Beemsterboer, S and Koch, C (2017) A human touch: Examining the roles of middle managers for innovation in contractors. In: Chan, P W and Neilson, C J (eds.) Proceedings of 33rd Annual ARCOM Conference, 4-6 September 2017, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, UK.
Abstract
Operational innovation is understood as renewal and improvement of ways to carry out the production of buildings and other built structures are becoming increasingly important for contractors. Many studies in construction management focus on contributions in process innovation in projects and a few on the enterprise "above". Furthermore, there is a tendency to disregard the expertise of the in between group of midlevel managers. If addressed, middle manager expertise is too often expressed narrowly in relation to a somewhat mechanic implementation of top management strategies. We believe such interpretation does injustice to the importance of middle managers regarding innovation. In this paper, we address the position of middle managers in contractors and their impact on operation strategizing and operational innovation. Specific attention is payed to the roles that middle managers occupy that function as alternatives to the dominant narrative of implementer of change. A literature review has been conducted to conceptualise the position of the middle manager and the role of the middle manager regarding change in the contractor. A case study of a Swedish contractor was performed to address how different roles are operationalised by middle managers in their work practices. 10 semi-structured interviews were conducted with individual middle managers. A vision seminar was organised to enable the middle managers to discuss together their perceptions on innovation in construction. Middle managers perceive the systematisation of working practices, employee development, and health, safety and sustainability measures to be the most important innovations in their environment. Four different roles of the middle manager have been examined: implementer of change, networker, sense maker and enabler. On this background we discuss how middle managers may advance these roles to contribute to innovation in the contractor.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | contractors; expertise; innovation; middle manager; role |
| Index terms: | working practice, strategy, literature review, case study, becoming, manager, interview, renewal, implementation, top management, work practice, narrative |
| Subjects: | philosophical process, renovation and retrofit, management, qualitative and interpretive research, data analysis and analytics, contractual arrangements, data collection methods, practitioner |
| Topics: | Organizational Design, Research Practice, Engineering Principles, Business Strategy, Procurement, Roles and Professions |
| 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