Behavioral aspects in construction partnering

Lack of cooperation has been identified as one of the major causes of inefficiency in the construction industry. Industry-wide studies have suggested the use of partnering as a way to promote co-operative contracting. This paper examines the behavioral aspect of the participants in construction partnering. In particular, the criticality of trust as a success factor for partnering is discussed. The main sources of mistrust in construction, including incompetence, failure of integrity and unworthy information are also identified. Data obtained from a case study on a major railway project in Hong Kong is used to illustrate the impact of the behavioral aspect. The case study also suggests that the tools used to implement partnering have positive effects on building trust by suppressing the sources of identified mistrust.