Practitioners’ Perception of Value in Construction

Abstract

Value delivery is basically the main purpose of construction, and in fact it is not the physical construction in itself that a client buys but the attributes or value the building provides. This value delivery is undertaken in a complex endeavour of collaboration. Throughout a building project value is in focus both implicit and explicit. Often challenges or direct problems arise during the process, which may be due to an incongruent perception of value. A survey was conducted among practitioners of the Danish building industry, aiming at investigating whether or not practitioners perceive value differently. The survey revealed that the practitioners had a diverse understanding of how to perceive value in a building project. This is problematic for the efficiency and effectiveness of building projects. Value is the underlying concept of emerging methods and concepts such as Lean Construction, Value Management and Partnering. When a homogeneous understanding of value does not exist, the full potential of applying value based concepts will not occur.

Value Management Integration for Whole Life Cycle: Post COVID-19 Strategy for the UK Construction Industry

“…However, if value management was made a legal obligation, it could also encourage BIM to consider the whole life cycle of an asset and add a considerable amount of value. Although BIM is not necessarily a driver to value management, its ability to integrate different stakeholders can increase the understanding of a project's scope [15], whilst also making use of it within all stages of a project. The participants noted they have little knowledge on value management as an early strategy, but if it was made a legal obligation similar to BIM in the public sector, then the education of the process would have more latitude.…”

“…Stakeholders may have different aspirations within a construction project, such as boosting their sustainability reputation or enhancing profitability, but to maximise project value requires a great level of cohesiveness and collaboration [14]. As Wandahl [15] outlines in his research, value is perceived in many ways by different stakeholders and disciplines, thus the nature of value management is complex and the level or amount implemented to each project is unique.…”

Exploring construction client values and qualities

“…In this sense, clients make value judgements based on their expectations and values. Perception of value by practitioners and stakeholders has been considered by many scholars El-Gohary, 2014, 2016;Wandahl, 2015;Thomson et al, 2013;Cox et al, 2003;Erik Eriksson et al, 2008;Yuan et al, 2015).…”

Establishing the synergy between the perceptions of construction professionals and the phases of value management

“…VM has been used as a tool to enhance the quality and standards of products, services and projects globally for almost 80 years (Bowen et al , 2011). Mainstream literature defines VM as a creative, proactive and problem-solving tool that maximizes the value for money of a product by examining its progress from conception to completion following a value-based auditing system determined by the client (Fan et al , 2010; Kelly and Male, 2003; Male et al , 2007; Short et al , 2008; Wandahl, 2015).…”

“…Literature on VM in developing countries has revealed a scarcity of studies on VM including many false perceptions held by practitioners characterized by a lack of understanding of VM, a lack of awareness, misconceptions, the belief that VM can increase the duration of the project, a misunderstanding of its benefits, the common belief that VM is a cost-reduction tool and a lack of governmental support (Kim et al , 2016; Maznan et al , 2012; Othman et al , 2021; Tanko et al , 2018). In response to these challenges, recent research has focused on the application of VM in the construction industry; to this end, it has investigated critical success factors (CSFs) of VM applications (Hwang et al , 2015; Tanko et al , 2018), case studies on potential savings and building components (Asif et al , 2005; Kelly and Male, 2003), barriers to the successful adoption of VM (Aghimien et al , 2018; Othman et al , 2021) and perceptions of VM (Maznan et al , 2012; Wandahl, 2015). Although these studies investigated how to promote VM in construction through CSFs, barriers and perceptions, the connection between perceptions and CSFs is yet to be studied.…”