Effective partnering in construction: A critical literature review

• Main Authors: Abdul Nifa, Faizatul Akmar, Ahmed, Vian
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: TH Building construction
• Online Access: http://repo.uum.edu.my/11612/1/F1.pdf; http://repo.uum.edu.my/11612/; http://hbp.usm.my/
• Institution: Universiti Utara Malaysia

The construction industry has been often criticized as an industry of adverse relationships with negative procurement practices as well as lacking in innovation and knowledge sharing.Many have attributed the adverse relationships to formation of temporary organizations working together towards completing a project.The possibility of a construction firm working with a different set of firms in their next project is always present.Due to this, issues had arisen; where construction firms are faced with problems with the learning curve in projects, dissimilarities in organizational culture and business practices with other firms in the temporary organization and distrust in the traditional bidding process.The partnering strategy is being advocated by many literatures as the solution to the many problems in the construction industry.It has started to gain recognition since the publication of Latham and Egan reports, proposing the strategy as an antidote to the industry's many diseases.Various studies have collectively added to the current knowledge of known partnering factor, possible outcomes and barriers to partnering. The many frameworks and models that has been formulated to act as guidelines for successful partnering to construction firms wishing to enter a partnering agreement has reflected the importance of partnering is to the construction industry.Therefore, this paper will first review the definitions of partnering, then report a synthesis of factors that enables partnering, which includes a brief summary of available frameworks revealed from the literature review conducted for an ongoing postgraduate research.The gap in the current partnering knowledge will be highlighted, indicating the need for further study in the area of organizational culture within partnering firms.