BUILDING PROJECT ORGANIZATION DESIGN : A CASE STUDY

Abstract

Every successful building project requires a high level of interactions and proper coordination of multiple activities, both complex and normal involving a wide variety of people, talents, techniques and innovative ideas. Conflict within the project organisation is therefore inevitable requiring proper and careful management of resources within it to ensure efficient operation to achieve the project objectives. The uncertainties and ambiguities that characterise construction organisation activities make it utmost essential to address the special need to provide a cooperative working framework such that this problem can be not only efficiently manage but also causes and allows people within it to operate efficiently in a fluid and dynamic environment. Building project organisation is a fluid and dynamic system in a continual process of evolution and to function effectively and efficiently, there must be proper design, a fit between goals, rewards and structure to bring about a coherence between goals or purposes for which the organisation exist. Both firms observed, Tokyu Construction and Civil and Civic, highlight common organisation design policy features that are being implemented and adapted to projects that is crucial to the successful performance of these firms. The project organisation design adopted by each firm for their respective situation strongly suggests that there is no one best organisation form for all situations, but rather the adaptive search for a coherent fit of various design variables, strategies and management system most appropriate for that particular project concern. In both organisations observed in this study, their environment management strategies, goals and objectives, and eclectic approach to adopt the various organisation design variables and strategies underscore the essence of achieving 'good' design of building project organisation. From the case study, important organisation design variables that contribute to good project organisation design are identified and constructed into a contingency model framework. Six design variables i.e. task, structure, information and decision process, people, management style and rewards are identified which form the basic components of the model framework. It is found that the task variable is central to all the other five design variables in that it determines the designs of these other variables. Construction firms in designing their project organisations to undertake particular construction project, by adhering to' the proposed contingency model framework, will tend toward achieving a good project organisation form best suited to undertake the particular project.