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

Abstract

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 ...