Addressing client uncertainty a Swedish property owners' perspective on industrialised timber framed housing and property

Sammanfattning: Construction clients have the position to continuously improve new-built from a life cycle perspective. Furthermore, they can contribute to advancement and improved competition in construction by putting more explicit and distinct requirements and by a willingness to try new, non-local contractors and new construction methods (Statskontoret 2009). Conventional construction is argued to constitute a barrier to change (Dulaimi et al. 2003). Industrialised building, with its off-site characteristics and process-orientation, is seen as a means to attain advancement in construction (e.g. Statskontoret 2009). Industrialised multi-dwelling timber framed (ITF) housing entail all of the identified advantages of industrialisation. Nonetheless, clients are not actively driving change towards industrialised construction (e.g. Engström et al. 2009) and it was indicated that one possible explanation could be that clients are uncertain (Höök 2005). The aim of this thesis is to identify client organisations' uncertainties concerning ITF housing and property, find mechanisms for why they arise and propose measures to manage uncertainty within clients' organisations. The thesis is based on three appended papers and a detached technical report (Levander 2010). Empirical data consist of interviews, economic data, documentation and a questionnaire, they have been collected from in total 27 Swedish client organisations and on 44 ITF properties, and are analysed in two case studies and one field study.The results show that the great majority of client organisations' uncertainties are a matter of equivocality. The mechanisms for the high equivocality are the high complexity and uncertainty in construction in conjunction with the novelty encompassed by ITF housing and property. The current information processing practice within the studied client organisations does not support resolving equivocality.The general conclusion is that ITF housing and property is a radical change seen from clients' perspective and represents novelty in construction technology. Thus, the ITF alternative challenges and goes beyond clients' known frame of reference and thereby causes equivocality. In order to manage and resolve equivocality, client organisations need to enable translation and transfer of frameworks and their activities must constitute challenges to their normal practice. Thus it is proposed that in order to manage uncertainty and equivocality, and thereby contribute to advancements in construction, client organisations need to work with uncertainty management.