Structuring of Temporary Multi-Organizations: Contingency Theory in the Building Sector

Abstract

The appropriate management of construction projects presupposes a clear comprehension of the structure of the temporary multi‐organization (TMO); however, most of the work on the structuring of TMOs has concentrated either on procurement strategies or the structure of individual organizations. Current approaches, therefore, do not fully consider the roles of all project stakeholders, the informal communications, and the complexity of the client organization. Instead, we argue that the contingency theory contributes to the understanding of the structuring of TMOs. The analysis of 27 recent construction projects allows us to identify two contingency factors and patterns of configuration of the TMO.

Organizational Justice, Project Performance, and the Mediating Effects of Key Success Factors

“…The study was conducted in the context of the construction industry, as projects undertaken in this sector are typical examples of TMOs (Cherns & Bryant, 1984; Lizarralde, Blois, & Latunova, 2011). Their characteristics include being comprised of a large number of different organizations brought together for a specific project, with defined start and end dates.…”

Iterative Project Processes within Temporary Multi-Organizations in Construction: The Self-, Eco-, Re-Organizing Projects

“…For this analysis, we considered the following: All stakeholders’ roles (as done by Chinyio & Olomolaiye, ; de Blois & De Coninck, , ); The structures and mechanisms of coordination and communication between actors—formal and informal (as done by de Blois, and de Blois et al, ); Construction‐specific contingency factors that influence the structuring of the temporary multi‐organization, namely the internal structure of the project client and informal relationships between actors (as proposed by de Blois & Lizarralde, and Lizarralde, de Blois, & Latunova, ) and; The complexity of the relations between the intra‐ and inter‐organizations that shape the temporary multi‐organization (as done by Lizarralde, de Blois, & Davidson, ). The organizational structure of the Sépaq and the temporary multi‐organization created to conduct the projects are represented in Figure . …”

“…The categories of analysis used for mapping project processes were obtained from: (1) previous studies on the project life cycle (for instance, Walker, ; Winch, ), design methods, and temporary multi‐organization structuring (see for instance, Lizarralde et al, ); (2) case study documents and interviews; and (3) qualitative in situ coding of discourse adopted by stakeholders (following the coding guidelines by Gauthier, ; Miles & Huberman, ; and Van der Maren, ).…”

Network Governance for Interorganizational Temporary Organizations: A Systematic Literature Review and Research Agenda

“…As for networks organized by projects, the internal structure of project clients and the informal relationships between project participants were considered as important influencing factors for the design of temporary multiorganizations (Lizarralde et al, 2011). These authors conducted both micro- and macrolevels of analysis to avoid the oversimplification of common approaches.…”