Conflicts and management styles in the Sri Lankan commercial building sector

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to understand the prevailing conflict management styles in Sri Lankan commercial building industry from the main stakeholders' perspective. The dual concern theory is applied to this study as a theory foundation. Design/methodology/approach -The Sri Lankan commercial building industry is currently experiencing a construction boom after 30 years of civil war. Creating a dispute free environment through well conflict management is one of the main ways to keep the continuous demand and development of construction. However, the Sri Lankan construction sector is arranged in such a way that they directly approach the dispute resolution rather than avoiding the dispute initially through proper conflict management. Four cases are selected for this study with the intention of conducting meetings with three main stakeholders of each case who represented client, consultants and contractors, respectively. Findings -The research findings reveal that compromising is the most common conflict management style used by the industry. Forcing style obtained the second place in the ranking whereas obliging and avoiding received third and fourth places. Originality/value -This study is conducted to provide a full picture of conflicts faced by the Sri Lankan commercial building industry and their proper management so that the future projects will use this information to diminish the destructive effects of conflict situations and provide a real value for money.

Relationship conflict in construction: A literature review

“…Lack of communication and withholding information was the second most often identified source of relationship conflict (Brockman, 2014; Gardiner & Simmons, 1998; Jaffar et al, 2011; Senaratne & Udawatta, 2013; Vaux & Kirk, 2018) followed by coordination of trades/task interdependency/resource allocation (Brockman, 2014; Dodd & Langford, 1990; Gardiner & Simmons, 1998; Gunarathna et al, 2018) and working conditions such as long hours, weather, workspace, job insecurity (Brockman, 2014; Chen et al, 2017; Gardiner & Simmons, 1998; Jaffar et al, 2011).…”

“…Project task interdependency experienced through the coordination of trades was identified as a key source of relationship conflict (Brockman, 2014; Dodd & Langford, 1990; Gardiner & Simmons, 1998; Gunarathna et al, 2018). Brockman (2014) found coordination of trades as a primary trigger to relationship conflict.…”

“…Working conditions that effected relationship conflict were long hours (Brockman, 2014;Chen et al, 2017) and tight areas and restricted access to the site (Brockman, 2014;Jaffar et al, 2011). Differing values, interests, and objectives as sources of relationship conflict were shown to be salient in studies by Gardiner and Simmons (1998), Jaffar et al (2011), and Gunarathna et al (2018). These studies maintained that when stakeholder interests particular to their firm's needs ran contrary to a shared common goal on the project, a firm's individualized objectives overshadowed the project goal resulting in relationship conflict.…”

“…Gardiner and Simmons (1998) identified coordination of trades and the ensuing task interdependency combined with multiple social interdependencies as the most frequent cause of interpersonal conflict. Both Dodd and Langford (1990) and Gunarathna et al (2018) maintained that a high multi-disciplinary involvement among subcontractors was a prime source for relationship conflict.…”

“…These studies maintained that when stakeholder interests particular to their firm's needs ran contrary to a shared common goal on the project, a firm's individualized objectives overshadowed the project goal resulting in relationship conflict. Workmanship or quality as a source of relationship conflict was mentioned by Jaffar et al (2011), Brockman (2014), and Gunarathna et al (2018). This source of relationship conflict centered on managing subcontractors in order to achieve the required quality stated in the plans and specifications.…”