The Incorporation of the Tenant into the Public Construction Project : Through the three parameters of communication; Organisational culture, power and trust

Abstract: Public construction projects set the standards for new procedures and perspectives within the industry. A way of improving procedures is through communication and the inclusion of all involved parties. It is therefore the purpose of this report to investigate how communication through organisational culture, power and trust can affect the incorporation of the tenant in the construction process. Two case studies, both having public future tenants and public clients, were chosen to enable the investigation of the three parameters of communication, organisational culture, power and trust. The empirics showed that the tenant was often excluded from the construction process due to their differing cultural background. The results also showed that the tenant was considered to have lower status which was exploited at times. In addition, it was found that although opportunistic behaviour was present in the construction project, it was a greater internal issue within the tenant organisation. In the conclusion the authors recommend construction management to evaluate the consequences of incorporating the tenant in the construction meetings as it could lead to less construction errors. They further recommend the public organisations to oversee their distribution of resources in order to avoid opportunistic behaviour.