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Where do I go from here? Motivated reasoning in construction decisions
Construction Management and Economics
Abstract
Early stage decisions have the greatest impact on construction projects and so, attention at conception and realization of projects is imperative. Decisions are influenced by actors’ interdependencies, thus, it is important to understand how actors determine meanings of their situations and actions. Meaning is derived from situational cues that are contextually bounded and, through actions, determines decisions’ outcomes via sensemaking. The objectives of this critical essay are to examine the impact of motivated reasoning on sensemaking and, thus, decision-making through scrutinising how actors make sense of projects and contexts to yield meanings. The focus of the discussion is on the human interactional aspects of decisions to examine potential bias, effected through the vague goals held by the actors, and the assumption of rationality, extending to bounded rationality, and how that leads to traps/pitfalls in decision-making. The discussion encompasses the concepts of sensemaking and of motivated reasoning in construction decisions from the perspectives of the dominant logic and the dynamic states of flux in the construction environment – in particular, the aspects of open-mindedness and directional bias, over-optimism, and attitudinal predispositions which impact on motivated reasoning of decision-makers in construction projects. This essay concludes that motivated reasoning, as a bias vector, operates to influence how actors arrive at understandings, reach decisions and behave to generate outcomes. The motivated reasoning perspective gives insight into the nature of decision-making in many project processes and the outcomes achieved.
... Genre Çıdık and Boyd [17] Coordinating design in construction Fellows and Liu [54] The reasoning of decisions in construction Addis [14] Tacit knowledge management in construction Gacasan et al. [55] Project management in construction Volker [56] Procurement of architectural services Fellows and Liu [13] Strategic action fields Linderoth [5] Information and communication technology Qin and Green [49] Micro-practices and project organisation Studies in the construction context vary in their objectives, with different genres covering a range of disciplines within the sector. However, what commonly emerges is the use of sensemaking to interpret and explain social behaviour. ...
... Leaders are expected to be well-informed of the rules of going digital. Attaining these rules would mean going through an extensive learning curve themselves initially, then arguably even to a more complex task, where they must simplify these rules to drive employees' adoption, accelerated by effective communication, motivation, and engagement [54]. Sensemaking would support creating a philosophical ground for the change in reluctancy of the construction industry, particularly in the adoption of new concepts such as digital technologies. ...
... However, before shedding light on how digitalisation's capability can better replace conventional activities, an innovation must prove to fit into the firms' resources and financial abilities [75]. The structuring of meaning for change, in the complex nature of the construction's environment, would require interactions between those involved [54]. Such an interaction to foster change could be aided by the observation from members within the firm, towards linking the introduction of digitalisation with a project's outcome, which would underpin a common meaning of purposefulness among all [55]. ...
Different researchers have examined construction innovation from diverse perspectives and with varied conclusions, but what has commonly transpired is that the construction industry is a complex and ever-changing environment that tends to have a selective perspective on innovation. Recently, digitalisation has offered critical enhancements in construction organisations’ internal processes. However, the uptake of these innovations is far from satisfactory. To integrate theory with practice, sensemaking theories provide an opportunity to help us understand and explain the social phenomenon behind achieving a common meaning across social systems. In the quest to support research efforts through understanding and explaining the enablers of digital transformation, this paper aims to qualitatively apply the sensemaking perspective to digitalisation in construction organisations. To this end, an empirical qualitative approach was adopted using a questionnaire survey of 59 construction professionals, from different firms in the United Kingdom, providing a perspective on how sense is being developed by their organisations to foster digitalisation and achieve an effective digital transformation. Results suggest that a variety of aspects contribute to the indecision of construction firms towards digitalisation, informing research of the pressure points deemed critical at both leadership and employee levels. The findings point to the complexity of construction organisations and the non-linear nature of embracing new ideas. Future research is encouraged to assess the empirically captured cues presented in this paper through other means of investigation towards a more robust sensemaking perspective in the construction industry.
... Para sustentar este tipo de avaliação é necessário existir informação (ISO 15686-5, 2017), que nem sempre é fiável e robusta, nem está prontamente disponível. A atividade de gestão de ativos (GA) ainda enfrenta dificuldades na incorporação do conceito de custo do ciclo de vida (CCV) na sua prática diária (Fellows & Liu, 2018;Salvado et al., 2018;Goh & Sun, 2016 ;Bromilow & Pawsey, 2013). ...
As funções financeiras e as funções relacionadas com o desempenho técnico e funcional (não financeiras) estão incorporadas nas atividades de gestão do ciclo de vida de qualquer dos ativos construídos. Essas funções fornecem informação relevante para o estabelecimento de estratégias de operação e de manutenção, bem como para o processo de tomada de decisão relacionado com investimentos a longo prazo em reparações, substituições e reabilitações. O objetivo deste artigo é demonstrar os efeitos da utilização destes dois tipos de funções nas decisões estratégicas de longo prazo da gestão de ativos. Esta demonstração é feita por recurso a uma análise de informação financeira, técnica e funcional de portefólios de edifícios. Para tal, apresenta-se um caso de estudo de dois edifícios escolares públicos construídos, respetivamente nas décadas de 40 e 80 do século passado, nos quais foram realizadas intervenções profundas de reabilitação no ano de 2010. Consideram-se e comparam-se os efeitos das funções utilizadas para apoiar o processo de tomada de decisão nos períodos que antecederam e sucederam essas intervenções. Os resultados dos cálculos de taxas de depreciação funcional equivalente e financeiras, mostram um desalinhamento entre funcões financeiras e não financeiras e realçam a importância de que se promova esse alinhamento, tendo em vista uma otimização da gestão do ciclo de vida destes edifícios.
... Overestimating these risks can lead to a higher bid and thus a lower chance of winning the tender. Underestimating the risks can increase the chance of getting the project awarded but can negatively affect the result during realization in terms of project delays and cost overruns (Morris et al. 2011, Fellows andLiu 2018). ...
Awareness of design risks is essential for preparing integrated design and construction tenders as decisions in this phase can have serious consequences once the project is awarded. The practice of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) promises to support contractors in dealing with risks in the decision-making process. However, due to limited time and resources in a tender, risks involved in design alternatives are often overlooked and the selection of alternatives is mainly based on the decision-makers’ knowledge and experience. This raises the question how decision makers can become aware of the risks in the tender phase of projects. Following a design science research approach three interventions to raise risk awareness are identified and validated in the context of an infrastructure tender in the Netherlands. These interventions are (1) a general list of defined criteria to identify those criteria that correspond with the characteristics of the tender; (2) mapping identified project risks on criteria and assign a bandwidth score; (3) evaluation of the quality of the decision process by scoring elements of decision quality. Based on these interventions three design rules are proposed to increase the transparency of decision problems and the understanding of choices and, by doing so, create awareness for risks involved in design alternatives.
... The committee members play an important role in supporting their chairpersons, i.e. furnishing critical information, analysis, and recommendations for making decision. These members come from different departments, having different levels of procurement experience, different educational, ethic, and professional backgrounds (Fellows and Liu 2018;Hui et al. 2011). They are experts in their professions who largely constitute the key members in a procurement committee. ...
The construction industry’s complexity and high-risk nature present significant decision-making challenges, often resulting in errors that jeopardise health and safety performance. Cognitive biases can further distort risk assessments and influence decision-making, ultimately affecting safety behaviours and outcomes. Although numerous studies have explored cognitive biases in construction, there remains a lack of a comprehensive understanding regarding how these biases interact with key decision factors related to health and safety. This study aimed to advance sustainable health and safety practices within the construction industry by examining the consequences and interplay of cognitive biases and essential decision factors through a systematic literature review. Two hundred and eighty-three articles published between 2018 and 2024 were analysed, with forty-five selected for inclusion. The network analysis findings identify key decision factors, reinforcing loops, and critical paths that affect health and safety performance, illustrating how cognitive biases influence risk perception, decision complexity, and workplace safety behaviours. The insights gained from this study highlight the challenges and the potential for improvement. They serve as a foundation for researchers, construction safety professionals, and policymakers to develop targeted interventions that mitigate cognitive biases, enhance risk perception, and strengthen decision-making frameworks, ultimately improving health and safety performance in the construction sector.
Oversight arrangements which articulate technical, contractual and organizational decisions in a project domain constitute project governance. In the light of rapid globalization and an increasing number of complex, pluralistic and heterogeneous projects, the need for contingent project governance arrangements which bridge both stability and temporality of project decisions is emphasized in the literature. Nevertheless, inadequate attention has been paid to study how these governance arrangements are actually set up on contemporary projects. We use a combination of institutions-based and practice-based lenses to develop arguments on how governance arrangements are initially selected and replicated or revised, thereby leading to the emergence of order in project governance structures. We gather empirical evidence by qualitatively studying the shaping of project governance structures in a metro rail project in India. Our data show how the project promoters drew from the Delhi Metro’s governance structures to make technical, contractual and organizational decisions in the Chennai Metro, and then contested or stabilized these structures within the project field through situated interactions. Consequently, we identify 11 underlying mechanisms of sustenance and change of governance arrangements and project norms. By bridging both generic and contextual governance perspectives, the study underlines the role of situated “governing” in (re)creating governance structures.
Supply networks operate in two primary contexts. Firstly, as horizontal arrays of organisations from which particular organisations may be selected to participate in the realisation of a project, depending on factors such as expertise, resources, workload, and price. Secondly, the selected participants then form a vertically orientated network of organisations with their integration aimed at realising the project effectively. This chapter addresses the nature of culture, both national and organisational, together with derivatives of organisational climate and the concerns of behaviour modification, organisational citizenship, and corporate social responsibility. It discusses organisational citizenship behaviour, the rhetoric of teams and teamwork, and ethics which impact on human behaviour. Relational issues of team formation and functioning, and alliances between businesses are examined as human and organisational contexts through which supply chain participants operate and projects are realised.
Purpose
Both financial and non-financial functions are imbedded in the life-cycle management activities of building assets. These functions provide relevant information for the establishment of operational and maintenance strategies and for decision-making processes related with the timing of major repairs, replacements and rehabilitations. The purpose of this paper is to focus on improving the alignment of financial and non-financial functions related to the recognition that the service potential of buildings should be appropriately funded as it is consumed over its life cycle.
Design/methodology/approach
Authors undertake an analysis of depreciation rates used to accommodate a systematic allocation of the depreciable amount of building assets over its useful life. Different depreciation approaches and calculation methods are explored. A case study of a school building portfolio is used to debate situations of misalignment of financial and non-financial depreciation rates. Data mining methods including decision tree and clustering are used to predict equivalent functional depreciation rates of buildings system and subsystems and promote an enhanced alignment with regulated financial depreciation rates toward an optimized life-cycle management of the school building portfolio.
Findings
Historical data show the relevance of considering technical and functional characteristics of the building system and their subsystems (landscaping; structure; external elevations and roofs; interior divisions; and services and equipment) when determining depreciation rates for the building assets The case study showed a misalignment of equivalent functional and financial depreciation rates used in the life-cycle management activities of the school building portfolio ranging between 1/1.26 for external elevations and roofs and 1/5.21 for landscaping.
Originality/value
Buildings initial technical and functional attributes are affected with its wear, aging or decay, causing loss of value until they reach end-of-life. This paper demonstrates the impact of the different interpretations of the concept of useful life and the subsequent misalignment that it generates between financial functions based on financial depreciation rates and non-financial functions based on historical data and the functional equivalent (technical and functional) depreciation rates. Economic data of 158 public school buildings constructed in Portugal since the 1940s, that sound life-cycle thinking enhances the alignment of both financial and non-financial functions.
One of the most difficult problems in construction is taking objective decisions. A decision-making process is very complicated and time consuming (due to the complex nature of construction projects). Many experts with extensive knowledge of construction industry take subjective decisions related to verbal methods of decision-making. Difficulties are related mostly to the creation of a set of relevant criteria, providing answers to the decision-maker's questions. A set of proper criteria and mathematical tools (such as computer calculation algorithms with multi-criteria analysis) could significantly improve objective decision-making. The paper presents ESORD – an informatics tool allowing to establish a hierarchy (ranking) of different types of solutions on the basis of mathematical calculation. The authors present a comparison of different methods used for multi-criteria decision-making.
The term and content of construction project management are outlined in this article. The main problems of construction management were identified and possibilities to solve them are discussed. The model for decision making in construction management by using multi-criteria methods was created and applied to real case study. AHP method and “Expert Choice” computer program was employed for calculations.
This article links institutional and impression management perspectives in a process model of how controversial and possibly unlawful actions of members of organizations can lead to endorsement and support from key constituencies. This model is grounded in interview, archival, and observational data concerning eight illegitimate actions attributed to members of two social movement organizations. We found that institutional conformity and decoupling illegitimate activities from legitimate structures facilitated spokespersons' efforts to use impression management tactics that shifted attention away from the controversial actions and toward the socially desirable goals endorsed by broader constituencies. As a result, these organizations used publicity generated by illegitimate actions to obtain endorsement and support from those constituencies. We discuss the implications of the model for other kinds of organizations and derive testable propositions. We also consider implications for institutional and impression management theories.
‘Sensemaking’ is an extraordinarily influential perspective with a substantial following among management and organization scholars interested in how people appropriate and enact their ‘realities’. Organization Studies has been and remains one of the principal outlets for work that seeks either to draw-on or to extend our understanding of sensemaking practices in and around organizations. The contribution of this paper is fourfold. First, we review briefly what we understand by sensemaking and some key debates which fracture the field. Second, we attend critically to eight papers published previously in Organization Studies which we discuss in terms of five broad themes: (i) how sense is made through discourse; (ii) the politics from which social forms of sensemaking emerges and the power that is inherent in it; (iii) the intertwined and recursive nature of micro-macro sensemaking processes; (iv) the strong ties which bind sensemaking and identities, and (v) the role of sensemaking processes in decision making and change. Third, while not designed to be a review of extant literature, we discuss these themes with reference to other related work notably that published in this journal. Finally, we raise for consideration a number of potentially generative topics for further empirical and theory-building research.
This article presents results from the first statistically significant study of traffic forecasts in transportation infrastructure projects. The sample used is the largest of its kind, covering 210 projects in 14 nations worth US$59 billion. The study shows with very high statistical significance that forecasters generally do a poor job of estimating the demand for transportation infrastructure projects. The result is substantial downside financial and economic risks. Such risks are typically ignored or downplayed by planners and decision makers, to the detriment of social and economic welfare. For nine out of ten rail projects passenger forecasts are overestimated; average overestimation is 106 percent. This results in large benefit shortfalls for rail projects. For half of all road projects the difference between actual and forecasted traffic is more than ±20 percent. Forecasts have not become more accurate over the 30-year period studied. If techniques and skills for arriving at accurate demand forecasts have improved over time, as often claimed by forecasters, this does not show in the data. The causes of inaccuracy in forecasts are different for rail and road projects, with political causes playing a larger role for rail than for road. The cure is transparency, accountability, and new forecasting methods. The challenge is to change the governance structures for forecasting and project development. The article shows how planners may help achieve this.
Corporate sustainability confronts managers with complex issues and tensions between economic, environmental and social aspects. Drawing on the literature on managerial cognition, corporate sustainability, and strategic paradoxes, we develop a cognitive framing perspective on corporate sustainability. We propose two cognitive frames – a business case frame and a paradoxical frame – and explore how differences between them in cognitive content and structure influence the three stages of the sensemaking process, i.e. managerial scanning, interpreting and responding with regard to sustainability issues. We explain how the two frames lead to differences in the breadth and depth of scanning, to differences in issue interpretations in terms of sense of control and issue valence, as well as to different types of responses that managers consider with regard to sustainability issues. By considering alternative cognitive frames, our argument contributes to a better understanding of managerial decision-making regarding ambiguous sustainability issues and develops the underlying cognitive determinants of the stance that managers adopt on sustainability issues. This argument offers a cognitive explanation why managers rarely push for radical change when faced with complex and ambiguous issues, such as sustainability, that are characterized by conflicting yet interrelated aspects.
We offer a theory of motivated political reasoning based on the claim that the feelings aroused in the initial stages of processing sociopolitical information inevitably color all phases of the evaluation process. When a citizen is called on to express a judgment, the considerations that enter into conscious rumination will be biased by the valence of initial affect. This article reports the results of two experiments that test our affective contagion hypothesis—unnoticed affective cues influence the retrieval and construction of conscious considerations in the direction of affective congruence. We then test whether these affectively congruent considerations influence subsequently reported policy evaluations, which we call affective mediation. In short, the considerations that come consciously to mind to inform and to support the attitude construction process are biased systematically by the feelings that are aroused in the earliest stages of processing. This underlying affective bias in processing drives motivated reasoning and rationalization in political thinking.
The authors summarize 35 years of empirical research on goal-setting theory. They describe the core findings of the theory, the mechanisms by which goals operate, moderators of goal effects, the relation of goals and satisfaction, and the role of goals as mediators of incentives. The external validity and practical significance of goal-setting theory are explained, and new directions in goal-setting research are discussed. The relationships of goal setting to other theories are described as are the theory’s limitations.
How good are managers at making risky decisions? Recent research has identified this gap in decision-making research; this paper attempts to address this question in the context of risky decision-making. Following a review of the behavioural decision-making and sensemaking schools of research on risky decision-making, a research methodology is presented which is derived from a critique of the former school to address limitations of the research of the latter school. m combination of active information search and cognitive mapping was deployed to assess the performance of 45 project managers in identifying project risks. The findings show that some managers perform better than others at this type of decision-making due to the differences in the ways in which they tackle the problem. The concluding discussion argues that the two schools are more complementary than antithetical.
A major source of risk in project management is inaccurate forecasts of project costs, demand, and other impacts. The paper presents a promising new approach to mitigating such risk, based on theories of decision making under uncertainty which won the 2002 Nobel prize in economics. First, the paper documents inaccuracy and risk in project management. Second, it explains inaccuracy in terms of optimism bias and strategic misrepresentation. Third, the theoretical basis is presented for a promising new method called "reference class forecasting," which achieves accuracy by basing forecasts on actual performance in a reference class of comparable projects and thereby bypassing both optimism bias and strategic misrepresentation. Fourth, the paper presents the first instance of practical reference class forecasting, which concerns cost forecasts for large transportation infrastructure projects. Finally, potentials for and barriers to reference class forecasting are assessed.
Organized anarchies are organizations characterized by problematic preferences, unclear technology, and fluid participation. Recent studies of universities, a familiar form of organized anarchy, suggest that such organizations can be viewed for some purposes as collections of choices looking for problems, issues and feelings looking for decision situations in which they might be aired, solutions looking for issues to which they might be an answer, and decision makers looking for work. These ideas are translated into an explicit computer simulation model of a garbage can decision process. The general implications of such a model are described in terms of five major measures on the process. Possible applications of the model to more narrow predictions are illustrated by an examination of the model's predictions with respect to the effect of adversity on university decision making.
Five alternative information processing models that relate memory for evidence to judgments based on the evidence are identified in the current social cognition literature: independent processing, availability, biased retrieval, biased encoding, and incongruity-biased encoding. A distinction between 2 types of judgment tasks, memory-based vs online, is introduced and is related to the 5 process models. In 3 experiments, using memory-based tasks where the availability model described Ss' thinking, direct correlations between memory and judgment measures were obtained. In a 4th experiment, using online tasks where any of the remaining 4 process models may apply, prediction of the memory–judgment relationship was equivocal but usually followed the independence model prediction of zero correlation. It is concluded that memory and judgment will be directly related when the judgment was based directly on the retrieval of evidence information in memory-based judgment tasks. (61 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
As a result of sustained gender imbalance in the construction industry, research continues in the fields of attraction and retention of female employees. In Melbourne, Australia, an investigative survey was carried out to evaluate the relationship between motivation at work and gender. The survey also aimed to ascertain if professional men and women in the construction industry were motivated and demotivated by the same variables. The research concluded that there was no statistically significant difference in total motivation and demotivation levels between male and female employees. There were, however, significant differences with regard to the perceived attractiveness and unattractiveness of certain work place and job characteristics. Some characteristics were not gender discriminatory in their unattractiveness. Evidence presented in this paper can lead to a useful re-appraisal of how the construction industry can create a more attractive workplace environment that entices more employees of either gender to remain in the industry.
Purpose – This paper aims to propose a framework for understanding interpartner sensemaking in cross-national strategic alliances, and to discuss how to manage the problems arising from the cultural differences and internal tensions that are inherent in such alliances. Design/methodology/approach – The paper starts from the notion that interpartner sensemaking of the complexities of strategic alliances has important implications for the evolution of cross-national alliances. The two fundamental interpretive frames that relate to sensemaking are described, that of sensemaking of chaos and that of sensemaking in chaos, and the paper examines how an appreciation of these interpretive frames enables one to better manage cultural differences and internal tensions that inevitably arise in cross-national alliances. Findings – The framework makes clear that the two types of interpartner sensemaking ("sensemaking of chaos" and "sensemaking in chaos") need to be appreciated as interpretive frames that are present among the alliance managers to effectively interact and influence partner firms. Research limitations/implications – As interpartner sensemaking occurs at all stages of alliance evolution, future research may seek to assess the impact of conflicting interpretive schemes: in the stages of formation, operation, and outcome; concerning issues of appropriation and coordination; and in learning processes. Practical implications – Briefly, the two types of interpartner sensemaking call for different strategies for managing alliances. Alliance partners embedded in different national cultures rely on interpretive schemes to make sense of the conflicts, contradictions, and internal tensions that emerge in strategic alliances. Originality/value – The paper responds to the need of managers with alliance responsibilities for a framework to help identify and exploit the most effective ways of accounting for the role of interpartner sensemaking in alliances for productive interactions and performance.
This paper argues that research in organization theory has seen a shift in orientation from paradigm-driven work to problem-driven work since the late 1980s. A number of paradigms for the study of organizations were elaborated during the mid-1970s, including transaction cost economics, resource dependence theory, organizational ecology, new institutional theory, and agency theory in financial economics. These approaches reflected the dominant trends of the large corporations of their time: increasing concentration, diversification, and bureaucratization. However, subsequent shifts in organizational boundaries, the increased use of alliances and network forms, and the expanding role of financial markets in shaping organizational decision making all make normal science driven by the internally derived questions from these paradigms less fruitful. Instead, we argue that problem-driven work that uses mechanism-based theorizing and research that takes the field rather than the organization as the unit of analysis are the most appropriate styles of organizational research under conditions of major economic change - such as our own era. This sort of work is best exemplified by various studies under the rubric of institutional theory in the past 15 years, which are reviewed here.
Cognitive evaluation theory, which explains the effects of extrinsic motivators on intrinsic motivation, received some initial attention in the organizational literature. However, the simple dichotomy between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation made the theory difficult to apply to work settings. Differentiating extrinsic motivation into types that differ in their degree of autonomy led to self-determination theory, which has received widespread attention in the education, health care, and sport domains. This article describes self-determination theory as a theory of work motivation and shows its relevance to theories of organizational behavior. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Summary This paper analyzes the linkages between sensemaking, metaphors and performance evaluation in an organizational setting. Drawing on a study of how university students prepared for examinations, it argues that one way people make sense of being evaluated is through metaphors that conventionalize reality and thus contribute to the maintenance of continuity in everyday social action. This is because metaphorical understandings assist people's effort to assign events and situations to familiar categories and thereby turn the 'unusual' into 'business as usual'. Moreover, metaphors are cognitive and more broadly power-laden social resources, which individuals and groups employ in determining how to make sense of and deal with potentially unsettling events such as performance evaluations.
This paper investigates the extent of integration achieved by construction project teams managed by award-winning construction managers within successfully completed projects. The research findings reveal that construction project teams exist as individual competent units within their organisationally defined boundaries. They exhibit varying degrees of integration, which are determined by the team practices adopted and their congruence with the procurement approach. The findings of this research do not, however, support the argument espoused by many construction industry authorities, that seamless operation is a fundamental requirement of integrated team performance. It is concluded that either fully integrated teams are not necessary for effective project delivery within the industry, or that the sector must overcome existing organisational and behavioural barriers if further improvements in project performance are to be fully realised in the future.
Sense-making is a well-established perspective in strategic management and organization studies but to date has had little impact on the analysis of project management theory and practice. In this paper, we draw upon insights from the sense-making literature to consider the management of complex long-term service-led engineering projects, which combine the supply of capital goods or infrastructure with a long-term service provision. Using a case study of the Pendolino tilting train, we illustrate how significant discontinuities gave rise to the need for sense-making by the different project participants and stakeholders and how the various narratives expressed by different social groupings shaped the management and progress of the project.
As the world's population continues to grow, there is an ever increasing need for huge investment in basic infrastructure: water and sewage, energy production and distribution, transportation and telecommunication. At the same time, infrastructure systems in developed countries are deteriorating and in need of renewal. Today, many of the engineering and economic problems surrounding infrastructure construction projects have been solved, but the threat of social misalignments and political conflicts renders the development and management of such projects more challenging than ever before. This book presents a new theoretical framework that allows us to analyze the institutional and social movement processes, both negative and positive, that surround global infrastructure projects as they confront cross-national and cross-sectoral (such as private-public partnerships) institutional differences. The value of this framework is illustrated through a series of studies on a wide range of infrastructure projects, including roads, railroads, ports, airports, water supply and energy pipelines.
This paper supplements and extends consideration of quantitative models with application to building (costs and) prices by examining human elements inherent in modelling. In considering the concepts of modelling, attention is focused on the recently developed sociology of science, which questions the traditional perspective of total separation of a reality from the observer—the ‘objective’ basis of scientific positivism. It is argued that human activities are fundamental in, and inseparable from, reality and so, they are integral in modelling. The aim of modelling should be to enhance understanding and knowledge rather than to secure inert objectivity. Application to modelling of prices of building projects investigates how prices are formulated, which prices are commonly modelled and the impact of the decision-makers involved. It is concluded that new models are required, perhaps developed through methodological pluralism, which identify people-oriented variables and assumptions explicitly. Further, the models should be stochastic and with sound bases in theories of economics and human behaviour to ensure that users are aware of the major variabilities in the processes modelled and so, by realistically informing, promote better decision making.
Debate continues over the nature of the construction industry as a conglomeration, its boundaries (n.b., whether design is included), how it operates and with what objectives. Fragmentation remains a widely cited detriment to performance. However, the evolving development of field theory, notably, strategic action fields (SAF), provides a new and more embracing perspective that focuses on relationships and context that argues for mapping and analyses of network relationships between actors to provide a richer picture. The diversity of actors on any construction project, especially in increasingly ‘enterprise’ environments and the, consequent, operating processes accentuate atomism, individual goals and lack of integration. Thus, construction projects have very different meanings for each actor. The sensemaking perspective gives insights into how the actors, individually and collectively, interpret the myriad signals that they perceive to determine meaning and invoke action within their network of relationships in SAF. This study undertakes a critical review of theory and literature concerning sensemaking within networks of actors that constitute the SAF of construction to explore how those perspectives may be applied and the consequences for actors, processes and products. The underpinning concept is that those two perspectives – SAF and sensemaking – are vertically complimentary. It is found that, although little empirical study has been done in applying those bodies of theory to construction, the perspectives have considerable potential for application to enhance understanding of construction project processes and contexts, inter-relationships within and between the networks of participants, their actions and understandings – and, thereby, enhancement of performance in its broadest sense.
Bad decisions can often be traced back to the way the decisions were made-the alternatives were not clearly defined, the right information was not collected, the costs and benefits were not accurately weighed. But sometimes the fault lies not in the decision-making process but rather in the mind of the decision maker. The way the human brain works can sabotage the choices we make. John Hammond, Ralph Keeney, and Howard Raiffa examine eight psychological traps that are particularly likely to affect the way we make business decisions: The anchoring trap leads us to give disproportionate weight to the first information we receive. The status-quo trap biases us toward maintaining the current situation - even when better alternatives exist. The sunk-cost trap inclines us to perpetuate the mistakes of the past. The confirming-evidence trap leads us to seek out information supporting an existing predilection and to discount opposing information. The framing trap occurs when we misstate a problem, undermining the entire decision-malting process. The overconfidence trap makes us overestimate the accuracy of our forecasts. The prudence trap leads us to be overcautious when we make estimates about uncertain events. And the recallability trap leads us to give undue weight to recent, dramatic events. The best way to avoid all the traps is awareness - forewarned is forearmed. But executives can also take other simple steps to protect themselves and their organizations from the various kinds of mental lapses. The authors show how to take action to ensure that important business decisions are sound and reliable.
Bad decisions can often be traced back to the way the decisions were made--the alternatives were not clearly defined, the right information was not collected, the costs and benefits were not accurately weighed. But sometimes the fault lies not in the decision-making process but rather in the mind of the decision maker. The way the human brain works can sabotage the choices we make. Eight psychological traps that are particularly likely to affect the way we make business decisions are examined. The anchoring trap leads us to give disproportionate weight to the first information we receive. The status-quo trap biases us toward maintaining the current situation--even when better alternatives exist. The sunk-cost trap inclines us to perpetuate the mistakes of the past. The confirming-evidence trap leads us to seek out information supporting an existing predilection and to discount opposing information. The framing trap occurs when we misstate a problem, undermining the entire decision-making process. The overconfidence trap makes us over-estimate the accuracy of our forecasts. The prudence trap leads us to be overcautious when we make estimates about uncertain events. And the recallability trap leads us to give undue weight to recent, dramatic events. The best way to avoid all the traps is awareness--forewarned is forearmed. The authors show how to take action to ensure that important business decisions are sound and reliable.
Projects are increasingly cross-cultural and complex, both technically and relationally. The diversity of participants enhances differences in perceptions and understanding of meaning of the variety of signals (such as drawings and messages); often, the consequence is reduced performance and conflictual situations. Appreciation of such differences and of how people make sense of their worlds enables participants to appreciate the views of others and so, mitigate potential problems. Hence, a review of sensemaking literature is undertaken regarding individual and collective sensemaking, cultural schemas and the impact of cultural sensemaking on cross-culture international alliances, together with examination of application to contexts of construction, such as project realisation process and construction innovation. Conclusions advocate practical changes to secure heedful sensemaking towards improving relationships on projects and both process and product performance.
When historian Charles Weiner found pages of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman's notes, he saw it as a "record" of Feynman's work. Feynman himself, however, insisted that the notes were not a record but the work itself. In Supersizing the Mind, Andy Clark argues that our thinking doesn't happen only in our heads but that "certain forms of human cognizing include inextricable tangles of feedback, feed-forward and feed-around loops: loops that promiscuously criss-cross the boundaries of brain, body and world." The pen and paper of Feynman's thought are just such feedback loops, physical machinery that shape the flow of thought and enlarge the boundaries of mind. Drawing upon recent work in psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, robotics, human-computer systems, and beyond, Supersizing the Mind offers both a tour of the emerging cognitive landscape and a sustained argument in favor of a conception of mind that is extended rather than "brain- bound." The importance of this new perspective is profound. If our minds themselves can include aspects of our social and physical environments, then the kinds of social and physical environments we create can reconfigure our minds and our capacity for thought and reason.
The construction industry is criticized extensively for poor performance. Despite the widely expressed objective of project participants to ‘satisfy the client’, clients tend to be disappointed with both process and product performance. A functional perspective of construction clients and examination of how the desires and demands of clients are determined and operate as drivers for construction projects facilitates a critical view of the issues involved. The conceptualization of satisfaction is investigated in the context of determining client values and value perspectives and their aspirations for performance. On the supply side, competitive advantage is examined and its relationship to business performance. The structure and structural changes in the industry are considered in relation to the common processes employed to realize projects and their impacts on participants. Means by which decisions are made, including common techniques and human factors are investigated to suggest what may be adopted to enhance the usefulness and accuracy of forecasts. The themes emerging from the critical review of theory and literature are drawn together to yield a number of conclusions and to produce a draft agenda for further, empirical investigation with a view to amending processes to secure more integration through acknowledging interdependence amongst participants and their performance and, especially, to achieve enhanced levels of client satisfaction.
Over the last few decades, innovation has been investigated in a variety of ways, reflecting upon different orientations and interests. However, the question of how organizational activities become recognized as innovations remains under-examined. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to understand and explain how narratives of innovation are mobilized by construction sector practitioners. In order to achieve the aim, 30 semi-structured interviews were carried out with UK construction sector practitioners who have engaged with the Constructing Excellence organization. A sensemaking perspective is adopted as a theoretical lens for explaining the interview data. The empirical findings suggest that organizational activities become labelled as innovations through the process of collective inter-subjectivity. Organizational activities become labelled as innovations retrospectively and make sense prospectively. As narratives of innovation can be repeated and recalled, storytelling lends to the process of sustaining legitimacy.
How do elite policy-making groups make sense of complex and ambiguous environments while remaining consistent with the group's institutionalized operating model? This paper identifies a sensemaking process based in shared narrative construction. It is a social process of pattern recognition involving abduction, the comparison of culturally approved models to the current conditions to establish relevant facts and events; plotting, the reordering of those facts and events into a plausible narrative; and selective retention, the collective negotiation of a policy choice that fits the emerging narrative. This paper uses verbatim transcripts of meetings at the Federal Reserve to explore how policy makers use a logic of appropriateness to identify relevant cues and integrate them with existing models by weaving sensible plots. These plots are designed to control the supply of money and credit and maintain the legitimacy of the central bank.
How do executive teams make rapid decisions in the high-velocity mi- crocomputer industry? This inductive study of eight microcomputer firms led lo propositions exploring that question. Fast decision makers use more, not less, information than do slow decision makers. The former also develop more, not fewer, alternatives, and use a two-tiered advice process. Conflict resolution and integration among strategic de- cisions and tactical plans are also critical to the pace of decision mak- ing. Finally, fast decisions hased on this pattem of hehaviors lead to superior performance.
Development theory has moved from a single-minded focus on capital accumulation toward a more complex understanding of the
institutions that make development possible. Yet, instead of expanding the range of institutional strategies explored, the
most prominent policy consequence of this “institutional turn” has been the rise of “institutional monocropping”: the imposition
of blueprints based on idealized versions of Anglo-American institutions, the applicability of which is presumed to transcend
national circumstances and cultures. The disappointing results of monocropping suggest taking the institutional turn in a
direction that would increase, rather than diminish, local input and experimentation. The examples of Porto Alegre, Brazil,
and Kerala, India, reinforce Amartya Sen’s idea that “public discussion and exchange” should be at the heart of any trajectory
of institutional change, and flag potential gains from strategies of “deliberative development” which rely on popular deliberation
to set goals and allocate collective goods.
Previous attitude-attribution studies indicate that people are often quick to draw conclusions about the attitudes and personalities of others-even when plausible external or situational causes for behavior exist (an affect known as the overattribution effect or fundamental attribution error). This experiment explores whether accountability-pressures to justify one's causal interpretations of behavior to others-reduces or eliminates this bias. Subjects were exposed to an essay that supported or opposed affirmative action. They were informed that the essay writer had freely chosen or had been assigned the position he took. Finally, subjects either did not expect to justify their impressions of the essay writer or expected to justify their impressions either before or after exposure to the stimulus information. The results replicated previous findings when subjects did not feel accountable for their impressions of the essay writer or learned of being accountable only after viewing the stimulus information. Subjects attributed essay-consistent attitudes to the writer even when the writer had been assigned the task of advocating a particular position. Subjects were, however, significantly more sensitive to situational determinants of the essay writer's behavior when they felt accountable for their impressions prior to viewing the stimulus information. The results suggest that accountability eliminated the overattribution effect by affecting how subjects initially encoded and analyzed stimulus information.
Extensive and increasing specialization in construction has prompted much criticism—that fragmentation leads to poor performance. Such issues are magnified on engineering construction projects due to their size, complexity, financing, duration and execution by many organizations, often from several diverse countries. Theory, research perspectives and findings of boundary management studies are examined in the context of management of engineering construction projects. The objectives are to investigate theory and practices of boundary management; to examine how boundary management operates on engineering construction projects; and to produce a research agenda for studying further, important aspects of boundary management impacting on engineering construction projects. Conclusions are that the emerging theories provide insights but it is the nature of the markets—notably, the diverse objectives of stakeholders and the procedures and their practices in pursuit of self-oriented benefits—which are the main impediments to achieving greater coordination and collaboration. On complex engineering construction projects, many requirements are emergent and project participants co-evolve to yield self-organizing governance as projects progress within an often fixed formal framework. Recognition of performance interdependence among participants is an essential underpinning of commitment and cooperation; development and use of appropriate boundary management through boundary spanning and boundary objects can foster interaction and coordination even with participants’ retention of their individual goals.
This article reviews the strategic decision making literature by focusing on the dominant paradigms–i.e., rationality and bounded rationality, politics and power, and garbage can. We review the theory and key empirical support, and identify emergent debates within each paradigm. We conclude that strategic decision makers are boundedly rational, that power wins battles of choice, and that chance matters. Further, we argue that these paradigms rest on unrealistic assumptions and tired controversies which are no longer very controversial. We conclude with a research agenda that emphasizes a more realistic view of strategic decision makers and decision making, and greater attention to normative implications, especially among profit-seeking firms in global contexts.
Agency theory is an important, yet controversial, theory. This paper reviews agency theory, its contributions to organization theory, and the extant empirical work and develops testable propositions. The conclusions are that agency theory (a) offers unique insight into in- formation systems, outcome uncertainty, incentives, and risk and (b) is an empirically valid perspective, particularly when coupled with complementary perspectives. The principal recommendation is to in- corporate an agency perspective in studies of the many problems having a cooperative structure. One day Deng Xiaoping decided to take his grandson to visit Mao. "Call me granduncle," Mao offered warmly. "Oh, I certainly couldn't do that, Chairman Mao," the awe-struck child replied. "Why don't you give him an apple?" suggested Deng. No sooner had Mao done so than the boy happily chirped, "Oh thank you, Granduncle." "You see," said Deng, "what in- centives can achieve." ("Capitalism," 1984, p. 62)
The journey from the concept of a building to the actual built form is mediated with the use of various artefacts, such as drawings, product samples and models. These artefacts are produced for different purposes and for people with different levels of understanding of the design and construction processes. This paper studies design practice as it occurs naturally in a real-world situation by observing the conversations that surround the use of artefacts at the early stages of a building's design. Drawing on ethnographic data, insights are given into how the use of artefacts can reveal a participant's understanding of the scheme. The appropriateness of the method of conversation analysis to reveal the users' understanding of a scheme is explored by observing spoken micro-interactional behaviours. It is shown that the users' understanding of the design was developed in the conversations around the use of artefacts, as well as the knowledge that is embedded in the artefacts themselves. The users' confidence in the appearance of the building was considered to be gained in conversation, rather than the ability of the artefacts to represent a future reality.
This paper supplements and extends consideration of quantitative models with application to building (costs and) prices by examining human elements inherent in modelling. In considering the concepts of modelling, attention is focused on the recently developed sociology of science, which questions the traditional perspective of total separation of a reality from the observer—the ‘objective’ basis of scientific positivism. It is argued that human activities are fundamental in, and inseparable from, reality and so, they are integral in modelling. The aim of modelling should be to enhance understanding and knowledge rather than to secure inert objectivity. Application to modelling of prices of building projects investigates how prices are formulated, which prices are commonly modelled and the impact of the decision-makers involved. It is concluded that new models are required, perhaps developed through methodological pluralism, which identify people-oriented variables and assumptions explicitly. Further, the models should be stochastic and with sound bases in theories of economics and human behaviour to ensure that users are aware of the major variabilities in the processes modelled and so, by realistically informing, promote better decision making.
Decision makers have a strong tendency to consider problems as unique. They isolate the current choice from future opportunities and neglect the statistics of the past in evaluating current plans. Overly cautious attitudes to risk result from a failure to appreciate the effects of statistical aggregation in mitigating relative risk. Overly optimistic forecasts result from the adoption of an inside view of the problem, which anchors predictions on plans and scenarios. The conflicting biases are documented in psychological research. Possible implications for decision making in organizations are examined.
In 1998 the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) published a statement of their strategy entitled “Preventing Emerging Infectious
Diseases: A Strategy for the 21st Century.” They described their central challenge this way: “because we do not know what
new diseases will arise, we must always be prepared for the unexpected” (p. vii). Soon after they published that statement
CDC was confronted with an unexpected emerging disease, the West Nile Virus, which they misdiagnosed initially.
Construction projects are executed by general contractors who retain the services of special trade subcontractors. This form of organization is preferable to vertically integrating these trades because of the transaction cost implications of construction technology. The general contractor and special trade subcontractors can form a stable organizational unit when conditions permit. This organizational form, called here the ‘quasifirm’, is analogous to the ‘inside contracting system’ discussed by Williamson (1975). This paper uses
[22] and [23] transaction cost approach to argue the theoretical existence of the quasifirm in the construction industry. Empirical evidence from a field study of homebuilders is presented in support of this argument.
In 2003 the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) agreed to fund a research network – Rethinking Project Management – to define a research agenda aimed at enriching and extending the subject of project management beyond its current conceptual foundations. The main argument for the proposed Network highlighted the growing critiques of project management theory and the need for new research in relation to the developing practice. Being the first paper of this Special Issue, this paper presents the Network’s main findings: a framework of five directions aimed at developing the field intellectually in the following areas: project complexity, social process, value creation, project conceptualisation, and practitioner development. These areas are based on a comprehensive analysis of all the research material produced over a 2-year period and represent the dominant pattern of ideas to emerge from the Network as a whole. They are not meant to be the agenda for future research, but an agenda to inform and stimulate current and future research activity in developing the field of project management. Methodologically, the five research directions represent a synthesis of ideas for how the current conceptual base needs to develop in relation to the developing world of practice. As well as presenting the main findings, the paper also presents a practical research framework aimed at researchers working in the field. The intended audience for the paper is the project management research community, and also researchers in other management areas for whom the Network’s findings might be of interest.
Partnering with suppliers and networking are increasingly used as means to improve company performance. This paper explores the occurrence of network effects in the construction industry. Benefits from network effects arise when firms adapt to one another in terms of technical solutions, logistics or administrative routines. The study finds such effects to be unusual in the construction industry. The main reasons for the absence of adaptation are found to be the current focus on the efficiency of individual projects and the competitive tendering procedures used. It is concluded that these characteristics are having a hampering effect on both efficiency and innovation in the industry today.
The death of 13 men in the Mann Gulch fire disaster, made famous in Norman Maclean's Young Men and Fire, is analyzed as the interactive disintegration of role structure and sensemaking in a minimal organization. Four potential sources of resilience that make groups less vulnerable to disruptions of sensemaking are proposed to forestall disintegration, including improvisation, virtual role systems, the attitude of wisdom, and norms of respectful interaction. The analysis is then embedded in the organizational literature to show that we need to reexamine our thinking about temporary systems, structuration, nondisclosive intimacy, intergroup dynamics, and team building.
The concept of embeddedness has general applicability in the study of economic life and can alter theoretical and empirical approaches to the study of economic behaviors. Argues that in modern industrial societies, most economic action is embedded in structures of social relations. The author challenges the traditional economic theories that have both under- and oversocialized views of the conception of economic action and decisions that merge in their conception of economic actors atomized (separated) from their social context. Social relations are assumed to play on frictional and disruptive, not central, roles in market processes. There is, hence, a place and need for sociology in the study of economic life. Productive analysis of human action requires avoiding the atomization in the extremes of the over- and undersocialized concepts. Economic actors are neither atoms outside a social context nor slavish adherents to social scripts. The markets and hierarchies problem of Oliver Williamson (with a focus on the question of trust and malfeasance) is used to illustrate the use of embeddedness in explicating the proximate causes of patterns of macro-level interest. Answers to the problem of how economic life is not riddled with mistrust and malfeasance are linked to over- and undersocialized conceptions of human nature. The embeddedness argument, on the contrary, stresses the role of concrete personal relations and networks (or structures) in generating trust and discouraging malfeasance in economic life. It finds a middle way between the oversocialized (generalized morality) and undersocialized (impersonal institutional arrangements) approaches. The embeddedness approach opens the way for analysis of the influence of social structures on market behavior, specifically showing how business relations are intertwined with social and personal relations and networks. The approach can easily explain what looks otherwise like irrational behavior. (TNM)