Who's on the other side of the table? Power perceptions in construction projects—Thai case studies

Abstract

Through a lens of power as discourse and using a deconstruction of those discourses, the research identifies the differential perceptions of power and associated roles of the various stakeholders in Thai construction industry projects and how these perceptions of power affected decisions made, and project progress, in three case studies. Results showed that there are differentiated perceptions of power which alter dynamically across the three projects, creating a complex environment of decision-making within each project. Thai construction stakeholders have different perception of power and associated roles in construction projects. Downstream stakeholders such as contractors, sub-contractors and suppliers have perceptions that the owner of the projects has power to control everything in the project, while upstream stakeholders perceive that designers and consultants have more power to control the project. The sustainability and innovation aspects in the project designs often are neglected by decisions made based on financial aspects where power is concentrated with non-technical stakeholders. The perceptions of power that each stakeholder have are different, and whilst there are positive attributes of understanding power, construction projects often end with conflict, resulting in increases in project time, stage delays, poor working relationships, increased costs and sometimes poor delivery outcomes.

Keywords:

• Power and project management
• power discourse
• power relationships in construction projects

Funding

This research has been funded by the Royal Thai Embassy, Canberra, through the Asia Institute, University of Melbourne.

ORCID

Sittimont Kanjanabootra http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7557-4186

Notes

1. Feng Shui is an understanding of the physical configuration of geographical features, applied to both the macro (e.g. design of a city, selection of site, etc.) and micro (e.g. orientation of building, interior layout, etc.) built environment. Mak and Ng (2005) and Thongkamsamut and Buranakarn (2007).