The purpose of this study is to investigate how a project-oriented approach affects the construction client's governance of the construction process. A survey was conducted among construction clients in Sweden to examine the relation between how construction clients manage the construction process and barriers that can obstruct the governance of the construction process. The results show that the barriers, faced by the construction clients, are affected by how the construction client chooses to govern the construction process. Identified barriers are divided into three levels: individual (attitudinal), industrial and institutional. Attitudinal barriers (adversarial attitudes, greater lack of ethics and morality, focus on projects instead of processes and a short-term focus) and industrial barriers (traditional organization of the construction process, conservative industry culture, industry structure and traditional production processes) were perceived to be important, whereas institutional barriers (rules, laws and traditional procurement procedures) were not perceived to be critical. Each different level of barrier was tested against the use of internal or external project management and the use of formal documentation. Attitudinal barriers were perceived as more critical by clients using external project management. Furthermore, the use of systems, such as formal documentation, does not affect any of the perceived barriers. The result suggests that the client should but more emphasis on the interaction between the individuals involved in the construction process to increase the chances of project success.