“Considerate construction”: case studies of current practice

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report on the extent to which major contractors are delivering what can be termed “considerate construction”, using case studies of housing and education projects in the UK, identify areas for improvement, particularly in the area of community engagement practices used by contractors.Design/methodology/approach – A list of key themes relating to community engagement is developed and used as a framework for case studies of projects being built by a major, multi‐disciplinary contractor that routinely registers projects with the Considerate Constructors Scheme.Findings – This research found evidence of a range of effective practices, but there is still scope for improvement. Seemingly better examples were found in projects in which the contractor took a partnered approach with both client and community, retained community relation expertise on staff, and took appropriate, timely action.Research limitations/implications – The case studies are based in the Southeast of...

[1]  Anne T Lawrence,et al.  Business and Society: Corporate Strategy, Public Policy, Ethics , 1991 .

[2]  Sai On Cheung,et al.  Measuring construction project participant satisfaction , 2004 .

[3]  Amm Liu,et al.  Research Methods for Construction (3rd ed.) , 2008 .

[4]  Martin Loosemore,et al.  Implementing corporate ethics management and its comparison with the safety management system: a case study in Hong Kong , 2004 .

[5]  Martin Skitmore,et al.  Professional ethics in the construction industry , 2003 .

[6]  Jean Hartley,et al.  Case study research , 2004 .

[7]  B. Berg.  Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences , 1989 .

[8]  R. Yin.  Case Study Research: Design and Methods , 1984 .

[9]  R. Newcombe,et al.  From client to project stakeholders: a stakeholder mapping approach , 2003 .

[10]  R. E. Calvert.  Introduction to Building Management , 1971 .

[11]  A. Bryman.  Social Research Methods , 2001 .

[12]  K. Eisenhardt.  Building theories from case study research , 1989, STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI.

[13]  David A. Towers,et al.  Mitigation of Community Noise Impacts from Nighttime Construction , 2001 .

[14]  Wen-der Yu,et al.  Time‐dependent construction social costs model , 2005 .

[15]  Graham Winch,et al.  Managing Construction Projects , 2009 .

[16]  Lars-Erik Gadde,et al.  The construction industry as a loosely coupled system: implications for productivity and innovation , 2002 .

[17]  Derek H.T. Walker,et al.  Client/customer or stakeholder focus? ISO 14000 EMS as a construction industry case study , 2000 .