DIFFERENT APPROACHES OF CLIENTS AND CONSULTANTS TO CONTRACTORS’ QUALIFICATION AND SELECTION

Mehmedali Egemen,Abdulrezak N Mohamed

doi:10.3846/13923730.2005.9636357

Mehmedali Egemen, Abdulrezak N Mohamed

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2005.9636357

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Abstract

Nowadays, clients are the dominant groups in almost all types of industries. However, the construction industry is unique and consultants, as representatives of clients, are very important figures in this industry as well. By presenting survey findings of 91 clients and 50 consultants, this study reveals clients’ and consultants’ differing expectations of contracting organisations during contractor qualification and selection. The study has clearly confirmed the fact that consultants’ perspectives are rather different and their contractors’ expectations of their clients vary very significantly from the clients themselves. Furthermore, significantly different results were found even among different types of consultants and different categories of clients. Moreover, this study showed that both clients and consultants had high willingness to continue working with the same contractor in possible future works assuming they are satisfied with the previous works. The criteria, which contribute to achieving full client and/or consultant satisfaction and hence lead to possible repetitive works are identified and the results showed the existence of significant difference between clients and consultants perspectives regarding this issue as well. The framework presented within this paper aims to help the contracting organisations to compare and recognise the different approaches and perceptions of both clients and consultants during contractor qualification and selection processes. The contracting organisations in the related sectors will be able to use the framework provided within this study to recognise the overall demand in a more complete and better manner and hence formulate or modify strategies accordingly.

Highlights

The process of construction project implementation produces neither a pure product nor a pure service but may be considered a hybrid process consisting of both product and service components [1]
The evaluation of performance in construction generally focuses on three major performance elements which are completing the project in time, within budget and the required quality standards. ’Soft’ performance criteria such as customer’s satisfaction, is still at an early evolutionary stage in construction industry [2]
AlMomani [3] found that the lack of attention devoted to the owner’s satisfaction undoubtedly contributed to a poor performance and that current technical failures are minor compared to the existence of very high client dissatisfactions

Summary

Introduction

The process of construction project implementation produces neither a pure product nor a pure service but may be considered a hybrid process consisting of both product and service components [1]. ’Soft’ performance criteria such as customer’s satisfaction, is still at an early evolutionary stage in construction industry [2]. The role played by today’s construction clients is higher than it has ever been before. Many organisations in construction market believe that a high-quality work and a history of success are enough for surviving in this industry, it is not anymore. The ‘value’ concept is involved in construction markets and the clients in the construction industry expect the best possible ‘value’ of contractors. They started to commission work to the firms giving a high attention to all their needs and expectations.

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