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This portfolio presents my research on organisational change, comprising four consecutive research projects and a synopsis which brings together the emerging themes of my enquiry. My work shows the movement of my thinking during a three year period, as I engaged in an emergent exploration of my experience (Christensen, 2003; Stacey & Griffin, 2003). When I began my enquiry, I was mainly concerned about the limits of control and predictability while offering strategic options, focusing on the discipline of strategic management as a framework to my practice. While engaging with my experience of participating in management change projects, I gradually realised that I was more concerned about the emotional responses evoked in the context of project management. As my research developed, I started to associate those emotional responses with the experience of responsibility, understanding that experience as an important theme for my practice which influences how people are able to work together. I came to articulate the notion of responsibility as an experience of feeling a compulsion to do or not to do something, an enabling constraint associated with the event or the expectation of having to respond or to give account for it, justifying one's actions or omissions. I claim that responsibility emerges in communicative interaction (Mead, 1934), as people continuously negotiate its meaning while power relating (Elias, 1970; 1998). Further, I point to how project management has developed surveillance-based management techniques, such as project planning and control tools, which functionalise responsibility through disciplinary processes (Foucault, 1975) in order to attain deliberate control. I argue that the assumption underpinning those techniques is that holding people to account for the completion of their tasks (the passive form of responsibility), will influence those people into taking active responsibility for how they are expected to perform (Bovens, 1998). Drawing on my experience of participating in management change projects, I argue that this is not always the case and I point to how more complex work dynamics may develop. I also argue that those surveillance-based management techniques rely on the positive valuation attached to behaving responsibility (responsibility as value), as well as on how being responsible is incorporated in an organisation's formal and informal rules (responsibility as norm). Retaining both the qualities of value and norm (Joas, 2000). responsibility is then incorporated in emergent organisational ideologies (Stacey. 2004), sometimes taking the form of cult value (Mead, 1923). Narrating my experience, I illustrate how experiencing responsibility in the context of project management evokes emotional responses, such as shame, guilt or pride, which are not accounted for nor referred in project management literature (Pinto, 1998; Turner, 1999; Burke, 1999; Dixon, 2000; Lock, 2003). This portfolio contributes to expand that literature, focusing on the emotional aspects of project management which are left out in its straight- forward and rational approach. Furthermore, understanding my experience of responsibility in relation to communicative interaction, power relating, emerging ideologies, cult values, disciplining processes and emotional responses has shifted my practice, enabling me to work differently.

In the last two decades there has been a significant change in the technical and economic conditions prevailing in the construction industry. The traditional methods of procuring projects are now inadequate to cope with these changes. To overcome the shortcomings of the traditional procurement methods, the construction industry has developed a large number of different procurement systems to secure the relationships between contract parties. The proliferation of different procurement systems has created the problem of how to determine the optimum procurement system for any particular project. A systematic approach for selection of the most appropriate system is now needed. Throughout this thesis an investigation has been made of many of the issues related to the successful formulation of a Project Procurement System Selection Model (PPSSM). The knowledge of client needs in the construction industry is essential to the project success. This research has considered the fundamental role played by client needs in the process of procurement selection. The various categories of procurement system that exist in the construction industry are presented in order to address the benefits and drawbacks of each system. A careful investigation of the rules and regulations governing the Saudi construction industry has contributed very significantly to the success of the model building. An examination of the existing models revealed a number of drawbacks which are discussed in detail in this research. A survey was conducted in Saudi Arabia with the aim of testing the PPSSM for effectiveness and efficiency and assisting the governmental agencies to select the most appropriate procurement system to implement their projects. For this purpose, a questionnaire was developed and divided into three major parts: Background information; Data needed to operate PPSSM; and Evaluation of the criteria used for the selection of the procurement system. The results of the first and third parts are generated from 100 responses to the questionnaire mailed to the 110 governmental agencies that represent the population of the study, giving an overall response of (91%). For the second part only thirty senior government agency officers were involved in order to maintain consistency of data needed to operate the PPSSM. The data were analyzed using computer statistical packages: Excel and Statistical Analysis System (SAS). On the basis of the synthesis process of the PPSSM, Saudi public clients have selected "design and build" as the most appropriate procurement system to procure their projects with an overall priority of 0.49. Design and manage, construction management, and management contracting ranked second, third and fourth with priorities of 0.258, 0.140 and 0.106 respectively. The outcome of the study demonstrates the effectiveness of PPSSM in helping the client in the construction industry to choose the right procurement system that best answers his needs and fulfills the project requirements.

Project and programme management environments are extremely challenging, dynamic places to work. Understanding issues and correcting poor performance is crucial to the successful achievement of project/programme objectives, yet many organisations struggle to develop reporting systems that are efficient and still provide accurate insight. In response to this problem, this thesis describes collaborative academic-industrial research into the use of a visually-based poster-size reporting system, referred to as the Dashboard. Given the exploratory nature of the research, a grounded theory, case study methodology was selected. Two case studies are presented: one at programme level involving a national utilities and roadside recovery organisation and one at project level, conducted with a support services company. The case studies were conducted over 20 and 9 month periods respectively. Data was collected from a number of sources including formal and informal interviews, workshops, company documentation, researcher diaries and for the second case study, through action research. The Researcher found that a visual reporting system is an effective way of reporting status and performance, though is better suited to programme rather than project management environments. Specifically, it is effective as a communications and knowledge transfer mechanism to both internal and external stakeholders. Secondly, the visual approach can leverage mechanisms for developing trusting relationships between stakeholders, which could lead to more effective team working. 'Mese findings are important as they address common reasons for project failure. Finally, the type of organisational culture has been shown to have a significant impact in the longer-term success of a visual reporting system. Where there is a culture of blame, of protecting information or where participative management practices are not embraced, the visual approach is unlikely to be successful beyond providing performance visibility and remedying actions in the short-term.

This study presents the story of a three-year ethnographical field study, from December 2000 to December 2003, conducted at a North West based Management Consultancy. Throughout this period the organisation experienced accelerated growth from two sites with a workforce of twenty, to six sites with a workforce of forty-five. There were two major IS implementation projects conducted in that period resulting in pervasive organisational change for this growing workforce. A controlling mechanism by the organisation's domineering Managing Director was the strategic 'planting' of two hegemonic metaphors, in the guise of 'Tigger' and 'Eeyore', two characters from the children's storybook Winnie the Pooh. This was done to pre-empt and avert resistance behaviour. An objective of this study was to explore this use of metaphors to coerce certain users into compliance with management aims in IS projects. Existing studies tend not to report upon management's explicit use of metaphor to control workforce behaviour in this manner. It could also be argued that this explicit use may have only been observed due to the rich insight of this longitudinal ethnographical study. Key features of the mechanism of metaphors 'working' in this case was the observation of a complex network of other underlying dominant metaphors in use in the organisation, enabling the submissive, unwavering, acceptance of the two hegemonic metaphors. A central contribution of this study is to highlight the power of mutually reinforcing metaphors when applied in a suitable context, so extending and reinforcing existing metaphor research within the IS field. XI

Briefing as the earliest stage of a development is fundamentally important to understand the client's aims and needs. The skills employed at this stage significantly affect the success of the project in meeting the client's requirements. It is therefore crucial to ensure clients' needs are met, yet existing methodologies for capturing client's requirements are· neither comprehensive nor adequate. Collaborative decision-making and documenting client's requirements to incorporate in the detailed design are important tasks in this regard. Existing approaches are limited in their ability to fully capture the client's requirements. In particular, the integration of whole life performance issues into the briefing process is very limited and results in poor client satisfaction. A methodology for capturing client's requirements during briefing is essential to avoid unnecessary conflict during the development. The development of a methodology for accomplishing this involved reviewing the current briefing practices, as well as various guidelines used to define the client's needs. There is still a lack of a systematic and flexible methodology that is applicable for different clients with different needs. Appropriately integrating whole life performance issues during functional briefing will ensure client's needs are tackled and discussed before formulating a detailed design. One of the contributions of this study is the development of a general tool for improving the briefing process. The automated Whole Life Performance Assessment Tool (WLPAT) is specifically designed to facilitate functional briefing. The tool is used to assess the extent to which the brief accurately captures client's requirements for the expected lifetime performance of the facility. This includes the operation and maintenance of the facility during its life span. The tool was developed using MS Excel and produces a graphical report to indicate the issues that need further attention. The flexibility of the tool in encapsulating varying client requirements for different developments, makes it generic (i.e. not limited to specific construction type or procurement method). This prototype system was evaluated by construction practitioners using three different .approaches by different groups of participants. It was done through presentations and demonstrations of WLPAT. Selected professionals also conducted hands-on practical tests of the system. The system implementation reveals that early capture of client requirements will reduce time spent in making amendments at later stages of the development. Early warning is crucial for the project to be completed within the time frame and subsequently reduces unnecessary conflicts. Whole life performance was selected to assess the quality of brief confirmed that the system does offer many benefits in facilitating the briefing process. In conclusion the tool represents a unique and innovative approach to integrate WLP issues into the briefing stage of a project. The automated assessment tool has good potential in providing a quality brief that considers future performance of the expected development. It not only contributes to the briefing process in construction, but also represents a substantial advance over existing approaches.

This thesis looks at the two main thinking types currently encountered in project management i.e. Predictive & Adaptive Project Management. Predictive project management thinking consists of the development of a schedule from a known scope and then managing the implementation of the project in accordance with that schedule. This type of thinking is also known as the traditional approach to project management and has been extensively used since the introduction of project management in the 1960s. Adaptive thinking is used for fast track projects that are going to be subjected to a high rate of change and uncertainty. Methods have been developed mainly in the IT industry to deal with the fast turn-around and demand for IT and software development projects. Projects utilising adaptive project management' thinking deliver the final product through a series of iterations and rely on high calibre and empowered individuals to make critical decisions. There is much to learn from both thinking types. This thesis looks at a selected few methods that fall under each category, to highlight the main similarities and differences. In addition to this a questionnaire survey was carried out amongst clients, promoters, project managers and team members to find out their views and perceptions about their experiences relating to project management. To supplement the research, an analysis of keywords from the International Journal of Project Management was conducted from 1983 through to 2010. This amounted to reviewing 1,863 papers over a 28 year period containing 5,776 words. Some interesting trends have emerged from this analysis. As a direct result of the keyword analysis, a new pictogram has been developed that can be used for teaching and highlighting project management principles to students, project team members, clients, stakeholders and end users. Finally the thesis concludes with a framework for implementing good project management called SixP. This framework can be used on any type of project and ensures that the right project management approach is selected, customised, implemented and maintained throughout the project life cycle. This approach was presented to delegates at the International Project Management Association (IPMA) 24th World Congress in Istanbul, Turkey on 2nd November 2010.