Session Summary

Session Number:258
Session ID:S1306
Session Title:The Organization and Strategy of Large-Scale Engineering Projects: The Challenge of Managing Complexity
Short Title:Project management
Session Type:Division Joint Symposium
Hotel:Swiss
Floor:3
Room:Engleberg
Time:Wednesday, August 11, 1999 9:00 AM - 10:20 AM

Sponsors

OM  (Robert Klassen)rklassen@ivey.uwo.ca (519) 661-3336 
IM  (Farok Contractor)farok@andromeda.rutgers.edu (973) 353-5348 

General People

Organizer Lampel , Joseph  U. of Nottingham josephlampel@hotmail.com 44-115-951 55 00 
Organizer Floricel, Serghei  U. of Québec -- Trois-Rivières d236721@er.uqam.ca (819)-376-5080 ext.3114 
Discussant Jones, Candace  Boston College jonescq@bc.edu 617 552 0457 
Speaker Miller, Roger  U. of Quebec, Montreal miller.roger@uqam.ca (514)-987-3000 ext.4256 
Speaker Shapira, Zur  New York U. zshapira@stern.nyu.edu (212)-998-0255 

Submissions

Crafting Utopias Into Reality: The Shaping and Governance of Large-Scale Engineering Projects 
Speaker Miller, Roger  U. of Quebec, Montreal miller.roger@uqam.ca (514)-987-3000 ext.4256 
Speaker Lessard, Donald R. Massachusetts Institute of Technology dlessard@mit.edu (617)-253-6688 
Project Action-Sets and the Strategy of Engineering-Construction Firms 
Speaker Lampel , Joseph  U. of Nottingham josephlampel@hotmail.com 44-115-951 55 00 
Shaping Strategic Systems for Large-Scale Engineering Projects 
Speaker Floricel, Serghei  U. of Québec -- Trois-Rivières d236721@er.uqam.ca (819)-376-5080 ext.3114 
Managing Large Scale Construction Projects: A Cognitive Perspective 
Speaker Shapira, Zur  New York U. zshapira@stern.nyu.edu (212)-998-0255 

Abstract

Large scale engineering projects such as power plants, bridges, roads, oil exploration platforms, airports, and urban transportation systems, pose managerial risks and research problems that are qualitatively different from those encountered in other types of technological projects. Large-scale projects are financially risky, involve complex organizational coalitions, and are often politically contentious. The need to integrate and deliver a single operating system produce conflicting goals, and this in turn create severe strains on engineering and design, and conflict between managerial and organizational activities. Organizational and institutional practices have emerged to deal with these issues, but government deficits, recurrent public debt crises, and low productivity have increased the demand for change in the traditional ways in which large-scale engineering projects are shaped and delivered. This symposium examines how organizations and institutions in the large-project sector deal with these issues. We examine new frameworks for assessing tradeoffs between innovation, project performance, and risk. We show how new practices and arrangements such as project finance and build-operate-transfer (BOT) have emerged which seek to increase efficiency, attract private capital, while at the same time meeting public and political concerns. We also look at the evolution of strategic new project organization practices; in particular, new forms of multi-organizational systems for large project delivery.