Organisational knowledge and responses of public sector clients towards value management

This paper reports the results of a questionnaire survey of public clients in the construction industry in Hong Kong on their organisational knowledge, responses and use of value management (VM). It concludes that VM is essential to capital projects both to reduce costs and to improve the quality of finished projects. In simple terms, it helps to achieve value for money. Although a fair number of respondents have comprehensive knowledge of VM, lack of practical experience in VM is still a problem frequently encountered in the promotion of VM in Hong Kong. Shortage of VM specialists to facilitate studies presents further problems. The analyzed data indicate that value management is still in its infancy in Hong Kong. More trained VM specialists are needed. VM training for clients and professionals is also important and can be accomplished through different media such as professional institutions, universities and practice guides. Government legislation is regarded as unnecessary at this point in time. An encouraging aspect of the findings is that whenever VM studies are applied in capital projects, clients are satisfied with the results.