Value Carriers in a Construction Project - How Different Are They?

Soren Wandahl¹

Abstract

In recent years focus on the human aspect of the building process has increased in 'real life' and within the world of research on construction management. A new culture that views construction as social systems, both on the site and in the management is flourishing. It is, therefore, important to develop an understanding / a theory that supports this new culture. One aspect of this new culture is the indiviudal's values. It is often said that the construction industry is tradition-bound and that the parties are locked in specific roles. This influences values of the individual and his/hers perception of value in general. These values are brought into the project organization by each individual, or are they? This paper is built on a hypothesis, which states that the different legal parties in a construction project organization have different perceptions of value, and that they, thereby, carry different values into the project. One of the main pillars of Value-Based Management states that by influencing an individual's value and by creating a common shared set of values, it is possible to improve the outcome of the production. Therefore, it is important to gain knowledge about the 'value carriers'. To test the hypothesis, three experiments are carried out, of which two are set-ups with construction industry practitioners, and the third is more an analysis of a former experiment. The analysis is of a construction project where ideaas of partnering and Value-Based Management were tested. This construction projected ended last year.

Keywords

Value, Social systems, Culture, Value-Based Management, Soft skills.

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Reference

Wandahl, S. 2004. Value Carriers in a Construction Project - How Different Are They?, 12th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction , -. doi.org/

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