ORGANIZATIONAL INTERACTIONS IN THE MANAGEMENT OF DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

Abstract

A development project can be likened to an organization of parties related to an environment of entities. As an organization evolves in a changing environment, the interactions involving project parties and environmental entities can affect the successful completion of the development project and the desired growth of each participating entity. This thesis is on organizational interactions which take place in the management of development projects. Interaction is defined here as an exchange of actions between two parties. The objectives of this research are to examine the concentrations of interactions which affected project completion and entity growth so as to recommend measures to manage them. The scope of research is limited to common-size building projects which were found to be in the range of S$10 million to S$30 million. A careful examination of previous work directed the research to concentrate on interactions concerning the management functions of planning and organizing. The research method used is a combination of archival documentation and case study. The work is to map the proportions of concentrations and identify the probability of occurrences of difficult interactions. Five samples of 145 projects undertaken in 1991 to 1994 in Singapore were used for this research The research is presented here in three parts. The first provides an overview of the interactions in projects. The second examines the interactions related to the product and process of planning and organizing. The third evaluates management practice in terms of function, approach and system used to cope with the interactions. It was found that there are significant constraints imposed on management by the plans and structures as well as the processes of planning and organizing on projects. The results were depicted graphically to highlight the correlationships. Management efficiency as reflected by the interactions is found to range between forty three to sixty percent. As a consequence, project completion of an eighteen month construction phase would be delayed by about two and a half lo three months. The findings determined the contractor entity to be most affected by the interactions. Slow growth was also detected for the contractor entity. Entity growth would be slowed by the same loss of time delaying project completion. The findings also projected increasing difficulties in interactions for management as growing entities take on projects of increasing sizes. The state of management and its infrastructure was found to be barely capable of coping with such increases. It was found that integration and coordination were much needed for management of the interactions. Mechanisms for the selection of the right management approach and examination of incomplete management systems were recommended. Directions for further work based on this research were also suggested. They are in the areas of organizational behaviour and project management.