Management Principles: The Latham Report

The Latham report (July 1994) commissioned by UK Gov, written by Sir Michael Latham was an influential report defining the construction industries failures, constraints and procedures. The report identifies construction projects from start to finish, including the understanding of professional rolls, contract variations to achieve ‘best practices’ including procurement and contract mediation.

Clients are understood as having a key role towards the speed of a construction project. Understanding the nature of the construction industry is said to be essential to gain a better understanding of how a project will proceed.

Latham’s report recommended that such tasks will also have to include legal advice from certified consultants such as the client representative. Areas such as notifiable projects, professionals, communication, declaration of roles and responsibilities, project frameworks, governing bodies, liability, design & procurement should all be generally understood within a clients role.

Contractors where greatly influenced by Sir Michael Latham recommendations, he said that the principles of communication between contractors within the construction industry are currently having a detrimental effect on site activities and costs. He thought private sectors should get together to establish a clients forum.

Latham determined that a checklist of design responsibilities should be prepared in order to prevent confusion & to determine the liability of a project team. Sir Michael Latham thought that the use of co-oridinated project information should be written into contracts as a legal requirement, Latham ultimately wanted contractors to communicate better between themselves in order to assist the prevention of delays in a construction project.

The Latham report talks about the responsibility of building services and design. The report highlighted that contracts agreed between professionals should be defined in a clear and precise manner; he maintained that everyone involved within a construction project should be able to understand the context of their contracts.

Design and build of a contract largely depends on the project involved. The Latham report states basic design decisions on procurement should precede the preparation of an (outlined) project brief, as any project brief will largely depend on procurement matters to actually determine the structure of a projects brief.

Duties, Accountability and delegation are all highlighted in The Latham Report, simplifying the delegation of duties highlighting possible penalties within a consultants/employed role for a construction project. Sir Michael Latham interpreted construction founders and agencies such as the CIC (Construction Industry Council), ECA (Electrical Contractors Association), BEC (Federation of Master Builders) FMB to help increase awareness of duties, accountability and delegation. Principles of accountability should delegate rolls duties therefore determining liability and responsibility for a professional. Simply stating tasks like responsibilities and consequences to clients and in contracts will make a construction projects duties more defined and easier to determine, therefore contributing to a smoother process.

Task 2

Pioneers of scientific management are considered to be H. Gannt, Lilian Gilbert and Frederick W. Taylor. The Later Scientific school theories are largely dependent of the works of these economists. They aimed to influence industrial production with their interpretation of strategy towards the running of a more productive business, in turn lowering production costs and increasing company profits. Frederick W. Taylor quotes

Taylors work influenced the general deminer of a company increasing the motivation of a work force by identifying key aspects of the managerial process like, constant innovations being discovered through the efficient use of testing (time trial .e.g.), seeking more effective equipment to decrease workman’s efforts and hopefully increase the longevity of production and implementing framework organisation such as

University Power Points

Contingency School is a trend of management stating ‘there is no single way to manage’, different approaches to management result in different results, therefore highlighting management as an area that can greatly vary between personal. Managers are faced with the task it’s self to determine the management involved, for example selecting a manager for a retail shop will be very different to selecting a manager of an oil rig.

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Contingency thinking helps not apply ‘1 best way’ to management; it will understand the situation in front of them and aim to apply an effective managerial approach to the selection and implementation of a manager and a mangers role. Contingency was developed from many theorists concurrently in the late 1960s, Max Webber 1846 -1920 Bureaucratic Management and Frederick Winslow Taylors Scientific Management where considered to be part of the ‘founders’ of economic interpretation. Frederick W. Taylor sometimes called ‘the father of management’, was a leader of the efficiency movement toward economics. He published ‘The Principles of Management’ in 1911 based on his own past experiences of management interrupted towards looking into more efficient management processes, Taylors interpretation of scientific management contained 4 principles: