| The objective of this thesis, consisting of four experiments, is to study construction co-ordination to test the two hypotheses: (H1) Multi-attribute quality measurement tools are inapplicable to the construction co-ordination processes. (H2) The Critical Incident Technique (CIT) is a practical method for measuring the quality of construction co-ordination processes.; Experiment 1 conducted by questionnaire surveys and interviews, investigated the experiences of the multi-attribute quality measurement systems,‘PASS’ (Hong Kong) and ‘CONQUAS’ (Singapore), in achieving customer satisfaction and continuous improvement. Results showed that their effectiveness as quality improvement tools is flawed because of mandatory enforcement, judgemental use and focus on outputs conforming to specifications instead of customer satisfaction and statistical evidence of quality. It was thus decided that these two measurement models cannot be used for testing H1 and H2.; In Experiment 2, a questionnaire containing 64 co-ordination issues was presented to construction co-ordinators requesting to rank the relative importance and the relative time consumed. The 33 responses from Hong Kong and Singapore indicated that ‘identifying strategic activities and potential delays’ and ‘ensuring timeliness of work’ are the most important co-ordination activities. ‘Conducting meetings and reviews’ and ‘analysing project performance, detecting and dealing with variances’ are the most time consuming.; H1 was tested (Experiment 3) by interviewing co-ordinators and soliciting in-depth knowledge on the application of a multi-attribute measurement model to the three co-ordination processes: ‘Identifying strategic activities and potential delays’, ‘Ensuring timeliness of work’ and ‘Liaison with client and consultants’. Results revealed how the processes characteristics informality, intangibility, low repetition, co-production, unsolicited service and problem solving work caused great difficulties in applying the multi-attribute quality measurement model. Therefore, H1 was accepted.; H2 was tested (Experiment 4) by collecting and analysing critical incidents experienced by customers and stakeholders of co-ordination processes. The 23 incidents collected demonstrated that CIT enables identification of the implicit, explicit and latent expectations of customers and stakeholders, evaluation of the quality of processes and outputs and comprehension of information useful for quality improvement. Therefore, H2 was accepted.; The thesis concludes that CIT is a practical quality measurement method for construction co-ordination processes while multi-attribute tools are inapplicable. |
