Balancing between feasibility and relationship: Interventions to prevent dysfunctionality of conflict in public private partnership projects

Research shows that there are many bottle-necks in Public Private Partnership (PPP) Projects in Dutch spatial development. Due to the specific properties of Public Private Partnerships, these bottle-necks can lead to dysfunctional conflicts which are damaging the project. Hence the question is: how to prevent these conflicts? Literature doesn?t answer this question on an operational level in the context of a PPP project in spatial development. So ten cases of PPP in spatial development are selected in which a conflict escalated in a way that the existence of the project was on the edge. The research strategy is to compare cases in a cooperative climate with cases in a competitive climate. Data are collected by interviewing representatives of the public side as well of the private side. Analyzing the data, several interventions are found. Analysis shows that in a cooperative climate a rich variety of interventions is used, while in a competitive climate the interventions are limited. The analysis also shows that in a competitive climate interventions are more focused on the relationship between the partners than on feasibility, while in a cooperative climate both aspects are equally attended. Regardless of a cooperative or a competitive climate, the interventions found are concerning the feasibility of the project or the relation between actors. One moment it proves to be necessary to emphasize feasibility and the other moment the relationship. Therefore it is concluded that in spatial development dysfunctional conflicts in PPP projects can be prevented by balancing between feasibility and relationship. As such this research contributes to organizing collaboration