Organizational Barriers for adopting project alliancing: An investigation in the Dutch public infrastructure procurement organizations.

Problem analysisRelationship contracting has been developed as a solution for the many challenges that complex projects face.Project alliancing (PA) is considered by many scholars as the most complete form of relationship contracting due to being a self-standing project delivery method.Unlike partnering which only relies on moral agreements, PA aligns the interests of the stakeholders and eliminates the adversarial behavior by providing the right contractual arrangements.This facilitates the development of soft skills, as early as possible, in the integrated project team.There are many literatures devoted to project alliancing, mentioning its benefits and promoting the use of it.Yet there are little to no literatures available with regard to adopting project alliancing in the organizations.This void has caused the organizations that are convinced of the benefits of project alliances and have had successful experiments with it, to be facing difficulties in actually adopting it as an option for their project delivery.In the Europe, the Netherlands is one of the pioneers in project alliances; three Dutch public organizations have had successful experiments with PA, the first one being in the year 1999.Yet after almost 15 years and 5 experiences, no public organization in the Netherlands has successfully adopted PA.This indicates the existence of barriers for this purpose. Research processWith regard to the defined problem, the objective of this research is to identify the barriers of adopting PA in Rijkswaterstaat, one of the Dutch public organizations which have had a successful experiment with PA.Based on the preliminary research, it was decided to focus on the internal (organizational) barriers for adopting PA in Rijkswaterstaat.Consequently the following research question was defined: "What are the (most critical) organizational barriers for progression of project alliancing from an experimental tool to an effective project delivery system for Rijkswaterstaat as a public entity?"In order to answer this question, three sets of interviews, 27 in total, were conducted; an internal project personnel, an external project personnel and a validation round between the decisive functions for adoption of PA in Rijkswaterstaat.By conducting a thorough literature study, 25 theoretical barriers were identified.These potential barriers were used to design an interview protocol to be used in the interviews. Conclusionprocedures currently required to acquire the mandates for it.Otherwise despite the potential benefits, and due to the tight schedule of the projects, executing a project alliance will be neglected.Due to the relatively large number of barriers, it cannot be expected for all of them to be handled simultaneously.Therefore the author suggests eliminating the root barriers as the first step; this will provide the appropriate setting for the removal of the other barriers and mitigates their effects.For this purpose the following three step plan is suggested:1. Investigation of the true external influence on the choice of contractual models by Rijkswaterstaat is the first step, as it is somewhat disputed in the organization.If such influences are real and defining, convincing the politicians of the benefits of PA would be the priority for its adoption.However if the influences are misconceptions, it should be clarified and effectively communicated through the organization.2. Focus on the policy of PA in Rijkswaterstaat; without the appropriate policy, any endeavor for the application of PA will be faced with complicated authorization procedures.It should be determined if Rijkswaterstaat is indeed planning to develop such policy, and if so, it should be placed on the future business plan of the organization.3. Overcome the problem of shortage of personnel by including other public stakeholders in the alliance.Since Rijkswaterstaat is usually representing those parties, including them directly in the alliance will not only bring in their knowledge and shorten the communication lines, it will also aid with the misrepresentation of the public parties.For this purpose, conviction of such stakeholders is necessary.Therefore it is recommended for Rijkswaterstaat to devote the appropriate resources for promoting the concept of PA for their client organizations and partners.