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1 – 10 of 28Tommi Pauna, Jere Lehtinen, Jaakko Kujala and Kirsi Aaltonen
The aim of this research was to understand how governmental stakeholder engagement facilitates the sustainability of industrial engineering (IE) projects. A model for governmental…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this research was to understand how governmental stakeholder engagement facilitates the sustainability of industrial engineering (IE) projects. A model for governmental stakeholder engagement activities is presented.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors relied on a single-case study of a mining project in Northern Europe, where a novel collaboration and engagement approach with governmental stakeholders was piloted in the project's front-end phase. The analysis focused on the collaborative practices through which the IE project investor engaged governmental stakeholders during the project's front-end phase and how the engagement contributed to solving challenges in the early planning and permitting process and achieving project plans that balanced economic, social and environmental aspects.
Findings
The findings show how four collaborative engagement practices reduced uncertainty and equivocality related to the legal sustainability requirements, enabled the development of sustainable design solutions and overall accelerated the permitting process without compromising the quality of final project plans.
Practical implications
The findings can be used to plan governmental stakeholder engagement and understand related challenges that need to be overcome. The study highlights the need to develop established practices and guidelines for governmental stakeholder engagement.
Originality/value
This study complements prior research on stakeholder engagement and project sustainability by developing an understanding of how governmental stakeholder engagement can be a key mechanism enabling the sustainability of IE project's end product. This research contributes to stakeholder theory by elaborating on a new stakeholder role, intermediary stakeholder.
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Teemu Mikael Lappi, Kirsi Aaltonen and Jaakko Kujala
This paper aims to increase the current understanding of the connection between operational level information and communication technology (ICT) projects and national level…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to increase the current understanding of the connection between operational level information and communication technology (ICT) projects and national level digital transformation by researching how project governance structures and practices are applied in an e-government context.
Design/methodology/approach
An elaborative qualitative study through public documentary analysis and empirical multi-case research on Finnish central government is used.
Findings
The study constructs a multi-level governance structure with three main functions and applies this in an empirical setting. The results also describe how different governance practices and processes, focusing on project portfolio management, are applied vertically across different organizational levels to connect the ICT projects with the national digitalization strategy.
Originality/value
This study integrates project governance and portfolio management knowledge into public sector digitalization, thus contributing to project management, e-government and ICT research streams by improving the current understanding on the governance of ICT projects as part of a larger-scale digitalization. This study also highlights perceived gaps between current governance practices and provides implications to managers and practitioners working in the field to address these gaps.
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Kirsi Aaltonen, Nadezhda Gotcheva, Jaakko Kujala and Karlos Artto
In megaprojects, changes in scope and organization may occur continuously. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how actors in a project network make sense of a…
Abstract
Purpose
In megaprojects, changes in scope and organization may occur continuously. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how actors in a project network make sense of a safety-related process innovation introduced during the design phase.
Design/methodology/approach
An inductive single case study of an ongoing nuclear power plant project in Europe was employed to elucidate sensemaking processes using a narrative approach.
Findings
The empirical analysis yielded nine distinct narratives regarding the innovation each advancing a different account of the rationale for implementing the new method, and the subjects, objects and implications of the change. The findings suggest that actors’ differing framings of innovation may increase ambiguity and equivocality.
Originality/value
These insights augment existing knowledge of innovation management and system safety in safety-critical megaprojects by revealing project actors’ discrepant sensemaking processes with regard to innovations. To successfully manage sensemaking and its consequences for innovation adoption, managers need to take account of any such discrepancies in sensemaking processes.
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Teemu Mikael Lappi, Kirsi Aaltonen and Jaakko Kujala
ICT projects, especially in the public sector, can have a substantial impact on society but are challenging due to organizational and technological complexities and uncertainties…
Abstract
Purpose
ICT projects, especially in the public sector, can have a substantial impact on society but are challenging due to organizational and technological complexities and uncertainties. Collaborative and cooperative project delivery models, namely, the project alliance method, can mitigate such challenges, but, thus far, have not been utilized in information and communication technology (ICT) projects. The purpose of this paper is to explore and understand the cross-field transfer process through which the project alliance model was applied to the ICT field from the construction sector.
Design/methodology/approach
An inductive case study of the ICT project alliance early stages was performed. Data were collected from the first known ICT alliance project, conducted in the context of the Finnish public sector digitalization.
Findings
The findings show how the activities of institutional entrepreneurs impact the cross-field transfer process during the ICT project alliance’s early stages. Furthermore, the results illustrate the characteristics of an ICT project alliance and compare those with more traditional project alliances.
Originality/value
The topic and results of the study are original and contribute to institutional research by identifying and studying the micro-level processes associated with the cross-field transfer process. The study also builds an initial understanding of a new method of organizing ICT projects and contributes to the project alliance literature. The managerial implications of the findings allow project practitioners to understand the emerging characteristics of an ICT project alliance, and enable managers in the ICT field to adjust and prepare their own organizations and processes for the application of the project alliance model.
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Jaakko Kujala, Kirsi Aaltonen, Nadezhda Gotcheva and Pertti Lahdenperä
The purpose of this study is to create a framework to analyze approaches for coordination, adaptation and safeguarding of exchanges in interorganizational project networks.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to create a framework to analyze approaches for coordination, adaptation and safeguarding of exchanges in interorganizational project networks.
Design/methodology/approach
An analysis framework to analyze governance in project networks was created based on a systematic review of existing literature. The framework was applied to analyze governance approaches used in a large infrastructure project implemented with an alliance project delivery method to illustrate the practical validity of the framework.
Findings
The analysis framework categorized governance in project networks in six dimensions: goal setting, rewarding, monitoring, roles and decision-making, coordination and capability building. A set of questions for each governance dimension was created and the analysis framework was applied in the context of a project alliance.
Research limitations/implications
The focus of this research is on governance internal to a project network. The authors identified dimensions of governance in project networks and related governance approaches based on a systematic literature review. The practical applicability of the framework was validated in a single case study setting.
Practical implications
The paper introduces a concept of governance in project networks, which takes the perspective that all actors that have an influence on project implementation are part of an interorganizational project network. The focal organization may have had a significant role in the design of governance, but governance also emerged from the network structure of companies and the interactions among them. The analysis framework created in this research can be used to design and analyze governance in different type of project context.
Originality/value
The paper introduces a concept of governance in project networks, which takes the perspective that all actors that have an influence on project implementation are part of an interorganizational project network.
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Antti Peltokorpi and Jaakko Kujala
Healthcare in the public and private sectors is facing increasing pressure to become more cost‐effective. Time‐based competition and work‐in‐progress have been used successfully…
Abstract
Purpose
Healthcare in the public and private sectors is facing increasing pressure to become more cost‐effective. Time‐based competition and work‐in‐progress have been used successfully to measure and improve the efficiency of industrial manufacturing. Seeks to address this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
Presents a framework for time based management of the total cost of a patient episode and apply it to the six sigma DMAIC‐process development approach. The framework is used to analyse hip replacement patient episodes in Päijät‐Häme Hospital District in Finland, which has a catchment area of 210,000 inhabitants and performs an average of 230 hip replacements per year.
Findings
The work‐in‐progress concept is applicable to healthcare – notably that the DMAIC‐process development approach can be used to analyse the total cost of patient episodes. Concludes that a framework, which combines the patient‐in‐process and the DMAIC development approach, can be used not only to analyse the total cost of patient episode but also to improve patient process efficiency.
Originality/value
Presents a framework that combines patient‐in‐process and DMAIC‐process development approaches, which can be used to analyse the total cost of a patient episode in order to improve patient process efficiency.
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Karlos Artto and Jaakko Kujala
The purpose of this paper is to introduce project business as a research field. The project business view in this paper puts focus on the management of firms and their businesses…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to introduce project business as a research field. The project business view in this paper puts focus on the management of firms and their businesses, and this way the paper complements the existing project‐centric view of the role of projects and their management in various business contexts.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper proposes a conceptual framework for project business and identify relevant research areas and themes. These research areas and themes are derived by using the knowledge and experience obtained from scientific project business research conducted in Finland since the early 1990s.
Findings
This paper describes project business as a research field by introducing a project business framework and the four major research areas inherent in the framework: management of a project, management of a project‐based firm, management of a project network, and management of a business network. It also suggests specific research areas and themes within the framework that are relevant and contribute to new knowledge in the project business field.
Practical/implications
The project business framework described in this paper, including the suggested research areas and themes, is important in focusing research and for development of practical application of project‐based business activities in firms and in public organizations.
Originality/value
The paper reveals avenues that lead towards the development of a new body of knowledge for project business that focuses on managing both firms and projects effectively in their networked business environments.
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Jaakko Kujala, Soili Nystén-Haarala and Jouko Nuottila
The purpose of this paper is to increase the understanding of the main challenges of the contracting process and project contracts in the context of project business characterized…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to increase the understanding of the main challenges of the contracting process and project contracts in the context of project business characterized by a high level of complexity and uncertainty. The authors argue that understanding contracting as a flexible process and as a business tool will contribute to creating more value in projects which are implemented in constantly changing circumstances or which require gradual and iterative development.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a conceptual paper with illustrative examples from the software industry.
Findings
A prevailing approach for both managing contracts and the contracting process focuses on careful planning and drafting of contracts that protect each party in the case of conflicts and disagreements. The underlying assumption is that all activities can be planned and documented in a formal contract. According to this approach, the contracting process is seen only as a bargaining negotiation and the project contract as a detailed agreement of the responsibilities and safeguarding clauses to protect one’s position in the event of conflicts and failures. However, in the context of project business characterized by complexity and uncertainty, there is a need for flexible project contracts. The authors suggest that there are two fundamentally different approaches to implementing flexibility in both the contracting process and the project contract: postponing the decision until there is adequate information for decision making or making decisions that allow flexible adaptation to changes during the project lifecycle.
Practical implications
The authors suggest that organizations in project business should pay closer attention to how contracts are formed and how flexibility is introduced to projects. Organizations are encouraged to see contracts as a business tool, not as rigid documents which are taken into use in case something goes wrong.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the understanding of how to adapt the contracting process to overcome challenges related to uncertainty, especially during the early phases of the project lifecycle. The authors provide a novel perspective on contracting as a process that extends over the lifecycle of a project and on the project contract as an agreement between parties formed during the contracting process. This perspective includes formal contract documents as well as various other documents, oral communication, commitments, actions and incidents.
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Jaakko Kujala, Paul Lillrank, Virpi Kronström and Antti Peltokorpi
The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual framework that would enable the effective application of time based competition (TBC) and work in process (WIP) concepts in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual framework that would enable the effective application of time based competition (TBC) and work in process (WIP) concepts in the design and management of effective and efficient patient processes.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper discusses the applicability of time‐based competition and work‐in‐progress concepts to the design and management of healthcare service production processes. A conceptual framework is derived from the analysis of both existing research and empirical case studies.
Findings
The paper finds that a patient episode is analogous to a customer order‐to‐delivery chain in industry. The effective application of TBC and WIP can be achieved by focusing on through put time of a patient episode by reducing the non‐value adding time components and by minimizing time categories that are main cost drivers for all stakeholders involved in the patient episode.
Research limitations/implications
The paper shows that an application of TBC in managing patient processes can be limited if there is no consensus about optimal care episode in the medical community.
Practical implications
In the paper it is shown that managing patient processes based on time and cost analysis enables one to allocate the optimal amount of resources, which would allow a healthcare system to minimize the total cost of specific episodes of illness. Analysing the total cost of patient episodes can provide useful information in the allocation of limited resources among multiple patient processes.
Originality/value
This paper introduces a framework for health care managers and researchers to analyze the effect of reducing through put time to the total cost of patient episodes.
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Juha‐Matti Lehtonen, Jaakko Kujala, Juhani Kouri and Mikko Hippeläinen
The high variability in cardiac surgery length – is one of the main challenges for staff managing productivity. This study aims to evaluate the impact of six interventions on…
Abstract
Purpose
The high variability in cardiac surgery length – is one of the main challenges for staff managing productivity. This study aims to evaluate the impact of six interventions on open‐heart surgery operating theatre productivity.
Design/methodology/approach
A discrete operating theatre event simulation model with empirical operation time input data from 2,603 patients is used to evaluate the effect that these process interventions have on the surgery output and overtime work. A linear regression model was used to get operation time forecasts for surgery scheduling while it also could be used to explain operation time.
Findings
A forecasting model based on the linear regression of variables available before the surgery explains 46 per cent operating time variance. The main factors influencing operation length were type of operation, redoing the operation and the head surgeon. Reduction of changeover time between surgeries by inducing anaesthesia outside an operating theatre and by reducing slack time at the end of day after a second surgery have the strongest effects on surgery output and productivity. A more accurate operation time forecast did not have any effect on output, although improved operation time forecast did decrease overtime work.
Research limitations/implications
A reduction in the operation time itself is not studied in this article. However, the forecasting model can also be applied to discover which factors are most significant in explaining variation in the length of open‐heart surgery.
Practical implications
The challenge in scheduling two open‐heart surgeries in one day can be partly resolved by increasing the length of the day, decreasing the time between two surgeries or by improving patient scheduling procedures so that two short surgeries can be paired.
Originality/value
A linear regression model is created in the paper to increase the accuracy of operation time forecasting and to identify factors that have the most influence on operation time. A simulation model is used to analyse the impact of improved surgical length forecasting and five selected process interventions on productivity in cardiac surgery.
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