Impact of participants' values on construction sustainability

Abstract

This paper examines the processes through which the values relating to construction projects, with particular reference to sustainability, are determined and operationalised. Those values are fundamental in governing the performance of both the project, as a product in occupation and use, and project management, as processes of realisation of the project involving design and construction. The values determine what performance variables are considered and their relative importance which, within the applicable parameters, controls and constraints, yield the performance targets for the project-against which realised performance will be evaluated. Those values are derived from the value structures of the project participants and so must be elicited and collated under the influence of the evolving membership and power structure of the project temporary multi-organisation (TMO). The TMO, as a shifting, multi-goal, power-based coalition, promotes fluctuations in the values employed to drive the project as it develops and so makes evaluation of performance highly problematic. Given that the values are human-determined, they are grounded in culture. Thus, understanding culture, as an operative construct in the project value system, enables the concepts and practices relating to the sustainability of construction projects to be understood and developed.