MANAGEMENT, TRANSIENCE AND SUBCONTRACTING: THE CASE OF THE CONSTRUCTION SITE

The set of constraints, tensions, and ambiguities clustering around the process of site management in the construction industry is explored by considering the role of the construction site manager, around whom a pivotal location within the alliance is created. Earlier studies by Beardsworth et al. (1982, 1985) focused on labor recruitment to job sites and on analyzing the effectiveness of site management in terms of leadership orientation by gathering data from respondents from 43 construction sites. They answered questions about how they had arrived at their current positions. The study concluded that: 1. Managers felt they had little or no influence in critical areas such as design and costing, which affect the framework in which site management must work. 2. Pressing time constraints result from the need to perform overlapping tasks simultaneously and the need to work quickly. 3. The use of subcontractors on the site makes the manager's own direct workforce unfamiliar.