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Article
Publication date: 11 July 2016

Jackie Gregory-Stevens, Ian Frame and Christian Henjewele

Adjudication was introduced to the English construction industry in 1996 in response to its litigious nature. At the time, adjudication aimed to provide a time-efficient…

1695

Abstract

Purpose

Adjudication was introduced to the English construction industry in 1996 in response to its litigious nature. At the time, adjudication aimed to provide a time-efficient, cost-effective solution to construction disputes. The industry is concerned that adjudication is not always providing the expected benefits due to increasing cost, the length of time it takes to resolve disputes and the difficulty in maintaining good relationships between the parties in dispute. Mediation is recommended here as a most desirable approach to resolving disputes without affecting the relationship between the parties. However, the benefits of mediation have not been fully appreciated by all due to slow uptake. This paper aims to identify barriers to the greater use of meditation the English construction industry.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper presents results from a study that investigated issues preventing greater use of mediation. The study involved 20 case studies of previous dispute resolutions, ten in-depth interviews and 357 usable responses to a structured questionnaire survey involving the English construction industry.

Findings

The research found a limited detailed awareness of mediation within the English construction industry due to a lack of detailed knowledge among industry stakeholders and a lack of emphasis from construction contracts. The study revealed that there is strong support for adjudication; however, the majority of those with experience of adjudication would prefer to use mediation as the first step in resolving disputes.

Originality/value

This research identifies the support required for mediation and its preference among those with and without prior knowledge of both adjudication and mediation for the English construction industry. The paper provides an insight into barriers that need to be addressed to increase use of mediation.

Details

International Journal of Law in the Built Environment, vol. 8 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1756-1450

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 May 2021

John Millar

The fund management sector plays an important role in society. The sector exists in close proximity to the accounting profession and the concerns of the paper reflect themes…

Abstract

Purpose

The fund management sector plays an important role in society. The sector exists in close proximity to the accounting profession and the concerns of the paper reflect themes discussed by accounting scholars, particularly financialization, inequality and life within elite professional service organizations.

Design/methodology/approach

This is an interpretive study of the fund management field based in the UK. It is based on 32 semi-structured interviews with individuals with personal experience of the field, combined with reflections from the researcher's own experience as a practitioner within the field.

Findings

The paper describes the backgrounds and motivations of individuals entering the field, the recruitment processes through which they are admitted, and the different strategies used to gain admission to the field. It explores the habitus of successful professionals in the field and the effects of this habitus.

Social implications

An important social implication of the paper is the problematization of the fund management industry's dislocation from broader society.

Originality/value

By identifying the different strategies employed by applicants from different backgrounds, it highlights the role of reflexive agency and the complicity between agent and field. Recognizing that professional fund management is organized as a game, it suggests that individuals are so committed to the game they know they are playing that they fail to realize that they are also drawn into a different game, namely the absorbing game of being a fund manager.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 34 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 March 2012

Peter S. Defoe and Ian Frame

Over the last few years it has been established that there is a need to re‐evaluate the basis of assessment of the sufficiency of daylight, in rights to light cases, where the…

Abstract

Purpose

Over the last few years it has been established that there is a need to re‐evaluate the basis of assessment of the sufficiency of daylight, in rights to light cases, where the loss of daylight after obstruction might lead to injunction and/or damages. The purpose of this paper is to further examine whether the methodology used by surveyors, whereby the effect of glazing, window frames and internal reflectance are ignored, is valid and whether theoretical values can be translated into real values obtained through practical experimentation.

Design/methodology/approach

Modern methods of assessment of daylighting, for design purposes, calculate a whole room average as a percentage of available daylight from a Commission Internationale de l’Eclairage (CIE) sky whereas Waldram's methodology, in rights to light cases, results in a contour line marking the series of points in a room where the task lighting, from a uniform sky, would be insufficient for normal use. These two methods appear incompatible and the conundrum is that whilst the courts are seeking to determine adequacy of daylighting to a room, the practitioners need to be able to measure the reduction in a way that has real meaning and can be valued.

Findings

By comparing theoretical results using the Waldram methodology with those obtained using the Building Research Establishment (BRE) methodology and with physical measurements on site and in an artificial sky dome, it can be demonstrated that results using the Waldram Diagram, or the proposed CIEL Diagram, can be translated into real values of daylighting for a room and that these values are more realistic than those obtained through the BRE methodology.

Originality/value

This research (which is ongoing) will be useful to practitioners and the courts in determining rights to light cases and is a significant contribution to the debate initiated in this journal by Michael Pitts some 12 years ago.

Details

Structural Survey, vol. 30 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-080X

Keywords

Abstract

Details

Donors
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80043-564-3

Article
Publication date: 5 June 2007

Peter S. Defoe and Ian Frame

The purpose of this paper is to continue the debate started by M. Pitts and P. Chynoweth in previous issues of Structural Survey and examine some specific areas of concern…

1350

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to continue the debate started by M. Pitts and P. Chynoweth in previous issues of Structural Survey and examine some specific areas of concern regarding the methodologies used for calculating loss of daylight in Rights to Light cases.

Design/methodology/approach

Eight specific areas of concern are identified and each of these is analysed in turn, first to establish, where possible, the origin of the current methodology and then to test this against available current thinking.

Findings

There is a reasonable justification for adopting a value of 500 foot‐candles, although this is not in fact the minimum value. The only justification for using a Uniform Sky appears to be mathematical and another, more accurate, sky model could be used. The Waldram Diagram can legitimately be adjusted to any suitable dimensions provided that the measurements are always taken as a ratio of the chart area. There is no justification for using a work surface height of 850 mm, nor is there any evidence of justification for assuming that 1 foot‐candle of light is adequate for normal use but there is justification in legal terms for ignoring window frames, glazing and internal reflectance.

Practical implications

It can be shown that there is a case for reassessing the methodologies currently accepted by the Courts and therefore that there is scope for further research to establish a new more accurate method.

Originality/value

Whilst many are questioning the validity of daylight calculations in Rights to Light cases, this paper takes some of those questions and establishes whether there is in fact cause for concern.

Details

Structural Survey, vol. 25 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-080X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 August 2010

William L. Smith, David M. Boje and Kevin D. Melendrez

The purpose of this paper is to analyze media storytelling and rhetoric surrounding the credibility of the longstanding accounting practice of mark‐to‐market valuation.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze media storytelling and rhetoric surrounding the credibility of the longstanding accounting practice of mark‐to‐market valuation.

Design/methodology/approach

The cascading storytelling model of progressive framing by the media of mark‐to‐market valuation was applied to story subsets of the three types of classic Aristotelian rhetorical appeals.

Findings

The authors found that the media blamed the accounting profession's mark‐to‐market valuation practices as substantive cause of recent corporate problems and declines in market values. In addition, the rhetorical framing of mark‐to‐market accounting practices in the media prompted the Financial Accounting Standards Board to a rush to judgment.

Research limitations/implications

The paper is limited to the analysis of the storytelling included. Different results from other sources may provide another result.

Practical implications

The failure in the media to address the duality between the logos of accounting and the ethos of the media narratives exacerbated the cascading activation. Understanding this duality may provide a different lens in looking at information dissemination. This is not only relative to stakeholders in making more informed decisions but should also serve as a warning to the profession, to have more voice, to use a rhetorical strategy that can have more saliency in the public arena.

Originality/value

The paper examined storytelling as interplay of retrospective narrative, the presentness of living story, and the antenarratives shaping the future of not only the unfolding economic crisis, but the future of accounting itself. In terms of rhetoric, we extended the application of pathos, ethos, and logos by examining a cascading activation theory model. This is one of the few studies of antenarratives and how through cascade rhetoric the future is shaped.

Details

Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, vol. 7 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1176-6093

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 February 2005

Ian Frame

This paper describes an introduction to a simple modelling tool for designers of environmentally sensitive buildings.

1114

Abstract

Purpose

This paper describes an introduction to a simple modelling tool for designers of environmentally sensitive buildings.

Design/methodology/approach

The theoretical basis of the program is explained with examples given of typical program output.

Findings

The package can be used as an environmental simulator of a building's energy consumption and energy‐related carbon dioxide emissions. It is specifically designed to help meet the more stringent requirements of the Building Regulations for Fuel and Power L2 Approved Document, April 2002.

Practical implications

The designer can explore building size, shape, fenestration, orientation and fabric thermal properties to minimise a buildings' environmental effect. Aspects of heating, lighting, and natural and mechanical ventilation with heat recovery systems can also be investigated. The spreadsheet is best used to check that buildings will comply with the regulations or used as an early design aid rather than a detailed design simulator of building performance. The program should therefore be of particular interest to architects, building surveyors and building control officers rather than building service engineers.

Originality/value

Describes an innovative approach to thermal design.

Details

Structural Survey, vol. 23 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-080X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 May 2011

Adrian Mitchell, Ian Frame, Alan Coday and Mike Hoxley

As the construction industry strives for closer integration of the participants, more responsibility for the management of the detailed design process is being directed to main…

2500

Abstract

Purpose

As the construction industry strives for closer integration of the participants, more responsibility for the management of the detailed design process is being directed to main contractors and combined with their existing duties of managing the construction and pre‐construction processes. Crucially, this necessitates successful management of the interface between these processes, and this paper seeks to investigate a conceptual view of that interface to provide a foundation for improving understanding of it.

Design/methodology/approach

Recent and current literature is examined, and various theoretical backgrounds for the design and the construction processes are reviewed. The consequences for the understanding of the interface are discussed. The significance of conceptual frameworks is also reviewed.

Findings

A significant difference is identified in the published work between the theoretical understandings of the construction and design processes. From this a conceptual framework for the interface between these processes is developed.

Practical implications

The difference identified may have significant implications for further research, and for the development of management techniques applicable to the interface. Furthermore, the lack of access to specialist knowledge at the optimum time during the design process is identified as having a potentially significant impact on that process.

Originality/value

These findings could provide an understanding and basis for further research into the interface between the processes, and for the development of an enhanced model that would facilitate improved management of the interface and the optimisation of the process of the selection, appointment and input of specialist subcontractors.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. 18 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Content available
Article
Publication date: 1 February 2005

257

Abstract

Details

Structural Survey, vol. 23 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-080X

Keywords

Content available
Article
Publication date: 1 February 2005

Mike Hoxley

215

Abstract

Details

Structural Survey, vol. 23 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-080X

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