Introduction and research approachThe construction industry is known for its waste of money and materials, low innovative capacities, and low productivity (Cox and Thompson, 1997; Vrijhoef, 2011). One reason is that the relationships between client and contractors is often perceived as a problematic one (Tazelaar en Snijder, 2010; Vrijhoef, 2011). Since decades, attention has been paid to supply chain partnering (SCP) in the construction industry, as a promising strategy to decrease waste of time and money and increase quality and address the problematic relationships (Boukendour and Hughus, 2014; Bygballe et al., 2010; Eriksson, 2015; Hong et al., 2012; Vrijhoef, 2011).Despite the attention, it is hard to exactly pinpoint the concept of SCP. Many definitions, synonyms and related concepts circulate and it seems that SCP has increasingly become a buzz-word that represents ‘good practices’ in the construction sector. Nevertheless, applying SCP may involve ‘hard’ factors, such as early involvement of the contractor in the project, open book accounting, re-allocation of risks, and working with preferred partners. SCP may also involve ‘soft’ factors, such as increasing mutual trust between partners, increasing competences of conflict resolution or trying to establish more effective communication between partners. Some scholars argue that SCP should be considered as an emergent practice which can take on many different shapes (e.g. Bresnen, 2009; Hartmann and Bresnen, 2011; Marshall and Bresnen, 2013a; Marshall and Bresnen, 2013b). This study focuses on SCP as an emergent strategy. An emergent strategy, contrary to a deliberated strategy, is a strategy that arises in ongoing daily complex responsive processes between individuals. While a deliberated strategy looks forward and prescribes what people should do, an emergent strategy looks back and describes what people already do.Studies that dig deeper in those work floor practices and truly consider SCP in construction industry as an emergent practice is relatively scarce. It is said that current literature on this topic is stylized and too abstracted from daily work practice. Individual experiences are averaged away in an attempt to develop a general theory. There is too little insight in what people actually do in daily work practice and how they form a strategy such as SCP. Work floor experiences of SCP should be studied, because without the insight, it is difficult (if not impossible) to intervene in an efficient and effective way and to improve performances.To study work floor experience of SCP, a specific part of the construction sector was chosen. After all, experiences in different fields may differ. This study focuses on Dutch housing associations. Dutch housing associations own a third of the total Dutch housing stock. Being one of the biggest clients, they dominate the sector. Due to several reasons, Dutch housing associations have to cut back expenditures. Supply chain partnering is one way to try to do this. Within the context of Dutch housing associations, we chose to study the work floor experiences of the project leaders, because project leaders are important in translating principles of SCP into daily work floor routines.Thus, the problem is that not enough attention has been paid to what goes on at work floor level when project leaders try to apply principles of supply chain partnering. This insight is necessary, because supply chain partnering is formed by ongoing processes of interactions between professionals in daily work practice. Therefore, to improve performances and intervene effectively, insight in work floor practices should increase. This research aims to describe work floor experiences of professionals who work for Dutch housing association and who attempt to apply SCP. To reach this target the following question will be answered:What are work floor experiences of project leaders that work for Dutch housing associations who try to apply principles of SCP?Just one broad open research question was formulated, so that work floor experiences could be studied holistically. By not formulating specified sub-questions beforehand, the right circumstances were created for themes to emerge inductively. These themes are:The importance of the intra-organizational supply chain in effective collaborationLeadership.Inconsistent use of values that are associated with the concept of SCP.Power dynamics and ethics.This study relies on the assumption that current literature about construction partnering is too abstracted from daily work life. In order to justify this assumption, a literature review was conducted.Another assumption on which this research relies, is that all knowledge is socially constructed and that this knowledge can only be known from an individual subjective frame of reference. Therefore, every notion of reality that people have is non-objective and limited by the boundaries of language. That means that this research presents a resear
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