Self‐assessment of conflict management in client‐supplier collaborative new product development
| Pages | 688-714 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02635570710750435 |
| Published date | 29 May 2007 |
| Date | 29 May 2007 |
| Author | Ping‐Kit Lam,Kwai‐Sang Chin,Jian‐Bo Yang,Weitao Liang |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
Self-assessment of conflict
management in client-supplier
collaborative new product
development
Ping-Kit Lam and Kwai-Sang Chin
Department of Manufacturing Engineering and Engineering Management,
City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China
Jian-Bo Yang
Manchester School of Management, University of Manchester,
Manchester, UK, and
Weitao Liang
Department of Manufacturing Engineering and Engineering Management,
City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China
Abstract
Purpose – This research paper aims to present the critical managerial issues and a self-assessment
system of conflict management in client-supplier collaborative new product development (NPD)
environment.
Design/methodology/approach – Critical managerial issues and success factors for conflict
management in client-supplier collaborative NPD were first identified. A self-assessment process and
associated methodologies were then established. With the development of a prototype self-assessment
system, the proposed self-assessment methodologies and process were validated in industry.
Findings – A total of 13 critical factors for conflict management in client-supplier collaborative NPD
environment were identified. Based on the hierarchy model of the factors, a self-assessment system
and process, called PAIR, was established. The proposed self-assessment system and process was
developed and validated with six companies with positive results.
Originality/value – Conflict is an inevitable phenomenon in client-supplier collaborative NPD,
which affects NPD performance in terms of product quality, meeting of target delivery schedule and
development cost. The developed system and process enables clients and suppliers to assess their
conflict management practices and identify improvement areas. It provides a platform for the
collaborating parties to continually improve their conflict management and in turn NPD performance.
Keywords Self assessment;Conflict management; Buyer-sellerrelationships; New products
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
New product development (NPD) is widely recognized as a key to corporate pro sperity
(Cooper, 1998; Craig and Hart, 1992; Primo and Admundson, 2002). In recent years,
client-supplier collaboration has been an imperative strategy of NPD. In response to
today’s rigorous competition, rapid technological change and shortened product life
cycle, a growing number of manufacturing firms adopt a strategy that focuses on
their core competencies and outsources the non-core activities to their suppliers
(Humphreys et al., 2005; Krause et al., 1998). Reductions of development time and costs,
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IMDS
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688
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 107 No. 5, 2007
pp. 688-714
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/02635570710750435
and an improvement of product quality are the common benefits of client-supplier
collaboration (Ragatz et al., 2002).
NPD is highly complex. It requires the involvement of skills and expertise from
different areas (Littler et al., 1995). Xie et al. (1998) stated that success of NPD relies on
the integrated cross-functional input and effective coordination and cooperation among
different functional areas, and the interdependence and differences among worki ng
parties could lead to conflict in NPD. Several researchers have studied conflict in NPD
at an intra-organizational level, and the importance of conflict and its management to
NPD success has been acknowledged (Dyer and Song, 1998; Gobeli et al., 1998; Pelled
and Adler, 1994; Xie et al., 1998). Lam and Chin (2003) extended conflict research in
NPD from an intra-organizational to an inter-organizational level. It was found that
conflict is also an inevitable phenomenon in client-supplier collaborative NPD affecting
NPD performance in terms of product quality, meeting of target delivery schedule and
development cost. In collaborative NPD, clients and suppliers are dependent on each
other for NPD success. They, however, may differ in various aspects such as culture,
technical belief, role and objectives. The interdependence and differences between
clients and suppliers inevitably lead to conflict throughout the NPD process.
Conflict management in collaborative NPD is a new issue that has received little
attention from both academic researchers and industrial practitioners. Most clients and
suppliers lack effective practices to manage conflict in collaborative NPD. One of the
major obstacles for the establishment of effective conflict management is that clients
and suppliers do not know how well they are performing and what they can do to
improve the conflict management. There is an obvious need for a self-assessment on the
conflict management aspect to support both the clients and suppliers to well-manage
the conflicts in the NPD process.
The authors therefore tried to address this obstacle by proposing a self-assessment
system of conflict management after identifying the critical success factors of the
client-supplier conflict management in their previous publication (Lam and Chin, 2005).
With the use of the system, clients and suppliers can assess their conflict management
performance and identify areas for improvement in the conflict management and in
turn NPD performance. This paper presents the outcome of the authors’ research
output in this aspect.
2. Self-assessment: a tool for continual business improvement
Self-assessment is recognizable as an imperative tool for the continual improvement of
business performance. Hillman (1994) stated that self-assessment aims at identifying
and acting on the areas which require improvement efforts, while recogniz ing and
maintaining the practices which are doing well. European Foundation for Quality
Management (EFQM, 1994) defines self-assessment as:
...a comprehensive, systematic and regular review of an organization’s activities and results
referenced against a model of business excellence. The self-assessment process allows the
organization to discern clearly its strengths and areas in which improvements can be made
and culminates in planned improvement actions which are monitored for progress.
The popularity of self-assessment has been uplifted by the prevailing use of quality
standards and awards such as the ISO9000, Malcolm Baldrige National Quality
Award (MBNQA), the European Quality Award (EQA) and the Deming Prize, etc.
Self-assessment
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