Studying the client's role in construction management

Construction industry researchers tend to oversimplify the role of the client in the construction management process. This partly results from the propensity of researchers to use ‘broadcast’ survey method approaches which typically achieve shallow penetration of the client's world. Obtaining access to critical data involves a different relationship between researcher and client. When the client is seen as complex rather than unitary, the history and prehistory of the project loom large. What has occurred in the past can have a crucial effect on the operations of the project team assembled to manage the construction. A pilot study to test the feasibility of obtaining valid information from building clients is described. Twenty ‘points’ or hypotheses about the client's role in construction management are advanced and are to be tested in a forthcoming major study.