ delivery capacity and performance; increases in the cost of building material; and statues and regulations. The research also indicated issues the industry shares with the international construction community, that of: fragmentation and the growth in the number of free-entrants specialists. Notably, governmental branches in South Africa have developed SCM framework to regulate and promote the adaptation and application of SCM in all sectors of the economy. However, research shows that the country faces a number of challenges in implementing SCM successfully in the South African construction sector (Manners-Bell, 2014: 193).
Although collaboration is said to be practised by construction professionals, very few research has surfaced in the last decade to provide a more comprehensive analysis of CP in the South African construction industry context.
Various research gaps were identified that focused on the involvement of government, industry professional role and modification of the various forms of contract used in the industry. These research gaps emphasised the need to not only learn from the international construction community but to also undertake the task of identifying existing construction projects and study the nature of collaboration as they take place in South African construction sites.
The brief discussion on Chapter 3 into this sector affirms that the problems afflicting South African construction are not limited to project size, economic conditions or geographic location of the project. The characteristics of this industry are inherent to the inputs associated with every tasks carried out onsite. This perspective not only generalises the construction industry but suggests that as much as South African construction suffers the same problems discussed in Chapter 3, it also has the opportunity to share in the successes of SCM, collaboration in particular, in terms of contributing to best practices.
4.6. SUMMARY
The chapter engaged with existing literature on SCM and CP in South Africa. Challenges faced by South African construction were flagged and proffered suggestions were discussed. This chapter further identified various gaps relating to CP in South Africa. The following chapter discusses the research methodology and the procedure followed during the study in order to achieve the aims of the study.
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CHAPTER FIVE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
5.1. INTRODUCTION
This chapter elaborates on the research methodology undertaken to achieve the aim of this study. The geographical area where the study was conducted, the research approach and the sample population are also discussed in this chapter. This chapter further explains the instrument used in collecting the required data, including the methods adopted to maintain validity and reliability of the chosen instrument. The chapter thus provides a detailed outworking of the approach taken to evaluate CP within South African contracting firms.