Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER ONE
The Construction Industry Is Great at
Dispute Creation
This chapter looks at the reasons for the construction industry being
notorious for creating disputes - a reputation that is worldwide - and
ends with an examination of why people get into dispute in the first
place. The construction industry is a great industry for creating disputes,
and not just in the UK. As a quantity surveyor, first with contractors and
then in private practice, I grew up with disputes, probably caused some
of them, certainly fanned some of the flames and delighted in most of
the battles. It was a wonderful training ground, both in the causes of
disputes and in the appalling way in which they were resolved. Little has
changed since I gave it all up in 1996 to become a full-time mediator and
trainer. And once a year for most of the past ten I have spent a day with
50 or more graduate chartered surveyors, talking about collaborative
negotiation and dispute avoidance. Few have really wanted to know.
Their presumption is almost always that contractors/sub-contractors
are out to screw them (or rather, their clients) - that's how they make
their profit - and so being cooperative is a sign of weakness. Anyway,
they are all in their twenties: energetic, competitive, most of them self-
assured. They like the fight; they like to
win
, no matter what the cost.
Of course, the construction industry has tried various ways to avoid
the endless disputes. Even in my quantity surveying prime, partnering
was our saviour, though no one really knew what it meant - and they still
don't, it seems. I recently mediated a dispute between a local authority
and a contractor who had been partnering for several years. But it wasn't
really partnering: no real training about working cooperatively and no
defined structure for resolving differences. Yes, there was a 30-page
partnering agreement drawn up by lawyers, but no one really knew
what it meant. People tried a bit harder to be nice to each other for a
period, then something went wrong and partnering was forgotten, and
the old ways returned. It is almost as if there is comfort in the familiar,
no matter how inefficient and ineffective it is.
Other routes, such as design and build, were intended to put all the
responsibility onto the contractor and so render the building owner
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