Partnering: A Team Building Approach to Quality Construction Management

Abstract

The main objective during a construction project is to deliver a quality product in a timely, cost‐effective, and safe manner. However, due to the risky and competitive nature of construction contracting, conflicting objectives among the different parties involved in a contract are bound to occur. In many instances this leads to expensive claims and litigation. The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) has adopted an approach called “partnering” to define its relationship with its contractors in an attempt to reduce or eliminate claims and litigation. The partnering approach relies on the fact that the best conflict‐resolution strategy is one that prevents conflicts from occurring. Therefore, the main objective of partnering is to encourage all parties of a contract to change their relationships from adversarial to cooperative, by building a friendly environment with all parties acting as members of one team. This change in relationships requires changes in attitudes to achieve mutual trust, respect, and open communication among all parties involved. The paper presents and describes the partnering process as implemented by Caltrans. It also presents, as an example, a complete partnering agreement between Caltrans and one of its contractors.