Engineering Project Organization Journal
The Engineering Project Organization Journal (EPOJ) is an open access journal addressing the need to publish interdisciplinary scholarly articles in the field of organization studies as applied to the complex and dynamic engineering project domain. The scope of interest extends vertically from the individual project level to the program level and to the organization level and horizontally through all stages of governance from initial project development to project delivery and through all areas of organization management from leadership to strategic issues. The Editor and EPOS are focused on bringing the journal to a global audience.
Engineering Project Organization Society
THE IMPACT OF STAKEHOLDER INTERACTIONS ON THE SUPPLY CHAIN RISKS OF MEGAPROJECTS IN AFRICA
The successful delivery of megaprojects is frequently impeded by the complex and multifaceted risks associated with their supply chains. These challenges are exacerbated by the diverse network of stakeholders involved, encompassing both internal entities, such as contractors and consultants, and external actors, including governmental bodies and local communities. In the African context, these stakeholder networks are further complicated by decentralized governance structures and the involvement of international funding agencies. This study investigates the intricate relationships among stakeholders in African megaprojects through the lens of social network theory, aiming to understand how these interactions influence supply chain risk management. Online questionnaires administered in Ghana and South Africa produced 120 valid responses. Utilizing a partial correlation network analysis, the research identifies the central stakeholders within the network, examining the nature and strength of their interactions. The findings reveal that stakeholder interactions are predominantly characterized by information exchange, with consultants and clients emerging as pivotal actors due to their high centrality metrics—strength, closeness, and betweenness. These central stakeholders play a critical role in decision-making processes, information dissemination, and risk mitigation strategies within the supply chain. Moreover, the study highlights the significance of both strong and weak ties within the stakeholder network. While strong ties, such as those involving consultants, are key for shaping project outcomes, weak ties, particularly with external stakeholders such as local communities, provide access to diverse information and help identify emerging risks. The robust network model, evaluated through bootstrapping techniques, underscores the reliability of these findings, although it also calls for cautious interpretation due to some variability in edge weight estimations. This research contributes to the understanding of stakeholder interactions in African megaprojects and offers practical implications for improving supply chain risk management. By leveraging the insights gained from stakeholder centrality and interaction patterns, project managers can enhance communication, foster collaboration, and address risks more effectively, ultimately improving the overall success of megaprojects.
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Grand Challenges in Engineering Project Organization
Grand Challenges are ambitious yet specific goals to galvanize a scholarly community for focused research and high impact. We solicited contributions from ten leading thinkers in the field of Engineering Project Organization (EPO) to elicit their visions for EPO research. Based on content analysis of the text in these statements, and analytical concept mapping, we created a Grand Challenges synthesis framework to set the stage for the future of EPO research. This technical paper describes the six Grand Challenges and associated research thrusts that could define the future of scholarship and impact in the field. The paper also reflects on recent contributions to the field and identifies both barriers and community aspirations to addressing the Grand Challenges.
Copyright (c) 2024 Engineering Project Organization Journal https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The Objective Value of Subjective Value in project design negotiations
Design in infrastructure public–private partnerships (P3s) involves integrative bargaining. This research looks at the cognitive and psychosocial experience of designers as the dependent variable in such design negotiations. In this study, we associate designers’ Subjective Value (SV) outcomes– psychosocial effects such as trust and rapport– with Objective Value (OV) outcomes– economic payoffs of technical design choices. We conducted a design negotiation exercise with treatment and control settings for the conceptual design of a large infrastructure P3 project. Both the public and private participant’s objectives were represented in the exercise. The setup tested the effects of two design mechanisms, communication (dialogue) and common knowledge (reduced information asymmetry) on the understanding and SV perceptions of a large number of designers. In particular, we addressed how these designers perceived their understanding of the complex design problem evolve during the design negotiation exercise, and their psychosocial experience of the change in understanding. We also linked their subjective emotional experience to the degree of agreement in design choices. Participants used a real-time tradespace and visualization model to explore and refine designs while negotiating. The tradespace model tracked not only design trials but also every negotiated, agreed upon design outcome. These design choices generated the OV outcomes of negotiated design. Detailed pre-experiment and post-experiment surveys tracked psychosocial and emotive outcomes using an established scale called the Subjective Value Inventory (SVI), as well as other indicator scales. We found that designers overwhelmingly reported high SV scores, which are positively correlated with both their improved understanding of the design problem and their degree of agreement on design choices after the design negotiation. The OV of enhanced psychosocial outcomes, i.e. positive emotive effects, as a result of early stage design negotiations is thus the important relationship foundation for future rounds of engagement between the same actors in long-lived arrangements such as negotiated P3s, especially since P3 participants may not previously have had a history of or opportunities for establishing trust and credibility.
Copyright (c) 2024 Engineering Project Organization Journal
Visualizing practices in project-based design: tracing connections through cascades of visual representations
Project-based design involves a variety of visual representations, which are evolved to make decisions and accomplish project objectives. Yet, such mediated and distributed ways of working are difficult to capture through ethnographies that examine situated design. A novel approach is developed that follows cascades of visual representations, and this is illustrated through two empirical studies. In the first case, Heathrow Terminal 5, analysis starts from paper- and model work used to develop design, tracing connections forward to an assembly manual that forms a ‘consolidated cascade’ of visual representations. In the second, the Turning Torso, Malmö, analysis starts from a planning document, tracing connections backward to the paper- and model-work done to produce this consolidated cascade. This work makes a twofold contribution: first, it offers a methodological approach that supplements ethnographies of situated design. This allows the researcher to be nimble, tracing connections across complex engineering projects; reconstructing practices through their visual representations; and observing their effects. Second, it articulates how, in these empirical cases, interaction with a cascade of visual representations enabled participants in project-based design to develop and share understanding. The complexity of projects and their distributed and mediated nature makes this approach timely and important in addressing new research questions and practical challenges.
Exploring the dynamic nature of the evolution of Building Environmental Assessment Methods (BEAMs): a call for a diachronic analysis of BEAMs
The dynamic interactions between stakeholders from diverse backgrounds with interest in green building have led to the emergence of various collective groups of actors promoting different Building Environmental Assessment Methods (BEAMs). The corollary is the emergence of a wide array of competing, conflicting, and sometimes, complimentary BEAMs. Yet, relatively little attention has been paid to how these BEAMs have been developed– how the contentious relationship between actors over the meaning of ‘green building’ have influenced the content and development of BEAMs, and why stakeholders have coalesced into different groups promoting different BEAMs. Drawing on the theory of Strategic Action Fields we show how actors have jostled for position and engaged with each other to advance their interests and supported BEAMs that resonate with their core ideologies. We explain how the plurality of espoused definitions of green building, and actors’ strategies to promote and support a conceptualization of green building that serve their interests, have culminated in the presence of multiple BEAMs and a struggle for market dominance. We question what this contentious relationship means for the future of green building and the development of BEAMs. The paper sets an agenda for the need to explore the historical context from which BEAMs have emerged.
Building Environmental Assessment Methods
Special Issue Editorial Volume 6, Issue 2
Imagining a Sustainable Future: Shaping Emergent Thinking by Reflecting Through Aesthetic Action
The contested nature of knowledge about sustainable development makes it difficult to embed sustainable development in engineering curricula, which tend to have a deterministic approach to understanding theoretical concepts. Such an approach does not align well with the emergent thinking of sustainable development, where thinking about the future requires dealing not only with what is known, but also with what is unknown and at times unknowable. Text-based approaches that privilege explicit and codified knowledge are limited in helping students visualise what a sustainable future might look like. To facilitate such visualisation would require expansion of the repertoire of tools and artefacts beyond text-based materials. In this article, we critically reflect on a series of student-centred ‘Open-space’ workshops over the past several years aimed at promoting debate and co-production of knowledge around developing sustainable futures using a range of artefacts such as pictorial illustrations, wiki terms, art materials and chill-out music. Attention is paid on critically appraising the role artefacts play in developing knowledge to empower students to collectively reflect on, imagine and visualise sustainable futures.
FORUM ARTICLE: REFLECTIONS ON MODELLING APPLICATIONS AND ‘BLACK BOXES’ IN CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT RESEARCH - AN OPINION PIECE.
Black Box models are a common method of investigations across many knowledge domains including Construction Management. Grounded in Systems Theory the ‘black box is an indeterminate part of a process of identified inputs creating a set of outputs without necessarily understanding the process of inputs getting to outputs. Some researchers argue that it is better to understand what is going on inside the black box, others are less concerned. However, research is showing that investigating what is inside the black box can incrementally enable better understanding of process, albeit that such understanding is somewhat limited. This paper reviews a recent model developed by the author researching the capabilities needed in construction firms to take climate action in their projects. The analysis of that proposed model highlights the understandable set of limitations of the 3 ‘black boxes’ within the model and offers a rationale to investigate what is ‘inside’ those boxes, accepting the difficulties arising. These limitations to knowledge are discussed and their effect as barriers to more complete understanding is investigated. As researchers we constantly need to question what we do and how effective it is.
SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS IN RESEARCH ON DIGITALIZATION IN SUSTAINABLE BUILT ENVIRONMENT: A REVIEW OF RESEARCH CCOMPLISHMENTS AND FUTURE RESEARCH CHALLENGES.
This paper presents a research agenda for Social Network Analysis (SNA) in Digitalization in Sustainable Built Environment research (DSBE). The paper contains a description of SNA, and reviews the use of SNA in DSBE research. Also, the paper identifies future research challenges that SNA can help resolve. A literature review of DSBE finds that of 506 articles in 36 journals, only 1 article includes SNA. This is surprising, given the growing interest in SNA in digitally related fields. We review the 506 DSBE articles and analyze how SNA can contribute to the field. To understand how SNA can be used in DSBE research, we also analyze how SNA has been applied in Digitalization in Built Environment research that is not focused on sustainability. Findings are that SNA can be a useful and powerful tool, because it can help in analysis of how multiple actors interact, which is a common theme in built environment research. An example is that architects, contractors, and developers are separate actor groups that can improve sustainable solutions through networked cooperation. Another area in which SNA can advance research is in the study of how actor networks of companies or people relate to networks of data or physical buildings or sensors. An example is that actors may change their behavior based on sensor data, and SNA can study sensor data networks and actor behavior networks as interconnected layers. Methodological advances are key to advancing research to meet sustainability challenges. Specifically, SNA can make it possible for the built environment area to advance sustainability and digitalization research, because SNA has a rich array of empirical and conceptual tools for the study of networks.
Project Owner Satisfaction Forecasting through Longitudinal Monitoring of Project Team Attributes
Applying project team success to forecast a building project’s outcomes is challenging due to the presence of a large number of variables in building’s owner goals, program types, and project team composition. However, studying the dynamic interactions of team integration with the project outcomes, which can be represented by owner satisfaction, provides evidence of a meaningful relationship between the success of a project with regard to budget, quality, and schedule. Herein, the association of team integration and group cohesion with the success of project outcomes in terms of owner satisfaction is studied. This purpose was accomplished through regularly gathered information from project teams throughout the project design and construction, followed by the one-time after-completion survey of building owners to understand how and why snapshots of team interactions or dynamics lead to satisfaction perceived by owners. For the seven completed projects with different integration levels, building outcome was measured by owner satisfaction as a proxy for project success. The findings reveal that better team integration can lead to higher owner satisfaction, suggesting teams that are regularly rated high on factors related to strong team culture, such as, “clarity of role” and, “project manager leadership,” are also likely to be rated higher by owners for successful building outcomes. Additionally, projects with more consistent responses across survey categories are more likely to be rated highly by owners. This finding creates an opportunity for planning and managing teams. For those project teams who have been consistent and rated higher in their survey responses, we can expect higher levels of team integration, group cohesion, and, ultimately, owner satisfaction with the overall building results. Consequently, this study offers the potential for in-progress team dynamics measures to help forecast owners' perceptions of their project outcomes.
IMMERSIVE VIRTUAL REALITY MOCKUP VERSUS PHYSICAL MOCKUP: EFFECTS OF IMMERSIVE VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT ON AECO TEAM DECISION-MAKING PROCESS
This paper presents the results from an academic-industry partnership where a team of university researchers and architecture, engineering, and construction industry (AEC) professionals compared a physical mockup to an immersive virtual reality (VR) environment. The goals of this research were to understand how and in what ways VR can replace the use of physical mockups. The study included an experiment where two groups of AEC professionals reviewed a physical mockup and a VR mockup of the same hotel room layout. Group members were asked first to evaluate each mockup from the owner's standpoint as hotel guests and housekeepers, and then suggest design changes based on their professional expertise individually. The groups were then asked to discuss the design together and make a team decision. At the end of the experiment, participants reflected on how the VR mockup did or did not meet their needs in reviewing the room design. The findings from this study show that VR cannot yet fully replace physical mockups due to the user dimension perception, lack of touch sense, unrealistic simulation in VR, and the need for physical samples. However, participants reported VR could be a cost-efficient tool to look at design options and layout in the early design phase and get feedback from the project team and end-users before the construction of the physical mockup to save potential time and money in rework. They also suggested using VR for visualization of the conflicts between different building systems in 3D coordination process
LIMITED DIVERSITY IN RISK TREATMENT SELECTION IN PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS: A RATIONAL RESPONSE?
In public infrastructure projects, risks can emerge quickly due to its external uncertainties and interdependencies among a large number of stakeholders. Scholars still debate whether the current approach of risk management is dynamic enough to safeguard project objectives in such public environments. Because of little empirical evidence that explains how and why Project Management Teams (PMTs) select a specific risk treatment, we aim to characterize risk treatment selection by PMTs in public infrastructure projects. Based on document reviews and semi-structured interviews with PMT members and their executives of a Dutch project-oriented public infrastructure agency, it was found that the diversity in risk treatment selection is limited and risk treatment in public infrastructure projects focuses on controlling risk predominantly through preventive control measures. Although PMTs also intentionally control risk through preventive measures, the decision to do so is often implicitly taken and constitutes an unwitting routine that PMTs seem to have developed due to a risk-averse organizational culture. We conclude with providing directions to improve risk management practices and enable more diversity in risk treatment selection by PMTs in public infrastructure projects.
Building people as they build work: promoting the recruitment and retention of construction professionals by facilitating agency
Turnover rates in construction are high and must be slowed to meet the needs of an expanding and evolving industry. Therefore, it is critical to understand what makes construction professionals continue their employment in a company and persist in the field. This exploratory study examined the work values that influenced construction professionals’ decisions to seek employment at a company (i.e., values influencing recruitment) with the work values they perceived as lacking within the company (i.e., values influencing retention). Qualitative analysis of open-ended survey responses from 314 construction professionals identified three salient work values for improving recruitment: (1) development, (2) autonomy, and (3) belonging; and three values for retention: (4) advancement, (5) inclusivity, and (6) flexibility. Two actions that companies can exercise to support these values were also identified: (1) communicating and demonstrating a commitment to building people as they build work such as promoting modus operandi, trust and practice, and personification, and (2) building an employee-centered structure for communication, empowerment, and acknowledgment that is not stifling to employees. These findings point to a larger implication for construction companies’ recruitment and retention efforts to build employees as active agents in navigating their career paths at a company.
Progressing a Discipline and Profession of Projects
This essay reflects on Peter Morris’s concerns about the the way that project management has been articulated through the advocacy of those institutions and associations that were formed to recognise project management as a distinct area of activity. The essay considers how project management has wrestled with the challenge of being recoginised as both a discipline and a profession and how there has been both progress and concern at how our understanding and practice of project management has evolved. The essay concludes with a recognition that the developments in both the understanding of the discipline of project management and the profession of project management have been in directions that Peter Morris was recommending for many years but, as he also made clear, we cannot rest on our laurels as there is still more to be done.
From Project Management to the ‘Management of Projects’: What motivated Peter Morris to create a new paradigm?
This paper suggests that were three main motivations driving Peter Morris to develop the Management of Projects (MoP) as an alternative approach to traditional project management: first, the need to improve the performance and practice of project management; second, the need to understand the history, context and challenges facing society; and third the need to engage with theory and scholarship. The paper draws upon Peter’s three main single or co-authored books which form the corpus of his work on MoP.
A path less-traveled has become the highway: How Peter Morris’s The Anatomy of Major Projects pointed the way to modern project management research and practice
In his seminal book, The Anatomy of Major Projects (co-authored with George Hough), Peter Morris established himself as one of the early, original theorists in project management scholarship. Not simply a ground-breaking study of major projects at its time, Anatomy has proven to have both a lasting residual impact as well as serving as a wellspring of new ideas and directions for research and theory in the field. This essay, honoring Morris's impact on our scholarly community, focuses on an examination of Anatomy - both on its many contributions, as well as serving as the source for shifting the manner in which a new generation of academics and practitioners understand how projects can best be organized, managed, and understood.
Contrasting Perceptions of Construction Managers and Project Managers Around Failure in Light of Morris and Geraldi’s Institutional Context
In their 2011 paper titled “Managing the Institutional Context for Projects” Morris and Geraldi raised the importance of the institutional context in the management of projects. Building on that, this study proposes the conceptualisation and understanding of project- related failure and success through an institutional perspective. This is based on an understanding that projects are distinctive, time- constrained, undertakings meant to generate benefits for all associated stakeholders whose perception of failure varies. Yet, little attention has been given to explaining how such perception is influenced by underlying institutional contexts. Therefore, the aim of the study was to examine the knowledge base for contrasting perspectives of project managers and construction managers around project- related failure in light of the institutional perspectives. To do this, a systematic literature review (SLR) approach was adopted. The first finding of note from this SLR is the dominance of interest in and from the UK Construction Industry (UKCI). This may be attributed to the culture and structure of the UKCI driven by the autonomy and authority of organisations such as the Audit Office (NAO). The findings further reveal that in the general Project Management (PM) literature, considerations of failure are more introspective and discussed more in terms of project outputs with the causes associated with project management limitations. Considering the three levels discussed by Morris and Geraldi (2011) the PM perspective of failure and success can be associated with the technical level of analysis of project outputs. In contrast, the Construction Management (CM) literature focuses predominantly on specific failures, and on external failures. Causes are more attributed to profitability and the wider supply chain and this can be associated with Morris’s strategic level focus on effectiveness and value. The results from this study call for a systemic approach by heeding the call of Prof. Peter Morris to consider the institutional context level in the perception and analysis of failure instead of solely focusing on output or technical level parameters of time cost and quality.
Projecting for Sustainability Transitions: Advancing the Contribution of Peter Morris
Projects are both shaped by processes of socio-economic change and shape those processes of socio-economic change – an insight that guided much in Peter Morris’ career and contribution. In this paper, we address a growing concern of both Peter and the projects research community more generally with the grand challenges we all face, particularly achieving net zero. We therefore place project organizing research in the context of the four industrial revolutions and the Anthropocene over the last 250 years or so. In particular, we focus on the role of projects in sustainability transitions – that is the transition from one sociotechnical regime to another such as from fossil fuels to renewables for electricity generation. On this basis, we suggest that the major projects of the third industrial revolution that Peter so comprehensively analysed may not be the most appropriate models for addressing the challenges of the fourth when projecting for sustainability transitions. We close by suggesting one potential additional approach.
Exploring a Theoretical Framework and System Dynamics Model for Innovation and Sustainability within the Management of Projects Paradigm
Anthropogenic climate change provides the context for the emergence of new challenges within the project management discipline. The scholarly research of Peter Morris can contribute to addressing these discipline challenges. This research builds upon the Management of Projects (MoP) paradigm and develops connections with systems understanding to support project practitioners in considering project sustainability decisions. The Innovation, Sustainability and Management of Projects (ISMP) framework, introduced in this paper, incorporates an extension to the project life cycle model, introducing an ‘ecosystems impact’ phase, and it positions Innovation and Sustainability understanding into the MoP paradigm. MoP is associated with a holistic perspective which can be linked with the Systems Movement. An overview of some key ideas and theories connected with this Movement are provided, which supports the selection of System Dynamics technique for an approach to connect decisions and understanding within project management practice and across the project life cycle. A completed renewable energy project from Colombia is used as the case study for this exploratory research. A combination of the ISMP framework, project data, and stakeholder participation is used to inform the development of a System Dynamics model as a relevant approach to support strategic decision-making for the sustainability impact of proposed interventions. The systems approach developed connects MoP, sustainability and innovation and has potential benefits for project practitioners navigating decisions for sustainability across the project life cycle.
From the Front End to the Back End – the Importance of Strategic Thinking About the Management of Projects
This essay considers the interest Peter Morris had in the earliest stages of the project’s lifecycle. The essay considers why this front end of the project is worthy of both academic and practitioner interest through linking the project’s strategic front end to the latter stages of the project, where the project transitions into the required product of the project endeavour. The essay acknowledges the astuteness of Peter Morris’s observations and insights and seeks to build on this with considerations and recommendations for both the scholar and the practitioner interested and involved with projects.
Peter Morris’s Early Contribution to Understanding the Success and Failure of Major Projects
This essay reflects how the author got to know Peter Morris and his work, and how that work has gone on to influence both the thinking and the practice of project management through Peter’s significant contribution. From his time and work with the Major Projects Association, through to the important books he wrote, Peter Morris has drawn from both theory and extensive case study research to inform our understanding of the factors, drivers, and issues that contribute to a project’s success or failure.
preconditions for project success or failure
Essay: Reflecting the Impact and Legacy of Peter Morris
This essay considers the role Peter Morris’s had in shaping both the thinking and the direction of the research and writing that formed part of the career of Professor Donald Lessard that was focused on projects and their management. The essay notes how Peter Morris’s early insight in the way that projects were shaped and evolved during delivery challenged the orthodoxy of project management being primarily concerned with ‘execution’ of the project as a technocentric management challenge. This insight, and others, has influenced and directed the work of not just this author but many others. The essay concludes with the legacy that Peter Morris has left us – one that we should nurture and progress.
Walking in the Footsteps of a Giant: The Impact of Dr. Peter W.G. Morris on the Science and Practice of Project Management
This essay considers and reflects upon the mark that Professor Peter Morris made through has personal advocacy and published works on all that is now understood as being project management. Taking a semi-chronological approach, the essay notes the variety of Peter Morris’s carefully considered and critically positioned contributions that have had a global and lasting impact. As one of the earliest scholars to seriously consider project management from a scholarly perspective, Peter Morris then went on to both develop his deep knowledge of the field, leading to both his proposition of the ‘Management of Projects’ and his various provocations that culminated in his concern for project management’s role in handling the many and serious challenges posed by climate change and global warming.
EDITORIAL: Special Issue Appreciating the Contribution of Professor Peter W.G. Morris, Ph.D
Innovative financing (IF) of infrastructure projects in Ghana: conceptual and empirical observations
Traditional methods of financing have failed to resolve Ghana’s infrastructure deficit. Innovative financing (IF) solutions are being encouraged to alleviate this, but presently IF knowledge is limited. This study provides an overview and maps the evolution of IF solutions to conceptually model their characteristics and application to major infrastructure projects, especially in the context of LDCs. An inductive methodology draws extensively on extant literature and published data from Ghanaian ministries, departments and agencies who procure infrastructure works. The study highlights how the IF concept stems from a plethora of public finance issues including reform of government service delivery, new tax tools, public–private partnerships and alternative financing arrangements and further how IF has been focused at educational, road, water infrastructure, housing and district assemblies. Through illumination of the Ghanaian IF concept, the study will be of utility to policy makers and international development agencies considering investment in the country, while its broader ramifications will help the search for alternative ways to finance infrastructure projects per se. It is concluded that further research would be beneficial in examining strategic IF issues, especially regarding the extent to which available tools and techniques are utilized in each of the four key IF phases (preparation, implementation, monitoring, evaluation).
Knowledge-sharing connections across geographical boundaries in global intra-firm networks
To boost project performance, managers of engineering and construction organizations are interested in sharing knowledge between employees across the organization. Global project-based organizations that operate in diverse markets are particularly keen to share knowledge collectively across projects and regions to gain a competitive advantage. Unfortunately, creating knowledge-sharing connections (KSCs) and knowledge-sharing networks (KSNs) can be particularly challenging for global project-based organizations. They face not only typical knowledge-sharing barriers of resources, organizational structures and individual motivations, but also physical and cultural barriers due to geographical distance. Although the benefits of global knowledge sharing are established, little is known about how KSCs and KSNs are established and maintained. In order to better understand the network structure and the formation of KSCs within these global organizations, the research analysed the KSC within a KSN focused on sustainability in one large multinational engineering organization. This paper analyses KSCs that span geographical boundaries to determine regional knowledge exchange patterns within the KSN, why KSCs across geographical boundaries are formed and maintained and the barriers to establish these KSCs. To meet these objectives, a mixed research method was employed, including quantitative and qualitative analyses. Social network questionnaires and analysis determined the mechanics and dynamics of knowledge sharing within the KSN, including knowledge exchange patterns and metrics. Code was developed to determine the influence of geographical location on KSC within the network, which revealed a propensity for intra-regional knowledge exchange, particularly at a weekly knowledge exchange frequency. However, geographical proximity was found to be less important in inter-regional knowledge exchange patterns. Instead, despite location or economic indicators, regions exchange knowledge most frequently with the corporate headquarters. To better understand why and how knowledge connections across geographical boundaries were formed, approximately 5% of network members were interviewed using a semi-structured format and ethnographic techniques. The results indicate that engineering organizations must strategically focus on knowledge exchange by identifying technical experts and centres of excellence that consult across the organization, supporting an organizational structure and controls that encourage collaboration across borders, and creating resources to facilitate face-to-face meetings, training sessions or internal organizational projects with global KSN members.
Social network analysis and organizational control in complex projects: construction of EXPO 2010 in China
Social network analysis (SNA) has been widely used to explore the existence and strength of connections among various actors within an organization. Recently, understanding and interpreting social aspects in project organization have gained great interest in project management research. Consequently, there is a need to analyse complex project organization (CPO) by using SNA with increasing numbers of large-scale and complex projects. The goal of this research is to better appreciate the social network relations in a CPO environment and to improve the organizational efficiency and team performance through new organizational control mechanisms (OCMs). This study first discusses a multi-level social network framework with a focus on the CPO where major analytical components of the framework are presented including modelling elements and structures and preferred parameters. Next, social network-oriented OCM and strategies are illustrated and compared with regular organizational controls. To examine the mentioned SNA framework and strategy, this study employs a construction case of EXPO 2010 Shanghai China and analyses the information transmission, role and positional analysis, clique analysis, management power and leadership of the network. The result of the case study provides insightful suggestions for controlling the complex organization, including enhancement of organizational learning ability, standardized working protocols and regulations, and reinforces the management of key information intermediaries, professional requirement for centrality position units and the power shift in some ‘special units’. The case also reveals that the informal relations have more significant impacts on the organizational power, leadership and control, especially for complex projects
The impact of cultural diversity on the effectiveness of construction project teams
Before the global financial crisis hit the region in 2008, the buoyant construction activities in the United Arab Emirates, especially in Dubai, were successful in attracting many multinational companies and professionals from across the globe. One of the main drawbacks of this business environment is the increasingly high competition between such companies to recruit and retain the needed human resources. This paper investigates the cultural diversity phenomenon in construction project teams in Dubai and its effect on their effectiveness. The main objective of the paper is to examine the impact of cultural diversity of the project teams on their performance. The paper reports the results of an empirical study into the relationship between the extent of cultural diversity and project team performance. The findings of the empirical study suggest that there is no significant relationship between the degree of project teams cultural diversity and their overall performance measures. However, the results showed that there is a negative relationship between the degree of cultural diversity and output, productivity and efficiency.
Welcome to the fourth issue of the Engineering Project Organization Journal (EPOJ). This issue represents the conclusion of a momentous year for this journal and for its sponsoring organization, the Engineering Project Organization Society (EPOS). With this issue, the journal has successfully completed its first year of publication with 17 technical papers and 2 special Pathfinder papers. The papers represent technical diversity in their topics to reflect the broad themes of engineering project organization research. Of equal importance, the papers include authors from every region and multiple disciplines. This diversity reflects the original intentions of this journal to cross boundaries and highlight the contributions to this field of inquiry from multiple disciplines and perspectives. On behalf of the Editorial Board, I thank all of the authors and reviewers who have made this first year a success. As we close this first volume, I am excited to be looking forward to continuing this diversity in Volume 2. This next year will include special issues on social science contributions to engineering research and project collaboration as well as a continuing focus on publishing papers from each of the primary journal themes. I encourage everybody to continue contributing to the journal, as the journal is only as strong as its contributions.
Project management approaches derived from best practices in the defence/aerospace, construction and pharmaceutical industries during the early 1970s have proven effective for managing small numbers of large projects in the relatively stable political, economic and technological context of the post-World War II period. However, the detailed, centralized planning, decentralized execution and centralized control of large projects that are the basis of these ‘PM 1.0’ methods and tools have proven burdensome and unresponsive for a new generation of workers who have grown up in a Web 2.0 world and who are now working on cutting-edge projects with rapidly evolving technologies in today’s extremely dynamic global markets and political economies. A new set of ‘PM 2.0’ methods, tools and governance arrangements were pioneered for rapid product development and have recently been adapted for agile software development. They are based on a radically different project management philosophy for dealing with these new contingencies. This paper reviews the origins of PM 1.0 to explain why it was a valid approach for the latter half of the twentieth century; explains why the key assumptions underlying this method are frequently no longer valid; describes some of the key elements of evolving PM 2.0 approaches to project management in industries ranging from ‘software in the cloud’ development to special operations in the US military and discusses the kinds of tools, employee training and human resources practices that will need to evolve to support PM 2.0 for the ever more dynamic and unpredictable projects of the twenty-first century. This paper concludes with a discussion of the limitations of PM 2.0 and a set of key questions that will need to be answered through future research before the PM 2.0 approach can become more widely adopted for managing engineering project organizations.