University of Twente Student Theses
Why a contract manager?!
Sjoerdstra, Bianca (2017) Why a contract manager?!
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| Abstract: | Organisations are setting up contract management and appointing contract managers to execute contract management. Nevertheless, there exists ignorance on what the added value of contract managers is for organisation. The aim of this master thesis is to explore the added value of contract managers in organisations. It does so by analysing the role of contract managers, the contracts for which contract managers are appointed and the advantages for an organisation to have a contract manager. In order to answer the research question firstly a literature review on contract managers is conducted. Additionally, 25 interviews with contract managers mainly from various Dutch public organisations are conducted. The literature review showed that the existing literature on the function of the contract manager is scarce. The literature is focused on discussing how to implement contract management in organisations, but not explicitly discussing the function of the contract manager. The face-to-face interviews aimed at providing more insight into the function of the contract manager in practice. As in correspondence with the results of literature review, the face-to-face interviews demonstrated the diversity in roles of a contract manager and the contracts being managed by a contract manager in organisations which leads to diversity in assessing the added value of the contract manager in organisations. Based on the results a two by three matrix was developed in which contract managers can be positioned on two dimensions. These two dimensions are ‘the number of contract(s) managed by the contract manager’ and ‘the effort contract management executed on the contract(s) by the contract manager’. According to the position of the contract manager in this matrix, among other things the added value for the organisation can be determined. The results of the interviews showed that contract managers managing a few contracts with advanced contract management effort provide the highest added value for an organisation. The literature review implied that there is a research gap on what the function of the contract manager is and should be and especially in relation to the added value for the organisation. The added value of contract managers has not been dealt with in academic research before. Therefore, this master thesis adds to existing academic research by providing insights on the function of the contract manager and his or her added value for an organisation. Moreover, the matrix developed based on the results can be used by organisations as a tool to give an indication about the added value of the contract manager for the organisation. Future research could be conducted to further research the added value of contract managers, how it can be determined and influenced. Moreover, future research could examine the matrix developed in this master thesis. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Clients: | Het NIC, Zwolle, Netherlands Het NIC, Zwolle, Netherlands |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 85 business administration, organizational science |
| Programme: | Business Administration MSc (60644) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/74067 |
| Export this item as: | BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager |
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