Owner capabilities in the project society: The setting of project-supported organisations

Building on extant research on domains of project organising, the aim of this study is to explore the application of the concept of owner capabilities to the wider setting of the project society. To this end, the study focuses on the context of project-supported organisations (PSOs) that operate through a continuous provision of goods and services and only occasionally undertake projects to expand or maintain its business infrastructure. We select the setting of fast-moving consumer goods, where projects have the role of capacity expansion or extension of operational capability. Engaging with 18 informants from a selection of organisations on the supply and demand side in the provision of capital projects in the selected setting, the study provides further insight into the nature and role of strategic, commercial and governance owner capabilities in project-supported organisations. Building on the findings, we derive key recommendations for project leadership and we conclude by calling for future research to understand the role of project owners and their capabilities in the various contextual settings of the project society

The strategic value of targeted knowledge management - case study of an Australian refrigeration company

 This thesis is a study of design and implementation of an engineering knowledge management system to facilitate knowledge capture, sharing and reuse to both ensure business continuity and resolve a make-span problem in an Australian refrigeration company. The company had encountered problems with a number of engineering staff in the small product development team leaving the company and taking their expertise with them. This situation has impacted the business continuity of the company, because the knowledge and expertise used in the refrigerated display cabinet development process is a combination of explicit and tacit knowledge as the engineers conduct the product development process intuitively. Records of previous design and testing processes were either non-existent or stored in ways that were not accessible. The other business problem in the company resulted from product development taking too long, in effect from 6 weeks up to the worst case of one year. The company needed research solutions to both of these problems to strategically maintain the competitiveness of the company business. This research applied a single case study research method with a problem-solving paradigm, Design Science methodology, to develop and then test solutions. Design Science as a research methodology has two components, first design development and second, design evaluation. The researcher developed an engineering knowledge based system as an artefact to solve the problem of enabling company business continuity. Using ontology as a structural base, the KBS contains both knowledge elements captured from the engineers during the data collection process and existing knowledge artefacts in the company. The research used a set of multilayered research techniques, including semi-formal and formal interviews, serendipitous interviews, group meetings, observation and shadowing, to capture and then structure both the tacit and explicit knowledge. The resultant ontology was used to build the KBS to store both tacit and explicit knowledge and answer the engineers’ questions about their existing and previous product development processes. The KBS developed in this research is a knowledge repository to maintain records of the products design and testing processes in a searchable form. Use and then an evaluation of the system by the engineers and the executive staff of the company confirmed that the intention of the system to address the business continuity problem by knowledge capture, classification and storage was achieved and met the company’s business needs. This research also applied Heuristic Process Mining to the knowledge stored in the KBS to address the second problem identified initially by the company, that of lengthy make span in new product design and development. HPM is a technique using mathematical models to find relationships between tasks in the process. HMP measures dependency and frequency values between tasks and tasks with low D/F value can be eliminated from the process. This then can lead to the shorter product testing process. The research showed that the application of HPM to the stored process knowledge in the KMS was able to significantly reduce the product design and testing process in the company

Transformative role of big data through enabling capability recognition in construction

YesBig data application is a significant transformative driver of change in the retail, health, engineering, and advanced manufacturing sectors. Big data studies in construction are still somewhat limited, although there is increasing interest in what big data application could achieve. Through interviews with construction professionals, this paper identifies the capabilities needed in construction firms to enable the accrual of the potentially transformative benefits of big data application in construction. Based on previous studies, big data application capabilities, needed to transform construction processes, focussed on data, people, technology, and organisation. However, the findings of this research suggest a critical modification to that focus to include knowledge and the organisational environment along with people, data, and technology. The research findings show that construction firms use big data with a combination strategy to enable transformation by (a) driving an in-house data management policy to rolling-out the big data capabilities; (b) fostering collaborative capabilities with external firms for resource development, and (c) outsourcing big data services to address the capabilities deficits impacting digital transformation

Evidence-Based Interventions and Strategies for the Grand Challenges Approach: The Need for Judgement

What is the value of evidence-based interventions in addressing “Grand Challenges”? Building upon the EPOS Grand Challenges work (Sakhrani et al., 2017), this paper explores whether evidence-based approaches developed for management and policy are relevant to addressing Grand Challenges. It discusses the criticisms of the Evidence-based Management approach and argues that evidence is a necessary, but not sufficient input in the decisionmaking process of addressing Grand Challenges

'Information sharing problems among stakeholders in the construction industry at the inspection stage: A case study'

The paper reports the information management practices of the various key stakeholders during the inspection stage of a construction project. The data was collected through observations and shadowing of stakeholder exemplars, interviews and document analysis over a fourteen-week period. In the process of constructing a new and innovative academic building for an Australian University, vast amounts of information had to be effectively managed by various stakeholders in the construction process. This life cycle includes the creation, documentation, dissemination, utilisation, evaluation and archiving of the relevant information and knowledge across multiple domains and areas of practice and expertise. Without efficiency in these processes the effectiveness of construction project outcomes and contractual obligations could be challenged. This research evaluates the information life cycle through an Information Audit (IA) in the inspection stage of a large-scale construction project (the innovative academic building) through an evaluative lens integrating the concepts of Enterprise Content Management and Personal Information Management. The research shows that information auditing enables framework identification of iterative and problematic information reporting in the Construction process. The research shows the pivotal role of a key stakeholder involved in the process acting as an intermediary, translating and transferring information across different domains

Addressing knowledge capture issues for business continuity

This paper addresses the problems of effective knowledge capture processes in implementing knowledge use for maintaining business continuity. The research is centred on a refrigeration company in Australia who was having significant problems with its product development processes and needed to ensure they were more effective. However part of that problem lay with the fear of losing a small team of significant engineers in the production process. The company wanted to maintain their knowledge. The research shows that strategies across a number of knowledge capture techniques has enabled the researchers to develop a knowledge based system built on ontology to meet the need of the company to capture the necessary product domain knowledge and facilitate better design processes. Previous studies have highlighted difficulties with knowledge capture. The strategies adopted here show that most relevant knowledge can be captured, modelled and, importantly, can be used to ensure that business continuity was maintained

Reproducing knowledge in construction expertise: a reflexive theory, critical approach

An auto-ethnography and then analyses of narratives and ethnographies of other construction professionals are used to argue that reproduction of knowledge and expertise development is constrained by both normative professional thinking and a discourse of economic constraint generated by a highly competitive marketplace with a focus on time, cost, and quality trade-offs. The analysis of construction professionals' narratives suggests that expertise development in construction is essentially an incremental process built on scenarios and influenced mostly by context and people, discourses of practices, legalities and professional expectations. Sometimes that incrementalism is distorted through radical innovation, but that is rare. Construction expertise in these stories is reproduced from base level learning and grows through practice. Practitioners, it is argued, accumulate knowledge and expertise, but the practice that emanates remains bounded within prevailing discourse which itself changes incrementally

Evaluating knowledge management systems efficacy and effectiveness in a design science context

This paper describes the process of evaluating the efficacy and effectiveness of a knowledge management system (KMS) built as part of research for an Australian refrigeration manufacturing company, designed to enable the company to deal with identified strategic business problems, and proposes an evaluation framework for Design Science research. The artefact studied, here a KMS, is a key element in Design Science research. It is important to understand the evaluation process as this is central to determining the quality of Design Science research. Whilst there has been significant attention paid to the principles and enablement of Design Science research (Geerts, 2011; Hevner and Chatterjee, 2010a, b; Wang et al., 2011) there is significantly less attention given to attenuating evaluation (Venable, 2010), albeit that such evaluation is an integral part of Design Science research. This paper focuses on the process of evaluation of a specific KMS, but provides the context for more generalizability of the evaluation process with applications across other Design Science research

Digital capabilities in the construction industry

NoDigitalization is transforming the way of doing business, and the construction industry is experiencing its fair share. It has necessitated the influx and growth of digital technologies application on construction projects and, to a larger extent, construction firms. In as much as this is a great initiative, early adopters in construction are still exploring, experimenting, and exploiting the potential of these digital transformations in their projects. There appears to be a gap in the digital capabilities needed in the construction life cycle and how these should be developed. A systematic review approach was used to identify digital technologies used in the construction industry. Literature on organization and digital capabilities was used to identify these capabilities and supported with examples from the UK and Australia to explain the capabilities. A case was made for how developing countries can develop digital capabilities in the construction industry from geographical distribution analysis from the systematic review and inference from the identified capabilities and the enabling approaches. Three main digital capabilities (digital mindset, digital infrastructure/investment and digital skillset) with sub-capabilities and two main approaches (firm and external) to developing these capabilities are discussed in this chapter. By implication, these capabilities are also useful in the construction industry in developing countrie

Building project management skills in university programs in conditions of uncertainty

Decision-making in disaster scenarios in the built environment takes place both chaotically and rationally, sometimes systematically and sometimes serendipitously and relies on solutions that emerge as professionals, volunteers, communities, government agencies and bureaucrats respond. If engineering and construction professionals can better understand how these stakeholders interact and make decisions in the context of disaster scenarios it will assist the profession's ability to contribute towards developing resilience in project management in the built environment. Whilst there are systems available to support decision-making in disaster scenarios as they occur, there is a paucity of tools developed to assist in training new professionals, communities, volunteers and scholars to learn how to operate, react and make relevant and effective decisions. The paper highlights skills areas research has identified as necessary in conditions of uncertainty in the built environment. The outcomes identify an additional set of skills which university programs can incorporate to enhance the learning of flexible responses for project management in disaster scenarios in the built environment under conditions of uncertainty