OCUREMENT TACTICS FOR SELECTING SUITABLE CONTRACTORS FOR COLLABORATION AND LONGTERM RELATIONSHIPS

Abstract

The construction industry has increasingly embraced collaboration and long-term relationships (CLR) practices in recent years. Nevertheless, most people have been trained and accustomed to the traditional approaches. There is limited understanding when it comes to how clients should go about procuring suitable contractors for CLR despite significant roles contractors play to the success of projects. Since it is not all contractors that are suitable for CLR, this study empirically investigates the procurement tactics that clients are employing to select suitable contractors for CLR in the construction industry focusing on framework contracts. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with eight organizations employing framework contracts in South Africa. The findings show that the organizations are employing many tactics generally aimed at vetting contractor's background behaviour and past performance; in addition to getting closer in meeting and talking face to face with the potential contractors to observe and assess their suitability for CLR. Some of the tactics employed to achieve this include: conducting interviews with potential contractors, conducting training and workshops, asking for CV's of key participants, top management involvement consideration, and vetting of potential contractors via a contactable reference of past jobs. Other tactics include holding competitive negotiation/dialogue process and meetings with potential contractors. The result of the study provides insight on the procurement tactics to adopt in selecting suitable contractors for CLR in practice, especially among new adopters of CLR strategies.