Surveying project success criteria

Introduction

Through our involvement with housing associations, we have witnessed problems in achieving successful outcomes for some construction projects where a housing association was the customer and construction companies were suppliers. Our initial observations were such that due to the nature of their business, the housing associations were traditionally focused on meeting the needs of their customer (the housing corporation) and other key stakeholders, such as tenants and the wider local community. In the cases where problems occurred during projects, the construction companies did not seem to show a similar focus on understanding the needs of the customer (the housing association) or of their other stakeholders, such as other contractors or suppliers. The less successful projects seemed to be supplier-led, with an emphasis on the contractor's concerns about meeting time, cost, and quality projections rather than on providing customer satisfaction. Furthermore, there seemed to be a lack of understanding between the two parties concerning the prioritizing of the success criteria. We also observed variations in project performance within the housing associations themselves. These organizations seemed linked to different cultures, processes, and procedures, and could best be summarised as either having or not having a Total Quality Management (TQM)-type approach to work.

To investigate the potential of the problems we had observed at first hand for indicating common problems within the business sector, and the potential of the differences we had witnessed in TQM-type approaches to work for indicating influences on project management practices, we studied the differences in attitudes and behaviour between project staff working for housing associations and project staff working for construction companies. This paper reports on this study.

In this paper's first section, we review the literature setting out the reasons why the concept of partnering, which requires each party to understand the other's success criteria, is being seen as the way forward in terms of addressing the problems that occur when the housing associations are the client and the construction companies are the contractor. We then review studies of project success criteria and highlight the rationale for further survey-based investigations to show these as a useful method for understanding the obstacles to partnering.

We conclude this section by showing the relevance of making a link between TQM and customer-focus in terms of understanding the antecedents to better project performance.

In the second section, we propose a survey-based research method for investigating any differences of emphasis placed on project success criteria between housing associations and construction companies. This can also be used for investigating the influence of TQM—compared with other variables—on the degree of customer and other stakeholder-focus. This influences one's project management performance.

In section three, we present the results from the 2003 survey, and conclude this study by discussing the implications of these results and offering an outline as to how this study contributes to the development of the project management discipline.

Literature review

The drive towards partnering

Problems with achieving successful outcomes on construction projects are well documented in the project management literature (e.g., Berggren, Soderlund, & Anderson, 2001; Gardiner et al., 2000; Lim et al., 2000; Yates et al., 2002). Many of the problems encountered are generic to all project environments, but some are specific to construction, such as lack of site supervision, usual site conditions and new entrants (Lim & Zain Mohamed, 2000), and the fragmented nature of the sector, which leads to communication difficulties between project stakeholders (Berggren, Soderlund, & Anderson, 2001; Yates et al., 2002).

Furthermore, failings have been identified with the traditional methods for managing construction projects, such as exploitation of one of the parties, too rigid specifications, decisions made with limited knowledge, and a short-term focus (Black, Akintoye, & Fitzgerald, 2000).

In response to the failure to achieve successful outcomes, government-led initiatives (Egan, 1998; Latham, 1994) have encouraged construction projects, especially those involving the public sector, to take the lead in introducing new ways of working to replace the traditional methods, which tend to use competitive tendering procurement strategies. The 1998 report of the Construction Task Force (which Egan chaired), titled Rethinking Construction, recognized that the construction industry could learn from the methods used in other manufacturing and service-based business sectors. In 2002 the United Kingdom (UK) Department of Trade and Industry and Rethinking Construction established a Construction Best Practice Program (www.cbpp.org.uk). This program helps introduce new ways of working to construction projects. One of its initiatives has been to promote a Lean Improvement Program, which aims to import into the public and private sector construction industry the lean manufacturing principles successfully employed by the automotive supply industry.

An integral element of this new way of working is a partnership approach that recognizes the different needs and expectations—hence measuring the successful completion of the project goal—of the various stakeholders involved, such as the client, the contractor, and the various team members. However, potential barriers have been identified that could obstruct move towards a more partnership-based approach between construction companies and their clients. For example, a comparison of 47 project members working on construction projects with 51 project members working on product development projects found that social processes requiring co-operation and communication between stakeholders, such as sharing information between the team, were less in evidence on the construction projects (Zika-Viktorsson, Hovmark, & Nordqvist, 2003).

One consequence of a move towards partnering is the change in the way that the customer-supplier relationship is set up. For example, the implementation of the recommendations of Rethinking Construction (Egan, 1998) in the UK National Health Service (NHS) has led to the establishment of the Procure 21 concept, which aims to develop long-term partnerships with supply chain partners and procurement teams (O‘Reilly, 2000). In practice this means the NHS, as a client, is working with substantially fewer suppliers and that a small number of preferred contractors and consultants being used on long-term contracts worth in excess of £1m.

The influence of Egan (1998), and a move towards partnerships, is influencing changes in the customer-supplier relationship between housing associations and private sector construction companies. In 1999, The Housing Corporation, which provides capital grants to the housing associations, stated that housing associations would have to sign a Construction Clients Charter. This requires housing associations to commit to a program of continuous improvement. Failure to sign would result in the withholding of funding for new-build projects. In addition, the Housing Corporation, mirroring the NHS approach, has decided to reduce the number of housing associations that would qualify for capital grants for new builds from approximately 350 to between 30-40 preferred suppliers. One requirement of preferred suppliers is the production of a five year action plan for improvement and evidence of progress against the plan.

Studies of project success criteria

Over the past two decades, many studies looked at project management from the view of examining project success criteria in terms of cost, time, and quality—the iron triangle of project management (Atkinson, 1999). These studies have also examined other project management criteria, such as overall customer satisfaction (e.g., Kerzner, 1989; Might & Fischer, 1985; Pinto & Prescott, 1990; Pinto & Slevin, 1987; Shenhar, Levy, & Dvir, 1997; Tukel & Rom, 2001; Wateridge, 1998; White & Fortune, 2002). Each study has added to the body of knowledge concerning the topic of project success criteria. For example, specific findings of the studies listed in the preceding paragraph include:

• Technical-related criteria are given greater emphasis than cost and time-related criteria, as revealed in a survey of 103 development projects, many sponsored by the United States (US) Department of Defense or National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) (Might & Fischer, 1985).
• The emphasis given by an organization to time-related criteria has diminished, as devised from a case study of projects carried out by the US Internal Revenue Service over the last twenty years (Kerzner, 1989).
• The importance of project success criteria changes over the life of a project, as concluded from a survey of 159 Project Management Institute (PMI) members involved in R&D projects (Pinto & Slevin, 1987).
• The emphasis given to project success criteria influences the importance attached to planning or tactical factors, as surmised from a survey of 408 PMI members (Pinto & Prescott, 1990).
• The emphasis placed on criteria relating to the future are more important to people whose project has finished than to people whose project is unfinished, as described from a survey of 127 project managers involved in industrial projects in Israel (Shenhar et al., 1997).
• The emphasis given to the internal-related success criteria of time and cost is a response to senior management pressure rather than customer expectations, as explained from a series of questionnaires and interviews with 12 people working on IS/IT projects (Wateridge, 1998).
• Criteria for measuring customer satisfaction take precedence over the internal-related success criteria of time and cost, as realized from a survey of 117 PMI members (Tukel & Rom, 2001).
• The iron triangle is emphasized in project management practice (White & Fortune, 2002).

From these studies of project success criteria, one might conclude that variables—internal versus external perspectives, different stakeholders, stage in the project life cycle, business sector, and project characteristics—interact in a variety of complex and dynamic ways, making it difficult to derive any simple solutions that can be usefully applied to project management practice. Such a conclusion suggests that the project success criteria survey genre of research, which attempts to answer the question of how project success is or should be measured, has perhaps run its natural course.

However, an alternative and more optimistic view is that the studies of project success criteria are useful as a means of understanding the antecedents of project success. Projects are rarely successful when measured against all criteria, and a finding of some of the authors referenced previously is that the criteria that are met tend to be the ones that are perceived as most important by the project manager during the project's life. This lends weight to the maxim that what gets measured gets managed. For example, Wateridge (1998) concluded that project managers involved in unsuccessful IS/IT projects put undue emphasis on cost and time-related criteria, which were important but not the key criteria. This occurred at the expense of criteria related to satisfying the users of the systems, which was the key focus. The need to define a range of measures beyond the traditional cost, time, and quality has also been recognized by practitioners in the construction sector. As a part response to the criticisms of Latham and Egan, the Construction Best Practice Program proposed measuring project performance using the following ten success criteria:

• Client Satisfaction—Product
• Client Satisfaction—Service
• Defects
• Predictability—Cost
• Predictability—Time
• Profitability
• Productivity
• Safety
• Construction Cost
• Construction Time.

The phenomenon of a link between measurement and management in project management practice has also been reported in the wider performance management literature. For example, based on their own experiences and a review of the academic literature, Hauser and Katz (1998) discussed the role of metrics in actions and decision-making. Giving a project management example, they describe how an emphasis on the Net Present Value (NPV) metric in an organization can lead to the initiation of inappropriate projects, at the expense of others that could be justified using different metrics, due to misleading and over-optimistic NPV-based forecasts.

This leads to a suggestion that understanding the validity and appropriateness of the criteria used for determining success, and ensuring that the practice focuses on meeting the measures linked to these criteria, is critical to ensuring that key stakeholders (such as the IS/IT users in Wateridge's 1998 study) have their expectations met. It is possible that one cause of ineffective partnering between housing associations and their construction company suppliers could be a lack of understanding, on the part of either party, as to which success criteria are important to achieving a satisfactory outcome.

Indeed, the need to understand how project management practice relates to project success criteria is one of the driving forces for the development of models of project performance. For example, Westerveld (2002) and Bryde (2003) propose models for measuring project performance (and the practice that influences performance) derived from the Business Excellence Model (British Quality Foundation, 1998). Stewart (2001) and van Veen-Dirks & Wijn (2002) provide a similar bridge between success criteria and critical success factors, though using the Balanced Scorecard (Kaplan & Norton, 1992) as the conceptual framework.

Total quality management (TQM), customer and stakeholder-focus and performance

The Construction Clients Charter discussed earlier highlights the importance being attached to the concept of continuous improvement in the move towards partnering. In addition, a change in methods towards partnering shows a greater focus on customers and other stakeholders. A consistent message through the debate about the need for change has been the recognition that the construction industry was not as customer-focused as some other industries, as shown by a specific aim set out by Egan (1998), who stated in his report that within five years of his study, the construction industry should “deliver its products to its customers in the same way as the best customer-led manufacturing and service industries” (ibid, p. 40). Furthermore, in terms of maximising project performance, the literature has also recognized that stakeholders need to consider the interests of others stakeholders, besides the customer, who are participating in the project (Cleland, 1986; Karlsen, 2002; Mallak, Patzak, & Kursted, 1991; Tuman, 1993).

The two concepts of continuous improvement and customer-focus are fundamental principles of TQM (British Standards Institute, 2000). A link between TQM, customer-focus, and organizational performance has been made in relation to the management of operations (Terziovski & Samson, 1999). In this study of manufacturers in Australia and New Zealand, Terziovski and Samson (1999) concluded that elements of TQM, such as customer-focus, related positively to organizational performance in the areas of customer satisfaction, employee morale, delivery, productivity, cash flow, and sales growth. The aim of customer-focused, as articulated by Egan (1998), is predicated upon a similar link existing between TQM, customer-focus, and organizational performance. In terms of stakeholder-focus, which is also recognized as important in the quality management literature (British Standards Institute, 1995), evidence exists showing that the practical implementation of the concept is difficult to achieve. Boehm and Ross (1989) gives examples of situations in which a failure to meet the needs of various stakeholders to the project, including the team, leads to poor performance. Maylor (2001) states, in a review of the current state of the project management discipline, that the processes for managing stakeholders are poorly understood.

Research method

From the literature review, and supported by our own personal experiences, we developed two broad propositions to frame our work:

• Studying the emphasis placed on project success criteria using a survey-based research method provides insight into the problems that housing associations and private sector construction companies face when introducing new partnership-based methods to manage the customer/supplier relationship.
• Achieving a high level of customer-focus and other stakeholder focus in the management of projects is a key aim of new Partnership-based methods. Such a focus will be facilitated by the existence of a TQM program.

To explore these propositions, a questionnaire was designed with the following research questions and hypotheses:

• Are there differences in the emphasis given to project success criteria associated with:

  ■     The customer/supplier relationship?

  H1:      Differences exist in the emphasis placed on project success criteria between respondents involved in project management in construction companies and involved in project management in housing associations.

• Are the levels of customer-focus and other stakeholder-focus in the management of projects associated with:

  ■     The customer/supplier relationship?

  H2:     Respondents involved in project management in housing associations are more likely to be customer-focused in the management of a project than respondents in construction companies.

  H3:       In contrast to the respondents from construction companies, respondents involved in project management in housing associations are more likely to be focused on other stakeholders besides the customer in the management of a project.

  H4:    Respondents involved in project management where the customer is external to the organization are more likely to be customer-focused in the management of a project than respondents whose project customers are another department in the same organization.

  H5:      Respondents involved in project management where the customer is external to the organization are more likely to be focused on other stakeholders besides the customer in the management of a project than respondents whose project customers are another department in the same organization.

• Are levels of customer focus and other stakeholder focus in the management of projects associated with:

  ■     The existence of a TQM program?

  H6:      Respondents working in companies with a recognized TQM program are more likely to be customer-focused in the management of a project than respondents in companies with no recognized TQM program.

  H7:      Respondents working in companies with a recognized TQM program are more likely to be focused on other stakeholders besides the customer in the management of a project than respondents in companies with no recognized TQM program.

One of the issues we wished to consider was the validity of making meaningful comparisons of attitudes and experiences if respondents were providing generalised comments that were either not specific to a particular project or not linked to a particular stage in a project's life. Therefore, in order to obtain contemporaneous data, the first part of the questionnaire asked people to select a particular project, which could be either ongoing or completed, and to then base their responses solely on this project. The people who reported on an ongoing project were asked to identify at what point the project had reached in the project life cycle. The questionnaire then asked for descriptive data about whether the project's customer was internal or external to the organization and whether a TQM-type program existed.

In designing our questionnaire, we drew from the work of Tukel & Rom (2001), in terms of developing appropriate survey instruments for measuring project success criteria. The questionnaire asked respondents to indicate the overall emphasis currently placed on the four high-level objectives of minimizing cost, satisfying customer's needs, minimizing project duration, and meeting the technical specification (which were used in Tukel and Rom's 2001 study). They were also asked to report on two additional high-level objectives: satisfying other stakeholders’ needs and providing a quality project management service. Participants were asked to use a 7-point Likert scale, where 7 = strong emphasis and 1 = weak emphasis.

In the questionnaire's final section, we sought more detail about the focus of the project management practice used. In particular, the degree to which people focused on managing stakeholders other then the customer. Tukel & Rom (2001) developed and validated a construct indicating preferences towards the degree of customer, time, cost, technical specification, and rework focus. We adapted this framework to enable us to measure the degree of focus on customers, time, cost, technical (taken from Tukel and Rom's 2001 construct), and other stakeholders.

We devised four statements to measure the emphasis placed on other stakeholders. We wished to include stakeholders internal to the project, such as team members, in our definition of stakeholder focus, so we added two statements that targeted the specific actions of either the project team or the project organization. The four statements measuring other stakeholders focused on: development opportunities for project team members, learning opportunities for staff involved in the management of the project, and stakeholder (other than the customer) satisfaction. (The full list of questions asked is provided in Appendix 1.) Again, the focus was measured using a 7-point Likert scale. The validity of the project success construct was examined using Cronbach's alpha test. Exhibit 1 shows the results of the test.

Exhibit 1: Cronbach's alpha score for project success construct

The values for customer, time, cost, and technical focus are comparable to those previously reported by Tukel and Rom in their 2001 study. The internal consistency for the amended part of the construct, namely the addition of stakeholder focus, is strong (alpha value above 0.7), suggesting that the construct is a valid measure.

After piloting the questionnaire in three companies, it was sent to a total of 1,200 UK organizations. To obtain data from people involved in project management in housing associations, 350 members of the National Housing Federation (NHF) were randomly selected from NHF‘s Directory of Members. Only organizations with up to 400 employees were sent the questionnaire. 53 members (15%) returned completed questionnaires. Construction companies were selected from the Fame database of organizations. Questionnaires were mailed to 200 organizations in the Fame database were randomly selected from those categorised as construction companies with between 200-400 employees. Of the 200, 38 (19%) returned their questionnaire.

The control group were chosen from those categorised as having 200-400 employees and having one of the following business codes, which were randomly selected from the business codes listed in the Fame database:

• manufacture of food products and beverages
• manufacture of chemicals and chemical products
• electricity, gas, steam and hot water supply
• computer and related activities
• research and development
• public administration and defence, compulsory social security
• health and social work.

650 questionnaires were mailed to a random selection of organizations with these business codes. 85 (13%) were returned completed. In total, 176 (15%) responses were received from the 1,200 questionnaires posted.

Results

The sample of 176 responses contained 141 (80%) service organizations compared with 35 (20%) manufacturers. 38 (22%) of the respondents had the job title of project manager. 138 (78%) did not. However, another 81 (46%) respondents stated they were involved in the management of projects, despite not having a formal job title of project manager. In all, 119 (68%) respondents worked in the managing of projects. The other 57 (32%) respondents held related project management positions, such as sponsor and project team member. Respondents chose projects from every stage of the project life cycle, as shown in Exhibit 2.

Exhibit 2: Status of chosen project

The largest proportion of respondents reported on the implementation stage (36.4%). Table 3 shows that 63 (35.8%) respondents reported on projects that had been completed and 113 (64.2%) on projects that were ongoing. For the purposes of the analysis, respondents for projects in the initiation and definition stages were grouped together to form a pre-implementation stage, accounting for 24 (13.6%) of the sample. 83 (47.2%) people reported on external customers to the organization and 93 (52.8%) reported on an internal department as customer. For 65 (37%) organizations, a TQM program was in place, versus 111 (63%) organizations reporting that either no such program existed or the existence of such a program was unknown.

In terms of the research questions and research hypotheses, the following was found:

• Are there differences in the emphasis given to project success criteria associated with the position of the respondent's organization in terms of customer/supplier relationships?

H1:       Differences exist in the emphasis placed on project success criteria between respondents involved in project management in construction companies and involved in project management in housing associations.

The mean scores for the six project success criteria of respondents working for construction companies were compared with those working for housing associations and those working for companies from a variety of business sectors (control group). The One Factor Between Subjects (One Way) ANOVA test was used to investigate whether the mean scores between the three groups were statistically significant. One of the assumptions of the ANOVA test is that the values in each sample vary about the same amount and that the ANOVA procedure is much less sensitive to violations of this requirement when samples of equal size are used. Therefore, the 38 respondents from construction companies and 76 respondents randomly selected from each of the two other groups (38 from the housing associations and 38 from the control group) were selected for analysis. The results are shown in Exhibit 3.

Exhibit 3: ANOVA—Emphasis on project success criteria by the business sector

For the project success criteria of satisfying the customer's needs, meeting the technical specification, and providing a quality project management service, the significance (p-value) is > 0.05 in each case, suggesting that there is no difference in the emphasis placed on these project success criteria between those in construction companies and those in housing associations.

For the project success criteria of minimizing project cost, minimizing the project duration, and satisfying the needs of stakeholders (other than the customer), the significance (p-value) is < 0.05 in each case, suggesting that the difference between the means is significant.

Having determined that differences exist between the means for these three project success criteria the Duncan post hoc test was applied to further determine which means differed. Exhibit 4 shows the results. The Duncan post hoc analysis identifies homogenous subsets that are not significantly different from each other (at the 5% significant level).

The test shows that for the project success criteria minimizing project cost and project duration, both housing associations and construction companies give them similar emphasis as the control group, but construction companies give them more emphasis than housing associations. In terms of satisfying the needs of other stakeholders, housing associations and the control group gave this criterion similar and greater emphasis than the construction companies. Therefore the Duncan post hoc analysis suggests that there is a difference in the emphasis placed on these project success criteria between those involved in project management in construction companies and those in housing associations.

Exhibit 4: Duncan's post hoc test for emphasis on project success criteria

To investigate the remaining hypotheses, a distinction was made between the respondents who had above average customer-focus or other stakeholder-focus, and those who had an average or below average focus. To make this distinction, the mean score for the four statements relating to customer-focus and the mean score for the statements relating to other stakeholder focus (see Appendix 1) was calculated and those respondents with scores below the mean were classed as above average and those with scores at or below the mean were classed as average or below (after Tukel and Rom, 2001). The results were as follows:

• Are the levels of customer and other stakeholder focus in the management of projects associated with the position of the respondent's organization in terms of customer/supplier relationships?

H2:     Respondents involved in project management in housing associations are more likely to be customer-focused in the management of a project than respondents in construction companies.

Exhibit 5: Influence of customer/supplier relationship on customer-focus

The Chi Square test results shown in Exhibit 5 do not support the hypothesis that those working in housing associations are more likely to be customer-focused in the management of a project than those working in construction companies.

H3:      Respondents involved in project management in housing associations are more likely to be focused on other stakeholders besides the customer in the management of a project than respondents in construction companies.

The Chi Square test results shown in Exhibit 6 do not support the hypothesis that those working in housing associations are more likely to be focused on other stakeholders in the management of a project than those working in construction companies.

Exhibit 6: Influence of customer/supplier relationship on stakeholder-focus

H4:     Respondents involved in project management where the customer is external to the organization are more likely to be customer-focused in the management of a project than respondents whose project customer is another department in the same organization.

The hypothesis that those with external project customers are more likely to be customer-focused in the management of a project than those with internal customers is not supported by the results of the Chi Square test (shown in Exhibit 7).

H5:      Respondents involved in project management where the customer is external to the organization are more likely to be focused on other stakeholders besides the customer in the management of a project than respondents whose project customer are another department in the same organization.

Likewise, the hypothesis that those with external project customers are more likely to be other stakeholder-focused in the management of a project than those with internal customers is not supported by the test results (Exhibit 8).

Exhibit 7: Influence of type of customer on customer-focus

Exhibit 8: Influence of type of customer on stakeholder-focus

• Are levels of customer and other stakeholder focus in the management of projects associated with the existence of a TQM program?

H6:     Respondents working in companies with a recognized TQM program are more likely to be customer-focused in the management of a project than respondents in companies with no recognized TQM program.

Of the 65 respondents having a TQM program in their company, 49 (75.4%) were classed as having an above average customer-focus in the management of their project. The remaining 16 (24.6%) were classed as having a below average customer-focus. The results of the Chi Square test (see Exhibit 9) support the hypothesis that those working in companies with TQM programs are more likely to be customer-focused in the management of a project than those with lacking a TQM program.

Exhibit 9: Influence of TQM program on customer-focus

H7:      Respondents working in companies with a recognized TQM program are more likely to be focused on other stakeholders besides the customer in the management of a project than respondents in companies lacking a recognized TQM program.

The results of the Chi Square test (see Exhibit 10) do not support the hypothesis that those working in companies with TQM programs are more likely to be other stakeholder-focused in the management of a project than those with no TQM program.

Exhibit 10: Influence of TQM program on stakeholder-focus

Discussion

The significant findings in relation to the emphasis placed on project success criteria between housing associations and construction companies are as follow. First, construction companies put more emphasis on the cost and time success criteria than housing associations. Second, construction companies put less emphasis on meeting the needs of other stakeholders than do housing associations.

In terms of the first of these findings, the difference in emphasis on cost and time possibly reflects the project management relationship between the housing association (as client) and the construction company (as contractor). Cost and time are twin imperatives to the housing associations, which are under pressure to provide timely, value-for-money solutions in order to ensure future funding from The Housing Corporation, which is their primary customer in relation to these types of project. The construction companies recognize these imperatives and take responsibility for their management, through the production of the project budgets and project schedules at the start of the project and the monitoring and updating of these budgets and schedules as the project progresses. Indeed, construction companies would regard it as their main responsibility, along with delivering the project to specification, in order to satisfy the client. Therefore, the difference in emphasis involving time and cost would merely reflect the natural order of things, with the construction company's perception of a key part of their role to keep the client happy by bringing the project in within budget and on schedule.

On a project that is progressing well and meeting its objectives, as well as providing satisfaction to the key stakeholders, such a difference in emphasis on the cost and time success criteria is clearly not an issue. However, on a project that is in danger of not coming in within budget and schedule, the difference in emphasis may be symptomatic of a deeper malaise, especially if the construction company has not been paying enough attention to all the stakeholders with interests in the project.

This leads to the second significant finding regarding the difference in emphasis on satisfying other stakeholders. The fact that the construction companies put significantly less emphasis on satisfying the needs of other stakeholders besides the customer—in comparison to both the housing associations and the control group (which comprised sundry manufacturers and service providers)—provides some confirmation of previous studies, such as Zika-Viktorsson et al (2003). The lack of emphasis on meeting the needs of all the stakeholders to the project may be a particular failing when cost and time objectives are not being met.

There may be very good reasons for budget and schedule over-runs, but in these situations the negative impact on satisfaction ratings can be minimized, if the project manager has positioned themselves close to the client group (Wright 1998). Such positioning requires the construction company, as project manager, to understand not only the cost and time imperatives, but also the other measures of success used by all stakeholders. By developing a relationship with all the stakeholders in order to better understand these measures, the construction company will be better positioned to minimize or overcome the negative impact of not coming in within cost and time. Clearly, the lack of emphasis placed on meeting stakeholder needs by the construction companies might be indicative, on the problem projects, of a failure to engage in a stakeholder management process.

In terms of the degree of focus exhibited in the management of a project, there were two significant findings. First, there was no difference in the degree of stakeholder-focus between housing associations and construction companies. Second, a TQM program was an antecedent to customer-focus, but not to stakeholder focus.

The failure of housing associations to exhibit a higher degree of stakeholder focus on projects, given that they put more theoretical emphasis on meeting the needs of stakeholders than do construction companies, is possibly symptomatic of a wider inability of all project organizations to put the theory into practice in this area. The housing associations see the importance of the stakeholder success criterion, but find it difficult to emphasis it in practice. As highlighted in the literature review, processes for managing stakeholders are often poorly understood or ignored (Maylor 2001). Hence, as suggested by the survey results, housing associations, like other sectors, may have difficulties in providing for the psychosocial success criteria, such as providing development opportunities for the project team members or providing organizational learning opportunities.

The second key finding in relation to customer and stakeholder focus relates to the role of TQM. The survey showed that TQM is an antecedent to customer-focus, and given the link made in prior studies between customer-focus and performance, the establishment of the link with TQM may provide evidence of some of the processes needed if an organization wishes to increase the level of customer-focus in the management of its projects. For example, factors identified in successful TQM implementations include a clear understanding among management of the nature and purpose of any improvement program, a clear understanding of other approaches to improving quality, such as ISO 9000, and the potential benefits to be achieved by such a program (Taylor & Wright 2003). By translating these factors to a project context, an organization would be able to introduce customer-focused project management. For example, senior management would need to clearly understanding the nature and purpose of any changes in project management, i.e., the reasons for and processes involved in introducing a partnership-type approach. The absence of any evidence of a link between the existence of a TQM program and the level of other stakeholder-focus is also noteworthy. This result may not necessarily reflect any deficiencies in this area on the part of TQM programs, but rather further confirmation that in project environments, the processes for managing stakeholders are poorly understood and ignored (Maylor 2001).

Conclusions and areas for further study

To conclude, we return to the propositions stated earlier. The first proposition said:

• Studying the emphasis placed on project success criteria using a survey-based research method provides insight into the problems that housing associations and private sector construction companies face when introducing new partnership-based methods to manage the customer/supplier relationship.

In terms of contributing to the development of the project management discipline, the fact that the survey results do provide evidence that there is a difference in the emphasis placed on project success criteria between housing associations and construction companies suggests that there is still a role for academic study of project success criteria. In the case of the housing associations and construction companies, there does seem to be a link between the emphases placed on project success criteria and effective project management practice. By studying project success criteria, there is perhaps still scope to better understand what people wish to measure, and hence extrapolate what tools and techniques could be used to ensure that the important criteria are effectively managed. But a caveat to this conclusion is that identifying differences in the emphasis on project success criteria is just one part of a wider diagnostic process. For example, in this study, we have been able to put possible meanings to the differences through our own observations and experiences.

The second proposition stated that:

• Achieving a high level of customer-focus and other stakeholder focus in the management of projects is a key aim of new Partnership-based methods. Such a focus will be facilitated by the existence of a TQM program.

The survey results have provided evidence that TQM programs are influential in fostering customer-focus in project environment. Just as significant is the lack of evidence of any influence on the level of focus on the needs and expectations of other stakeholders. Clearly there is the potential for further work in terms of understanding what the barriers are to the management of stakeholders and what processes are needed to break down the barriers and introduce an effective stakeholder management process.