An assessment of construction partnering relationships amongst major contractual parties in the South African construction industry

Abstract

Procurement systems are important for construction project delivery locally and globally. There is however a general consensus that traditional procurement methods are adversarial in nature and as a result affects effective project delivery. Although the South African Construction Industry (SACI) as suggested by previous studies is still being dominated by the traditional procurement system, there is also evidence of non-traditional procurement systems being adopted. This study seeks to investigate construction partnering relationships within the SACI in relation to parties involved, partnering development and partnering duration, all as per definition according to Construction Industry Institute’s (1991). Questionnaires were sent out to 90 potential participants comprising of Clients, Contractors and Consultants, of which 72% responded. The study is limited to three Provinces in South Africa, namely; Limpopo, North-west and Gauteng. The findings which are analysed using a quantitative technique, indicates that partnering is developing in the SACI aside from the dominance of the traditional procurement system. The study found that there is a difference on each potential partner’s preference amongst Clients, Contractors and Consultants. The study also revealed that participants prefer formal type of relationship development, contrary to the informal one as advocated by partnering. It is concluded that Clients, Contractors and Consultants prefer Dyadic relationship (Two-party) over Multi-party relationship in the SACI. Other Conclusion and findings in relations to partnering development, partnering duration and parties involved are discussed