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Article
Publication date: 1 June 2002

Heng Li, Zhen Chen, Conrad T.C. Wong and Peter E.D. Love

A quantitative approach for construction pollution control that is based on construction resource levelling is presented. The parameters of construction pollution index (CPI) and…

Abstract

A quantitative approach for construction pollution control that is based on construction resource levelling is presented. The parameters of construction pollution index (CPI) and hazard magnitude (hi) are treated as a pseudo resource and integrated with a project’s construction schedule. When the level of pollution for site operations exceeds the permissible limit identified by a regulatory body, a Genetic Algorithm (GA) enhanced levelling technique is used to re‐schedule project activities so that the level of pollution can be re‐distributed and thus reduced. The GA enhanced resource levelling technique is demonstrated using 20 on‐site construction activities in a project. Experimental results indicate that the proposed GA enhanced resource levelling method performs better than the traditional resource levelling method used in MS Project©. The proposed method is an effective tool that can be used by project managers to reduce the level of pollution at a particular period of time; when other control methods fail.

Details

Construction Innovation, vol. 2 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1471-4175

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 February 2023

Xiaosong Jason Wu, Randi Jiang, Jacob Chia-An Tsai and Gary Klein

An enterprise system (ES) implementation proceeds as a multi-team system (MTS), with multiple project teams spanning time and business functions to meet organization-wide goals…

Abstract

Purpose

An enterprise system (ES) implementation proceeds as a multi-team system (MTS), with multiple project teams spanning time and business functions to meet organization-wide goals. Thus, the focus shifts from the output of a single project team to the outcomes of all ES project teams as part of the larger MTS. This study extends concepts of shared mental models (SMMs) in aspects of goals and plans in both MTS level and project team level and further examines SMMs' interactive impact on the MTS-based project performance.

Design/methodology/approach

This study tests the model with survey data from 140 MTS-based ES implementations in China. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS SEM) served to test the hypothesized relationships.

Findings

SMMs of project team-level goals and plans contribute to the cooperation and coordination in the ES implementation and thereby improve final implementation efficiency either directly or in combination. However, SMMs of MTS-level goal and plans contribute integration only when considered with achievements at the project level.

Originality/value

Prior literature suggests a critical role of integration among ES project teams but finds challenges in achieving such integration. By leveraging shared mental model theory, the authors' results show that both common goal and plan understandings in the integration team critically influence integration in ES implementation and, thus, the final ES implementation efficiency, though not in a strictly linear relationship.

Details

International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, vol. 16 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-8378

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 November 2021

Torbjørn Bjorvatn

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to describe and explain how organisations use internal projects to implement organisation-level strategy objectives.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to describe and explain how organisations use internal projects to implement organisation-level strategy objectives.

Design/methodology/approach

Theory development with an emphasis on explaining key constructs and their mutual relationships. The theoretical contribution is represented in a diagram along with a detailed verbal account.

Findings

The paper develops a dynamic, cross-level framework to illustrate the organisational processes and outcomes that determine project-based strategy implementation within a single organisation. The interplay between the base organisation and the project, and benefits realisation were singled out as key future research areas. The proposed framework engages with central discourses in the fields of project management, strategic management, innovation studies, knowledge management and organisation studies.

Research limitations/implications

Only the contours of an organisation-level theory of strategically motivated internal projects are outlined. Future research must elaborate on the complexities, the non-linear relationships and the boundary conditions that follow from the proposed framework.

Practical implications

Managers are alerted to the strategic role of internal projects, how these projects help connect strategy and performance and what the accompanying organisational processes and outcomes look like.

Originality/value

The paper constitutes an early conceptual treatment of strategy-driven internal projects as a distinct project category, thus addressing a major knowledge gap in project studies. Organisational project-management theory is extended with suggestions for future research.

Details

International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, vol. 15 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-8378

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 March 2021

Dongping Cao, Shiting Shao, Bin Huang and Guangbin Wang

Despite its great potential to improve the sustainability of architectural, engineering, construction and facility management activities, the implementation of building…

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Abstract

Purpose

Despite its great potential to improve the sustainability of architectural, engineering, construction and facility management activities, the implementation of building information modeling (BIM) in many projects has failed to achieve expected benefits due to negative behavioral responses such as user resistance. This paper aims to characterize the complexity of end user's behavioral responses to BIM implementation in construction projects using a multidimensional perspective and examines how these responses are impacted by different levels of contextual factors.

Design/methodology/approach

By integrating technology acceptance, resistance and adoption literature, this paper theoretically proposes a research model to characterize the associations between different dimensions of behavioral responses and different levels of contextual factors. The model is then empirically tested with survey and interview data collected from BIM-based construction projects in China.

Findings

The empirical results not only validate the two-dimensional view of the behavioral responses (i.e. the dimension of support/resistance that ranges from aggressive resistance to enthusiastic support, and the dimension of actual use that ranges from non-use to high use) but also provide evidence for the prevalence of ambivalent responses such as supporting but lowly using and resisting but highly using. The empirical results also provide evidence that different levels of contextual factors generally play different roles in shaping the behavioral responses. Specifically, the dimension of support/resistance is more substantially impacted by the team-level factor while the dimension of actual use of BIM is more significantly associated with the project-level factor.

Originality/value

While previous research on BIM adoption or implementation behaviors has primarily focused on investigating users' response from single-dimension perspectives such as acceptance or non-acceptance, this study represents an exploratory effort of using a two-dimensional view to characterize the complexity and ambivalence of end users' behavioral responses to the implementation of innovative technologies such as BIM in construction projects. This study also contributes to deepened understandings of how these different dimensions of behavioral responses are intricately shaped by different levels (i.e. individual-, team- and project-levels) of contextual factors in construction projects which are characterized as temporary and inter-organizational.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. 29 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 July 2022

Daniele Binci, Corrado Cerruti, Giorgia Masili and Cristina Paternoster

The purpose of this study is to explore the agile project management (APM) approach through the contextual ambidextrous lens by overcoming the traditional perspective that…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to explore the agile project management (APM) approach through the contextual ambidextrous lens by overcoming the traditional perspective that separates projects within the opposite planned-exploitation- and emergent-exploration-oriented forms.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses a grounded approach to five different agile-oriented companies for discovering how agile adoption shows both emergent (exploration-oriented) and planned (exploitation-oriented) tensions in a perspective that connects, rather than separates, them.

Findings

This study discovers five main categories, namely, approach, objectives, boundaries, leadership and feedback, that capture the tensions between planned and emergent issues of agile projects. The identified variables interact with different intervening conditions of the APM attributes (i.e. road map, product backlog, team backlog and solution delivery), activating different response actions (“exploitation embedded in exploration” and vice-versa), requiring, as a consequence, the need for contextual ambidexterity.

Research limitations/implications

This study identifies different implications based on real project contexts, as the importance of a more complete picture of the APM approach, which also considers the combination of planned and emergent aspects of projects and, as consequence, the needs for dual capacities (T-shaped skills) both at project management and team levels.

Practical implications

This study identifies, in real project contexts, the relevance of integration between the corporate level and the agile project team. This implies the search for constant dialogue, with feedback exchange spread across all levels, also enabled by an integrated leadership approach.

Originality/value

This study highlights agile tensions in a real-world project context by describing how APM connects both explorative and exploitative aspects of change within the same APM initiative, in order to manage such tensions, which differs from previous studies that consider APM in alternation with a linear project management approach as stage-gate.

Details

The TQM Journal, vol. 35 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1754-2731

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 20 June 2019

Teemu Mikael Lappi, Kirsi Aaltonen and Jaakko Kujala

This paper aims to increase the current understanding of the connection between operational level information and communication technology (ICT) projects and national level

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to increase the current understanding of the connection between operational level information and communication technology (ICT) projects and national level digital transformation by researching how project governance structures and practices are applied in an e-government context.

Design/methodology/approach

An elaborative qualitative study through public documentary analysis and empirical multi-case research on Finnish central government is used.

Findings

The study constructs a multi-level governance structure with three main functions and applies this in an empirical setting. The results also describe how different governance practices and processes, focusing on project portfolio management, are applied vertically across different organizational levels to connect the ICT projects with the national digitalization strategy.

Originality/value

This study integrates project governance and portfolio management knowledge into public sector digitalization, thus contributing to project management, e-government and ICT research streams by improving the current understanding on the governance of ICT projects as part of a larger-scale digitalization. This study also highlights perceived gaps between current governance practices and provides implications to managers and practitioners working in the field to address these gaps.

Details

Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, vol. 13 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-6166

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 22 December 2021

Majid Parchamijalal, Saeed Moradi and Mohsen Zabihi Shirazi

Claim formation is a fact and a regular occurrence in construction industry projects and often leads to a waste of money and time for organizations. Organizations can, however…

Abstract

Purpose

Claim formation is a fact and a regular occurrence in construction industry projects and often leads to a waste of money and time for organizations. Organizations can, however, reduce and control claims by promoting an integrated claim management system and improving productivity in the results of the claims. Establishing a claim management office is one of the ways to help organizations achieve this.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on library research, expert opinion and analysis of organizations' contracts as case studies and identifying the root causes of the claim, this paper proposes a claim management office maturity model and determines its levels.

Findings

This paper proposes a claim management office maturity model and also determines its levels. The general structure of this model is based on three parameters: “characteristics of each level,” “requirements of each level” and “transition period of each level” in five levels, where the first level is the most basic level and level five is the highest level of the implementation of a claim management office in the organization.

Originality/value

It can be clearly emphasized that this research is one of the first research studies that has dealt with the issue of claim management office in the construction industry and has proposed the model of maturity and development of claim management office in the organization. The use of numerous and experienced experts in achieving the results and case organizations to develop this research has increased the value and credibility of this research. This study also helps to improve the level of claim management in construction industry organizations so that these organizations can implement each level of claim management maturity model in the organization according to their competence and need for claim management. And by implementing it correctly, solve or reduce the problems of claim management in the organization and their projects.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. 30 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 February 2013

James DeLisle, Terry Grissom and Lovisa Högberg

The purpose of this paper is to explore the notion of sustainability and research reporting price premiums for LEED‐certified buildings.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the notion of sustainability and research reporting price premiums for LEED‐certified buildings.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper explores the notion of sustainability and research reporting price premiums for LEED‐certified buildings. The durability of certification levels is explored by converting projects developed under the initial NC2‐series system to a new vintage rating adopted in 2009. This conversion is made by applying Lagrangian multipliers to model stochastic impacts.

Findings

The study reveals that 18 percent of 591 projects developed under the NC2‐Series were “misclassified” in terms of certification levels when converted to new NCv2009 standards. To the extent the market has pursued LEED certification levels, the unanticipated changes may have led to the adoption short‐term solutions that are inappropriate due to the long‐term nature of real estate assets.

Research limitations/implications

Given the complexity of the LEED rating system, it is unknown how the market will react to the lack of durability and approach pricing over the long‐term.

Practical implications

The results indicate market participants should adopt a proactive approach to LEED certification.

Originality/value

The study identifies significant dynamics in the LEED certification system for new construction and behavioural responses that have not been reported in the literature.

Details

Journal of Property Investment & Finance, vol. 31 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-578X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 May 2014

Marika Arena, Giovanni Azzone, Enrico Cagno, Amerigo Silvestri and Paolo Trucco

This paper aims to propose a model, to operationalize the idea of enterprise risk management (ERM), relying on the concept of capabilities. The proposed model, labelled “Spring…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to propose a model, to operationalize the idea of enterprise risk management (ERM), relying on the concept of capabilities. The proposed model, labelled “Spring model”, is specifically tailored to the characteristics of project-based organisations, where risk is to be managed transversally to different organizational levels (enterprise, project portfolio, functions, projects).

Design/methodology/approach

A case study methodology is used to exemplify the functioning of the proposed model and display the suitability of the concept of capabilities, as means whereby companies can manage their risk. Data were collected from different sources over a time frame of three years: semi-structured interviews, official documents and presentations, archives, direct observation and internal document usually not available to the public.

Findings

The “Spring model” explains how risk can impact different organizational levels (enterprise, project portfolio, functions, projects), and how risk can be effectively managed, at different organizational levels, through the organization's capabilities.

Practical implications

The paper gives concrete guidance on the operational elements that project-based organisations should consider for managing risks in a comprehensive and integrated way and discusses potential analysis/insights that could be derived embracing the capability perspective. The empirical testing, performed in a leading oil and gas company, provides an example of its functioning.

Originality/value

The paper represents an attempt to apply ERM concepts and tools to operations, making a connection between research in corporate governance and finance, where the ERM concept originated, and research in project management, where attention of researchers tended to concentrate on specific types of risk management practices.

Details

International Journal of Energy Sector Management, vol. 8 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-6220

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 November 2023

Ehsan Goudarzi, Hamid Esmaeeli, Kia Parsa and Shervin Asadzadeh

The target of this research is to develop a mathematical model which combines the Resource-Constrained Multi-Project Scheduling Problem (RCMPSP) and the Multi-Skilled…

Abstract

Purpose

The target of this research is to develop a mathematical model which combines the Resource-Constrained Multi-Project Scheduling Problem (RCMPSP) and the Multi-Skilled Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problem (MSRCPSP). Due to the importance of resource management, the proposed formulation comprises resource leveling considerations as well. The model aims to simultaneously optimize: (1) the total time to accomplish all projects and (2) the total deviation of resource consumptions from the uniform utilization levels.

Design/methodology/approach

The K-Means (KM) and Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) clustering methods have been separately applied to discover the clusters of activities which have the most similar resource demands. The discovered clusters are given to the scheduling process as priori knowledge. Consequently, the execution times of the activities with the most common resource requests will not overlap. The intricacy of the problem led us to incorporate the KM and FCM techniques into a meta-heuristic called the Bi-objective Symbiosis Organisms Search (BSOS) algorithm so that the real-life samples of this problem could be solved. Therefore, two clustering-based algorithms, namely, the BSOS-KM and BSOS-FCM have been developed.

Findings

Comparisons between the BSOS-KM, BSOS-FCM and the BSOS method without any clustering approach show that the clustering techniques could enhance the optimization process. Another hybrid clustering-based methodology called the NSGA-II-SPE has been added to the comparisons to evaluate the developed resource leveling framework.

Practical implications

The practical importance of the model and the clustering-based algorithms have been demonstrated in planning several construction projects, where multiple water supply systems are concurrently constructed.

Originality/value

Reviewing the literature revealed that there was a need for a hybrid formulation that embraces the characteristics of the RCMPSP and MSRCPSP with resource leveling considerations. Moreover, the application of clustering algorithms as resource leveling techniques was not studied sufficiently in the literature.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 200000