PhD Final Thesis April 2013.pdf - Anglia Ruskin Research Online

Thesis Keith Gale 2013Support for longer term relationships through frameworks is also recognised bycommercial managers by the thoughts of a Senior Quantity Surveyor from the Clientorganisation:‘All of that improves an understanding and I think that obviously um helps therelationships in some cases. Obviously not all the time. We obviously know that thereare a lot of people out there that it doesn’t matter what you do, you’re still going tobe in the same boat at the end of it but generally I would say that the framework isbetter for building relationships. Obviously the flip side of the coin for the contractoris they’re looking at secured future work. And that’s what they’re after. You know,guaranteed workload over the next sort of three or four years.’A Managing Director from another supplier confirms that:‘The framework does encourage longer term relationships. I mean it stands to reasonreally that people have got more time to understand each other and build up trustand build up understanding more than anything. Well obviously if there’s acontinuous work programme that people will be together more often (from the clientand contractor side, and the supplier chain), then inevitably there’s going to berelationships built up and better communication and that’s more likely to happen ina framework because of the strong relationships.’10.8.2 Views upon performance, incentives, motivation, communication andreputationDuring the interviews a number of themes were interrelated. The conceptual modelincluded in this research identified incentives, motivation, satisfaction andrelationships as key drivers toward performance improvements. Relationships havebeen clearly recognised by interview participants as a key driver. The other threesuggested drivers are suggested by context. As a Managing Director for a supplierstates:‘…and I think the way you’ve set up the framework has been quite nice in that it’sbeen a carrot and stick approach. I think you know, that’s the right approach. I thinkyou achieve probably, the best outcome by that. So I think that you do definitely getbetter performance. I look at the framework in comparison to how our relationshipwas previously and I think our communication has improved. I think there’s no doubt247