Iftikhar, Rehab (2017) Crisis management in project based organizations and mega projects: An integrated approach. PhD thesis, Luiss Guido Carli, Italy.
Abstract
This doctoral dissertation addresses crisis management in project based organizations (PBOs) and mega projects. There has been much research on crisis in organizations but there has been little attention given to crisis management in temporary organization settings and when multiple stakeholders are involved. In other words, research on "how crisis management is adopted by project based organizations and mega projects" are scarce. This study addresses this gap. This study's objective is to identify crises that are caused by the internal and external environment of project based organizations and mega projects and then manage these crises with organizational capabilities and sense making process. The dissertation consists of a compilation of three papers. This research proposes three studies on different yet interrelated crisis management topics. They are categorized into three research areas: taxonomy among risk, crisis and disaster, crises and capabilities in project based organizations and sense making process of crisis in mega projects. Taxonomy among risk, crisis and disaster is addressed by Chapter 2, which identifies the dimensions from literature and develops taxonomy; it is a first step toward management. The second research area (i.e., crisis and capability in PBOs) has led to the development of Chapter 3 which respectively identifies crises that could impact PBO's performance and investigates PBOs capabilities required for management of crises. It derived a conceptual framework of crises and capabilities that contains internal social, external social, internal technical and external technical crises (independent variables), performance i.e. project performance and stakeholder performance (dependent variables) and project based organizations' capabilities such as strategic, functional and project capabilities (moderating variable). Sense making process is examined in Chapter 4, and it explores and develops a sense making process in mega projects where multiple organizational stakeholders are involved. Sense making/giving model contains element of information gathering (internal and external sources), crisis interpretation (exogenous/endogenous, social and technical crisis), report/record (ask for compensation, report crisis to stakeholders or escalate to higher level within organization) and response (reactive and direct/indirect response). The research reported in the dissertation is based on a multi-method approach of both quantitative i.e. survey of project based organizations and qualitative methods i.e. single-case study of mega project. The survey was conducted in IT, Telecom and construction companies in Pakistan. The case study has been conducted on the new international airport in Islamabad, Pakistan. To conclude, the dissertation (a) identifies differences and similarities between risk, crisis and disaster, (b) develops taxonomy among risk, crisis and disaster by identifying dimensions, (c) identifies crises that could impact project based organizations' performance, for which both short term (project performance) and long term performance (stakeholder performance) are considered, (d) explores capabilities perspective on project-based organizations (strategic, functional, and project capabilities) and develops a conceptual framework that embraces the organizational capability to manage the relation between crises and organizational performance, (e) develops a sense making/giving model for crises in mega projects when multiple organizational stakeholders are involved, (f) identifies different sense making and sense giving elements and (g) develops a grounded theory model that contains sense making/giving elements.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Prencipe, Andrea |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | crisis management; disaster; sensemaking; project-based organizations; megaprojects |
| Index terms: | megaproject, dependent variable, organizational capability, conceptual framework, Pakistan, construction company, qualitative method, survey, project-based organization, integrated approach, sensemaking, dissertation, compensation, dimension, taxonomy, organizational performance, crisis management, project performance, temporary organization, grounded theory, independent variable, case study |
| Subjects: | theoretical framing, financial risk, organizational theory, Geography, cognitive psychology, organization, research dissemination and communication, strategic project management, contractual arrangements, performance measurement, project management theory and practice, sociology, statistical analysis, research design and methodology, data collection methods, dispute resolution, health monitoring assessment and metrics, data analysis and analytics |
| Topics: | Research Practice, Cost Management, Business Strategy, Organizational Design, Project Management, Geographical Context, Health and Safety, Procurement, Quality Management, Legal Issues |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCEA |
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