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- Hetemi, Ermal
(author)
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Path Dependence and Path Shaping : Unearthing institutional dynamics in large-scale project organizing
- 2020
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Over the last two decades, large-scale project endeavors or major programs that typically deliver a substantial physical infrastructure or a complex product with a lifetime that can extend for decades and across industries have become the norm for many utility sectors, such as transport, energy, water, or food. The allure of ever-larger projects shows no sign of fading away in the face of sustainable development and grand societal challenges – quite the contrary. A significant policy perspective and the trend points to the new generation of large-scale projects, which in contrast to the early industrial era in the US and Europe, compels efforts that require management to minimize affecting the surrounding societal environment. Besides, today's modern infrastructure projects tend to involve a more complex network of organizations – “global” organizations – yielding a dynamic component in project organizing. Large-scale projects are complex endeavors embedded in highly institutionalized social structures and technologies, including public and private actors with various rationalities, modes of collaboration, and project management competencies. These projects evolve, arising as inherently societal concerns, and then shift to technical problems and vice-versa, introducing inertia, organizational path-dependency, and lock-ins. Thus, large-scale projects pose enormous temporary organizing challenges under conditions of institutional complexity, creating “wicked problems” for their management. Hence, the questions of how these large-scale projects as inter- organizational collaboration unfold, and how they can be organized despite these challenges have become crucial in academia and practice alike. Scholars from different disciplines have picked up these questions of organizational, and technological issues in large-scale infrastructure project organizing and have put forth valuable insights into such endeavors. Through the exploratory and elaborated case-based research, this thesis contributes to the debate on large-scale project organizing by advancing an institutional perspective. In line with the overall research aim and conceptual framing, the research design has a qualitative nature and relies on a process approach. The thesis draws from in-depth case studies of project-based processes in the division of Adif - the Spanish Administrator of Rail Infrastructure and ProRail (Adif’s counterpart, the manager responsible for rail infrastructure in the Netherlands), among other principal contractors and suppliers involved in the project(s). The thesis provides a rich empirical examination; it shows that to understand large-scale project organizing, there is a need to change the ontological priorities that underpin the mainstream literature on behavioral studies in project management. The thesis develops nascent theorizing on how the in-between temporary and permanent (inter-) organizational nature of large-scale projects in the presence of institutions narrates the emergence of processes, e.g., path-dependence, and lock-in. A conceptualization of path- shaping and project actors’ agency that bridges the gap between the intra- organizational and institutional level efforts is promoted. The managerial implications of this thesis are two-fold. First, the appended papers put forth among other frameworks and process models that are indeed useful to be utilized. They outline ideas relevant because they lay the groundwork for project managers to extend their efforts beyond the micro- managing of tasks. In particular, Paper A develops the lock-in process model that can be useful for project managers. Secondly, the thesis gives countless advice and managerial implications. The most important being the consideration of heterogeneity in large-scale project contexts in the multi- organizational setting and their interdependencies in broad project networks. They represent the sources of variation in the desired outcomes. Accordingly, Paper B suggests attention needs to be directed to the understanding of the industry – as the field-level institution and its (inter-) organizational components in the context as an essential feature of project management practice. In other words, this thesis suggests that embeddedness in large-scale infrastructure projects is of crucial importance. To this end, Paper C and D propose means for a responsive and active project owner organization, that are essential for effectively interacting with other actors, and for selecting and managing both contractual and trust-based mechanisms effectively.Conclusively, the thesis suggests that project managers’ institutional knowledge in large-scale project settings is equally important, if not more, than the economic or engineering expertise.
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| 3. |
- Westerlund, Bo, 1951-
(author)
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Design Space Exploration : co-operative creation of proposals for desired interactions with future artefacts
- 2009
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This thesis critically reflects on co-operative design workshops that I have conducted. The basic method used in these workshops draws on the participants’ embodied knowing. In the over twenty workshops that are analysed here a wide range of participants have been involved: family members, employees, persons with disabilities, and other stakeholders like manufacturers, service providers and civil servants. The topics have varied, but they have mostly been related to ICT products and services. Most of the workshops were conducted within various research projects. In order to analyse this diverse range of workshops I use several different theories and concepts. I articulate and analyse the design aspects of the activities by using established design theories and concepts. The conceptual tool design space, meaning all possible design proposals, is used for understanding the design process. I also use theories from other fields in order to analyse three different aspects of the workshops: the participants’ activities, the designers’ responsibility, and the process. To analyse the way that the participants co-operatively create knowledge, theories of interpersonal actions are used; to analyse the work done by the designer/conductor, theories of frames are used; and to analyse the process, the theory of actualisation and realisation is used. During the workshops the participants co-operatively make scenarios, props and video prototypes in order to create proposals for desired interactions with future artefacts. Contributions include accounts of critical situations during the workshops and suggested strategies for dealing with them. Some implications are relevant to the design field in general, for example the importance of a process where the participants trust each other, learn from each other and work effectively with difficult issues by creating multiple proposals that facilitate understanding of the design space. I also offer arguments about why it is better to see activities, props and prototypes as mainly constitutive rather than as only representative. Video prototypes on DVD and seven publications are included in the thesis.
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| 4. |
- Yousefi, Shahrouz
(author)
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3D Gesture Recognition and Tracking for Next Generation of Smart Devices : Theories, Concepts, and Implementations
- 2014
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The rapid development of mobile devices during the recent decade has been greatly driven by interaction and visualization technologies. Although touchscreens have signicantly enhanced the interaction technology, it is predictable that with the future mobile devices, e.g., augmentedreality glasses and smart watches, users will demand more intuitive in-puts such as free-hand interaction in 3D space. Specically, for manipulation of the digital content in augmented environments, 3D hand/body gestures will be extremely required. Therefore, 3D gesture recognition and tracking are highly desired features for interaction design in future smart environments. Due to the complexity of the hand/body motions, and limitations of mobile devices in expensive computations, 3D gesture analysis is still an extremely diffcult problem to solve.This thesis aims to introduce new concepts, theories and technologies for natural and intuitive interaction in future augmented environments. Contributions of this thesis support the concept of bare-hand 3D gestural interaction and interactive visualization on future smart devices. The introduced technical solutions enable an e ective interaction in the 3D space around the smart device. High accuracy and robust 3D motion analysis of the hand/body gestures is performed to facilitate the 3D interaction in various application scenarios. The proposed technologies enable users to control, manipulate, and organize the digital content in 3D space.
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