Wu, C; Brookes, N; Unterhitzenberger, C and Olson, N (2023) The role of lean information flows in disaster construction projects: Exploring the UK's COVID Surge hospital projects. Construction Management and Economics, 41(10), pp. 840-858. ISSN 01446193
Abstract
A substantive body of work in project studies argues that an “information flow” lens is very useful in exploring the project management of construction. This paper posits that this is even more applicable to disaster construction projects and, furthermore, lean information flow may play a role in swiftly delivering the disaster construction project. The paper uses the qualitative empirics of the delivery of the UK’s Covid surge hospital projects to demonstrate that lean information flows were employed in these projects and assisted in enabling delivery at speed. The paper also describes the autopoietic governance conditions that are necessary for lean information flows to flourish in disaster construction projects and the role that trust may play in these conditions. It warns against some of the drawbacks in enabling lean communication through autopoietic governance.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | disaster construction projects; disaster response; lean communication; lean information flow |
| Index terms: | information flow, governance, disaster response, construction project, project management |
| Subjects: | production management, information systems, project management theory and practice, business, emergency and crisis management |
| Topics: | Project Management, Digital Applications, Governance, Sustainability |
| Descriptive scope: | 2 PC |
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