Project title

The Role of the Facilitator in Value Management (March 2002 – August 2002)
supported by Small Scale or Developmental Studies Research Grant, CityU

Abstract:

Value Management (VM) has become a leading methodology for clarifying objectives of the multiple stakeholders of project teams in the early development stage (Green 1994). Some governmental departments (e.g., the Architectural Services Department and the Geotechnical Engineering Office) and large private developers (e.g., Henderson land Development Co. Ltd.) in Hong Kong currently apply VM techniques in their construction projects for identification and selection of the best alternatives, especially for key decisions. Recently, the Chairman of the Construction Industry Review Committee of Hong Kong, Mr. Henry Tang, specifically recommended that developers and contractors use VM techniques for setting project goals in order to achieve excellence in construction quality and match the expectations of clients (Tang 2001).

In order to seek the best value–goal via the VM process, the VM facilitator plays an important role in keeping the whole team (participants) on track for discussing and specifying the project goals in the team. Although a lot of studies have investigated leadership styles in the management process, such as the continuum of leadership behavioral model (Tannenbaum and Schmidt 1973) and the leadership process model (Chemers 1988), few have focused on the facilitators in systematic VM approaches. In order to enhance the effectiveness of VM in the construction industry, the investigator in this study will focus on the behavioral factors that influence the facilitators in the VM workshop and establish the relationship between the behavioral facilitation-related factors and the decision outcome / final outcome


Team members: