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

Thesis Keith Gale 2013‘…you’ve got a system which balances the reward for positive or negativeperformance on issues other than financial ones and I think that’s a balance you’vegot quite good…’‘…in the framework I think the incentives…of good performance benefiting their nextsubmission in terms of appraising, and the competition improves performances…’Project outcomes appear driven by operation of both constructs, with interactionexisting between both constructs.11.6 Boundary searchA boundary search is often described as differentiation or discriminate validity whereattempts are made to identify boundaries by contextual placement from findings(Rosenthal and Rosnow, 1991). Use of a boundary search allows alignment withcomparison of findings to give confidence of outcomes with research studies thatshare similar boundaries. According to Brinberg and McGrath (1985), differentiationvalidity is not often present in research findings because boundaries betweenresearch projects in social sciences are usually often difficult to define. Withconstruction management, a significant amount of research has been developed forinvestigation with project outcomes and performance management but less isavailable for causational relationships and performance measurement. Even withinthe confines of construction management research, the individual nature of projectsprovides a significant number of variables making comparison difficult.This research uses a case study method within which well defined boundaries areplaced making comparison of elements possible. The defined boundaries of thisresearch are contained by:• Research into construction management involving interaction of people withother people who form through experience, qualifications and profession, aspecific sociological class. Theoretical perspective is provided througheconomics and sociological context. Macro economic theory concerns withoperation of competition during a tender process whilst sociological studies267