John Douglas Thomson

‘Performance’ Specifications for Improved Productivity and Better Value

This research examines how the use of ‘performance’ specifications could achieve higher productivity and better ‘value’ for owner and contractor. The inductive methodology identified that construction industry advisors were helpful in assisting the (public sector) owner in defining the owner’s ‘performance’ requirements, period and price, and for all subsequent phases through to contract completion. ‘Performance’ requirements expressed in the owner’s capability brief were used for tendering and contracting purposes, within a context of fixed period and price. This necessitated tenderers to focus solely on best ‘value’. A ‘performance’ contract transferred design and construction risk to the marketplace and demanded competitive, innovative tenders. When compared to projects where method and/or material risks are carried by the owner, the ‘performance’ based project delivered improved productivity and better ‘value’ for both owner and contractor.

Building Regulation: Science Versus Values Based Decision Making

Research into government regulation indicates difficulties in drawing an equitable balance between the role of science and societal values in building regulation decision making. To examine how these difficulties are being balanced in relation to one country’s building regulations, an examination of the administrative processes used in the development of the Building Code of Australia has been undertaken. The inductive methodology uses 192 historical cases provided by the Australian Building Codes Board. This topic area is important and has significant political interest. The paper makes a number of major contributions drawn from the Australian context where building codes regulators are strong in science, engineering and technological qualities but lack specific ‘societal values’ expression. There is also a significant male gender bias and evidence of complexity in the requirements of submissions from the general public. This has caused inadequate public participation, in addition to which there is no industry union representation. Climate change urgently requires review of current building regulations, with these still largely based on ‘deemed to satisfy’ provisions. Current building product regulations need remedy.

Reframing Public Private Partnerships Through ‘Performance’ Contracting

Many governments and aid agencies are of the view that the use of ‘performance’ regulations could better meet their demands for ‘value’. The use of ‘performance’ regulations is now mandated by some national building codes. Despite this, there has been a struggle with policy implementation. At the implementation level, owners and contractors seem as yet unready and less than willing to use ‘performance’ specifications, so use of ‘prescriptive’ specifications prevails. In addition, there is no universally accepted, legally binding ‘performance’ contract. This research finds that the use of ‘performance’ specifications by an owner to express ‘value’ requirements can be responded to by tenderers using ‘prescriptive’ specifications. The use of an interpretative methodology, a case study and interviews/correspondence with various stakeholders demonstrates the validity of this research, which could now be extended to public private partnership projects. Pre-contract award, critical success factors include the use of a ‘performance’ contract and a competitive tendering process which favours innovation, with tender selection based on ‘value’ rather than lowest price. Post contract award, these arrangements provide opportunity for owner or contractor to be innovative within the contract structure.

Customer investment strategies developed with the benefit of hindsight: Pre-contract award performance and critical success factors for new development projects

Before a contract is awarded, a customer’s new project conceptualization and design require investment in resources so that the project can be properly developed. Suppliers over this period also require the time and costs for their investment in tendering for the project. This research investigates these investments and establishes new insights into how a customer’s past project investment data could be used to improve resource allocation investment in future projects. Based on a sample of eleven Australian defense projects, new insights into a customer’s pre-contract award investments are provided as well as how this information could be used for estimating and allocating investments for future projects. There has been virtually no empirical research of this phenomenon which has the potential to improve project delivery outcomes for both customer and supplier.

National Construction Codes and Their Inadequacies: Australia’s Arrangements and Difficulties

Research on building code development shows that there are critical factors relating to their development, and highlights that code development involves key trade-offs. In this research, we provide new insight into a condition that many countries face and where there is virtually no research. How should countries handle building code development when key trade-offs need to be made between the possible impacts of new technology, changes in the environment and social and cultural issues, and the systems and processes by which these challenges are met. A comprehensive empirical case study of Australias building code arrangements and difficulties is presented. This unique data provides insight on the strategies used and difficulties faced by Australia in the review and development of its building codes. Implications for innovative new building code development success are identified.

Creating Value Through Crowdsourcing: The Antecedent Conditions

The benefits of crowdsourcing are becoming more widely understood and there is a methodological move towards organisations using “participatory models” to engage stakeholder communities and align decision making more closely to the needs of stakeholders. Many tasks can now be distributed to “the crowd” for action. Our research aims to understand the antecedent conditions that inform management decisions to adopt crowdsourcing techniques as a means of value creation. Our preliminary findings suggest that to be successful, three antecedent criteria must be met – the task being crowdsourced must be modular in nature, a community of interest must be engaged, and there needs to be a structural capability within the organisation to be able to facilitate the engagement of the crowd and utilise the output from the crowd in a manner that creates value.

Innovative Australian Public Sector Construction Management: Effectively Engaging the Private Sector

This research addresses problems where ‘poor quality tender documents continue to be a source of inaccurate estimates, claims and disputes’ (Laryea Constr Manag Econ 29:275–286, 2011) and ‘few industries suffer more from conflict than construction’ (Black et al. IJPM 18:423–434, 2000). Much of this conflict derives from differing aims – Australian public sector owners aim to achieve ‘value for money’, while contractors aim to optimize profit and improve reputation. Counter-intuitively, the research found that construction industry experts engaged early assisted in translating owner’s needs expression, established and maintained good interface relationships, and moderated contract variations. With period and price fixed, process transparency was improved, tenderers concentrated on submitting ‘value for money’ offers, tender assessment time and cost were reduced, and the contract completed without dispute. Increased design and construction risk was transferred to and accepted by the Contractor, and provided innovative opportunities pre and post contract award for owner and contractor.

Flourishing within the Limits: Prosperity with Growth

This paper examines Jackson’s (2009a,b) ‘prosperity without growth’ paradigm which suggests organizational growth be restrained within the limitations and assumptions of a finitely resourced planet. The interpretativist methodology is delivered through organizational storytelling. Jackson demands government and business re-evaluate the financial and ecological sustainability of their underlying visions of prosperity. Jackson argues that this prosperity has been built on continuous economic growth, and suggests there is a need instead to pursue ‘prosperity without growth’, and that the concept of a growth based economy has failed to provide solutions to the ‘tragedy of the commons’. Consequently, there is public concern that thoughtless and unconstrained pursuit of economic growth is ecologically unsustainable and will lead to tragedy for all. Although many elements have been addressed separately in the paper, it is important to note that the economic, ecologic, and social aspects of sustainability, particularly with respect to ‘responsible’ consumption, are all interrelated. Therefore, the impacts of these elements need to be considered simultaneously when developing sustainable policy, strategy and marketing models for the future where ‘prosperity with growth’ can remain a key concept. Research limitations include assumptions that a market-based economy is superior to other alternatives and that innovation raises productivity which raises living standards. Originality of the paper is that achieving ‘prosperity with growth’ is possible as demonstrated by the Japanese Economic Model, with economic growth ensuring competitiveness, innovation, and ‘responsible‘ consumption for long term organizational survival.