Steven Male

Professional authority, power and emerging forms of ‘profession’ in quantity surveying

This paper presents an exploratory and theoretical analysis of professional authority and power and its impact on the future of quantity surveying as a profession. The paper argues that the professional knowledge base of quantity surveying and its relationship to the skills used by quantity surveyors in providing a service to clients forms one of the basic building blocks of professional power and authority. An analysis of the client practitioner relationship in quantity surveying is undertaken using two models of ‘profession’, one concerned with client evaluation and the second with the development of mystique, cruciality and consequently professional authority. The paper concludes that quantity surveying does not currently have a broad base for the continued development of professional authority and power. However, the potential is there and could stem from the expansion of the resource controller or resource gatekeeper roles. Finally, the paper discusses emerging forms of ‘profession’, in quantity surv...

Organizational responses of public sector clients in Canada to the implementation of value management: lessons for the UK construction industry

Value management is a philosophy and set of techniques that has its origins in the US.manufacturing industry of the 1940s. It has been increasingly used in the North American construction industry and is now being used in the UK construction industry by a small group of contractors and consultancy firms who are offering it as a service to clients. This paper provides a brief review of the historical development of and approaches to value management, as practised in North America and then details two case studies of how client bodies have responded to its implementation. One case study is concerned with events at an organizational level whilst the second tracks the client response to a value management exercise on a project. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of the lessons learned from these case studies for the UK construction industry.

The economic management of construction projects: An evolving methodology

Abstract This paper presents an emerging methodology synthesising value management and cost management skills and techniques for the economic management of construction projects throughout the project life cycle. Value management is a philosophy and organised procedure which aims to optimise utility and quality while minimising cost. Value management skills use multi-disciplinary, team-oriented, structured functional analysis procedures. Cost management skills should use a combination of multi-disciplinary, team oriented, structured cost reduction and the mono-professional skills of the quantity surveyor. The paper concludes that: there is a fundamental difference between value and cost management procedures; each has its place in the economic management of the building process; the “40-Hour Workshop”, common in the USA, is closely related to the UK practice of cost management; commercial pressures within the UK construction industry are likely to favour integrated cost management procedures. Finally, the paper indicates that the next stage of the methodological development is to utilise the concept of the client value chain from strategic management literature to provide a linkage with the client value system, markets served, client ‘needs’ to be met and the contribution that built assets and property portfolios make to the clients corporate strategy.

Professional Services Agreements

I approached this review first, from the perspective of having a long-standing research interest in the institutional structures and forms of practice of professions in general and, in particular, the construction professions (Male, 1984; Male, 1990; Spiteri, 1999; Kelly et al., 2004, 2014; Male et al., 2007). Second, as a management consultant employed by clients on their construction projects, usually involving a commission via bespoke service agreements. As a consequence, this review is based on the extent to which the aims set out in the preface to the first edition of the book remain relevant and continue to be met in the second edition, namely: