Comparing Client Values between Business-as-Usual Construction and Postdisaster Reconstruction

Abstract

The complexity and resources required for postdisaster reconstruction projects can present a formidable challenge for project participants. Exploring client values in a postdisaster situation can assist in assessing contracting services and developing a suitable contractual framework for reconstruction projects. This study focuses on an analysis of client values in postdisaster reconstruction projects. In so doing, it investigates how client values within contractors’ services in postdisaster reconstruction projects differ from construction projects in business-as-usual conditions. First, a literature review and then interviews are used to discover the client values within contracting services. Then, using a questionnaire survey with clients, this study examines how the importance of the identified values differs between business-as-usual and postdisaster reconstruction projects. Public clients were the main participants of this study because they have considerable experience with postdisaster reconstruction. Differences in the prioritization of client values between the two situations, prompting the need to identify and prioritize clients’ value in postdisaster situations, are highlighted. It was then realized that assessing contracting services in postdisaster reconstruction projects requires a specific approach and concept. This study contributes to the body of knowledge on postdisaster reconstruction by disseminating the values essential for reconstruction projects and how they differ from business-as-usual through classified outcomes, thereby making them available for the management of client-contractor relationships in postdisaster situations.