ABSTRACT

The construction industry has long been criticized over relationship related issues such as damaging conflicts and disputes, poor collaboration, and lack of customer focus and end-user involvement (Latham, 1994; Egan, 1998; Ericsson and Johansson, 1994). Researchers, practitioners and society at large have argued that changes in attitudes, behavior and procedures are necessary in order to increase the chances of project success and an improved end product (Love et al., 2000; Dubois and Gadde, 2002). Two major investigations of the Swedish construction industry have pinpointed the role of the construction client as a ‘driver for change’ (Yngvesson et al., 2000; Ericsson et al., 2002). This is because construction clients occupy a key position regarding choice of procurement method and managerial processes, and clients set the basis for the governance of construction projects. For the purpose of this chapter, the construction client can be defined as ‘the party that carries out or assigns others to carry out construction and related works’. In this connection, the client’s role can be summarized as ‘responsibility for interpreting and translating users’ needs, expectations and desires into requirements and prerequisites for a project taking account of society’s need for a sustainable built environment’. The construction client is responsible for ensuring that the requirements of the owner(s), customers/end-users and society are met by a construction project at every point from concept to execution and handover. It is the construction client that purchases products and services from the construction industry, steers the construction process overall and thereby creates the conditions for the use and management of the building or facility over a long period. Since construction is a complex, multi-discipline affair, where many actors come and go in the process, initiatives from one actor may not result in changes in other actors’ behavior and procedures; indeed, there are arguments why this should not be allowed. Nonetheless, a change process, which is what a construction project represents, needs a clear definition of the present situation (problem formulation) that can then be

shared among the participants in the process (i.e. the need for broad participation) (Borgbrant, 1990; Kotter, 1995; Tichy, 1983) in order to form visions and goals. The construction process manifests as a temporary organization for practical reasons. If two identical buildings were produced in different places, at different times and by different organizations, the construction process would be a process unique to those circumstances (Kadefors, 1997). This kind of project arrangement becomes a venue for different experiences, interests, norms and ways of doing things: it becomes a scene for different organizational processes (Sahlin-Andersson, 1986). The purpose of this chapter is to investigate how construction clients handle the transformation of requirements in the early stages of the construction process in order to contribute to change in that process. Since the early stages of the construction process define the mission of the project, the client should therefore scrutinize the present situation in order to correctly formulate the mission for the project (Ryd, 2003). In this way, the construction client can be instrumental as an ‘initiator of change’.