Construction work is associated with high risks of fatalities. Effective, deep and lasting learning from incidents is important for the safety of employees, but not well developed in the construction sector. We studied the organizational processes after a fatality through an auto-ethnographic field work study and found three distinct, but interrelated processes to normalize construction work; juridical, ethical and operational processes. Balanced attention to all three processes supports an effective, deep and lasting learning from incidents. We contribute to the learning from incidents literature with the insight that balanced attention for all three processes helps to learn from incidents and to improve the safety of workers. Furthermore, second victims can be important for the learning of incidents process. Finally, the findings throw new light on inadequate supervision of safety procedures, as the temporary characteristics of projects forces workers to deviate from safety procedures.
Koppenjan, Joop; Verweij, Stefan & marrewijk, Alfons van (2024)
The Netherlands
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Hasbi, Marie M. & marrewijk, Alfons van (2024)
Navigating Tensions in the Organizational Change Process towards Hybrid Workspace
This article examines the change process of implementing hybrid workspace within organizations. Hybrid workspace involves employees working from multiple locations and has become an important topic during and after the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. This study aims to better understand the tensions emerging in the change process towards hybrid workspace and the responses by organizational members. Drawing on a case study of a major bank in Paris, this study finds four relevant tensions that emerge when implementing hybrid workspace: (1) connecting with vs. disconnecting from others, (2) agile vs. sedentary work, (3) paperless vs. paper-based working, and (4) telework vs. corporate space routines. These findings contribute to reshaping workspace literature by viewing organizational change through a tension lens while connecting different micro-processes of the planned change. Furthermore, this study contributes to the debates on hybrid workspace by viewing space as an ongoing process, through the dynamic interaction between individuals and technology in producing hybrid workspace.
Ende, Leonore van den & Marrewijk, Alfons van (2024)
Data Is No Free Gift: An Anthropological Perspective on Data Sharing in an Inter-Organizational Context.
Transferring knowledge across strategic projects is challenging. This study investigates how informal practices of members of the parent organization shape the transfer of knowledge across strategic projects. This was addressed through an in-depth case study of strategic projects in an innovation trajectory of a large public organization aiming to accelerate to transition towards circular construction. We identified five disabling practices: shaming and blaming, disconnecting, holding onto the department and project boundaries, fostering one-way relationships and avoiding internal conflict. Furthermore, we identified three enabling practices: supporting circular projects, sharing similarities across projects and integral visioning. The results contribute to the cross-project knowledge transfer literature by showing how members of partner organizations can enable or disable knowledge transfer across strategic projects. Furthermore, the results contribute to the strategic project literature by illuminating the importance of informal practices of members of the parent organization.
Eikelenboom, Manon; Oosterlee, Mieke & marrewijk, Alfons van (2024)
Demolishers or ‘material experts’? Project actors negotiating changing roles in sustainable projects
For projects to contribute to sustainability transitions, traditional roles of project actors need to be challenged. This paper focus on the changing role of demolishers in circular construction projects. We explore the role changes needed and the tactics adopted to negotiate these changes. Therefore, we collected data across 10 demolishers and two construction projects in the Netherlands. We identified required changes related to task, timing, position, and image. The studied demolishers adopted six different tactics to negotiate these changes. These findings contribute to the sustainability transitions literature by highlighting the important function of projects in operationalizing role changes and enabling change in the roles of incumbent actors. Furthermore, the results contribute to the debate on roles in sustainable projects, and on the roles of demolishers in particular, showing the different elements and non-linear nature of role change, including the unique challenges and tactics adopted by demolishers to negotiate these changes.
This paper addresses the lack of attention for the behaviours and agency of actors in organizations in the sustainability transitions literature by focussing on practices of inter-organizational collaboration in the transition to circular construction. Practices of inter-organizational collaboration can slow down this transition and are deeply embedded in the construction regime, creating critical points of intersection. This research therefore investigated how reflective interventions can enable project actors to change their practices and support the transformation of critical points of intersection into points of opportunity in circular construction. To answer this question, we adopted a case study approach with action research elements. The results of this study contribute to the sustainability transitions literature by showing how reflective interventions can assist in the transformation of critical points of intersection through five processes, including prioritising reflection on practices, critically evaluating practices, creating a breeding ground for new practices, implementing new practices and embedding new practices in partner organizations. Furthermore, we move away from the focus on policy interventions and offer more room for the agency of actors in projects, by showing how reflective interventions can create experimental environments close to the day-to-day activities of project actors enabling them to simultaneously unlearn obsolete practices and learn new practices.
Biersteker, Erwin & marrewijk, Alfons van (2023)
Integrating knowledge in infrastructure projects: the interplay between formal and informal knowledge governance mechanisms
This study focuses upon knowledge governance mechanisms of integrating specialised knowledge on underground utilities in large infrastructure projects. The integration of knowledge is essential for the realisation of such projects. The study explores the formal and informal knowledge governance mechanisms in three large infrastructure projects and compares these mechanisms to reveal their effects on knowledge integration. The findings show that combining reward systems, project culture and trust are targeting the motivation of underground experts to share their knowledge and allocation of authority and project network are mechanisms aimed at the coordination between managers and underground experts to integrate knowledge. We contribute to studies on knowledge governance by enabling further empirical insight in the relationships between formal and informal mechanisms.
This paper captures a better understanding of the career development of people leading megaprojects through the use of biographical research method. The characteristics of megaprojects cause serious and diverse challenges for their leaders, but programs where they are trained to overcome these challenges are not easily available around the world. We used a biographic research to gather sixteen life histories of megaproject leaders from ten different countries. This approach helps to explore megaproject leaders as people and how they have learned to become leaders. Findings show that leaders learned to manage megaprojects through a lifetime interaction of: (1) personal characteristics of leaders, (2) turning points in their lives, (3) value orientations stemming from their family, region or religion, (4) their relationship to the project team, and (5) their professionalization through a diversity of projects. These findings add to our knowledge on leaders’ career development that this not only depends on individual agency but also on contextual influences which span a lifetime. Furthermore, the findings contribute to the debate on narrative inquiry methods by demonstrating the full potential of biographical research method for understanding megaproject leadership. Finally, the findings contribute to the debate on megaprojects leaders with real accounts of how people have become leaders through self-development.
Eitan, Avri; Fischhendler, Itay & Marrewijk, Alfons van (2023)
Neglecting exit doors: How does regret cost shape the irreversible execution of renewable energy megaprojects?
The energy transition process nowadays is characterized by the replacement of fossil fuels-based means of production with renewable energy (RE). Alongside the diffusion of decentralized RE, this process is associated with the increased promotion of RE megaprojects. Such megaprojects, however, are often shaped by path-dependent lock-ins and thus continue to be promoted with limited changes despite the emergence of better alternatives along the way. This study explores the role of lock-ins in the irreversibility of RE megaprojects while highlighting the notion of regret cost. In particular, the study sheds light on the influence of lock-ins within megaprojects, specifically focusing on their execution stage. Using the establishment process of Ashalim, a giant thermal solar power station in southern Israel, as a case study, we demonstrate how various lock-ins increase regulators’ regret cost, thus escalating their commitment to the megaproject and causing them to neglect diverse “exit doors” during execution. We thus illuminate the irreversibility of RE megaprojects and question their capability to meet the growing need of energy markets for flexibility.
Clegg, Stewart Roger; Loosemore, Martin, Walker, Derek, marrewijk, Alfons van & Sankaran, Shankar (2023)
Construction Cultures: Sources, Signs and Solutions of Toxicity
Recently, scholars have called for a focus on subjective aspects of risk management as a suitable lens for understanding how it functions. In line with this lens, this study focuses on project actors’ viewpoints on risk management in the context of construction projects to provide novel insights in risk management. Drawing on Renn's model and following a Q methodology, we identify four risk management approaches among asset managers and project managers working at the Dutch Schiphol Airport. The action-oriented and future-oriented viewpoints are dominant, while the expert input and stakeholder-centric viewpoints are in the minority. Our findings extend the risk management debate by showing that (1) there are various approaches to risk management that have been identified independently from the formal risk management; (2) these approaches cannot be explained by a project actor's role or objective within the project; and (3) that project actors have a dominant focus on managing complexity-induced risks at the expense of managing other types of risks.
Marrewijk, Alfons van & Ende, Leonore van den (2022)
Shaping interorganizational strategic projects through power relations and strategic practices
Power in interorganizational strategic projects, used for implementing strategic change, is essential but not well understood. This paper devises a conceptual framework in which power relations, strategic practices and an order and conflict view are integrated. An ethnoventionist approach, including ethnography and interventions, is used to show power relations and strategic practices in an interorganizational change project. This project aimed to improve the collaboration between nine organizations in the joint building of subsurface utilities and telecom networks. The findings show four relevant power relations and the delegating of power from top managers to shop-flow workers, which triggered middle managers to constrain the change process. implementation of these innovations. Theoretically, the study contributes to the debate on interorganizational strategic projects with a conceptual framework including power relations, strategic practices and the order and conflict view, demonstrating the long-term effects of strategic change projects.
Bierstekers, Erwin; Koppenjan, Joop & Marrewijk, Alfons van (2021)
Translating the invisible: Governing subsurface utilities in the Schiphol Amsterdam Airport Terminal project
Governing material conditions —including physical, material subjects such as machines, build constructions, con- struction materials, and subsoils —is a crucial challenge within projects and is underrepresented in project gov- ernance theory. To clarify the relationship between project governance and materiality, we draw on translation theory, which is essentially about the reinterpretation, appropriation, and representation of interests related to materials. This paper studies the challenges of governing the underground during the construction of the new terminal at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. The findings show that, during the project life cycle, the translation of the underground by project actors hampered the necessary relocation of utilities in this project. This eventu- ally resulted in delays and unforeseen costs. This translation is explained by a combination of the governance of the project, strategic interactions of project actors, and the characteristics and context of the material condi- tions. We contribute to project governance studies by demonstrating the usefulness of translation theory to better understand the mechanisms at play in governing underrepresented material conditions in infrastructure projects.
Kooter, Elonie; Uden, Mart van, Marrewijk, Alfons van, Wamelink, Hans, Bueren, Ellen van & Heurkens, Erwin (2021)
Sustainability transition through dynamics of circular construction projects
The aim of this paper is to better understand the dynamics of circular construction projects and how these interorganizational projects contribute to the transition towards a circular economy. It is essential that the construction sector develops and adopts interorganizational initiatives to support the transition to a circular and low-carbon construction economy. A benefit of being involved in such initiatives is that organizations reflect on the emergence and acceptance of new practices related to changing organizational roles and responsibilities. In this paper, we study eight circular construction projects within the context of an interorganizational initiative to stimulate the transition towards a circular economy by exploring insights from evaluations thereof. We build upon literature from Sustainability Transitions Research (STR), circular construction research, and interorganizational project studies. Our findings show three clusters of dynamics that are relevant in the realization of circular ambitions in interorganizational construction projects: (1) prerequisites, (2) temporal dynamics in interorganizational projects, and (3) contextual influences. These insights highlight factors that enable the realization of circular ambitions in construction projects and contribute to our understanding of the dynamics of interorganizational construction projects and their role in the context of STR.
The development of trust is a major challenge for the governance of public private infrastructure megaprojects. Contractual pre-arrangements should provide a blueprint for collaborative behavior and trust development but the characters of megaprojects challenge such arrangements. This longitudinal study explores practices of trust development in the collaboration of commissioner and contractor consortia in the Dutch road infrastructure megaproject ‘Schiphol, Amsterdam and Almere’ (SAA). The findings show that six different types of workshops have been used to intervene in the collaboration of project partners in order to develop trust. The study contributes to the debate on governance in megaprojects showing how governance arrangement are enacted in the daily practice in megaprojects. To buffer the potential loss of trust through conflicts, project partners negotiated for a balanced reciprocal relationship, which is the simultaneous exchange of equivalent resources without delay.
A project's autonomy, the degree to which a project can evolve without constant interference from the parent organization, is a key feature of innovation projects. The literature treats autonomy as a passive phenomenon and underestimates how projects as temporary organizations interact with more permanent forms of organizations. A dynamic and contextually sensitive understanding of project autonomy is valuable; autonomy can change over the course of the project's lifecycle and evolve into extreme isolation. We show how autonomy is shaped through practices of isolation and how this influences project outcomes. Two innovation projects were studied through qualitative-interpretive methods and we analyzed symbolic, discursive and spatial practices of isolation. These practices facilitate the exploration of innovations but limit the transmission of these innovations to the parent organization. We contribute to the literature on temporary organizations and project-to-parent integration by illustrating and theorizing the role of practices of isolation in this process.
Molli, Federica De; Mengis, Jeanne & Marrewijk, Alfons van (2020)
The aestheticization of hybrid space: The atmosphere of the Locarno Film Festival
The aestheticization of workspace is a growing phenomenon. Organizations, indeed, consciously design their space to seduce, transfer organizational messages and stimulate creativity, entrepreneurship and motivation of organizational space’s users. At the same time, however, traditional workspace is disappearing, as work gets performed increasingly outside the physical boundaries of organizational buildings in multiple, hybrid spaces such as home, meeting areas and co-working spaces. This paper seeks to understand the aestheticization of hybrid workspaces, by ethnographically exploring how an urban film festival aestheticizes its space. Drawing on the work of Benjamin, Böhme and Strati we developed an aesthetic engagement lens that allowed us to understand the aestheticization of hybrid space as the production of atmospheres ‘in-between’ multiple ambiguities. Findings reveal two intertwined space aesthetic practices underpinning the aestheticization of the hybrid space: celebrating different aesthetic expressions, and guiding aesthetic engagement. This paper contributes to two debates. First, it contributes to the debate on space aestheticization, by showing how the aestheticization process emerges through the interplay between the contradictory elements of the hybrid aestheticized space and the way users’ personally and collectively perceive and engage with them. Second, it contributes to the emergent literature on new ways of working, as users’ aesthetic engagement in spaces can help us understand how employees working in hybrid spaces can still experience a collectively felt atmosphere and construct their personal and collective image of their organization.
Geraldi, Joana; Söderlund, Jonas & Marrewijk, Alfons van (2020)
Heeding recent calls for more studies on the relationship between projects and institutions, this paper reports on a collaborative case study to shed light on the recursive relations of large-scale projects and their institutional fields. Given the industry as the field-level institution, this study explores how two project organizations experienced the industry changes, its influence on the arrangement of large-scale projects, and the management response used to legitimize these arrangements. The qualitative secondary data analysis of two High-Speed rail projects in Spain and The Netherlands is based on semi-structured interviews, observations, and document analysis. This paper provides the institutional fields’ contextual detail and deepens our understanding of temporal institutional complexity that bound large-scale project arrangements. The findings suggest that in both cases the management responses altered across time and evolved depending on the salience of the institutional pressure, through the interplay with 1) regulative, 2) normative, and 3) dynamic cultural-cognitive forces, resulting in cycles of project legitimacy.
