Joint Risk Management Processes in Construction Partnering Studying early project processes at a SME Partnering contractor

Abstract

Partnering is a way of jointly running construction projects in which the risks are shared between the project actors and the client, by establishing shared economic interests in the project and foster collaboration, to benefit all contractual parts. As the project actors have shared stakes and the client has a larger mandate of influence in Partnering projects, there is an increased need and the possibility of communicating risks, opportunities and consequences of actions made in the projects, jointly between the project actors and the client. As there is not much research on Joint Risk Management (JRM) in construction Partnering projects and no existing models or processes to introduce, the purpose and aim of this study is to investigate how JRM processes can be introduced in Partnering projects and present an example of how JRM can be established in the existing processes of a company. The research is designed as a case study, investigating one Swedish SME (Small-Medium-sized Enterprise) construction contractor “Partner Inc.” working solely with Partnering projects. The empirical data has been collected from interviews, document analysis and participant observations. The results show that there are elements of Risk Management in the project processes of the studied company. However, these processes and activities lack a linkage and are not jointly undertaken by the contractual parts. From the empirical findings and with help from the studied literature a JRM process is presented and implemented into the current activities and project phases of Partner Inc.