Organizations undertaking complex projects in uncertain environments

Barr, Jason; Hanaki, Nobuyuki

doi:10.1007/s11403-007-0025-z

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 22 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In particular, they sought to understand the relationship between the levels of decision-making when lower layers in a hierarchy have narrower scope. The same aspects are considered by Barr and Hanaki [9]. For example, Rivkin and Siggelkow [5] demonstrate that interdependencies are formed among elements of organizational design (such as the allocation of real decision authority and the design of performance measures), underlying technology and manager ability, because of the tension between the need for broad search and the need for stabilizing around good decisions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Autonomy, Conformity and Organizational Learning

Hanaki

Owan

2013

Administrative Sciences

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

There is often said to be a tension between the two types of organizational learning activities, exploration and exploitation. The argument goes that the two activities are substitutes, competing for scarce resources when firms need different capabilities and management policies. We present another explanation, attributing the tension to the dynamic interactions among search, knowledge sharing, evaluation and alignment within organizations. Our results show that successful organizations tend to bifurcate into two types: those that always promote individual initiatives and build organizational strengths on individual learning and those good at assimilating the individual knowledge base and exploiting shared knowledge. Straddling the two types often fails. The intuition is that an equal mixture of individual search and assimilation slows down individual learning, while at the same time making it difficult to update organizational knowledge because individuals’ knowledge base is not sufficiently homogenized. Straddling is especially inefficient when the operation is sufficiently complex or when the business environment is sufficiently turbulent

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Autonomy, Conformity and Organizational Learning

Hanaki

Owan

2013

Administrative Sciences

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The model has been applied to understand the evolution mechanism of organizations under dynamic and complex environments. For instance, the NK simulation model helps organizations find the best position in a dynamic environment (Gavetti et al, 2005), assists researchers in understanding the fit between dynamic organizational interactions and environment (Barr and Hanaki, 2008), and analyzes the interdependence relationship of overall complex supply chain networks (Capaldo and Giannoccaro, 2015). In megaprojects, stakeholders with various interests frequently communicate and coordinate with each other to achieve project goals and maximize their own benefits in the project duration (Mok et al, 2015;Xue et al, 2020a).…”

Section: Evolution Modeling Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution modeling of stakeholder performance on relationship management in the dynamic and complex environments of megaprojects

Xue

Shen

Deng

et al. 2022

ECAM

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

PurposeRelationship management evolves with dynamic and complex environments of megaprojects. However, studies on the longitudinal measurement of relationship management performance for each stakeholder in dynamic and complex project environments are lacking. The purpose of this research is to propose an NK-network evolution model to evaluate stakeholder performance on relationship management in the development of megaprojects.Design/methodology/approachThe model input includes the stakeholder-associated issues and stakeholders' relational strategies, the co-effects of which determine the internal effects of relationship management in megaprojects. The model processing simulates the stakeholder performance of relationship management under the dynamic and complex nature of megaprojects. The NK model shows the dynamic stakeholder interactions on relationship management, whereas the network model presents the complex stakeholder structures of the relationships between stakeholders and relevant issues. The model output is the evolution graph to reveal the weak stakeholder performance on relationship management in the timeline of the project duration.FindingsThe research finding reveals that all stakeholders experience the plunge of stakeholder performance of relationship management at the decision-making moment of the planning stage. Construction, environmental and pressure groups may experience the hardship of relationship management at the start of the construction stage. The government is likely to suffer difficulties in relationship management in the late construction stage. Local industry groups would face challenges in relationship management in the middle of the construction stage and handover stage.Originality/valueThe research provides a useful approach to measuring weak moments of relationship management for each stakeholder in various project phases, considering the dynamic and complex environments of megaprojects. The proposed model extends the current knowledge body on how to make project stakeholder analysis by modelling dynamic and complex environments of megaprojects, with bridging the knowledge domains of evolution modeling techniques and network methods.

show abstract

“…The roots of this focus can be traced back to Simon (1962;1972). For example, authors investigate the relationship between structure and environmental uncertainty (Barr & Hanaki, 2008), and modes of centralization and decentralization (Ethiraj & Levinthal, 2004;Lovejoy & Sinha, 2010) or whole-part coevolution (Baum, 1999). Some authors have focused on the mutual relationships between organizational search and organizational structure (Chang & Harrington, 2000;Garrido, 2004;Rivkin & Siggelkow, 2002;Siggelkow & Levinthal, 2005), local search rules for organizations are tested against their ability to climb fitness peaks on fitness landscapes (Haslett & Osborne, 1999;2002;Haslett et al 2000), local search rules in alternatively generated rugged landscapes (Winter et al, 2007), or how an efficient network positively affects information diffusion, which facilitates the spread of effective strategies, but negatively affects information diversity, which is also positively related to performance (Monge et al, 2011) .…”

Section: 3mentioning

confidence: 99%

The evolution of Wright’s (1932) adaptive field to contemporary interpretations and uses of fitness landscapes in the social sciences

Gerrits

Marks

2014

Biol Philos

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The working paper features an extended literature overview of the ways in which fitness landscapes have been interpreted and used in the social sciences, for which there was not enough space in the full article. The article features an in-depth philosophical discussion about the added value of the various ways in which fitness landscapes are used in the social sciences. This discussion is absent in the current working paper.

show abstract

Organizations undertaking complex projects in uncertain environments

Abstract: Environmental complexity, Information processing, Decision making, Organizational structure, C63, L2,

Cited by 6 publications

References 22 publications

Autonomy, Conformity and Organizational Learning

Autonomy, Conformity and Organizational Learning

Evolution modeling of stakeholder performance on relationship management in the dynamic and complex environments of megaprojects

The evolution of Wright’s (1932) adaptive field to contemporary interpretations and uses of fitness landscapes in the social sciences

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About