INCENTIVE MECHANISMS IN CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS

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In the 21st century, contracting has become an important avenue for service delivery. The demand to outsource goods and services has been overwhelming which makes the use of performance-based contracting (PBC) systems increasingly important (Martin, 2007: 132). Styles (2001: 11) emphasises that there are different misconceptions of what constitutes a PBC system. A PBC involves stipulating the project objectives and emphasising the results as related to output, quality and outcomes and tie payments to the deliverables, performance measures and/or outcomes (DES, 2015). This incorporates the use of rewards and/or penalties in order to propel construction employees‟ behaviours towards accomplishing the stipulated project objectives.
All PBCs are incentive contracts, but not all incentive contracts are performance-based contracts (Martin, 2008: 5). For instance, the behaviours of construction workforce can be influenced to achieve the desired change through either performance-related incentive contracting or non-performance-related incentive contracting. Naoum (2003) further emphasises that it is more appropriate to adopt incentive schemes to stimulate betterperformance in an asset contract, this may be achieved through a PBC. Smith and Grinker (2003: 9) also define a PBC system as the use of performance techniques and incentives to reward organisations for good performance and sometimes penalise them for failing to achieve the project outcomes.
In most cases, clients are concerned with the best performance from contractors with reasonable prices, stating the objectives and specifying the scope and metrics for achieving project goals with less emphasis on the strategies used to achieve them. Partnering was introduced in the late 1980‟s to facilitate an environment of trust in which the contracting parties will share a lot of objectives (Tang et al., 2008: 457). Partnering is a „concept which provides a framework for the establishment of mutual objectives among the building team, with an attempt to reach an agreed dispute resolution procedure as well as encouraging the principle of continuous improvement‟ (Naoum, 2001:1). The priorities of contracting parties are different; therefore the use of partnering alone cannot promote good performance but might create a platform that is prone to misalignment of objectives (Hosie, 2001: 45).

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION .
1.1 Background
1.2 Problem formulation
1.3 Statement of problem
1.4 Statement of sub-problems (SP) .
1.5 Hypotheses (H)
1.6 Research aim and objectives
1.7 Research questions .
1.8 Justification for the study
1.9 Research methodology outline
1.10 Delimitation of the scope of the study
1.11 Key assumptions of the study .
1.12 Structure of the thesis
1.13 Chapter summary
CHAPTER TWO . INCENTIVE MECHANISMS IN CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Concepts, philosophies and definitions of incentives .
2.2.1 General definitions of incentives
2.3 Overview of incentives in partnering processes
2.3.1 Contract and trust in partnerin
2.3.2 Alliance contracting in partnering
2.4 Fundamentals of incentive mechanisms in project performance .
2.4.1 Project performance indicators .
2.4.2 Risk allocation in construction projects .
2.5 The design of incentive schemes in construction projects
2.5.1 Financial incentive schemes
2.5.2 Semi-financial incentive schemes
2.5.3 Non-financial incentive schemes
2.6 Payment strategies in incentive-based contracts
2.7 Incentive provisions in contractual arrangements
2.7.1 Fixed-price contracts
2.7.2 Cost-plus or cost-reimbursable contracts .
2.7.4 Performance-based contracts (PBCs)/payment-based on final outcomes
2.8 Types of contractual incentive-based projects
2.9 Chapter summary
CHAPTER THREE WORKFORCE MOTIVATION AND INCENTIVES .
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Organisational justice in construction practice
3.2.1 Distributive justice
3.2.2 Procedural justice
3.2.3 Interactional justice
3.3 Workforce behaviour in project implementation
3.3.1 Dependent variables that influence workforce behaviour
3.3.2 Independent variables that influence workforce behaviour
3.4 Measuring organisational competencies in construction projects
3.4.1 Knowledge sharing
3.4.2 Skills and technology transfer
3.4.3 Abilitie
3.4.4 Personal characteristics .
3.6 Motivation and contracts
3.7 Motivation of construction workforce
3.8 The use of incentive schemes to improve performance
3.9 Economic aspect of incentive schemes in the construction industry .
3.10 Review of the past studies on incentive plans or frameworks .
3.11 Chapter summary .
CHAPTER FOUR PROJECT ENVIRONMENT AND SETTINGS IN SOUTH AFRICA
4.1 Introductiont
4.2 Economic and business environment in South Africa
4.3 General overview of the South African construction industry
4.4 Review of contractual procedures and project performance in South Africa .
4.5 Impact of the South African construction industry on the labour market
4.6 The current practices of incentive mechanisms in the South African construction sector
4.7 Chapter summary .
CHAPTER FIVE PROJECT ENVIRONMENT AND SETTINGS IN NIGERIA .
CHAPTER SIX THEORETICAL DEVELOPMENT AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK .
CHAPTER SEVEN RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
CHAPTER EIGHT DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION (SOUTH AFRICA)
CHAPTER NINE DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION (NIGERIA) .
CHAPTER TEN CASE STUDY INTERVIEWS (ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION)
CHAPTER ELEVEN FRAMEWORK DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION