Project title

Behavioral Participation in Value Management (August 2002 – March 2003)
supported by Education Trust, RICS in U.K.

Abstract:

Value Management (VM) focuses on the definitions of ‘project goals’ through interactions amongst participants (client, project team members, end-users, contractors, suppliers, etc.). Human behavior plays an important role in the participation of team members, in terms of stimulating and solving the conflict amongst the participants, and in selecting the best alternatives for the task. Recently, the applicant conducted a pilot study (Leung and Wong 2000) and found that effective participation throughout the various management processes is the most essential characteristic of VM. This influences participant commitment, quality of performance and product, and, subsequently, the final outcome (participant satisfaction). Participation in goal-setting can influence cooperation and team spirit in group discussion and results in greater shared knowledge (Latham and Yukl 1975; Locke and Latham 1990; Locke and Schweiger 1979). The construction industry, which emphasizes team-based activities, is therefore an ideal environment for interaction. In turn, interaction amongst participants (in both goal-setting and implementation processes) influences the contribution of professionals in the whole VM process.

In order to control a complex construction organization and structure, goal-setting theory using the ‘participation’ mechanism is applied to improve VM processes in construction projects. The degree of participation (Tannenbaum and Schmidt 1958; McGregor 1985) and the types of participation (Cotton et al. 1988) have to be investigated along with the project outcome in order to understand the impact of participative decision-making in VM processes.


Team members: