A conceptualization of knowledge governance in project-based organizations

This paper conceptualizes and defines knowledge governance (KG) in project-based organizations (PBOs). Two key contributions towards a multi-faceted view of KG and an understanding of KG in PBOs are advanced, as distinguished from knowledge management and organizational learning concepts. The conceptual framework addresses macro- and micro-level elements of KG and their interaction. Our definition of KG in PBOs highlights the contingent nature of KG processes in relation to their organizational context. These contributions provide a novel platform for understanding KG in PBOs.     

Organizational practices that enable and disable knowledge transfer: The case of a public sector project-based organization

Project-based organizations (PBOs) are framed in a dynamic bi-directional interaction between the permanent organization and its temporary units (projects). The study of knowledge transfer in PBOs has focused exclusively on the knowledge transfer practices held at the realm of the temporary units; however, we still need to understand how the permanent organization can enable this knowledge transfer process. Using a deductive-inductive approach and exploring the case of a division managed as PBO in a provincial government agency in Canada, we analyzed how the practices led by the permanent organization enable the actual knowledge transfer across projects. We found that different practices conducted at the level of the permanent organization were enabling or disabling the performance of formal and informal knowledge transfer practices executed at the temporary units. In this work we show how by distorting the goal of the formal knowledge transfer practices the permanent organization pushed the project team members to the use of informal knowledge practices to overcome this flaw. We argue that a balanced deployment of formal and informal knowledge transfer practices not only can boost knowledge transfer but also can reinforce the temporary organizations’ embeddedness within the permanent organization.     

Organizational culture and willingness to share knowledge: A competing values perspective in Australian context

A considerable amount of research has confirmed the relationship between organizational culture and knowledge sharing behaviours. However, less research has been conducted on the impact of project sub-cultures in relation to the sharing of knowledge between projects, particularly in project based organizations (PBOs). The unique structures and contexts characterized by PBOs indicate the need to investigate further the impact of cultures present within PBOs and their effect on knowledge sharing. We report on a rich case study of four large Australian-based PBOs whereby the cultural values of these large organizations were seen to impact significantly on whether project teams were more or less likely to improve inter-project knowledge sharing. Furthermore, this research demonstrates the utility of using Cameron and Quinn's (2005) Competing Values Framework to evaluate culture in the context of PBOs.     

Building Project Capabilities in PBOs: Lessons from the French Special Forces

Project-based organizations (PBOs) have become a widespread form of organizations, ideally suited to deal with unstable and dynamic environments. However, PBOs inherently incorporate the conflicting needs of, on the one hand, the temporary nature of projects and on the other hand, the more permanent organizational setting that defends long-term development and intra-organizational coordination. To overcome this differentiation/integration dilemma, the recent literature suggests that PBOs must develop Project Capabilities, defined as the internal ability of a PBO to create lasting performance based on multiple short term projects. But we still know little about how such Project Capabilities may be efficiently developed in PBOs. In order to contribute to the capabilities perspective on PBOs, this paper proposes to approach Project Capabilities building processes as a multi-level and dynamic process, and offers as an illustration the case of a very specific PBO — the French Special Forces (SF). The Special Forces context provides a particularly interesting illustration of how to build Project Capabilities over time, to the extent that they have been carrying out successfully multiple projects in extreme contexts for more than 60 years.     

Project management office a knowledge broker in project-based organisations

Current research into project management offices (PMOs) has stressed the PMOs' potential to act as knowledge brokers between projects, and between project and top management. Nonetheless, the literature does not provide sufficient evidence of the brokering role of PMOs. The research reported here aims to examine PMO's functions from a knowledge sharing perspective and explore whether or not these functions reflect the knowledge sharing needs of project managers (PMs). These issues are investigated through a cross-case analysis of seven organisations. The main contribution is insight into how PMs share knowledge and awareness of the need to structure PMOs to align with PMs' nature, needs and expectations in order to improve knowledge sharing in PBOs. Finally, some practical steps for helping PMOs to better adapt their functions to the needs of PMs and their learning and knowledge sharing style are proposed.     

从“非正规绿地”到“社区食物微森林” ——社区非正规种植空间公共资源化利用研究

：非正规绿地中居民自发的果蔬种植行为长期困扰社 区空间治理,个体种植行为影响社区公众利益构成焦点问题。 如何趋利避害,将非正规绿地中的自发种植空间转化为社区公 共服务产品产出场所,适应非正规绿地自发种植空间内在机理 与现实问题的空间设计策略值得研究。通过自发种植行为实地 调研,发现非正规绿地的“阈限性”特征和弱势群体的空间诉 求是引发非正规种植行为、产生负外部性影响的根本原因。进 而推倒得出“明确空间功能”,促进“多元化主体参与”和 “复合功能共享”的负外部性治理思路。借鉴食物森林理论, 通过理论调适应用于非正规绿地自发种植空间,从而形成适应 中国社区非正规绿地本底环境的“社区食物微森林”复合功能 公共产品输出路径,从“食物+生态、景观、休闲”复合功能 的微森林营造技术和长效治理机制两方面,有效回应了我国非 正规绿地的现状问题与社区本底环境诉求,对社区非正规绿地 自发种植空间治理具有参考价值。     

Exploration and exploitation in project-based organizations: Development and diffusion of knowledge at different organizational levels in construction companies

Management studies highlight the importance of an organization's capability to both exploit existing knowledge and technologies for short-term profits and also explore new knowledge and technologies to enhance long-term innovation. Although this paradox recently has received escalating interest in management research, studies dealing with project-levels and project-based organizations (PBOs) are scarce. This conceptual paper discusses how PBOs in the construction industry can manage the exploration/exploitation paradox at different organizational levels. Short-term project focus and decentralization inhibits learning from one point in time and space to another, making it easier to reap the benefits of exploitation than of exploration. Current structural and sequential separation of exploration and exploitation activities at business unit, project portfolio, and project levels do not solve the paradox, due to lack of integrating mechanisms. Hence, PBOs in the construction industry may suffer from inadequate extent of exploration, while the extent of exploitation is not reaching its potential. Cooperative procurement procedures can serve as a basis for facilitating both exploration and exploitation of knowledge and technologies in construction projects.     

Institutional framing of citizen initiatives: a challenge for advancing public participation in Sweden

The Swedish image as a welfare society is challenged due to increasing spatial concentration of poverties. While Sherry Arnstein's Ladder of citizen participation lives on in new models for participatory governance under development in local municipalities, her focus on social inclusion, empowerment and community self-mobilization seems abandoned. This paper uses a case study in a marginalized suburb of Gothenburg to discuss how the local authority met a community-led initiative aiming at creating a new meeting place. The process is analysed in terms of institutional framing, which comprises both formal and informal practices, both policies and underlying beliefs. The study indicates that a strong control orientation and focus on formal procedures may be grounded in a tradition of representative democracy, but also that it may constitute an obstacle for a flexible and supportive approach towards community-led initiatives. Possible implications are discussed.     

Interplay of relational and contractual governance in public-private partnerships: The mediating role of relational norms,trust and partners' contribution

Defining the nature of the relationship between contractual and relational governance is critical for understanding how to maintain commitment and coordination between private and public organizations in long-term partnerships. In this study, a theoretical model explains Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project performance as the result of a mediation process. Contractual and relational governance elements operate sequentially with relational elements (relational norms and trust), playing a mediating role between contractual elements, project actors' behaviour and final performance. Based on the analysis of a survey of PPP practitioners in The Netherlands, and using Consistent Partial Least Squares Modeling, the study provides empirical support for these mediating effects. The findings are aligned with the idea that both economic incentives and hierarchical relationships formalized in contract agreements require being internalized in working practices by means of informal and socially based mechanisms. The enabling and compensating mechanisms underlying the mediation role of relational governance elements are discussed. Managers can particularly find in relational norms a leverage point for designing collaborative day-to-day practices aimed at reinforcing trust and long-term contractual obligations.     

Individual,project and organizational learning flows within a global project-based organization: exploring what,how and who

Project learning is a function of individuals’ internal cognitive processes, interpretation and integration of learning at the team and project level, and the organization's ability to institutionalize learning into practices. However, understanding of how learning unfolds between these levels remains limited. Using a single in-depth case study, this paper reports on how learning occurs between levels in a global project-based organization (PBO). Six bridging mechanisms are identified: (1) networks, (2) organizational initiatives, (3) power and politics, (4) coaching and mentoring, (5) culture of empowerment, and (6) temporality. The temporal nature of the projects paired with the global context offers the opportunity for a stable workforce to be deployed across geographical regions to form formal and informal networks that offer a parallel organizational structure for multilevel learning. Project managers (PMs), senior leaders and the project management office (PMO) engage differently in the learning process, depending on their degree of connectivity and power within the global organization.     

The formal and informal tools of design governance

This paper takes a typological exploration of the ‘tools’ of ‘design governance’. It begins by exploring the generic literature that focuses on the range of instruments, approaches and actions ? the tools ? that policy makers deploy in order to steer public and private actors towards particular policy outcomes. Subsequently, how the notion of tools relates to practices of design governance is examined: first, encompassing three ‘formal’ categories of design governance tools ? guidance, incentive and control ? and second, by drawing on the work of the former Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) in England to introduce five categories of ‘informal’ design governance tools ? evidence, knowledge, promotion, evaluation and assistance. The result, and the key contribution of this paper, is a new and comprehensive (albeit evolving), design governance toolbox that extends from formal to informal tools and far beyond that which most policy makers recognize or use.     

Projects as creators of the preconditions for standardized and routinized operations in use

The purpose of a project is to create the preconditions for other activities. Yet the main focus of project research and much of practice is on the project itself, namely project characteristics and the means to execute projects. This conceptual paper addresses the purpose, and specifically creating the preconditions for other activities in use; an overlooked issue in research and practice. The delivery of valuable projects that fulfil their purpose is central to a thriving economy and society, and therefore creating the preconditions requires a great deal more attention.Project provision cannot be compared with other standardized production and routinized service activities. Indeed, the standardization and routinization of other activities is made possible by the delivery and value realization of projects once put to use for sponsors, owners and end-users.Preconditions come in several forms. An initial and indicative taxonomy of six categories of preconditions are proposed. The taxonomy provides a basis for understanding the preconditions as a first step for more detailed assessment of delivering projects with valuable outcomes. Such an approach links to other theoretical lenses, such as learning, service design and the service-dominant logic, to provide the conceptual means to evaluate creating the preconditions for other activities.     

“We are All Refugees”: Camps and Informal Settlements as Converging Spaces of Global Displacements

ABSTRACT

This paper is in conversation with two important bodies of literature: one on informal settlements (informal and insurgent grassroots practices) and another on camps (spatial practices and governance of refugees). Reading inhabitants’ experiences in Korail, an informal settlement in Dhaka, Bangladesh, through the literature grounded in the experiences of refugees, we seek to contribute to the relational theorization of informal settlements and camps as an expanding and overlapping reality in the era of intensified global displacements. Weaving back and forth between the camp literature and Korail’s reality, we bring to light the comparable spatial practices and governance of the so-called citizens and the so-called stateless. We present the insights we gain from this analytical conversation under three organizing themes: experiential to highlight the precarious relationship of the two groups to citizenship and place, what we call a state of “citizenship in wait” and “in-situ displacement”; institutional to highlight the humanitarian matrices of care that provide governmental structures in both contexts; and micropolitical, to characterize dwellers’ contestations with state and humanitarian governance that constitute the processes of life-making in informal settlements, much as in the camps. Conceptually the paper lends a forceful voice to the mounting critiques of the state-centered canon in planning theories and the needed Southern turn in planning theorization. Politically, it lends a hand to the efforts of activists working to overcome exclusions and erasures that are endemic to the politics of citizenship, that pit refugees against the poor, and to gesture toward forging solidarities for a humane urbanism.     

Designing a ‘green’ building: expanding ambitions through social learning

The process of creating a specific building – Miljøbygget in Trondheim, Norway – is analyzed in order to understand how the project team's ambitions expanded to embrace ‘green’ issues and create new targets. The decisions and roles of key actors are investigated regarding these goals and criteria. The analysis draws on two concepts. First, translation theory is used to highlight the potential role of new knowledge or technology that originates outside of the project. Second, the concept of social learning is employed to understand the process of expanding ambitions, developing goals and criteria within the project, and how this is related to the collective exploration, discovery and analysis of new practices. The wider implications are considered with respect to innovation in the construction industry. The project's initial moderate energy efficiency ambition was transformed, first into stricter energy efficiency goals, then into broader environmental aims. The resulting innovation is an ambition-enhancing, experience-based and enthusiasm-driven process of social learning in the project team, marked by interpersonal trust, including trust regarding competence and contractual relations. Translation efforts were also found to be important for bringing new knowledge into the project. The conclusion discusses some policy implications.     

Events as a means to foster knowledge-driven urban development: Experience from the new district development in Nanjing

Events can bring important impetus to urban development. In addition to hardware investments, such as infrastructure, events also have important potential in the development of knowledge cities. Nanjing is a typical city where China's knowledge industry is rapidly growing. Since the end of the last century, Nanjing has been promoting new district development on the city's periphery and has hosted a series of events, including the 10th National Games in 2005 and the 2nd Youth Olympic Games in 2014. In this process, the city government also hopes to explore the potential of the knowledge economy and is committed to providing a new direction for urban development.This work reviews the history of Nanjing's knowledge city development from two different dimensions (land development and knowledge development) and summarises the related achievements and lessons in different periods. The authors aim to identify the diverse effects of events in urban social and economic development based on the analysis of the differences in governance structure between land development and knowledge development. This work contributes to the literature on events and provides insights into the potential uses of events as a mechanism for knowledge-driven urban development.     

Enhancing project managers’ strategy commitment by leader-leader exchange: The role of psychological empowerment and organizational identification

Projects are considered an important means of implementing strategies in project-based organizations (PBOs). Project managers need to lead projects following organizational strategies in PBOs. As a result, project managers’ commitment to strategy, which reflects their intention to perform strategic behavior, plays an important role in strategy implementation in PBOs. This study examined the role of leader-leader exchange (LLX), psychological empowerment, and organizational identification of project managers in enhancing strategy commitment. Survey data were analyzed with structural equation modeling. The results show that both LLX and psychological empowerment of project managers enhance their strategy commitment. Besides, this study reveals project managers’ psychological motivational mechanisms by investigating the mediating role of psychological empowerment and the moderating role of organizational identification. This study contributes to PBOs strategy implementation literature by extending the enhancers of strategy commitment. It generates useful insights by revealing project managers’ psychological mechanisms between LLX and strategy commitment.     

Knowledge coordination in transnational engineering projects:a practice-based study

Several multinational engineering firms offshore the delivery of engineering design or structural detail drawings to their globally distributed delivery centres. Studies have reported knowledge-sharing challenges when such work is co-ordinated across boundaries. This study takes a practice-based approach to explore knowledge-coordinating challenges across two multinational engineering firms that offshore projects to their global delivery centres in India. Data was collected from six infrastructure projects in the two delivery centres through direct observations augmented with real-time interviews and reviews of e-mails and project documents. This data was analysed qualitatively using ethnographic-coding techniques. Empirical findings identified a set of eight coordinating practices, many of which were emergent, which the teams creatively recombined and enacted as co-ordinating mechanisms that spanned organisational boundaries. Seven practices served to transfer knowledge and one practice transformed knowledge across onshore and offshore units. The study contributes to our understanding of co-ordinating by identifying emergent and informal coordinating practices in offshored construction projects and provides insights to practitioners on the boundary spanning capabilities of these practices.     

The transformation of regional governance in China: The rescaling of statehood

Urban entrepreneurialism and intensive inter-city competition prevail in post-reform China, which has been extensively documented in the literature. However, decentralization is not the only characterisation of China's changing central–local relationship since 1978. Since the 2000s, economic development and agglomeration in China have created more scope of and need for collaboration. Regional collaboration is valued and driven by both central and local government. The aim of this research is to present various types of ‘regionalisation’ initiatives and examine the development of regional governance in China. It is found that there are two main actors leading the current regional practices, that is, the central government (the top-down mechanism) and local government (the bottom-up mechanism). Nevertheless, in terms of institutional arrangement, there has been no formal regional institution or informal regional coalition for either of the mechanism thus far. Moreover, both bottom-up and top-down regional governance initiatives lack substantial participation and multilateral negotiation between cities. There are essentially two different readings of the rationale of regional governance. While the bottom-up collaborative development is envisioned by the local entrepreneurial government to use regional competitiveness to promote local development, the top-down national and regional agenda is used by the central government to tackle discretionary local development. Therefore, the emerging regional governance in China is hybrid and complicated. With reference to the Western theoretical perspectives of state spatiality, state rescaling and politics of scale, this study argues that the emerging regional practices in contemporary China represent another round of changing statehood after governance downscaling to the urban level. This is in response to the territorial problems such as administrative fragmentation and excessive competition caused by earlier decentralisation and localism. It is held that, however, the state rescaling process is not a straightforward process but ridden with conflicts and tensions. Different actors at different spatial levels are articulating their vested interests at the regional scale. The building of regional governance is hence contested by complex inter-governmental politics, especially the division of central–local power and responsibility.     

Learning capabilities in organizational networks: case studies of six construction projects

Organizational learning is a key mechanism for adapting to changes in the organization's environment, sharing know‐how and experiences, and for providing innovative solutions. Practices of organization learning are examined in six Swedish construction projects. In the Swedish construction industry, organization learning practices are in many cases underdeveloped and therefore mechanisms for sharing know‐how, information, and experiences remain an organizational capability not fully exploited. Findings suggest that construction projects are primarily relying on informal and personal contacts rather than more formal reporting and computer‐based management control systems. The implications for management in the industry are that new arenas wherein various professional groups can share knowledge and information would be beneficial for construction projects in terms of enabling for joint learning and a better use of the intellectual resources employed the project.     

基于政策文本分析的中国城市生物多样性治理进展研究

城市生物多样性治理是全球生物多样性议题不可或缺的重要内容。政策文本制定是推进城市生物多样性治理的重要手段,开展政策文本的系统性研究,有助于了解治理进展和状况,但目前尚缺乏对中国城市生物多样性政策文本的系统性分析。基于派森(python)语言,以1993年以来654份中国城市生物多样性治理政策文本为分析数据,通过机器学习的K-means无监督分类方法对地方政策文本进行聚类,并分别分析了中央政策文本和地方政策文本的分布特征、事权演变特征、内容特征、性质特征。结果表明,整体上,中国的城市生物多样性治理已取得主流化趋势明显、认识提升明显、工作框架基本形成等阶段性成果,但还存在政策层级较低、区域不均衡、缺乏多部门联动、性质失衡、针对性和创新性较弱、内容较空洞和要求欠科学等不足。最后,提出了加速主流化并完善工作框架、加强科学研究并推动政策升级、依托国家重大战略和重大工程并促进实践加速等提升治理水平的可能路径。研究成果能为中国未来的城市生物多样性治理及其政策制定提供借鉴。