Dispute Avoidance and Resolution (literature review) - Construction ...

7. Dispute avoidanceThe avoidance of disputes has, over a number of years, been addressed both at an industrywide level and at a project specific level. At an industry level considerable attention hasbeen given to encouraging a cultural shift so that the industry moves from being adversarialto being dispute averse. There have been numerous initiatives both in Australia and in theUK to with the objective of minimising the perceived adversarial nature of the industry (this isillustrated in Figure 5.1). For example Commissioner Gyles introduced the Partneringconcept into Australia through the aegis of a Royal Commission in 1991.With respect to dispute avoidance and resolution, the basic maxim which is frequentlyexpressed is, that ‘prevention is better than cure’. The industry has been repeatedlyadmonished and encouraged to embrace modern management concepts such as partneringand alliancing with an emphasis being placed on an early involvement in the decision makingprocess by the key stakeholders including clients, contractors and building users. Therelatively recent emergence and rapid uptake of alliancing is testament to the movementtowards the creation of dispute-averse relationships. The fundamental premise with respectto dispute avoidance being that the likelihood of disputes occurring will be significantlyreduced if a pro-active project environment can be created in which change management isan accepted tool. Whilst procurement methods such as alliancing are seen as beingconducive to a creating a non-adversarial environment that is not to say that co-operativerelationships cannot be achieved in more traditional forms of contracting such as lump sumand design and construct.Figure 6.2 illustrates a raft of modern management concepts all of which can contribute tocreating an environment which is likely be non-adversarial and which may assist in theavoidance of disputes. Many of these concepts take into account the roles of stakeholdersand the alignment of organisational and individual goals.Figure 6.1 Pareto influence curve with management concepts superimposed (afterMcGeorge and Palmer)Project 2007-006-EP Page 40 of 62