Within the construction industry, proximity of actual to scheduled completion time is a primary performance measure, and deviations from planned schedules remain a popular concern in the field of construction management. Prevailing research assumes that delays arise either from flawed execution of the plan or from failure to plan effectively. Thus, solutions suggested include improving execution and developing ever more sophisticated planning techniques. In spite of these efforts, accuracy in scheduling construction projects has shown little or no improvement, and clients continue to incur the significant costs associated with the failure to more accurately plan. Eschewing this traditional techno-rational view, the current research turned to critical management studies for solutions and investigated planning intentionality, the intentional and unintentional roles planners play in project delays. Thus, it sought to explore the following with respect to the project planner role: optimism bias, where a planner unintentionally mitigates negative information in decision-making; strategic misrepresentation, where a planner intentionally mitigates negative information; and group dynamics in time estimation. The latter is relevant because a team rather than an individual typically embodies the planner function within a construction project. To perform this research, two mixed-methods studies, preceded by a pilot study, and seven interviews with project planners were conducted. The first mixed-methods study investigated how intended and unintended actions of participants affected underestimation of time during task performance; and the second investigated the creation of collective intentionality, the transmutation of individual preferences into a group consensus in time estimation. Results of the first mixed-methods study identified the key situational variables differentiating intended and unintended actions of planners and indicated how these can influence the quality of time estimation. Results of the second study showed that group performance in time estimation was inferior to that of individuals and that group member interaction appeared detrimental to good decision-making. Reasons found were sense of power, commitment, confidence level, cultural diversity, conflicts, and groupthink. The findings were compared and contrasted with those obtained from interviews with project planners to enhance the scope of the study.

Concern for project failures and successes have posed a controversial and much debated topic amongst scholars and practitioners alike. IT projects are no exceptions and they too suffer from a high rate of failure. This research aims to explore the reasons why certain IT projects succeed). Besides its academic importance, the research intends to assess the implications for successful implementation of current and future IT projects. The review of the extant literature reveals the enormity of the challenges involved in minimising or avoiding project failures. Present work is contextualizing these issues in a large national organisation with branches throughout the KSA. The Saudi Arabia constitutes the case study for this research. Qualitative methodology was adopted to generate and collect adequate and relevant data. Main instruments were; Semi-structured interviews involving senior managers in five geographical areas who were involved in the management of the IT projects and selected project documents. Thematic analysis was used and led to emergence of seven main ‘themes’, 19 major ‘issues’, and the construction of the first time generic model for success of IT projects. The core issues identified in the model are: Quality, Time and Cost at three levels; individual, organisation and environment with specific order of importance. The implications of the findings for the theory and practice have been identified. It is also recommended that there is a need for further research into individual and contextual factors that influence both managers as well as the circumstances under which IT projects are implemented.

Although there has been rich research conducted into the interrelated issues and factors among change management (ChM), knowledge management (KM) and project management (PM), most existing studies attempt to understand the role of KM in ChM and PM in general. Given the fundamental role played by KM in supporting IT project-oriented change management, the topics of knowledge networks and mobilisation across knowledge boundaries are relatively unexplored. Recent developments in KM have heightened the need for more understanding on four main issues: 1) insufficient knowledge traceability based on the relationships between knowledge elements and key factors; 2) most decision issues in PM are related to uncertainty, complexity and implicit ambiguity, particularly with regard to systematics and interrelatedness within project decisions; 3) lack of procedural knowledge to provide strategic direction for managing multiple IT projects; 4) lack of ‘lessons learnt’ documentation in knowledge bases. To address these issues, this research attempts to analyse KM, ChM and IT project management from a more integrated perspective, and investigates the development of a change management knowledge network model (CMKNM) in IT projects to facilitate knowledge mobilisation across organizational boundaries. The study employs a practice-based perspective by adopting both deductive and inductive approaches using an exploratory case study strategy. Empirical data were collected from semistructured interviews and company documents. A combination of thematic analysis and comparative analysis has been employed to analyse the data collected across seven public organisations, private organisations, and international companies. Results are obtained from the empirical study on the key factors influencing knowledge mobilisation in IT projectoriented change management, knowledge networks and connections. The results identified organisational factors and their influence on knowledge channels and knowledge networks. The CMKNM allows key knowledge mobilisation factors to be aligned with each other. Connections between knowledge networks allow knowledge to be mobilised by tracing knowledge channels to support ChM decisions. The study contributes to organisational and KM theories regarding organizational strategy, organisational culture, organizational capacity, knowledge network externalities, knowledge network intermediaries, and knowledge network infrastructure.

The aim of this study was to understand how project participants in a project between a Western country and an Africa country experience the exchange of knowledge and experiences. The study was conducted through qualitative semi-structured interviews with a hermeneutic approach. We interviewed nine participants from the project Tlokwe Inclusivity Disability Sector II, an international project between Växjö in Sweden and Potchefstroom in South Africa. Four of the interviews were conducted with participants from South Africa, and five of the interviews were conducted with participants from Sweden. The analysis of the material was based on previous research in the field and the theories of postcolonialism and indigenization. The result of the study shows that the participants from South Africa have received knowledge from Sweden that they have tried to adjust to their local conditions. The Swedish participants also feel that they have learned from this project, but a different kind of knowledge than the theoretical knowledge that they have conveyed to the South African participants. Cultural differences were central in all interviews, but although all participants that we have interviewed talked about these differences, it was not seen as a problem in the project.

Historicamente, os concursos públicos de projetos de Arquitetura e Urbanismo produzem material que apresentam diferentes soluções a um mesmo problema. Do edital até a seleção de projetos, o concurso é um processo que permite oportunidades de investigação por meio de vários enfoques. Cientes da importância da produção intelectual resultante desses concursos, pesquisadores da UNIRITTER e UFRGS, em parceria com o Instituto de Arquitetos do Brasil – Departamento do Rio Grande do Sul (IAB/RS), formataram um Acervo que contém o material de concursos realizados no Rio Grande do Sul. Esta pesquisa é inspirada em parte do conteúdo desse Acervo. O foco desta pesquisa está sobre resultados de análises que investigam a influência da formulação do problema em soluções projetuais das propostas classificadas em Concursos de Projetos Urbanos no RS, selecionados entre 2006 e 2016. Para desenvolver a metodologia da pesquisa, utilizou fundamentos do Design Thinking, uma abordagem que permite focar tanto no usuário quanto no problema em si, objetivando soluções mais precisas. Assim, esta pesquisa analisou o problema e a solução para Projetos Urbanos, propondo uma Matriz de Análise a partir de fundamentos da abordagem do Design Thinking. As bases dos concursos foram consideradas a proposição do problema, enquanto os resultados dos concursos, ou seja, os projetos classificados, foram utilizados como o valor gerado pelo concurso. O processo de comparação entre bases dos concursos (proposição do problema) e solução (projetos classificados/atas de julgamento) foi determinado como a incógnita da equação. Desse modo, se estabeleceu a questão de pesquisa que questionou a influência da proposição do problema sobre a resposta em Projetos Urbanos resultantes de concursos. Por meio do uso de ferramentas de análise da retórica da linguagem verbal e visual, aplicadas tanto sobre as bases dos concursos selecionados, quanto nas propostas projetuais classificadas, a pesquisa comparou o problema (bases dos concursos), as soluções propostas (projetos) e a seleção do júri (classificação). A investigação foi dividida em quatro etapas principais, na qual a primeira se concentrou em explorar o Acervo e desenvolver critérios de seleção de amostra, além de fundamentar a pesquisa por meio de revisão de literatura; a segunda etapa teve o foco voltado para o desenvolvimento da Matriz de Análise e seleção e aplicação de ferramentas de retórica verbal e visual; a terceira etapa foi o momento de tabulação e análise de dados; a quarta e última etapa da pesquisa foi a base para a consolidação dos dados e análise dos resultados. A principal contribuição da pesquisa foi misturar métodos de diferentes abordagens para entender a relação entre problema e solução em Projeto Urbano, o que pode revelar meios para uma melhor elaboração do problema de projeto em concursos futuros. Além disso, fomenta o debate sobre a formulação dos problemas em Projetos Urbanos de concursos públicos. O estudo também apresentou recomendações para melhoria da composição de acervo existente e estudos futuros. / Historically, public tendering for Architecture and Urbanism projects produce material that show different solutions to the same problem. From the public notice to the project selection, public tendering is a process that permits investigation opportunities via plenty of approaches. Aware of the importance of the intellectual production that results from these public tenderings, UNIRITTER and UFRGS researchers, along with the Brazilian Architects’ Institute – Rio Grande do Sul section (IAB/RS), formulated a archive that contains the material made in public tenderings in Rio Grande do Sul. This research is inspired in part of this archive. The focus of this research is about the results of analysis that investigate the influence the formulation of the problem in projectual solutions of the classified propositions classified in urban project public tenderings in Rio Grande do Sul, selected between 2006 and 2016. To develop the research methodology, we used fundamentals of Design Thinking, an approach that allows to focus on the user and also on the proble itself, aiming for more precise solutions. So, this research analyzed the problem and solution for Urban Projects, proposing a matrix of analysis on the basis of Design Thinking Approach. The public tendering bases were considered as the proposition of the problem, while the results of the exams, that is, the classified projects, were used as the value generated by the tendering. The comparative process between tendering basis (proposition of the problem) and solution (classified projects/adjudgment acts) was determine as the unknown element of the equation. In that way, it was established that the research question that questioned the proposition of the problem’s influence over the answer in Urban Project that resulted from public exams. Through the use of tools of analysis of rhetoric of verbal and visual language, applied over the bases of the selected tendering, and also on the classified projectual propositions, this research compares the problem (public tendering basis), the proposed solutions (projects) and the jury selection (classification). The investigation was divided in four main stages, in which the first focused on exploring the archive and develop sample selection criteria, also fundamenting the research by means of literature revision; the second stage focused on the development of the matrix of analysis, selection and application of tools of analysis of rhetoric of verbal and visual language; the third stage was the tabulation and data analysis; the fourth and last research stage was the basis of the data consolidation and analysis of the results. The main contribution of the research was to show methods of different approaches to understand the relation between problem and solution in Urban Projects, something that can reveal means to a better elaboration of the project’s problem in future public tenderings. Also, it stimulates the debate about the formulation of problems in Urban Projects public tenderings. This research also shows recommendations to improve the composition of the existing archive and its future studies.

Submitted by Tatiana Lima (tatianasl@ufba.br) on 2016-08-08T21:51:18Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Bagagi, Leone Coelho.pdf: 2302463 bytes, checksum: 299b57fbb28fdf1d6ea2abac2a0ae6fa (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria Angela Dortas (dortas@ufba.br) on 2016-08-12T20:12:32Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Bagagi, Leone Coelho.pdf: 2302463 bytes, checksum: 299b57fbb28fdf1d6ea2abac2a0ae6fa (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-12T20:12:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Bagagi, Leone Coelho.pdf: 2302463 bytes, checksum: 299b57fbb28fdf1d6ea2abac2a0ae6fa (MD5) / Este trabalho objetiva analisar a gestão de projetos de pesquisa e inovação no processo de importação de equipamentos para fomentar e apoiar a pesquisa na Fundação Universidade Federal do Vale do São Francisco, enfocando o princípio da eficiência. Trata-se de um estudo de caso único, no qual foram utilizadas como técnicas de coleta de dados: pesquisa documental, observação não participante e entrevistas semiestruturadas com gestores e professores/pesquisadores. Foi realizada análise de conteúdo com auxílio do software Nvivo. Os resultados revelam que a gestão de projetos de pesquisa e inovação na universidade se caracteriza pelo desenvolvimento de pesquisas com recursos próprios, mediante editais internos e aqueles apoiados financeiramente por agências federais e estaduais de fomento. As suas ações correspondem à capacitação e à difusão do conhecimento por meio de publicações dos trabalhos científicos e registro de patentes. No que se refere ao alcance do princípio da eficiência no processo de importação de equipamentos, para o desenvolvimento de pesquisa científica e tecnológica, foram encontrados limites relativos aos entraves nos sistemas administrativos e jurídicos legais, falta de núcleo de apoio à gestão de projetos e insuficiência de recursos financeiros e humanos. Como proposição, apresenta-se a criação de um núcleo de apoio à gestão de projetos de pesquisa para suporte aos pesquisadores e ampliação da captação dos recursos, por meio da diversificação das fontes de financiamentos e das redes de relacionamentos com as fundações de apoio e outras instituições, para atenuar ou elidir as limitações identificadas. / This study aims to analyze management of research and innovation projects in equipment import process to foment and support the research in Vale do São Francisco University, focusing on efficiency principle. This is a single case study, in which were used data collection techniques: documental research, non-participant observation and semi-structured interviews with managers and professors/researchers. Content analysis was performed using NVivo software. The results show that management of research projects and innovation at the university is characterized by research development with its owns resources, through internal notices and those financially supported by federal and state funding agencies. The actions correspond to training and dissemination of knowledge through publications of scientific papers and patent registration. Regarding the scope of efficiency principle in equipment import process for development of scientific and technological research, were found limits in administrative and legal systems, lack of core support for project management and financial and human resource failures. As a proposition, it shows the creation of a core of support for research project management to support researchers and expansion of funding raising, through diversification of sources of funding and relationships with support foundation networks and other institutions to mitigate or circumvent the limitations identified.

Si le développement durable continue à connaitre un véritable essor, sa déclinaison dans les opérations reste une mission complexe pour les entreprises. En particulier dans le secteur du transport et de la logistique qui peine à réduire ses impacts environnementaux et sociaux. Cette recherche se propose de confronter les fondements théoriques du développement durable aux pratiques d’un prestataire de services logistiques « PSL ». Il s’agit de comprendre le processus d’émergence d’une politique de développement durable dans une entreprise : la Responsabilité Sociale de l’Entreprise « RSE » et de participer au développement de certains projets qui mettent en lumière les tensions entre impacts environnementaux ou sociaux et impératif économique. Il en résulte une nouvelle approche pour rendre opérationnel le développement durable à l’aide des projets de conception, d’amélioration et d’optimisation liés au métier, à différents niveaux (stratégique, tactique et opérationnel) et sur des périmètres variables (transport, préparation et entreposage). Des modèles d’optimisation de type PLNE de localisation affectation des flux, de tournées de véhicule et d’analyse de données sur l’éco conduite ont été développés et appliqués dans l’entreprise à cette fin. Les différents cas étudiés dans cette thèse démontrent que pour certains types de projets, l’intérêt économique et la réponse aux exigences de la RSE évoluent dans le même sens. Pour d’autres, un compromis entre les axes économique, social et environnemental pourrait être une solution viable en attendant les progrès technologiques qui permettraient d’assurer des solutions durables. / Even though sustainable development continues to grow, it is difficult to implement in a company’s everyday operations. Particularly, the sector of transportation and logistics is struggling to reduce its environmental and social impacts. This research aims to compare the theoretical foundations of sustainable development to the practices of a Third Party Logistics Provider "3PL". It helps to understand the process of the emergence of a sustainable development policy in a business: Corporate Social Responsibility "CSR" and to participate in the development of projects that highlight the tensions between environmental or social impacts and the economic imperative. The result is a new approach to put into practice sustainable development through improvement and optimization projects related to the business at different levels (strategic, tactical and operational) and in several areas (transportation, handling and storage). Mix integer programming optimization model for platform location and flows assignment, vehicle routing and data analysis of eco-driving have been developed and applied in the company for this purpose. The cases studied in this thesis show that for some types of projects, economic interest and response to the requirements of CSR evolve in the same direction. For others, a compromise between the economic, social and environmental factors could be a good solution pending new technologies that would ensure sustainable solutions.

An organizational strategy to develop software has appeared in the market. Organizations release software source code open and hope to attract volunteers to improve their software, forming what we call an open source project. Examples of organizations that have used this strategy include IBM (Eclipse), SAP (Netweaver) and Mozilla (Thunderbird). Moreover, thousands of these projects have been created as a consequence of the growing amount of software source code released by individuals. This expressive phenomenon deserves attention for its sudden appearance, newness and usefulness to public and private organizations. To explain the dynamics of open source projects, this research theoretically identified and empirically analyzed a construct – attractiveness – found crucial to them due to its influence on how they are populated and operate, subsequently impacting the qualities of the software produced and of the support provided. Both attractiveness' causes and consequences were put under scrutiny, as well as its indicators. On the side of the consequences, it was theoretically proposed and empirically tested whether the attractiveness of these projects affects their levels of activeness, efficiency, likelihood of task completion, and time for task completion, though not linearly, as task complexity could moderate the relationships between them. Also, it was argued at the theoretical level that activeness, efficiency, likelihood of task completion, and time for task completion mediate the relationship between attractiveness and software/support quality. On the side of attractiveness' causes, it was proposed and tested that five open software projects' characteristics (license type, intended audience, type of project and project’s life-cycle stage) impact attractiveness directly. Additionally, these projects' characteristics were argued to influence projects' levels of activeness, efficiency, likelihood of task completion, and time for task completion (and so an empirical evaluation of their associations was performed). The empirical tests of all these relationships between constructs were carried out using Structural Equation Modeling with Maximum Likelihood on three samples of over 4,600 projects each, collected from the largest repository of open source software, Sourceforge.net (a repeated cross-sectional approach). The results confirmed the importance of attractiveness, suggesting a direct influence on projects' dynamics, as opposed to the moderated-by-task complexity indirect paths first proposed. Furthermore, all four projects' characteristics studied were found to significantly influence projects' attractiveness, activeness, efficiency, likelihood of task completion, and time for task completion (with the exception of license type and time for task completion). Besides providing a statistical test of these propositions, this study discovered the direction of the influence of each project characteristic on projects' attractiveness, activeness, efficiency, likelihood of task completion and time for task completion. Lastly, conclusions, limitations, and future directions are discussed based on these findings.

This research investigates the emergence of new participatory spaces in the transition towards a low-carbon society. Specifically, it focuses on the emerging spaces and roles for community groups in renewable energy governance. The role of community groups in facilitating a low-carbon transition has received much attention in recent years, but has been insufficiently studied within the wider context of evolving state-civil society relations. This research puts forward an understanding of community energy initiatives that is neither inherently celebratory nor dismissive of community action, but argues that such initiatives should be understood based on the interactions – between practices, organisations and relations – within and external to these communities. In doing so, this research adopts an interdisciplinary approach, building on insights from both geography and political science to understand how opportunities for community participation are articulated in particular geographical and political contexts. Grounding this research in Scotland shows the unique ways in which devolution – from the UK Government to the Scottish Government, but primarily through the emerging powers for community groups in Scotland – has created a set of spatially and temporally-specific spaces and practices of intervention. The devolution of energy governance, and the diversity of practices emerging through this process, also raises questions, however, about the democratic qualities of these new spaces and practices. This research specifically explores this issue through building on the emerging concept of energy democracy. ‘Energy democracy’ is a concept that has been adopted by a growing number of international civil society actors who regard the transition to law-carbon energy sources as an opportunity not only for technological innovation but also for wider socio-economic transformation. Invoking an image of associative democracy, those advocating for greater energy democracy consider self-governing community groups as best placed to ensure that the transition towards a low-carbon society is one that is more inclusive, democratic and just. While energy democracy, like related concepts of energy citizenship and energy justice, aims to combine technological and social transformation, its activist roots also means it is noticeably different. This is evident in two ways. First, the current body of literature is largely uncritical and rather vague in nature. The second consequence of the activist roots of energy democracy is that it is diverse in its framing of the issue and its formulation of desired transition pathways. As its main contribution to existing academic debate, my thesis explores and expands the conceptual foundations of ‘energy democracy’ by evaluating its connections to different political theories, and the consequences of different interpretations for energy democracy research and practice. Secondly, I seek to develop the empirical evidence base for energy democracy. The current, primarily activist, literature on energy democracy often assumes rather than demonstrates that the forms of governance it promotes are more democratic than the status quo. This PhD therefore sets out to analyse the complex and varied ways in which local communities practice energy governance in Scotland. First, I introduce a quantitatively-developed typology of community energy projects in Scotland to highlight the diverse nature of the sector. Subsequently I demonstrate through qualitative interviews with community groups how the diversity of the sector (both within and between groups) both contributes to, and challenges, the democratic claims made for and by community energy. In the final part I show that the hybridity of spaces created by, and for, community energy intermediaries reflect the interactions between policy and community-action. Through a focus on the interaction between actors at different governance levels, my research helps to improve an understanding of the creation and contestation of new spaces of intervention in the Scottish energy transition as a process that not only reflects a broader (re)structuring of state-civil society relations, but also provides an early and somewhat experimental expression of such restructuring.

In this doctoral study I conceptualise shared values in order to explore a management problem from my work place environment. I observe that business-to-business (B2B) relationships between project managers and self-employed consulting engineers terminate; project managers switching to other vendors and self-employed consulting engineers losing their contract. The findings from the doctoral study show major influence of the shared values in managing project based professional relationships. Specifically, the elements of B2B professional relationships “commitment” and “trust” embedded in relationship performance show managerial implications. Furthermore, the literature review revealed a lack of qualitative knowledge in the research domain of B2B relationships. Hence, the findings from the doctoral study fill this gap and contribute to the academic knowledge by providing practise based qualitative evidence. This doctoral study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, building on previous research articles, six elements of B2B professional relationships were refined and tested through qualitative interviews in order to explore their relevance in the B2B professional relationship between the project managers and self-employed consulting engineers. As a result from the first phase, a conceptual model of shared values was developed. In the second phase, the conceptual model of the shared values developed from the first phase was explored and validated through the experience of the project managers and self-employed consulting engineers.