مدیریت ارتباط در مدیریت پروژه های PFI / PPP در انگلیس

Private Public Partnerships and the Public Finance Initiative engage private organisations in providing public services through long-term concessions. The paper examines management of these projects concerning the relationships between the primary parties: Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) and constituent members, and the relationship of the SPV with the client. The objectives are to establish how relationships are managed between private sector organisations within the concession, and between the private organisations and public sector client. The management of relationships is explored through concepts of relational contracting and relationship management. How relationship management links to project management is also explored. Trust and confidence are used as measures of relationship conditions, which are mapped against thirty relationship management dimensions. An evaluation is provided concerning relationship management for PFI/PPP projects, the primary conclusion being that greater strategic and tactical consideration is given to the proactive management of relationships. Adoption will foster collaborative working that goes beyond reactive behavioural adjustment to new procurement conditions, conceptually a shift from relational contracting to proactive relationship management principles.

The aim of this paper is to examine management of the Private Public Partnerships (PPPs) and the forerunner, Private Finance Initiative (PFI) concerning project relationships between the primary parties. PFI/PPP projects involve the engagement of private sector organisations in the provision of public infrastructure and services through concession contracts of up to 40 year’s duration. The primary parties are client, concession contractor, called the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), and constituent members of the SPV. The objectives are to explore how effectively relations are being conducted in this market, both between the members of the concession contractor, that is the SPV, and between the SPV and the public client. The organisational relationships studied are the amalgam of key managers responsible for managing the projects between the organisations. Trust and confidence are used as concepts for evaluating the condition of relationships, drawn from a framework of trust to secure measures for evaluating relationship strength. In order to achieve the aim and objectives the case for the importance of trust and confidence in relationships is made. A definition of trust in the framework is provided and the framework outlined. Relationships are not homogenous, having different characteristics and forms. Therefore, a categorisation of relationships in relation to effective project management is needed. The paper utilises the 30 relationships established by Gummesson [1] within the relationship marketing and management paradigm. The paper contributes to an understanding of the importance of relationships in managing projects. There are two aspects to this: exploring how relationship management connects to project management, and how relationships are a means to deliver service value and added value in projects generally and PFI/PPP specifically. The paper makes recommendations from the analysis for continuous improvement through the effective management of relationships.

The findings of this study directly concern the form of management applied to the private sector. The evidence shows private sector management is reactive rather than proactive role in managing relationships. The findings did not include direct evidence from the public sector, yet it was clear from private sector evidence concerning the public–private interface that there are issues pertaining to the public sector. This evidence indicated the public sector to be particularly weak in consistently managing the interface with the private sector, particularly in ways that engender collaboration through trust. The detailed analysis showed the SPV organisations have reasonable relationships that represent an improvement upon the historic adversarial behaviour of contractors [cf. [3] and [5]]. However, improvement has only gone so far, for the evidence from this study demonstrates that pro-active management of relationships has yet to be instilled. This difference is essentially one between relational contracting and relationship management in conceptual terms, that is, SPVs are reacting to structural change in the market represented by PFI/PPP procurement by adjusting behaviour accordingly, rather than proactively seeking to develop and manage relationships as a matter of strategic initiative and tactical foresight. This is a significant finding given the long-term nature of PFI/PPP concessions and that projects are still in the early stages of the life cycle. The analysis also shows there is considerable scope for performance improvement for the projects studied in the short and long term. Therefore, a primary recommendation should be that greater strategic and tactical consideration is given to the proactive management of relationship to foster collaborative working that goes well beyond behavioural adjustment to new procurement conditions, in essence a shift from relational contracting to relationship management principles. This applies both to the public and private sectors. The private sector, it is recommended, adopts relationship management principles in general, and specifically should focus upon project management at the client interface. Such action will help them manage the poor relations currently emanating from the public sector client, either within the current paradigms for managing projects or more fundamentally adopting practices within the emergent paradigm, called the relationship approach. To complement and sustain such private sector action, the public sector client also needs to introduce relationship management. This is necessary in order to match investment made in procurement, namely the Gateway procurement process introduced in the UK by the Treasury through the Office of Government and Commerce, so that the achievements secured at this stage are mirrored at the operational level too. If evidence is replicated across other PFI/PPP SPVs and for other ministries, there is considerable scope to improve performance through behavioural competencies and underpinning project management systems. This study has not identified evidence which would suggest that these findings are unique to this ministry; however, further corroboration is needed to be certain.