Who reads the project file? Exploring the power effects of knowledge tools in construction project management

Sage, Daniel; Dainty, Andrew R.J.; Brookes, Naomi

doi:10.1080/01446191003725154

Cited by 34 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…One possible method could be to compare project performance where there is a high degree of cohesion with corporate strategic intent and those with increased diffusion. It might be assumed that those projects with a high degree of strategic alignment are most successful in performative terms; however as many other practice-studies of construction have shown local adaptation to top-down initiatives can equally prove advantageous, or necessary, in certain settings (Bresnen, 2009;Harty, 2008;Sage et al 2010). By addressing such questions, SaP studies of construction strategizing can help equip reflective practitioners with an awareness of the plethora of strategic trajectories, (along with a keen awareness of the role that all practitioners play in strategic praxis) which would provide individuals at the start of a strategic implementation within an organization with valuable insights to insure that the final articulations of strategy, and their performance outcomes, more closely resembled the beneficial states they wishes to obtain.…”

Section: Discussion and Concluding Commentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, it also indicates vindicates Latour's (2005) proposal that material objects can no more bring about social change by themselves than people can. Indeed various studies of construction have demonstrated that objects do not upon people or vice versa but rather agency is located between them, this is no less true of lean construction than 3D-CAD (Harty, 2008) or construction project management (Sage et al 2010). …”

Section: Lean Strategizing On Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

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A ‘Strategy-as-Practice’ exploration of lean construction strategizing

Sage

Dainty

Brookes

2012

Building Research & Information

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A growing body of work emerging from the management and organizational studies literature is the 'Strategy-as-Practice' (SaP) perspective, which focuses on the ways in which strategy is enacted or 'done' within organizational settings. In this paper we use this perspective to examine the diffusion of lean construction. In recent years, lean construction has grown in prominence to become one of the primary performative improvement recipes for the sector.However, rather than lean providing a stable strategy around which more collaborative, intelligent and efficient project-based organizations develop, 3 this research reveals how it transforms during its journey with unintended consequences for organizations. Ethnographic study, informed by SaP, demonstrates how a lean strategy and its effects on organizational practice and culture cannot be understood separate from its material and embodied practices and its power effects. As well as contributing to the empirical examination of lean construction practice, this paper opens up new trajectories for research into strategizing within construction which are orthogonal to celebratory or critical positions and provides researchers with ways of exploring lived practices and spaces where strategizing takes place.

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Section: Discussion and Concluding Commentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Lean Strategizing On Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

A ‘Strategy-as-Practice’ exploration of lean construction strategizing

Sage

Dainty

Brookes

2012

Building Research & Information

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“…ANT studies have illustrated the transformative role of nonhumans to the co-ordination of projects, and managerial power (Blackburn, 2002;Linde and Linderoth, 2006;Pollack et al, 2013), not least in the context of construction (Harty, 2005;Sage et al, 2010b;Tryggestad et al, 2010). Bruno Latour (2005: 88), one of the originators of ANT (along with John Law and Michel Callon), even heralds building sites as exemplars of ANT: the transformative symbiosis of humans and nonhumans (see Latour and Yaneva, 2008).…”

Section: Materials (Re)distributions Of Project Failurementioning

confidence: 99%

A critical argument in favor of theoretical pluralism: Project failure and the many and varied limitations of project management

Sage

Dainty

Brookes

2014

International Journal of Project Management

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In project management, failure is often assumed to be evidence of deficient management: a problem that can be overcome by better management. Drawing on qualitative research within UK construction projects we examine how four different theoretical approaches (positivism, structural Marxism, interpretivism and actor-network theory) all challenge this managerial assumption. Each theoretical perspective enables a specific analysis of empirical data that critiques the notion that project failures are easily, simply, or largely, associated with the failure of project management. In so doing, our pluralist analysis reveals the social and political contextualization of performance in project management. We thus conclude by proposing that practitioner and scholarly concerns with project failure (and success), can actively contribute to attempts to reflect upon various matters of political concern as developed within the Making Projects Critical community, and by extension Critical Management Studies. Thus, we propose greater interaction between critical and mainstream project research communities.

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“…Chan illustrated that there are also not only human but non-human influencing factors in the success of the construction project [15]. Study of the actor-network suggests that engineering activities, with both technical and non-technical content [17], are the situational practices that combine together to form a conceptual and political power network [16,18]. Engineering activity is an integrated process of heterogeneous elements which are not given and freely available for innovators.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A New Quality Control Technology Based on Relay Chain Theory

Wang¹,

Li²,

Hougui³

et al. 2015

TOEEJ

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Activity handover within engineering construction projects is time consuming, takes longer than the actual activities, and therefore, can cause duration delays. This paper presents relay chain seamless handover (RCSH) technology, which is based on relay technology theory and actor-network theory. This study systematically elaborated the RCSH processes, activity relay flows, and methods to address balancing speed under varying conditions. Our analysis results indicate that as compared to traditional activity handover, RCSH improves handover quality and guarantees the duration. RCSH technology was successfully applied in the third phase of the Three Gorges Dam Project, specifically for its concrete construction duration and quality control. Through the use of RCSH, effective overall planning, and efficient coordination of various production links, along with seamless activity handover in the third phase of the project were accomplished-with no additional time consumed by the handover process-and the construction of a concrete dam without a crack was achieved.

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Who reads the project file? Exploring the power effects of knowledge tools in construction project management

Cited by 34 publications

References 45 publications

A ‘Strategy-as-Practice’ exploration of lean construction strategizing

A ‘Strategy-as-Practice’ exploration of lean construction strategizing

A critical argument in favor of theoretical pluralism: Project failure and the many and varied limitations of project management

A New Quality Control Technology Based on Relay Chain Theory

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