The construction industry forms an important part of national economies from the United States and the United Kingdom to Australia and Singapore. The industry is a large employer and is described as being traditional, fragmented, adverse in culture and poor in quality. It has a specific problem of two types of production, namely design and actual construction. Human resource issues are neglected as the industry operates by project management, which does not allow for systematic and long term organisational development. These factors, in short, have caused the industry to remain disintegrated. / The purpose of this research was to investigate how a process of integrating internal and external customers and technology could be developed and implemented in the building components industry. The research problem revolved around the customer orientation concept, which other industries claim to have implemented successfully. The research problem was conceptualised as lack of internal and external customer orientation. / The research was carried out in a company called Eastern Pretech Pty. Ltd in Singapore, and more particularly in its precast concrete division, which is a unit of analysis employing some 80 staff members and 300 workers. The sequential order of work-design, production, delivery and installation- had created disintegration in the approach to external customers. The products of the division included design, manufacturing and delivery/installation of structural frames of buildings, including columns, beams, slabs and walls. / For the purpose of undertaking the investigation the researcher developed an exploratory case study strategy, which was justified as being an inquiry into unknown phenomena where no similar studies had been made in the precast concrete industry or in the construction industry in general. Because of the exploratory nature of the inquiry there were no hypotheses to be tested, but rather research questions to be answered. / The researcher justified the use of participant action research for the purpose of the investigation. The research design was divided into conceptual and action research method stages. The conceptual stage included the past experience and interest of the researcher and well as the literature review, and the action research method stage included the case study analysis and thesis writing. The researcher was a participant observer when carrying out the case research. / In conclusion, the exploratory case study strategy resulted in rich data, which showed evidence of change occurring and integration happening. The action research case study was concluded in a real life situation, where the uncertainty of outcomes and almost impossibility of forecasting results allowed the researcher to use imagination in constructing new concepts and theories using the participant action research method. The results included the development of an ICO model which can form the basis for further investigations. The research made contributions to marketing and other aspects of management- in particular to customer orientation, total quality management and the organisational development literature in the area of construction. The research also fulfilled the dual goals of action research by contributing to knowledge and practice. / Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2002.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/267301 |
| Creators | Karvinen, Kauko. |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | copyright under review |
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