Editorial

Citation

Walker, D.H.T. (2013), "Editorial", International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, Vol. 6 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb.2013.35306daa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, Volume 6, Issue 4

From the editor

Derek H.T. Walker, School of Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia, e-mail: derek.walker@rmit.edu.au

About this issue

This last issue for 2013, Volume 6 comprises nine papers. There are seven regular papers two thesis research notes (TRNs) and one book review.

The first paper is entitled “Bridging situated learning theory to the resource-based view of project management” and is written by Kam Jugdev from Athabasca University, Alberta, Canada and Gita Mathur from San José State University, California, USA. This paper presents a high-level framework to strengthen the conceptual bridge between project management and workplace learning by applying situated learning theory to project management practice to guide shared learning within and between projects. It bridges situated learning theory from the workplace learning literature and the resource-based view of project management from the strategic management literature, using them as lenses to view two learning mechanisms in the project management domain, project reviews and communities of practices. They argue that situated learning theory offers insights that can be leveraged to make project management environments more effective through improved intra- and inter-project shared learning. This builds upon previous papers published in IJMPiB including the special issue, Issue 2, of Volume 6.

The second paper is co-authored by Andrew Edkins, Nicola Kelly, Hedley Smyth and Efrosyni Konstantinou, from University College London, UK and is entitled “Reinventing the role of the project manager in mobilising knowledge in construction”. This paper follows on from paper one’s theme of knowledge management and organisation learning in projects. The paper reports on research that examines how the more tacit dimension of knowledge is shared in projects in a construction contracting organisation context and whether explicit organisational knowledge management initiatives can help resolve and better manage project-based challenges. It is based on a single in-depth case study and uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods. The paper confirms the limited usefulness of knowledge management initiatives, and points to the pivotal role of the project manager as latent knowledge managers. The originality is demonstrated by the lack of awareness amongst senior management as to the critical role project managers undertake in marshalling tacit knowledge. This is reinforced by the project managers who themselves are only partly aware of the impact of their knowledge management role. Their emergent, almost instinctive, management of knowledge supports project performance and questions whether further management intervention would be useful for the practitioner and the delivery of client value.

The third paper by Hans Voordijk, Mieke Hoezen and Geert Dewulf from The Netherlands is entitle “Formal bargaining and informal sense making in the competitive dialogue procedure – an event-driven explanation” and it provides interesting insights into how formal bargaining and informal sense making interact and solve problems of understanding between principal and contractor during procurement through the competitive dialogue (CD) of a complex construction project. This is an important paper for those interested in relational project procurement approaches. It uses an in-depth case study to illustrate, illuminate and critically analyse the process. Negotiations develop in either positive or negative cycles. If managers of both the procuring authorities and the contractors are aware of these cycles, they might be able to influence and use them to their mutual benefit. By studying the dynamics in interaction processes between principal and contractor during the procurement stage obstacles and preconditions for an effective CD are shown. I think that any readers who (like me) have a deep interest in project front-end processes will find this a very interesting paper and for those particularly interested in the CD approach, they could download the dissertation of Mieke Hoezen from: http://doc.utwente.nl/80539/

The fourth paper follows the collaboration theme. “The characteristics of and cornerstones for creating integrated teams” by Aki Aapaoja, Maila Herrala, Aki Pekuri and Harri Haapasalo, from the University of Oulu in Finland provides an intriguing story about an case study of integrated project delivery in the USA. It provides complimentary insights of the previous paper together with analysis of the level and challenges of team integration and recognises the cornerstones for creating integrated teams in construction projects. It describes 12 characteristics of an integrated project team. In addition, the cornerstones for creating integrated teams were recognised as the early involvement and assessment of stakeholders, continuous communication and interaction, cultural change, and making the integrated project delivery process. This makes an important contribution to the project relationship procurement and team building literature.

The fifth paper, also emanating from the Nordic world, is written by Sara Haji-Kazemi and Bjorn Andersen from NTNU in Trondheim, Norway. It is entitled “Application of performance measurement as an early warning system: a case study in the oil and gas industry” and presents an overview of the concept of early warning signs in projects and explains how a performance measurement system can be utilised as a source of data for an early warning approach signalling that a project is about to experience problems at some stage in the future. They argue that detection of early warning signals in projects can be better enabled through the application of a performance measurement system with properly defined key performance indicators and that utilisation of this tool can positively affect the overall success of the project. This paper highlights the gap in the literature concerning the link between early warning signals and project management and the link between early warning and performance measurement. It offers a new idea on how performance measurement can be used as an effective early warning system and is intended to be primarily of use to project management practitioners and practically-oriented academics who are interested in developing fresh insights into new approaches for better management of projects.

The sixth paper comes to us from VTT Finland. “Getting real about Big Data: applying critical realism to analyse Big Data hype” is co-authored by Stephen Fox and Tuan Do. They argue that an emerging application of Big Data is the addition of sensors and other micro-electronic devices to engineer-to-order goods such as one-of-a-kind buildings and ships. The addition of micro-electronic devices can enable the setting up and operation of smart buildings and smart ships. The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical realist analysis of Big Data hype. This is necessary to determine what challenges will need to be met before project businesses can achieve informational effects and transformational effects from Big Data technologies. They undertook a critical realist study that was informed by reference to predictive theory and findings from action research. The predictive theory is concerned with the three different types of business effects that can come from information and communication technologies: automational, informational, and transformational and it reveals that hype about Big Data underplays many challenges in achieving informational and transformational effects. The originality of this paper is that critical realism is used in analysis of Big Data hype. The value of this paper is that it reveals a causal mechanism and causal context for project business Big Data application. This type of critical realist analysis can be applied to enable better understanding of necessary causal mechanisms and causal contexts for other ICT innovations.

The seventh paper is entitled “Women project managers: the exploration of their job challenges and issue selling behaviours” and is co-authored by Linda Henderson, Richard Stackman and Charles Koh from the University of San Francisco, California in the USA. They present findings from their study that explores women project managers as a group in order to generate new understanding about the present project context within which they work and to promote new research-based ideas for optimising their potential in business organisations. This is an important study for expanding our understanding of the lived reality of PM work that uses quantitative and qualitative questionnaire items of 211 female project managers in North America. It shows significant associations among women project managers’ career, age, cost of their projects, and their professional certifications. In addition, their challenges and issue-selling moves produce six factors related to their influence of others. Lastly, the results reveal women’s self-described advantages and disadvantages in the project management profession showing that while women project managers do continue to experience marginalisation from gender bias, they are leveraging particular job challenges and issue selling circumstances to their advantage in moving through gender bias. This is a rare study that considers the real-world contextual factors of women’s projects, and the first study to explore their perspective specifically in terms of their job challenges, issue selling, and self-described disadvantages and advantages in managing projects. Business organisations are in a unique historical position to uplift their project management capacity and leadership talent through developing and promoting women project managers.

Two TRNs follow, both from RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. I remind readers that the purpose of the TRN is to allow recent doctoral graduates to share insights into their work “fresh off the press”. Not only do these papers provide advance access to their original and rigorous studies but they also provide a URL contact where the thesis itself can be downloaded. This would be of interest to those interested in the topic as well as others who are starting out on their PhD journey and wish to gain insights into the wide array of study approaches, topics and motivations to embark on a doctorate.

Michelle Turner’s TRN paper is entitled “The development of a work-life fit model: a demands and resources approach’. This paper summarises the scope, methodology and main findings of her doctoral thesis about the demand-resource experience of workers in the Australian construction industry. This provides an interesting fit with the previous paper in that it reports on her PhD research that suggests that Australian construction workers can be classified into four broad groups according to their work, family and community demand profiles. Results indicate that the construction workforce is not a homogeneous workforce. Instead, the demands and resources associated with each of the four groups emphasises the heterogeneous nature of the construction workforce. The paper explains how the thesis provides an extension of the work-life fit model that recognises the subjective nature of experience, and introduces a new methodology to both the work-life and construction management domains. Findings of the research form the basis of a new work-life fit model which applies a demands-resources approach.

Muhammad Ali Noor, Malik Khalfan and Tayyab Maqsood present a paper entitled “The role of procurement practices in effective implementation of infrastructure projects in Pakistan” which reports on Ali Noor’s PhD thesis. The research has identified the different procurement choices and reasons for a particular choice, the issues in procurement choice and the issues in procurement implementation in the public sector organisations in Pakistan. It also described the impact of procurement practice on successful project outcomes. As a result multiple issues have been identified which affects the choice of procurement such as the need for efficiency and finances, client objectives, timely policy decisions, clarity of clients’ needs, delays in bidding and response, delays in approvals, proposal and bid evaluation procedures, need for relaxation of rules and project characteristics. The major barriers and constraints to implementation of procurement have been found to be: regulatory and legal; risks and contract management; principles of procurement; political, culture, inter- and intra-organisational issues; conditions of the country; lack of understanding; land acquisition; project revenue; and finance issues. Procurement had a direct impact on the project team relationships and subsequent impact on performance and success of the project. As a result of this analysis a vivid big road map picture of the ongoing processes and practice of procurement in public sector in Pakistan has been created which vividly portrays the issues and barriers of the procurement practice in Pakistan. With few papers being published about procurement choices and their contemplation in this part of the globe, this paper provides rare insights into how this populous and emerging economy is proceeding with delivery public infrastructure projects.

Finally we present a book review by Beverley Lloyd-Walker on the book written by Karin Bredin and Jonas Söderlund in 2011 entitled Human Resource Management in Project-based Organizations published by Palgrave Macmillan. Project work is undertaken in quite a different way to general management yet many HRM professionals and senior managers in general do not understand the need to take into account the special needs of those undertaking project work. Beverley Lloyd-Walker has co-authored a leading text on HRM (Dessler et al., 1999, 2004, 2007) and is well placed to provide an insightful book review.

Derek H.T. Walker