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

Appendices to Thesis Keith Gale 2013awkward conversation that you have to have with the supplier when you tell themthat “actually, you’re in the red zone because you didn’t do this”, and they arecovered in shame and you know… “oh we’ve let ourselves down, we’ve let youdown, and we’ve let everybody down. Its not good, we will do better”, which isreally positive to see, yes there are reasons it happens, but its always good to see toothat they’re keen on clawing it back and redeeming themselves. I think the incentivesthemselves, probably the financial element, the traffic light system where they havethe commercial advantage is a really good one, and it’s a really clear one toimplement. I think there are other incentives that we could look into err, and I knowit’s a case of thinking ‘do we give them… ok we’ve got a commercial advantage forwhat we’re doing now, but is it a case of saying you know, could we do somedifferent schemes with them’? Instead of just having a commercial advantage, maybethey get access to different types of work, which I know has been available throughother contracts we have, but we don’t… I think actually to implement it almost alittle bit of carrot but its never going to be used. I think we almost know that. And Ithink that some of the incentives that we have maybe should perhaps not be totallycommercially based. I’m not sure how we would quite reappraise them, I meanobviously they’re ensuring good value, I mean obviously these are commercialorganisations, but its not always the bottom line for them those things. There areother reputation drivers that they have so… It might be bad publicity, it might be..you know. I’m not quite sure how we’d do that.Do you feel that the reputation incentives… are these powerful do you know?I think it can be. It depends on their traditional market, and I think it depends on themarket as well. If they are bidding for other works, and they’re keen to look to us fora reference, that can be a really powerful thing for them. To ensure that they knowworks are coming up in say Wiltshire and Dorset and obviously they’re going to belaunching a framework, they know that… ‘ok, we’ll keep our performance levelsgood. That helps us when they ask us for a reference”. Obviously that reaps upcommercial gain for them at the end of the day. But I think construction workers areconcerned with their reputation standing. The fact that they want to be seendelivering good products in the community and being a good, considerate constructor396