Exploring earned value management in the Spanish construction industry as a pathway to competitive advantage

[EN] As a well established discipline and profession, project management has its distinctive tools and techniques. One of them that has been considered the embodiment of the core principles of project management is the Earned Value Management (EVM). In managing construction projects, the EVM has been considered as a suitable tool and hence, has been implemented in various construction industry but absent in some others. Taking into account the dynamic environment where construction companies have to operate, particularly in turbulence environments as the direct result of recent global economic downturn, this paper explores the potential implementation of EVM in one of the construction industry, the Spanish construction industry. 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Research paradigms of practice, work and learning

This chapter considers how a number of the main research paradigms are warranted when investigating professional practice. By first setting out an understanding of research, the chapter moves on to consider the shift from the neutrality of epistemological authority of certainty to the ontology of judgement, made in the uncertain flux of practice, and offers reasons to believe that certain actions are more trustworthy in explanation than others. Three main methodological discourses are discussed in the context of practice, and a fourth is proposed: a trans- or post-disciplinary approach to the messy research problems of practice. This approach is grounded in critical realism and seeks to deal with issues of normative social practice in ways that matter to those who are involved: practitioners