Construction Management - Essay Example

10) gave the industry a poor reputation. During the last decade, a number of improvements have been made in the industry, such as partnering that has led to more integration, productivity, and success in construction projects. Collaboration Philosophy Collaboration philosophy in the construction industry is also known as partnering philosophy or partnering. Despite the fact that there has always been partnering between private clients and contractors, the concept gained explicit significance in the mid-1980s (McGeorge and Zou, 2013).

The employment of partnering by the United States Army Corps of Engineers and the efforts of the Construction Industry Institute of the United States are both acknowledged for introducing partnering as a drive in the construction industry at the end of the 1980s (McGeorge and Zou, 2013). Today, the United Kingdom strongly relies on partnering in order to promote productivity in the construction industry as encouraged by the Latham Report (McGeorge and Zou, 2013). In Australia, the Gyles Royal Commission advocates for partnering in the construction industry for productivity.

New Zealand also advocates for partnering in construction. . e extent of the adoption of partnering by the construction industry at large is still difficult to quantify and in some quarters, there is some dubiety about its diffusion in the construction industry” (2013, p. 99). Australia falls after the United States as it has also relatively adopted partnering and run competitions on satisfactory instances of partnered projects through the Masters Building Association. McGeorge and Zou define partnering as “a process for improving relationships among those involved on a construction project to the benefit of all” (2013, p. 100). The philosophy is being applied as a management tool in the construction industry, to be applied from the start of a construction project.

It is believed that partnering accentuates an environment of cooperation, trust, and teamwork among associations and groups of associations. Through the philosophy, functioning alliances that implement the systematic approaches of communication and commitment through teamwork and trust to avoid disputes are created. This in turn forms a unified partnership that enables the successful completion of a construction project. Jones identifies trust, equity, commitment, implementation, development of mutual goals and objectives, timely responsiveness, and continuous evaluation as the principal elements of partnering (1998).

Through the partnering process, the people mainly involved in a project get to analyse it, as well as their goals. From the execution stage to the end of the project a number of activities for the partnering process are carried out. These include instructing each party about commitment and the principles of partnering, the objective of the partnering is made clear at the beginning of the project, and commitment is obtained from the top management