Impact of psychological aspects towards construction negotiation

Abstract

Construction industry breeds a wide array of projects which are distinctive in nature with the association of myriads of interconnected tasks and work packages (Chris, 2009). Further to him, it is a complex and dynamic industry which encompasses many players at various stages. These players entail client, designer, contractor and manufacturers who involved from the initiation to completion of a construction project (Nawi, Nasrun, Baluch & Bahaudin, 2014). Hai, Yusof, Ismail and Wei (2012) expounded that, conventional construction projects are fragmented in means like remoteness of professionals, lack of coordination between design and construction and sequential manner execution. Due to these unique characteristics of construction industry, it is considered to be the most adverse business which leads to bulky waste, deficient productivity, cost and time overruns and enduring conflicts and disputes (Xue, Li, Shen & Wang, 2005). Conflicts and disputes are inevitable in construction industry as it extremely exposes to adverse risks and uncertainties (Winegard & Warhoe, 2003). Conforming, Cushman, Carter, Coppi and Gorman (2001) explicated that, “if high risks and uncertainty are the salt of construction industry, controversy and disputes are its pepper” (p.21). This emphasized that, risk and uncertainty attributable to construction industry extremely encourage the coexistence of disputes and conflicts within it. Further to Cushman et al. (2001), construction industry raises number of conflicts and disputes even due to its size, complexity, contract structure, litigious nature and multiparty collaboration. Moreover, Kumaraswamy and Yogeswaran (2003) expressed that, construction conflicts and disputes are engendered mostly due to contractual matters related to variations, extension of time, payments, quality of technical specification, availability of information, administration and management, unrealistic client expectations and determinations.