Topic: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN A CLIENT AND CONTRACTOR DETERMINES THE SUCCESS OF A RESIDENTIAL HOUSING PROJECT IN THE UK PRIVATE SECTOR Ok it’s a 20k words dissertation and my topic is how a healthy relationship between a client and a contractor can lead to a successful project I have already submitted a proposal for this topic, it should be the base of the actual dissertation We were asked to choose a topic and write on it.. the proposal should be a guideline, I have attached it Please contact me for more details Please be advised, my budget is not very big. Please, give reasonable prices.

Contents

Aim……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 3

Objectives……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 3

Justification……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 4

Alignment of Study……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 4

Literature review……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 4

Research Strategy……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 7

Practical implementation……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 8

Data analysis……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 8

Research timeframe……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 8

FIG 1……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 9

Ethnical consideration……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 9

References…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 10

Aim

• To investigate how the relationship between a client and contractor determines the success of a residential housing project in the UK private sector.

Objectives

• To carry out a critical literature review on how the relationship between client and contractor determines the success of a residential housing project in the UK private sector
• To identify the factors that affect the relationship
• To examine and analyse the impact of these factors on the success of the proposed project
• To recommend factors that can promote better relationship between client and contractor in the private sector

Justification

The construction sector is an aspect that contributes massively to the economy of a nation. This makes this sector very sensitive and important. However, there are good number of challenges facing this sector of the economy which has limited the level of success recorded in terms of value delivery (mirawati; othman, risyawati, 2015). Among these problems is poor relationship between the client and the contractor which has resulted to project delay, cost overrun, delay in return on investment, conflicts leading to litigation, poor project quality etc. Hence, the need to investigate and propose factors to foster a better relationship between a client and contractor so as to achieve effective project delivery (ismail, 2014).

Alignment of Study

This study is very relevant to construction project management because a construction project manager must be knowledgeable on how best to manage project stakeholders. According to Burke and Barron, client and contractor are key stakeholders whose influence and interest are extremely high. The study stated further that these stakeholders have different interest and expectations which must be carefully managed by the construction project manager. This requires high level of professionalism because both parties engage different professionals, policies, standard, and priorities in delivering their obligations on a particular project. It is imperative to note that stakeholder’s management is key to the success of a residential housing project or any other construction project (Burke, Barron;, 2007). This links my proposed research area to construction project management.

Literature review

The success of a construction project is determined based on project success factors as identified by Pinto and Slevin’s  (1988), seminal model which states that project success could be in two folds that is success of the project itself and client success. This study describes project success indicators as project duration, project cost and project quality. This means that a construction project is considered successful if completed within the budgeted cost, time frame and to specification. On the other hand the researcher defined client success as achieving end user satisfaction, return on investment and level of maintainability and sustainability of the project (Pinto, Slevin, 1988).

PMI also noted that fitness of use of a project is very sensitive to its level of success. A project can succeed in delivering shelter but fail to meet the functional requirements needed to make the occupants safe, comfortable and relaxed.

It is important we have a clear understanding of who a stakeholder is, according to the PMBOK ‘a stakeholder can be defined as a person(s) and organisations such as customers sponsors, performing organisations and the public, that are actively involved in the project or whose interests may be positively or negatively affected by execution or completion of the project. They may also exert influence over the project and its deliveries’. While stakeholder management was defined by the APM bok as the systematic identification, analysis and planning of actions to communicate with, negotiate with, and influence stakeholders, stakeholders are all those who have an interest or role in the project or are impacted by the project’.

It could be argued that from the two definition above that stakeholder’s roles are very sensitive to a project delivery. Therefore it is imperative for a project manager to be able to identify and determine the needs and expectation of all stakeholders, mainly in respect to communication and information. It is highly possible for many of these expectations and needs will be different and in most cases conflicting (Burke, Barron, 2007).

There is no short cut to success and same applies to a construction project. This means good collaboration and team work is required to achieve success on a project. Stakeholder’s management has been described as a key factor to project success. It is imperative to involve everyone and work towards achieving a common goal. Everyone’s objective should be the success of the project and this should be proven by eliminating any doubts and hesitation.

According to Karlsson and Kindbom (2017), one of the factors that affect client and contractors relationship is the poor documentation during tendering which can be due to self-interest, pressure and ignorance. The report further stated that during the tender phase, both the contractors and the project owner should spend more time on documentations so as to prevent these problems; professionalism from both parties, client and contractor satisfaction, effective communication between parties, commitment from both parties, importance of the project, trustworthiness, conformance from both parties, good health and safety practice, contract development, adaptation to change, flexibility in the terms of contract, interdependence and common goal.

In every profession, there are laid down ethics and procedures that should be followed accordingly. Study has shown that one of the most important factor for building a healthy relationship between a client and contractor is professionalism. According to Fordell (2011), a basic input for a good working relationship is professionalism. The law of contract is employed by the construction industry in its operation. A client’s main aim is using the services of a contractor to get a project done while the main of a contractor is to get rewarded for a project well executed. In the business world, customers are always right, the customer in this context is the client. Nevertheless, the construction industry has a little twist to this for example; a contractor can refuse to enter a contract with a client who cannot redeem his part of his deal, similarly, a client will not engage the services of a contractor who cannot deliver good quality word.

The research explained how these factors affects a healthy client and contractor relationship. Effective communication being one of the factor was described to be a very significate factor for healthy client and contractor relationship. The works of researchers like prior (2012), Raciti and Dagger (2010), Kannan and Tan (2006), Davis and Love (2011), Bolton and Tarasi (2007), Doran et al (2005), Ambrose et al (2008) and Akintoye and Main (2007) all confirmed that establishing a good relationship with other is impossible without communication. The role of communication being a factor of a healthy relationship has been said to be on the same level of the role of petrol, in a car. However, according to Ambrose et al (2010), even though communication plays a role in building a relation between both parties, there is a major difference between the views of a clients and the views of a contractors and this should be taken into consideration.

The works of Frodell (2011), Prior (2012), Davis and love (2011), Akintoye and main (2007), Altinay and Brookes (2010), Kannan and Tan (2006) and Kumra et al (2012), shows that commitment is also important when establishing a healthy relationship. Frodell (2011), classified factors for good working relationship into input, throughput and output. This means that there is an association between relationship and commitment, also it can also be said that the bond between the client and contactor is dependent on the level of commitment shown by both parties.

The trust developed determines the level of seriousness of every great relationships (choo et al. 2009; Kannan and Tan 2006; Ambrose et al. 2008; Davis and love 2011; Wicks and Berman 2004; Akintoye and Main 2007; Soetanto et al. 2001). This study reveals that a major factor that plays an important role in relationship building. From observations, trust is the beginning of every good relationship. The report compares trust to a building foundation because without trust a relationship can be terminated in the short term. This report focuses on the contractor thereby disagreeing with Ambrose et al. (2010) which focuses on the client’s perspective, it stated that trust is not an important factor in building a relationship.

Another important factor is conformance. The expected duties of both the client and the contractors are specified in details in the contract document. Due to the inability of some stakeholders to carry out their duties accordingly can give rise to legal disputes in construction. This means that a project should be accepted and executed in accordance to the stated principle, this will bring the client and contractor together.

According to researchers like Sternquist et al. (2008), Fordell (2011) and Kannan and Tan (2006), interdependence triggers factor for relationship as both parties to a contract needs the complimentary role of the other to survive. However, the study proved otherwise it can be argued that as long as this factor brings both parties together, it is a potential factor for relationship.

For building a healthy relationship between a client and a contractor, satisfaction is an important ingredient. This factor is also very important even after the development period of the said project, this will help strengthen the loyalty of both parties as well as pave way for more cordial relationship between the client and the contractor.

The study done by Baiden, Atuahene and Agyekum identifies how relationship between contractors and client can be improve in other to achieve a successful project delivery. Among this identified factors are professionalism, satisfaction, commitment, value of project, conformance, trust and communication. However, it could be argued that these identified factors are not exhaustive hence the need to critically look into how a healthier relationship can be built.

Research Strategy

Research strategy is broadly divided into two namely quantitative and qualitative approaches. Let us first look into what qualitative approach is; according to Zikmund (2010), ‘it is a research that addresses business objectives through techniques that allow the researcher to provide elaborate interpretations of market phenomena without depending on numerical measurement. Its focus is on discovering true inner meanings and new insights.

Miller and Brewer (2003) stated that research strategy provides a set of procedures or logic that are used to answer research questions, mostly the why and what questions. A process of reasoning whereby a logical conclusion is drawn from a set of general premises is knownas deductive research strategy. Deduction in the methodological literature is a data anaylsis, theory and explanation approach that looks at empirical social research as conducted on the basis of a hypothesis derived from social theory, this is ten tasted against empirical observation and then used to confirm the original theoretical proposition.

On the other hand, quantitative research addresses research objective by using empirical assessments which involves numerical measurement and analysis approaches. Quantitative research requires less interpretation so therefore it can stand on its own. For instance, in a case where a research objective involves a managerial action standard, a quantitative research is most appropriate. I.e. a restaurant that is considering changing its recipe, the new recipe will be tasted by some consumer and by using numeric scales, each consumer will rate the new product. If the consumers rates the new product higher than the old product by a certain percentage than the new product will replace the old product. A project like this can use both quantitative analysis in form of applied statistical procedures and quantitative measurement in the form of numerical rating scales.

A critical and thorough literature review is important to be done by the researcher, so as to fully understand the background of the research area. This helps to identify the relevant frameworks and theories needed to carry out the said research. This background study will direct the researcher to regulate if he needs to adopt either primary or secondary data collection or both in most cases. Meanwhile before administering the questionnaire, the experience of the respondents must be considered. This is to make sure that the respondents have the required knowledge to respond to the questionnaire. However, this could be very tricky as there is no recognized and acceptable evaluation tools or framework to determine the level of knowledge of the respondents (Saunder, lewis, & Thornhill, 2019).

The researcher adopted qualitative approach through interview, this is because the research question does not require a numeric data which is accepted with quantitative approach (Henson, Creswell, Plano, Petska, & Creswell) (Plano & Creswell, 2008) (Creswell & Plano, 2011) (Zikmund, Babin, Carr, & Griffin, 2010). The study will be adopting in inductive approach instead of deductive approach, this is because the researcher area of interest does not require the development of theory rather it is a theory testing. Plano and Clark (2011), debated that inductive approach does not require an existing theoretical position but deductive approach does. By contract, inductive approach uses the data collected to extract patterns to test a theory but this does not mean that theories should be ignored while drafting research question and objectives. This can be interpreted as good knowledge of relevant theories and previous literature should be acquired by researchers to effectively understand the most appropriate approach to adapt.

Practical implementation

This is the research framework which will help to structure the research methodology as well as critically link the data collection and analysis in other to produce results and answer the research question being investigated. Establishing a clear and concise action plan and framework can help to direct the aims and objectives of the research towards a desired conclusion; as there is a clear statement on what is written under the aims and objectives, what is presented in the literature review, the process of date collection and analysis, and the findings discovered during the course of the analysis. It also allows for an important component of any research which is reviewing and iterative process. (Zikmund, Babin, Carr, & Griffin, 2010).

Due to limited timeframe for this study, the researcher targeted 4 client 4 contractors of residential buildings within England United Kingdom. This interviewers shall be randomly picked and interview will be conducted electronically due to the ongoing lockdown as a result of covid-19.

Data analysis

In analysing data there is a need to understand the gathered data. In plain term, analysis may involve considering consistent patterns as well as summarising the relevant details revealed in the investigation. The analytical technique appropriate for data analysis will be determined by the management’s required information, the characteristics of the research design and nature of the gathered data. Statistical analysis may range from portraying a simple frequency distribution to more complex multivariate analyses approaches i.e. a multiple regression (Zikmund, 2010).

Data collected through interview shall be analysed using anova data analysis, it is imperative to note that data collected here are subjective because the researcher is the instrument.

Research timeframe

The diagram below explains the timeframe proposed by the researcher which cut across; online lecture, drafted aims and objectives, meeting with supervisor, concluded proposal, submission of proposal, submission of ethical approval, start data collection, distribution of questionnaire, conduct interview, collection of questionnaire, data analysis and discussion, submission of draft to my supervisor, final submission.

FIG 1

Ethnical consideration

The researcher should bear in mind the confidentiality while conducting a research. It is the responsibility of the researcher to protect the result or data collected from the respondent then the consent of the respondent must be requested before conducting an interview. Therefore, the highest integrity should be maintained by researchers in their work in other to protect the industry. The participant of the researchers should also play their role, else the data provided by them will not lead to a better products for all the other consumers and finally the research user must follow good professional ethnics in their treatment of researchers and research result (Zikmund, 2010).

References

Burke, Barron;. (2007). project management leadership. china: everbest, HK.

Creswell, J. W., & Plano, C. V. (2011). Designing and conducting mixed methods research . california: sage publicationn inc.

Henson, W. E., Creswell, J. W., Plano, C. V., Petska, K. S., & Creswell, D. J. (n.d.). mixed methods research designs in counseling psychology . Journal of counseling psychology, 2(55) doi:10.1037/0022-0167.52.2.224, 224-34.

ismail, R. m. (2014). the relationship between main contractor and subcontractor partnering on contraction performance. conference; 3rd international seminer on enterpreneurship and business, at kota bharu ketantan, 2-34.

mirawati; othman, risyawati. (2015). supplier-contractor partnering impact on construction performance: astudy on malaysian contruction industry. journal of economics, business and management, 1-31.

Plano, C. V., & Creswell, J. W. (2008). the mixed methods reader. california: Sage publication inc.

Saunder, M., lewis, p., & Thornhill, A. (2019). Research methods for business students. Pearson.

Zikmund, Babin, Carr, & Griffin. (2010). business research methods. macmillan publishing.