Conflict resolution practice in public procurement: evidence from Russia

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuliya Rodionova
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Public Procurement ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Conflict Situations ◽  
Judicial Proceedings ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
Conflict Handling ◽  
Informal Relations ◽  
First Time

Purpose This paper aims to analyze conflict resolution practice in public procurement. The specific feature of this sphere is the presence of the state and the resulting differences in assessing the chances of protecting one’s interests in court, as well as the effectiveness of judicial conflict resolution mechanisms. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on the findings of a large-scale survey of suppliers conducted in 2017. To identify the characteristics of suppliers that use different conflict resolution mechanisms, probit-models were evaluated. For robustness check, combined mechanisms for resolving conflict situations were also considered and multi-nomial logistic regression was used. Findings The survey results showed that the majority of suppliers prefer to resolve conflicts in public procurement using an out-of-court negotiation with procurers while only 31% of respondents resort to judicial proceedings. At the same time, suppliers potentially involved in informal relations with procurers, are less likely to go to court and less often use negotiations. Practical implications The results of the study can be used as a justification for the development of a regulatory and organizational framework for the use of negotiations, mediation, arbitration and other alternate methods of conflict resolution in public procurement. Originality/value This paper makes an important contribution to the conflict-handling strategies of businesses and government by presenting for the first time a quantitative assessment of the prevalence of mechanisms for resolving conflicts in public procurement and factors influencing the choice of a conflict resolution mechanism.

Process conflict management among Indian software employees

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-160
Author(s):  
Swati Alok ◽  
Jayasree Raveendran ◽  
Anil Kumar Jha
Keyword(s):  
Structural Equation ◽  
Role Model ◽  
Software Projects ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Software Companies ◽  
Conflict Situations ◽  
Tpb Model ◽  
Structural Assurance ◽  
Conflict Handling ◽  
Process Conflict

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test the possible influence of the Ajzen’s theory of planned behaviour (TPB) in predicting conflict-handling intentions during process conflict episodes. Conflict situations are often to be managed with limited time in software projects. With this cue, the study is conducted in the context of software companies in India. Design/methodology/approach – Five variables of the TPB comprising attitude, injunctive subjective norms, descriptive subjective norm, conflict efficacy (CE) and structural assurance (SA) have been studied in relation to the two standard conflict-handling intentions: integrating and dominating approach. By developing vignettes on process conflict, salient beliefs towards process conflicts were elicited among software employees in India. A questionnaire using Ajzen’s guidelines was administered. Structural equation modelling for 150 responses is used for testing path suitability and significance. Findings – Employees with positive attitude towards conflict, high CE and high SA intend to integrate during process conflict. Employees with low efficacy and who are influenced by the action of their role model intend to dominate during process conflict. Research limitations/implications – The study is contextualized to Indian software employees. Findings should not be generalized until replicated in samples from other settings. Practical implications – This study will help practitioners in understanding the various elements that play role in a process conflict and also help in developing appropriate interventions in managing conflicts. This can be done by identifying and resolving issues related to unfavourable attitude and behavioural norms towards process conflicts. Originality/value – This study is the first to examine the efficacy of the TPB model in predicting multiple conflict-handling intentions among Indian software companies.

scholarly journals Early contractor involvement approaches in public project procurement

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 355-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulos Abebe Wondimu ◽  
Ali Hosseini ◽  
Jadar Lohne ◽  
Ola Laedre
Keyword(s):  
Success Factors ◽  
Public Procurement ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Public Project ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Treat All ◽  
First Time ◽  
Project Procurement ◽  
Depth Interviews

Purpose Early contractor involvement (ECI) faces many barriers when it is implemented in public procurement, given that it is different from traditional business practices. Primarily, public owners face a major challenge, as they should treat all bidders equally. The purpose of this paper is to explore suitable ECI approaches that public owners could use. Design/methodology/approach In addition to a literature and document study, 14 semi-structured in-depth interviews with key personnel from 11 cases selected from Norwegian public bridge projects were carried out. Findings In all, 23 unique approaches of ECI were identified during this research (16 from literature and 7 new from case projects). The findings provide a new direction to ECI through introducing new approaches of ECI from the case projects. Originality/value This paper for the first time presents several alternatives of ECI approaches for public owners with the intention of illustrating ECI is actually possible in the public project procurement. Furthermore, it presents for the first time success factors of ECI with the intention of increasing the understanding of ECI concept from a public procurement perspective.

Conflict handling in small firms’ foreign business relationships

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 240-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milena Ratajczak-Mrozek ◽  
Krzysztof Fonfara ◽  
Aleksandra Hauke-Lopes
Keyword(s):  
Small Firms ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Business Relationships ◽  
Optimal Method ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Conflict Situations ◽  
Conflict Handling ◽  
Financial Consequences ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Depth Interviews

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to indicate how conflicts in foreign business relationships are handled by small firms from a relational point of view and how these conflicts can be used by small firms in a positive way. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses qualitative study and presents the results of in-depth interviews conducted with six small, Poland-based firms. Findings The paper indicates the nature of conflicts in foreign business relationships from the perspective of small firms, including the sources of conflict and its outcomes. The main sources of conflict indicated include service or product quality, financial aspects of cooperation and cultural differences. The study exposes the existence of both negative (e.g. financial consequences) and positive (e.g. gaining new experience) outcomes of conflicts. It shows that positive conflict handling often constitutes a significant challenge for small firms and that the authors cannot really speak of one optimal method of conflict handling. Regardless of the method adopted, the costs involved should be taken into detailed consideration. Practical implications The paper points to actions that could be taken by small firms to handle conflicts in a way that will produce positive outcomes. Originality/value Managing international relationships is a more challenging task compared with domestic ones, especially for smaller firms. The paper exposes the impact of two categories of conflict (called day-to-day problems and severe conflicts) in a foreign relationship on small firms and considers different methods of handling the conflict situations.

Environment and technology dominate the WEF agenda

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
The United States ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mitigation And Adaptation ◽  
The People ◽  
Impact Risk ◽  
Trade Deals ◽  
First Time

Significance For the first time in the eleven-year history of the survey, no economic risk makes the list of the top five most likely or biggest impact risks. In contrast, large-scale terrorist attacks make the top five most likely risks for the first time and weapons of mass destruction are cited as the highest impact risk. All five environment-related risks are ranked among the top ten highest impact risks for the first time -- four in the top five: extreme weather events; water crises; major natural disasters; and failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation. The survey cites strengthening global cooperation systems as a top five challenge, and says these environmental risks will be exacerbated if cooperation diminishes. Impacts Nearly a third of respondents think that increasing polarisation will be an underlying trend over the next ten years. More must be done to include the people left behind by technological change -- more than 4 billion lack internet access. The United States may withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement, and a number of free trade deals are at risk.

Exploring use and benefit of corporate social software

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 277-296
Author(s):  
Alexander Stocker ◽  
Johannes Müller
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Data Analysis ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Objective Evaluation ◽  
Social Software ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
Corporate Social ◽  
Usage Data

Purpose To measure the success of corporate social software (CSS), interviews, surveys, content and usage data analysis have been commonly used in practice. While interviews and surveys are only capable of making perceived use and benefits transparent, usage data analysis reveals many objective facts but does not allow insights into potential user-benefits. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to link both perspectives to advance CSS success measuring. Design/methodology/approach The research case is References+, a Corporate Social Software developed at Siemens to facilitate worldwide sharing of knowledge, experiences, and best practices since 2005. References+ currently has around 15,000 registered members located in more than 80 countries. This paper evaluates results from a user survey with nearly 1,500 responding employees and links all survey results to the corresponding participant’s data on platform use to generate additional insights. Findings The paper generates findings on how CSS is used in practice and how it is perceived by employees of a large-scale enterprise. Furthermore, it explores how a combination of subjective and objective evaluation methods can be applied to advance the state-of-the-art in measuring use and benefits. By linking CSS usage data to corresponding survey data, the paper provides results on what type of use of CSS may create what type of benefit. Practical implications This study encourages practitioners to take advantage of a variety of instruments for measuring the benefits of CSS. It generates numerous arguments for practitioners on how to make the benefit of CSS more transparent to financial-oriented decision-makers to successfully defend knowledge management projects against shrinking IT budgets. Originality/value This paper is one of the first attempts to explore the relationship between “perceived use” and “perceived benefits” measured by surveys and “factual use” measured by CSS usage statistics for knowledge management research. The findings of this paper may empower the role of user surveys in generating additional insights on use and benefits.

scholarly journals Conflict resolution in secondary schools in the Phoenix area : management training strategies

2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Barathwanth Biputh
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Conflict Management ◽  
Management Training ◽  
Literature Survey ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Human Relationships ◽  
Conflict Situations ◽  
Conflict Handling ◽  
The Phoenix

This study focused on conflict resolution in multi-racial , co-educational schools in the Phoenix region and the development of strategies for the training of management and staff to resolve conflict. It has been observed that principals in the Phoenix region frequently seek the intervention of third party adjudicators to resolve conflicts experienced at schools . This often prevents the timeous and expeditious resolution of conflicts . The inability to resolve conflict judiciously impinges on job satisfaction, productivity and human relationships in schools. A literature survey of conflict revealed that conflict in organisations is endemic and inevitable . Conflicts at work, when dealt with systematically , can have positive rather than destructive effects. It is the writer's belief that conflict can be reduced or eliminated if there is a conflict resolution programme in schools which is designed to train both management and staff in conflict resolution. The writer provided a theoretical understanding of conflict through an analysis of the underlying dynamics of conflict , the effects of organisational conflict and the conflict process. The various levels and areas of conflict in schools were examined. The research examined three approaches to conflict management , evaluated the various conflict handling styles and applied these strategies to conflict situations experienced at schools.

scholarly journals Right-first-time dyeing: a design of experiments approach for the optimisation of dyeing-processes using hard water

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (5) ◽  
pp. 449-455
Author(s):  
Saira Faisal ◽  
Aurelio Tronci ◽  
Muhammad Ali ◽  
Erum Bashir ◽  
Long Lin
Keyword(s):  
Predictive Models ◽  
Textile Industry ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Mineral Content ◽  
Water Hardness ◽  
Hard Water ◽  
Coefficient Of Determination ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Independent Variables ◽  
First Time

Purpose The purpose of this study was to optimise the dyeing conditions to achieve right-first-time dyeing in hard water. Owing to the persistent water scarcity for more than two decades now, the textile industry in Pakistan is forced to rely on high-mineral-content ground water for use in textile wet processing. Furthermore, the limited amount of municipal water that is at the disposal of the textile industry is also high in mineral content. Thus, on the large scale, water hardness has become an acute problem for the textile processor. In particular, in the dyeing process, water hardness is known to have crucial effects. However, to-date, no systematic study has been conducted on this aspect of textile dyeing. Design/methodology/approach In this study, 32 full factorial design was used to optimise the dyeing conditions to achieve right-first-time dyeing in hard water. Thus, cotton fabric was dyed with Red Reactive dye (of dyebath concentration at 5, 10 and 15 g/L) in prepared hard water (of hardness at 10, 40 and 70°dH), respectively. Analysis of variance, coefficient of determination (R2) and p-values for the models were used to evaluate the adequacy of the predictive models. The surface plots of the effects were studied to further examine the interactions of two independent variables. Derringer’s desirability function was used to determine the optimum levels of each variable. Findings Three levels for both independent variables generate second-order polynomial models to predict the colour strength, lightness, red/green, yellow/blue and total colour difference values of dyed cotton. The obtained predictive models point out the considerable influence of both water hardness and dye concentration on right-first-time dyeing. Originality/value Such a finding enabled the dye-mill to produce the correct shade at water hardness of 10°dH and 15 g/L dye concentration, without the need for corrective reprocessing.

Birth order revelations about managers

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gentrit Berisha ◽  
Besnik Krasniqi ◽  
Rrezon Lajçi
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Birth Order ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Organizational Studies ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Only Children ◽  
Conflict Situations ◽  
Conflict Handling

Purpose This paper aims to reveal the effects of birth order in decision-making style, conflict handling style and propensity for participative decision-making. The intention is to open the perspective of birth order research in organizational studies, as an important individual difference of managers. Design/methodology/approach A survey was conducted with 230 managers from different industries in Kosovo. Self-report measures were used for decision-making style, conflict handling style and participatory decision-making constructs. Findings Results indicate that only children are more avoidant and spontaneous decision-makers. Firstborns are rational in decision-making and prefer problem-solving in conflict handling. Middleborns are intuitive decision-makers and use compromising in conflict handling. Lastborns make decisions rationally and use both compromising and problem-solving in conflicting situations. In addition, lastborns appeared to have a more positive attitude toward participative decision-making, followed by middleborns, firstborns and only children. Research limitations/implications Birth order affects managers’ behaviors in decision-making and conflict situations. Relationship dynamics in sibships are reflected in organizational settings, affecting how people behave in decision-making and conflict handling. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to attest how birth order influences the ways managers make decisions, handle conflicts and involve others in decision-making. As birth order cannot be changed, such knowledge is critical.

scholarly journals Comparative performance of PPPs and traditional procurement projects in Indonesia

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 118-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gigih Udi Atmo ◽  
Colin Duffield ◽  
Lihai Zhang ◽  
David Ian Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Power Plant ◽  
Emerging Economies ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Public Procurement ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Comparative Performance ◽  
Quality Performance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Cost

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the outcomes of Indonesian power projects as representative projects of Asian emerging economies that were procured via public-private partnerships (PPPs) and traditional public sector procurement. Power generation infrastructure delivery in emerging economies frequently seeks private participation via PPPs as one of the key mechanisms to attract private finance. Undertaking a comparative benchmark study of the outcomes of Indonesian power projects provides an opportunity to explore the historic evidence as to whether PPPs deliver better outcomes than traditional public procurement in emerging economies. Design/methodology/approach This paper reports on a study of the performance of 56 Indonesian power projects procured via either PPPs or traditional procurement. First, it focusses on project time and cost outcomes of power plant facility during construction and commissioning and then extends this comparison to consider the operating availability of power plants during their first two years of operation. Findings The results indicate that PPP projects had superior time and operating availability to those procured traditionally whereas no significant differences were identified in the cost performance between PPPs and traditionally procured projects. These findings highlight the importance of adopting policies that are supported by broader sources of international financiers and high quality power plant developers. Research limitations/implications The quality performance analyses of projects (based on equivalent available factor indices) were limited to the power plants in the Java-Bali region where the majority of projects are large scale power plants. Practical implications This study provides an empirical basis for governments of emerging economies to select the most beneficial procurement strategy for power plant projects. It highlights the importance of selecting experienced providers and to adopt policies that attract high quality international project financiers and power plant developers. This includes the need to ensure the commercial viability of projects and to seriously consider the use of cleaner power technologies. Originality/value This study is the first to compare the outcomes of power projects in Asian emerging economies delivered via PPPs against those delivered by traditional public procurement that includes consideration of the quality of the delivered product.

Critical success factors for maintenance of local public buildings

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 412-427
Author(s):  
Arnt Ove Hopland ◽  
Sturla F. Kvamsdal
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Critical Success Factors ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
Sampling Error ◽  
Success Factor ◽  
Public Buildings ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Critical Success ◽  
Survey Results

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate a survey on critical success factor for the maintenance of local public buildings and how reported score values and factor rankings depend on characteristics (contingencies) of the local governments that participated. Design/methodology/approach The authors use data from a large-scale survey of Norwegian local governments that covered 66 per cent of all local governments and 80 per cent of the population. The authors combine these data with contingent information from public registers on demographics, fiscal, political and geographical characteristics. The authors run regressions to determine whether contingencies affect survey results. They further study how score values vary with a key contingent factor. Findings The main result of this paper is that the reported importance of critical success factors is contingent on local government population levels. A comparison of importance rankings based on population quartiles shows that ranking orders change, both between quartiles and from the overall ranking, and that certain factors show systematic changes. Further, the authors find that when controlling for sampling error, groups of factors should be considered as equally important. This result holds both for the full sample ranking and for rankings within population quartiles. Originality/value The results of this paper have implications for all survey-based investigations of critical success factors where contingent information on respondents are available. Contingencies need to be taken into consideration, both when assessing rankings according to some criteria and when comparing actual score values.

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