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Traditional “hierarchical” and “network-centric management” approaches often associated with the management of well-defined construction projects lack the adaptability to cope with uncertainty, standardised practices and the required conformance to industry standards. The purpose of this paper is to propose an integrative “holonic” methodology for the management of megaprojects in the construction industry, which incorporates both adaptability and conformance to standards, and to illustrate the associated benefits of such a methodology.

A multi-case study comprising three cases delivered in the USA and Australia, namely the Adelaide Desalination Plant (ADP), the Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, and the Olmsted Locks and Dam Replacement project were utilized to demonstrate the key features of the hierarchical, network-centric and holonic approaches to managing megaprojects.

The case studies demonstrate incorporating the holonic approach into the management of complex construction projects results in increased management effectiveness and project success. The proposed “holonic” methodology provides the potential to efficiently manage megaprojects navigating through high degrees of uncertainty.

The adoption of the holonic view by project management (PM) practitioners will help them manage megaprojects that are characterised by greater complexity. Second, the proposed methodology enables the discipline of PM to evolve in alignment with rapidly unfolding global transformation trends.

This paper demonstrates the application of the “holonic” methodology to the domain of the management of construction megaprojects. Such an approach is needed as construction projects become increasingly more complex across the world due to technological, political and social uncertainties, larger scale, changing environmental and safety regulations, and the growing involvement of human factors germane to this research.

In modern industrial processes, the need of reducing lead time is imperious. This goal is pursued by “Holonic” structures, which are systems based on a network of collaboration. The purpose of this paper is to appraise the possible benefits, in terms of production duration, of such organizations compared to non-holonic arrangements. In addition, this analysis represents virtual teams, which are a significant and strategic attribute of holonic manufacturing systems.

The experiment performed in this paper is a simulation of an automobile assembly process under both a holonic and a non-holonic structure to observe lead times and the distinctive characteristics of each organization. Other targets of this research are to monitor the advantages that either strategy may offer in terms of efficiency and to examine a possible model of how virtual teams can be used in holonic networks.

The findings are unexpected. An initial expectation might lead to the belief that, given the better coordination and communication of holonic networks, lead times would be diminished. This experiment, utilizing virtual teams of university students, indicated otherwise.

It should be noticed, however, that future experiments in real manufacturing assembly processes are recommended to complement the findings of this study.

The management of lead times is indeed a complex task that includes a diversity of variables. Holonic structures should balance several factors that might play a role in lead times and ultimately in the success of a project. An original experiment with the participation of many universities in different countries is presented in this study. The exposure of global characteristics of modern manufacturing structures constitutes the main value of this research.

This paper addresses the implementation of ISO 9000 international standards in the university environment, and presents examples of developing a quality system based on these standards in a Canadian university department. The application is based on a holonic systems concept, which is first explained. Subsequently, a project plan for the design, documentation, implementation, and maintenance of an academic quality system is presented. Emphasis is placed on the effective structuring of the system, development of a set of product quality indicators accepted by faculty and staff, as well as non‐bureaucratic documentation. The systems concept allows for the integration of the ISO 9001 quality system with other systems, such as the ISO 14001 environmental management system. A university may decide on implementing both of these systems simultaneously, or incorporating one into the existing framework of the other. Positive synergy effects will occur in any case. The integration of such management systems in academia is also discussed.

Paper aim is to analyse and consider the business network contract (BNC) as a model of voluntary holarchy in which the holons are isomorphically linked between them by means managerial chooses and laws to reach a communal and individual survival condition.

The Italian SME manufacturing firms signing a BNC are seen as holonic elements in an adaptive system. Data drawn from the Italian business register are analyzed to understand the driving factors of the firms’ adaptation and survival, by using descriptive, causality and analysis of variance (ANOVA) statistical techniques.

The main findings of the paper support the holonic approach by demonstrating that BNC are alliances based on strategic relations able to create synergies and increase performance. Empirical results suggest that “internal and external efficiency,” given by knowledge sharing practices and firms’ geographical proximity will positively influence BN firms’ productivity, although without resorting to investments (tangible or intangible).

BNC is an instrument able to introduce common rules and finalized isomorphic behaviors making firms acting as a holon with positive effects on performance.

This work enriches the existing literature by joining the systemic approach with the network theories and providing evidence of the suitability of the “holon” construct as the basis for a multi-level framework for the study of organizational networking.

Describes the history, current activities and ongoing projects of the IMS. Intelligent Manufacturing Systems is an international collaboration programme for research and development of new manufacturing models for the next generation.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the existing studies on the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in lean construction management (LCM). Further, this study offers a classification scheme that specifies different categories of AI tools, as applied to the field of LCM to support various principles of LCM.

This research adopts the systematic literature review (SLR) process, which consists of five consecutive steps: planning, searching, screening, extraction and synthesis and reporting. As a supplement to SLR, a bibliometric analysis is performed to examine the quantity and citation impact of the reviewed papers.

In this paper, seven key areas related to the principles of LCM for which AI tools have been used are identified. The findings of this research clarify how AI can assist in bolstering the practice of LCM. Further, this article presents directions for the future evolution of AI tools in LCM based on the current emerging trends.

This paper advances the LCM systems by offering a lens through which construction managers can better understand key concepts in the linkage of AI to LCM.

This research offers a new classification scheme that allows researchers to properly recall, identify and group various applications of AI categories in the construction industry based on various principles of LCM. In addition, this study provides a source of references for researchers in the LCM discipline, which advances knowledge and facilitates theory development in the field.

Megaprojects are financially large and complex in scope, which require engagement of stakeholders from various institution and communities. With increased concerns from stakeholders on sustainability related issues, from environmental to socio-economic perspective, managing megaprojects has become quite challenging. Hence, there should be proactive approaches in active engagement of stakeholders from the start of the projects to overcome such issues. Currently, there is a knowledge gap on stakeholder management strategies specific to megaprojects on managing sustainability issues.

This research has adopted review of secondary data from case studies to identify stakeholder management challenges and strategies in megaprojects around Sydney area. The documents related to three different projects were reviewed and data were collected through qualitative content analysis and coding with use of NVivo software for within case analysis and was followed by thematic approach for cross case analysis.

Every case study project's sustainability-related stakeholder issues are more similar than different to others. Differences are mostly in terms of intensity of impact of any issue in a particular project, and/or intensity of impact at certain phase of any project. Moreover, significant sectors and strategies have been identified for key focus to manage environment and socioeconomic issues. Whatever be the strategies, in case of megaprojects, they need to be mostly proactive.

This research has extended the knowledge on stakeholder management, in relation to managing sustainability-related issues of megaprojects during their design, construction and operation phases. This research offers useful strategies for project teams of megaprojects to develop a proactive stakeholder management plan, addressing unavoidable sustainability challenges.

This chapter aims to provide a contribution to the debate about the actual relevance and sustainability of holacracy as an organizational structure able to overcome the limitations of hierarchy. Based on the literature review of this topic, we developed a research framework to explore the organizational variables that allow, or encourage, the development of organizations according to the holonic model. We applied this framework to a case study of a fast-growing Italian system integrator and consulting company.

The outcomes of the empirical investigation show that the applied framework enables the explanation of the development of a holonic organization and they highlight that, to deal with such development, a central role is played by electronic human resource management (e-HRM), defined in terms of HRM processes, software platforms, and organizational culture.

Managerial usage of performance measurement and management systems (PMMS) is commonly far from what theory advocates as ideal. Based on this, the purpose of this paper is to identify the justifications for using PMMS and how much each of them explains the actual use of these systems.

An empirical survey was conducted with 149 manufacturing companies’ managers as respondents. Descriptive statistics analysis and factorial analysis were performed with multivariate analysis to test proposed hypotheses.

The results for all the companies surveyed are similar for the four dimensions – monitoring, focus, strategic decision-making and legitimization. Only monitoring dimension presents a difference between larger and smaller companies. There is no difference in the other three dimensions. As for the source of capital, there is no difference in any of the four dimensions. It evidences that companies do not seem to be mature enough in the full usage of their PMMS.

Data are related only to a sample of São Paulo manufacturing companies and should not be fully considered in different contexts without the proper awareness of ambiance differences.

There is still room for organizations to improve their performance measurement systems as managers could learn how to better avail themselves of the information from the PMMS. Brazilian policymakers could support this process through policies and programs that incentivize manager to gain education in PMMS.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) should be supported by policymakers (through learning programs or internal monitoring incentives) to improve their measurement performance systems usage capabilities.

Discussion was based on data from an emerging country where there are mostly SMEs and companies have to deal with more contingencies and restrictions. Although the lack of resources tends to diminish a more effective usage of these systems, PMMS are mostly directed to monitoring issues.