The influence of local community stakeholders in megaprojects: Rethinking their inclusiveness to improve project performance

This paper organizes and synthesizes different extant research streams through a systematic literature review to identify connections and major assumptions on the influence of stakeholders in major Public Infrastructure and Construction projects (PIC), at the local community level. Findings suggest that research on stakeholder management has focused strongly on those stakeholders able to control project resources, whilst the effect on the legitimate ‘secondary stakeholders’, such as the local community, remains widely unexplored. Due to the unavoidable impact of major PIC on both people and places, it is suggested that seeking local community opinions in the initiation phase of the project and monitoring the megaproject impact at the local level can help to improve project performance. The output provides scholars and practitioners with future research directions and practical implications for an inclusive stakeholder management approach in construction megaprojects

Fostering justice and care in complex project systems: An empirical study

While projects are becoming increasingly more complex in their organizational, technological, and environmental dimensions; complex systems are deemed by being unjust by nature. Previous research has suggested that heedful interconnection among the actors of the system can enhance organization’s capability in ethical coping with complexity. However, project-based organizations tend to cope with complexity through developing adaptive capacity within the borders of the organization and marginalizing the demands and concerns of some stakeholders. By investigating the controversial project of Rome Metro Line C and drawing on ethics of care and ethics of justice, this article suggests that coping with complexity is attainable by extending the organization’s border to include all stakeholders of the network. The empirical study proposes that by fostering the interrelation of a broader range of stakeholders with the organization through a decentralized decision making will improve the extended organization’s capability in identifying and absorbing complexity

Stakeholder inclusiveness in megaprojects : managing the locals for sustainable developments

This dissertation elaborates on the challenges and opportunities of achieving better project performance through the involvement of a broader range of project stakeholders. The research on stakeholder management has focused primarily on those actors able to control project resources, while for major infrastructure and construction projects, the management of the legitimate ‘secondary stakeholder’, such as the local community, remains widely unexplored. Due to the perceived benefit shortfalls of these projects, well-organised actions from ‘secondary stakeholder’ groups have led to delays, cost overruns and significant damage to the organisation’s reputation. Stakeholder management is an essential process that aims to maximise positive inputs and minimise detrimental attitudes by taking into account the needs and expectations of all project stakeholders. However, the current project stakeholder management mechanisms mainly offer an instrumental perspective, which aims to make the stakeholders comply with project needs. Therefore, this dissertation thesis asserts that a broader inclusiveness of secondary stakeholders, such as the local communities, who could be armed with the organisation’s strategy, is required to enhance the performance and sustainable development of major infrastructure and construction projects. Nevertheless, this dissertation suggests how this class of stakeholder is perceived, defined and categorised by project managers in the construction industry. Controversies exist regarding the balance between the social and economic benefits of major infrastructure projects. In particular, delivering social and economic benefits to stakeholders who are directly impacted by these projects in their everyday life has historically been a challenging task for project managers. This dissertation thesis culminates by developing a new methodological approach that combines real options and scenario planning and allows project managers to better assess the long-term impact of major investment projects on local communities. In this way, project managers can optimise their efforts and use of public resources. The three project management studies that make up this book expand the traditional normative or ethical perspective on the stakeholder management arena. It elucidates the importance of a new class of project stakeholders (i.e., the local community) and how their involvement can enhance the benefits and the sustainable development of major infrastructure and construction projects

A leap from negative to positive bond. A step towards project sustainability

Departing from the normative formulation of stakeholder theory and building upon the current body of knowledge, this study aims to advance understandings on the benefits and challenges towards a more holistic approach to stakeholder management at the local level of major public infrastructure and construction projects (MPIC). Major construction projects, project managers, and the local community stakeholder are deemed to operate within a ‘negative bond’. This interaction is elucidated through the attribution theory lens, which shape the conceptual framework of the study. This paper illustrates that a broader inclusiveness of stakeholder views into managerial decisions can initiate to break this negative bond and shift it towards positive relationships. An organization’s conscious approach towards transparent communication with the local community stakeholder might help to shape a long-term perspective for better project benefits realization either at the national, regional, or local level. By ‘exceeding stakeholders needs and expectations’, project managers and local communities can better collaborate in order to achieve sustainable development over time

Laser induced fluorescence for axion dark matter detection: a feasibility study in YLiF4_4:Er3+^{3+}

We present a detection scheme to search for QCD axion dark matter, that is based on a direct interaction between axions and electrons explicitly predicted by DFSZ axion models. The local axion dark matter field shall drive transitions between Zeeman-split atomic levels separated by the axion rest mass energy $m_a c^2$. Axion-related excitations are then detected with an upconversion scheme involving a pump laser that converts the absorbed axion energy ($\sim$ hundreds of $\mu$eV) to visible or infrared photons, where single photon detection is an established technique. The proposed scheme involves rare-earth ions doped into solid-state crystalline materials, and the optical transitions take place between energy levels of $4f^N$ electron configuration. Beyond discussing theoretical aspects and requirements to achieve a cosmologically relevant sensitivity, especially in terms of spectroscopic material properties, we experimentally investigate backgrounds due to the pump laser at temperatures in the range $1.9-4.2$ K. Our results rule out excitation of the upper Zeeman component of the ground state by laser-related heating effects, and are of some help in optimizing activated material parameters to suppress the multiphonon-assisted Stokes fluorescence.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Shake table tests for the seismic fragility evaluation of hospital rooms

© 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Health care facilities may undergo severe and widespread damage that impairs the functionality of the system when it is stricken by an earthquake. Such detrimental response is emphasized either for the hospital buildings designed primarily for gravity loads or without employing base isolation/supplemental damping systems. Moreover, these buildings need to warrant operability especially in the aftermath of moderate-to-severe earthquake ground motions. The provisions implemented in the new seismic codes allow obtaining adequate seismic performance for the hospital structural components; nevertheless, they do not provide definite yet reliable rules to design and protect the building contents. To date, very few experimental tests have been carried out on hospital buildings equipped with nonstructural components as well as building contents. The present paper is aimed at establishing the limit states for a typical health care room and deriving empirical fragility curves by considering a systemic approach. Toward this aim, a full scale three-dimensional model of an examination (out patients consultation) room is constructed and tested dynamically by using the shaking table facility of the University of Naples, Italy. The sample room contains a number of typical medical components, which are either directly connected to the panel boards of the perimeter walls or behave as simple freestanding elements. The outcomes of the comprehensive shaking table tests carried out on the examination room have been utilized to derive fragility curves based on a systemic approach

Whether and when to invest in transportation projects : combining scenarios and real options to manage the uncertainty of costs and benefits

Transportation infrastructure projects are a cornerstone of economic growth. However, the issue of whether new transportation infrastructure projects deliver the expected benefits has come under considerable scrutiny. The growing economic uncertainty and the tightening of budget constraints have made the design, evaluation, and selection of such high-cost projects particularly critical. There are disagreements as to how project decision-makers can evaluate the long-term costs and benefits of infrastructure projects. The objective of this article is to address such disagreements. We develop and apply an innovative methodological approach that combines real options with scenarios to help policymakers assess the costs and benefits of transportation projects. While these techniques have been widely adopted in corporations, there is little empirical evidence regarding their combined use by project decision-makers dealing with complex infrastructure projects. In this article, we fill this gap in the planning and project studies literature. We show that scenarios and real options can be very helpful in developing a more comprehensive understanding of long-term impacts of major infrastructure projects and thus in selecting the most relevant projects. Overall, our article assists the debate on the management of the uncertainty of long-term costs and benefits of infrastructure projects and helps cope with such uncertainty

Drawing new cards or standing pat : antecedents, dynamics, and consequences of project manager replacement

The majority of projects—even ultimately successful ones—run into significant problems during their development. While organizations have a variety of mechanisms at their disposal to correct projects that are experiencing difficulties, one of the most radical is replacing the project manager. Replacing a project manager “mid-stream” involves a major change to an ongoing project with the potential benefits of onboarding an individual with a different perspective or set of managerial and/or technical skills. Using agency theory as our critical evaluative lens and a qualitative data collection methodology, we interviewed 19 key informants who had experience as part of project manager replacement efforts. This article reports of the dynamics of replacing project managers, identifying the critical decision criteria and mechanisms involved in such decisions. We found that three themes emerged with regard to project manager replacement decision making: 1) replacement is a common correction practice for troubled projects; 2) replacement is viewed by decision makers and team members alike as a message for change; and 3) in reestablishing processes and trust in governance, project size is an important moderator when deciding on a course of action. We finally propose a process model, based on our analysis, which identifies the critical antecedents, effects, and consequences of project manager replacement

Foresight, cognition, and long-term performance : insights from the automotive industry and opportunities for future research

We explore the relationship between foresight and managerial cognition and the contribution of foresight to the long‐term performance of organizations facing major sources of uncertainty. Our research setting is the automotive industry, a compelling research setting for illustrating and reflecting upon the role of foresight in strategic decision making, as the industry is currently experiencing major drivers of change and technological discontinuities. We carefully examined the most recent empirical and theoretical works in the field of foresight, by conducting a thorough literature review. We found that scholars and practitioners increasingly emphasize the ability of foresight to change the mental models of senior managers and the role of such ability in the long‐term adaptation to external changes. Overall, our study contributes to the development of a programmatic stream of research in the domain of foresight and future studies