Power dynamics between the public and private partners can change over time (Loxley and Loxley 2010: p.36) e.g. the bargaining power of consortia may increase due to the knowledge that even if services are performed at a sub-optimal level, the public partner may decide not to enforce penalties / abatements (Edwards et al 2004: p.54, p.50). These decisions may be taken by the public partner for instance due to the expected cost of remedial action / litigation (e.g. the risk of an adverse outcome being realised or the amount of time and funding that would be needed to resolve the matter) outweighing the value of an abatement. For the private partner, failing may simply be cheaper than meeting performance criteria, despite the penalties / abatements applied.
However, partnership management is about more than just adhering (or not) to legal obligations - a significant aspect of partnership management involves managing social interactions between people in administering contractual provisions. Thus, to achieve PPP objectives, partners should work together.
As discussed in section 4.2.1 ('Definitions'), PPP is considered to be a multi-stakeholder procurement system. For this research, the key stakeholders (which are defined as being external and primary) are aligned with one of two partnership groups. The first is the government client which is considered as being the public sector entity (also referred to as the 'public partner' more generally in this thesis), and the second is its contracted-in private partner, called 'consortia' (or the comparable variations that have been used to describe this term). Consortia are considered as a single unit (a partner) because companies that operate as part of a consortium are bound together under a long-term contract. This means that members are encouraged to work together as failure of any one company could have a collective impact on the consortia as a whole (National Audit Office 2003: p.7).
Essentially, decision-making between the partners can directly impact upon the achievement of objectives in a number of ways. References from this literature review of partnership (and stakeholder) management suggests that the extent to which PPPs are successful depends on the development and continuation of a positive organisational culture, management commitment and support, employee capability and output, clear and open communication, relationship continuity as well as effective conflict management practices. It is acknowledged from a practical standpoint that these factors do not tend to occur in isolation from each other: rather, they are likely to have a collective impact on partner relations where the importance of one factor over another will depend on particular circumstances. The stated factors are not exclusive to PPPs - any construction approach is likely to be affected by these. For the purposes of this research, each factor, including its potential consequences on PPP operations, is discussed separately.