Implications of 'Lock-in' on Public Sector Project Management in a Small Island Development State

The concept of ‘Lock-In’, or the escalating cost of overcommitment on a project to a failing course of action, has unforeseeable implications in project management. This paper presents a case study on the occurrence and consequences of lock-in within the context of public sector housing projects in a small island developing state (SIDS). It demonstrates that cost overruns continue beyond the commissioning phase and throughout the project’s lifecycle, even though technical contingencies were implemented to deliver the intended project benefits. The findings unpack the implications of political expediency as a strategic tool mobilised to supersede proper technical decision-making prior to project execution. It concludes that project practitioners’ commitment to select and continue with a sub-optimal project can lead to the implementation of ineffective solutions to justify their actions, resulting in failed outcomes with negative social consequences. This research helps to advance project management knowledge in the us-er/operation phase, because previous scholarly work was limited to investigating lock-in from project conceptualisation to the commissioning phase

When Parallel Schools of Thought Fail to Converge: The Case of Cost Overruns in Project Management

This paper investigates the conflicting and contrasting views between two prominent schools of thought (SOT), the conventional project management empirical school and the incoming behavioural and psychological sciences, to explain the cost overrun phenomenon in transportation infrastructure projects. Although theories within these SOTs seem to coexist and are used interchangeably, there exists a widening knowledge gap that leads to conflicting and contrasting ideological views. In this paper, we contend that there is a lack of a cross-fertilisation mechanism to fuse and co-join contemporary theories on cost overruns. This has led to the encapsulation and fragmented adhocracy in theory building. Utilising a critical review approach, this study proposes the concepts of ideological distancing and encapsulation between “empiricism” and “behavioural” SOTs as the focus of analyses for understanding the root causes of cost overruns in project studies. The study showed that the extant debate on cost overruns is limited and divergent, effectively contributing to the problem of continued expansion and non-convergence of theories that maintain parallel identities. This creates a space for inquiry, reflecting, theorising, and debating for the convergence of SOTs on cost overrun research and theories on what can be deemed project knowledge. This paper contributes to extant project studies by identifying the need for convergence and co-joining theories with different epistemes through causal linkages. Consequently, this will improve the public sector’s infrastructure policymaking by exposing the theoretical limitations of the current ad hoc manner and application of project management concepts based on the project professionals’ bounded decision-making rationalities

Optimism for mitigation of climate warming impacts for sea turtles through nest shading and relocation

Increasing incubation temperatures may threaten the viability of sea turtle populations. We explored opportunities for decreasing incubation temperatures at a Caribbean rookery with extreme female-biased hatchling production. To investigate the effect of artificial shading, temperatures were measured under simple materials (white sheet, white sand, palm leaves). To test natural drivers of incubation temperature, temperatures were measured at average nest depths with shading on two beaches. Results from a pilot experiment suggest the most effective material was palm leaves. Shading decreased temperatures by a mean of 0.60 °C (SE = 0.10 °C, N = 20). Variation between beaches averaged 1.88 °C (SE = 0.13 °C, N = 20). We used long-term rookery data combined with experimental data to estimate the effect on sex ratio: relocation and shading could shift ratios from current ranges (97-100% female) to 60-90% female. A conservation mitigation matrix summarises our evidence that artificial shading and nest relocation are effective conservation strategies to mitigate impacts of climate warming for sea turtles

Influences of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans on Rainy Season Precipitation for the Southernmost Caribbean Small Island State, Trinidad

Seasonal rainfall in the Caribbean Basin is known to be modulated by sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTAs) in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and particularly those in the Equatorial Pacific and Atlantic and the Tropical North Atlantic. However, little is known about how these major oceans influence the seasonal precipitation of individual small island states within the region as climate variability at the island-scale may differ from the Caribbean as a whole. Correlation and composite analyses were determined using monthly rainfall data for the southernmost island of the Caribbean, Trinidad, and an extended area of global SSTAs. In addition to the subregions that are known to modulate Caribbean rainfall, our analyses show that sea surface temperatures (SSTs) located in the subtropical South Pacific, the South Atlantic, and the Gulf of Mexico also have weak (r(2) < 0.5) yet significant influences on the islands' early rainy season (ERS) and late rainy season (LRS) precipitation. Composite maps confirm that the South Pacific, South Atlantic, and the Gulf of Mexico show significant SSTAs in December-January-February (DJF) and March-April-May (MAM) prior to the ERS and the LRS. Statistical models for seasonal forecasting of rainfall at the island scale could be improved by using the SSTAs of the Pacific and Atlantic subregions identified in this study