TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT IN CONSTRUCTION

It is well-known that construction products are one-off products characterized by loosely coupled organisations as well as extreme high demands for technological and financial flexibility. In particular the construction management and project management disciplines are claiming to be able to eliminate technological problems and to operationalise technological innovations under these conditions. But the internationalisation of the market orientation, (which amongst other things leads to a diffusion of strategic partnerships) seems to be exposing the limitations of management tools in construction firms, basicly because the nationally and culturally agreed conventions concerning managerial rationality are being devastated. In order to obtain an alignment of the empirically recognized areas of management with the above illustrated theoretical structuring of a technology management concept, the following themes could be studied and analysed in construction projects: processes of learning in production and management. This is of major importance to the competitive advantage of the construction firm as the conditions for production and management changes from project to project. Consequently in practice (and often informally) decision authority has been delegated to low organisational levels. This, however, is counteracting the tendency towards still more sophisticated and formalised planning and management systems. How do firms of different nationalities handle these phenomena and how is management information interchanged in the organisations? routines to mobilise a know-how readiness about technological alternatives. The construction firm for instance organises this in changing constellations with consultants and suppliers, based on informal national contacts. On an open international market this network is perhaps non-existant or at least based on risky assumptions. Do the upcoming demands on company certification and financial capability overtrump the technological competence? access to components, technological know-how and innovative experience in continuation of no. 2 (above). To what extent is this a deliberate motive of the firm for entering a joint venture, or is simple market access the focus? The traditional project management as it is performed in large construction projects is dominated by the legal and economical relationship between the actors. Furthermore the formation of construction project organisations seems to reflect optimum imperatives of transaction cost theory which, it might be argued, leads to an atomisation and draining of the production process as far as technological competence is concerned. The relationship between construction firms and public authorities. The importance of this aspect has definately increased with the EU regulations. Will for instance the different directives eventually accelerate a technological standardisation - and in what sense? How are environmental aspects influencing the choice of technology? And health and safety standards? Not least the latter differ much from nation to nation. Development of new products and markets under internationalised conditions. This is perhaps the most important theme as the - although temporarily - freezed external relations of the firm in a joint venture are probably a deliberate stategic action in order to exploit these conditions. Finally in this context the question of technology management in complex intercultural surroundings and also the problems of technology assessment and -transfer to alien areas must be raised TABLE 1 : DECOMPOSING CENTRAL THEORETICAL PARADIGMS FOR A TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT CONCEPT In principle, the investigation of these five issues could serve as an indication of technology management awareness in construction, represented for instance by the managerial attitude of the project organisation partners towards the potential mixture of technology originated problems and opportunities. Obviously, research methodology would then have to be further developed. Rather than demonstrating an ideal full-scale analysis of these issues the following section has a more limited intention of exploring the applicability of elements from the the suggested basic theoretical framework, and then developing only some central lines of arguments forward to answering the above raised questions.