Al-Hachami, Z (2020) Decision making in the oil and gas construction project management: structured VS discretionary. PhD thesis, University of Liverpool, UK.
Abstract
The oil industry in southern Iraq suffers from significant and unreasonable delays in construction project execution. The project's planning part goes to its final stages, but the implementation phase gets stagnated due mostly to delay in decision-making. Objectives/Amis: Investigating the potential impact of five factors influencing the decision-making process; Project management methodology/system, organizational context, bureaucratical/procedural practices, project context, and the role of experience and competence. Developing an action plan for change through understanding the impact of these factors. An action research conducted by a native researcher utilizing a qualitative approach to inquiry through semi-structured interviews with eleven project management professionals in a major international oil and gas company in southern Iraq in addition to observation and field notes. Findings presented direct and indirect linkage between project management methodology and delay in decision making. There was evidence of system impact on project leadership and lack of decision ownership regardless of project size and type. Findings also presented that the oil and gas industry attempt to mechanize project execution through standardized procedures with a weak matrix organizational structure where the design of such procedures best be left to field experienced individuals. There was also strong evidence of a relationship between the project organization and decision speed attributed to a significant impact on communication speed. Aside from planning and project selection decisions, the execution decision research framework in this thesis broadens the human element decision-making understanding, thereby enabling project managers in identifying factors and attributes that optimize their decision-making process under standardized work requirements in a time-pressured and dynamic construction execution. This thesis investigated five areas with a potential impact on execution decision-making in southern Iraq's oil and gas industry. Based on the empirical findings, key practical implications identified and an action plan presented in this study, if applied, could have a substantial improvement in decision speed and accuracy.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | competence; construction project; decision making; leadership; owner; professional; ownership; action research; interview; Iraq |
| Index terms: | linkage, decision-making process, owner, qualitative approach, project manager, oil and gas, implementation, project management, project selection, construction project management, ownership, project organization, accuracy, interview, action research, organizational structure, competence, construction project, methodology, decision-making, evidence |
| Subjects: | production management, organizational theory, research methods, contractual arrangements, evaluation and assessment methods, industry analysis, sociology, decision analysis, professional development, project management theory and practice, personnel development, economics, value management, business, data collection methods, profession |
| Topics: | Business Strategy, Research Practice, Information Management, Stakeholder Management, Roles and Professions, Human Resources, Organizational Design, Project Management, Risk Management, Procurement |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
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