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In Theory of Moral Sentiments, Adam Smith reasons about how a change in one thing, A, is attended by a change in another thing, B. In expounding on such bivariate relationships, Smith sometimes seems to go out of his way to posit a state of the world in which the relationship would break down. That feature suggests an irony about knowing how a change in B attends a change in A. We might think we understand the bivariate relationship, but it holds only for certain states of the world. The relationship is circumstanced. The more one studies the Moral Sentiments, the more one realizes that circumstantiality suffuses its teachings. My discussion arrives at a place of doubt about the most important bivariate relationship – that between approval from our conscience and doing good. Smith seems to suggest, particularly at the end of his life, that a person can best know the relationship between his conscience’s approval and his doing good under circumstances of his having frank and open friendships. The implication for politics is that we want that kind of government that best conduces to frank and open friendships.

As clients have become more aware and demanding of the construction industry, they are also becoming less tolerant of the problems and the risks involved in the delivery of major projects. Presents a case study of design management within a design‐construct organization on a large residential apartment project. Identifies and analyses issues concerned with the organization, responsibilities, relationships and stages of development in a typical design‐construct project.

The construction industry has faced a period of intense introspection. This has prompted researchers and practitioners to consider what type and structure of construction industry is most appropriate to meet the challenges posed by market driven economies. Client demands are responding more rapidly to changing organisational and market imperatives. Creative and innovative solutions are expected from client analysts, advisers and consultants, from within and outside the construction industry. Previous research conducted in several client organisations at the project initiation (pre‐design) stage indicate that typically a building is not necessarily the only, or best, solution. It is contended that these trends have implications for the nature and workload of the construction industry in developed and developing countries alike. It reviews the past, considers present trends and suggests the effect such directions may have on the procurement of construction facilities.

Conventional “wisdom” in construction has placed emphasis on error prevention and is often aligned with the concept of “Zero Vision”; improvements to safety and quality have been minimal. An alternative approach is needed to ensure significant improvements in safety and quality; thus, this paper aims to introduce the concept of error management.

The paper reviews the extant literature and draws upon the phenomenological research and observations experienced by the authors.

It is promulgated that if quality and safety performance within projects is to improve, then construction organisations and their management need to openly acknowledge their presence so that “learning from errors” can form an integral part of an organisation’s fabric. This will require the institutionalisation of error reporting and an organisational (shared) responsibility for their occurrence.

The concept of error management has not been addressed previously in the construction literature. The authors introduce the concept and provide implications for management. The observations and experiences presented in this paper provide an initial starting point for future research to explore “how” construction organisations and projects can avoid the negative error consequences and learn to prevent them in the future.

Builders have a long history of a public perception of poor image and low quality products. Political and administrative demands for builder registration and tighter control of entry into the industry have been seen to be the solution to these problems. However, progress towards registration and control has proved elusive. Recently, the state of Victoria in Australia introduced mandatory builder registration under its Building Control Act 1993. Further reform for the housing industry was introduced in 1996 through the Domestic Building Contracts and Tribunal Act 1995. As the first legislation of its kind in Australia, the Victorian experience provides a case study for similar developments elsewhere. This paper reviews the history of builder registration in Victoria and identifies the major provisions of the 1995 Act, including the organisations established to regulate and supervise the implementation of the legislation. The perceived drawbacks and benefits of the new system are also analysed following the limited experience since the introduction of the legislation.

The decision to build initiates the development process. After taking account of all the factors it represents a decision to embark on a built solution to satisfy the organisation’s strategic objectives. It is a decision that senior managers and members of the design team should be aware of, reflect on and consider why the decision to build was made in the first place. By understanding the history of the strategic decision the design team may be better able to respond to client requirements and opportunities by providing the most appropriate building. In practice, most participants in the design process are often divorced from the decision within the client organisation and may lack the necessary background information that informed, guided or forced the choice of a building solution. There is a dearth of well‐documented material and literature on this key decision in the development process. The literature is sparse and that which does exist often ignores or only includes as a secondary issue the decision to build. The attitude is often one where the decision is generally accepted as a given, not to be revisited or amended by later players. Presents some key findings from the research into the project inception and the decision to build process, with particular emphasis on the environmental factors that influence the process and the product.

Provides a definition of, and a background to, teleworking; points out the advantages to organizations and employees, and the economic and demographic factors which have encouraged its growth. Examines the security threats and vulnerabilities which are inherent in teleworking and assesses the risks associated with employees working on sensitive material from a remote site. Postulates a framework for threat and risk assessment with a generic model, and a specific example using a hypothetical telework situation.

This case describes the financial and non-financial performance of Starbucks, a large organisation provided as on 2007. Howard Schultz, the promoter and chairman of the corporation is disturbed by the decline in the performance of Starbucks, especially the dilution of customer experience. He is required to analyse what happened and adopt a course of action to strengthen Starbucks' performance vis a vis competitive attacks. The participants are required to analyse the situation, generate options for Starbucks and make recommendations for the future, including whether Jim Donald, the current incubent, needs to retained as the CEO of Starbucks.

Adversarial contracting methods are used for most public infrastructure procurement and timely delivery on budget remains a problem. In the past 20 years, OECD countries have adopted a number of alternative procurement methods that are based on collaborative principles including public private partnerships, long-term outsourcing arrangements and relationship/alliance contracts. We review the theoretical principles that operate for both adversarial and collaborative contracting methods. We identify the characteristics of non-adversarial contracting methods such as the output specification, qualitative selection criteria, the alignment of incentives, discrete allocation of residual control rights, life cycle costing, and risk-weighted value for money measurement that are delivering better procurement outcomes for government.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the intense research activity with regard to the project inception stage. The need to establish the project parameters and performance requirements is crucial to the success of any construction project. Many organizations have been developing approaches to assist everyone involved in this process. This study aims to provide some data on one approach used by the authors during these early stages.

One approach to these early stages of the project is the use of a workshop‐based technique termed “strategic needs analysis”. Strategic needs analysis assists in these critical inception stages in the development of a project. Six action research studies based on these workshops were organized and analyzed by the authors. This has resulted in the development of a series of decision‐making attributes that capture the key characteristics relevant to the project inception stages.

This paper analyzes and identifies on a two‐dimensional scale the best‐ and worst‐performing of the identified attributes classified by the stakeholders in each study.

The conclusions to this research suggest that working during these early inception stages with briefing workshops is both challenging and difficult.

The findings provide a springboard for pointing out how an ambitious approach like this will always lead to practical implementation problems. It also provides data to indicate where one can begin to try to overcome these deficiencies.

Data analysis and experience on this key stage of a project are now available to inform future researchers and practitioners in this complex but important area of activity.