Effect of delivery systems on collaborative negotiations for large-scale infrastructure projects

In large-scale projects, collaboration is an essential key for the success of projects. Since different participants from different organizations try to work together in projects, competitive stresses exist in their relationships and as a result, disputes or conflicts may inevitably occur. This paper builds on Pena-Mora and Wang's collaborative negotiation methodology for facilitating/mediating the negotiation process of conflicts. In order for that collaborative negotiation methodology to be more detailed for its implementation, it needs to account for the effect of project structures and delivery methods on the negotiation processes in large-scale projects. Because contracts define the temporary formal and informal relationships among the different parties in a project and subsequently, they define the framework of the negotiations of conflicts within that project, different delivery systems may be more or less effective in terms of conflict resolution. In this research, to study the effect of delivery system on negotiation of conflicts, first, several different project structures and delivery systems are studied in order to identify participants' roles, responsibilities, and relationships. Second, potential conflicts in relationships among project participants are examined to show that each delivery system has typical or pattern behavior that may affect the interrelationship among groups on negotiations. These patterns or characteristics of the groups and their relationship make possible to evaluate quantitatively and qualitatively the advantage or disadvantage of each delivery system in terms of conflict avoidance or dispute resolution. Then, indexes of negotiation effectiveness for each delivery system are developed in order to quantify the advantage of implementing the collaborative negotiation methodology in a large-scale project within a particular delivery system.