Mahalingam, A (2006) Understanding and mitigating institutional costs on global projects. PhD thesis, Stanford University, USA.
Abstract
Global infrastructure projects that involve collaboration between participants from multiple countries experience significant amounts of conflicts, delays and cost overruns as compared to intra-national projects. Institutional differences---differences in taken-for-granted rules, work practices, norms and beliefs that lead to regular patterns of behavior in societies---are the reason for these problems. On global projects, participants from different countries interact and institutionalized practices come into conflict, leading to delays and cost overruns before the conflicts are resolved. Since very little literature exists on institutional conflicts on global projects, I conducted detailed case studies of four international infrastructure projects---two in Taiwan and two in India---to understand this phenomenon and help improve the performance of global projects. The Indian projects formed my primary data source. On all these projects, international contractors worked with local clients, laborers and subcontractors. I observed the following types of recurring institutional conflicts: (1) Conflicts due to differing perceptions in safety and quality standards; (2) Conflicts regarding the degree of conformance of work to the contract specifications; (3) Conflicts regarding administration of the works; (4) Conflicts regarding client-contractor relationships. Safety and quality conflicts were present in both India and Taiwan since the local laborers were not used to following the higher standards that the international contractors expected. On the Indian projects, the Indian civil servants' fears of being caught by the local anti-corruption unit led to extremely bureaucratic and rule-following behavior. This led to conflict types 2,3 and 4 above, with contractors who were keen on advancing the works. Several freelance professionals hailing mainly from the UK, worked on these projects. Since they were not influenced by local forces such as anti-corruption agencies, the freelancers who worked with the clients acted as mediators in resolving the conflicts that arose. They used four strategies---circumventing existing processes, escalating issues to a higher level, providing suggestions, and changing the forum for discussion---to resolve conflicts. My research provides practitioners with strategic insights on how to manage global projects better. I also extend theoretical knowledge on institutional theory and provide insights into how institutional conflicts are resolved in project settings.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Levitt, R |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | institutional theory; standards; collaboration; conflicts; safety; India; Taiwan; UK; case study; cost overrun; specification; infrastructure project; client; mediator; professional; subcontractor |
| Index terms: | quality standard, case study, institutional theory, mediator, cost overrun, infrastructure project, India, society, specification, Taiwan, strategy, corruption, practitioner, collaboration, work practice, norms, subcontractor, agency |
| Subjects: | contractual condition, Geography, management, infrastructure and transport systems, professional ethics, communities and social development, quality assurance, sociology, practitioner, dispute resolution, data collection methods, financial and cost management |
| Topics: | Geographical Context, Engineering Principles, Quality Management, Legal Issues, Research Practice, Cost Management, Business Strategy, Roles and Professions, Stakeholder Management, Contract Administration, Organizational Design |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here