The view of freedom and standardisation among managers in Swedish construction contractor projects

Journal article, 2013

It has been suggested that standardisation improves productivity. Simultaneously, construction contractor project managers are given freedom to run projects as if they were independent firms. If this is a motivating factor for the managers, firms may have to find other ways to improve productivity than to increase standardisation to be able to stimulate their most skilled managers. It could prove important to recognise their need for freedom before they start looking for alternative places of employment. The purpose of this article is to inquire how standardisation may or may not conflict with contractor project managers' sense of freedom. Interviews with 15 contractor project managers from Swedish medium-sized construction contractor enterprises indicate that standardised processes do not necessarily conflict with their sense of freedom and work motivation as long as their ability to overview the production process is preserved. Based on the findings it is argued that standardisation should be implemented and developed with respect from top managers using a bottom-up approach.