engleski

Dynamics of Complexity in Project Organizing: Evidence from Construction Infrastructure Design

The aim of this study is to revisit the fundamental paradigms of managing complexity in projects: the hard systems objectivistic paradigm and the soft systems interpretive paradigm. By using data from design and engineering of a public infrastructure mega-project, this study contrasts the hard systems logic based on hierarchical decomposition with soft systems based on unforeseen loops of cause and effect within the entire observed system. The study does so by comparing the ex ante planning with ex post sensemaking in the project and concluding that the former is in the domain of hard systems and the latter in the domain of soft systems thinking. By interpreting the same problematic situation from both perspectives, the study reveals how the properties of the analyzed system itself do not determine the corresponding approach. By contrast, it is only the decision-maker’s interpretation of the problematic situation that will distinguish between using hard or soft systems approaches. The study contributes to management theory with a case-based discussion on objectivistic and interpretive paradigms.

project organizing; engineering design; complexity; hard systems vs. soft systems; process-tracing; sensemaking.

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