Infrastructure Engineering - Theses
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 1 of 1
-
ItemImproving Project Initiation within the Australian Stevedoring Industry( 2021)The initiation phase of capital projects is critical as this is where the highest number of options exist for modifying the project with minimal expenditure. Government and large organisations frequently involved in major capital projects have extensive procedures for this phase. However, organisations with an operational focus (like major container terminal stevedores) that only occasionally undertake capital projects face the dilemma of the trade-off between project planning and operations management. The reviewed literature shows a lack of consistent organisational practice in creating a project-strategy link during the initiation phase for these organisations. The existing research gaps indicate the need to investigate further the role and influence of the executive sponsor and how project success is defined and perceived by the project team during the project initiation phase. In addition, the need to undertake a qualitative research methodology, including interviews, is determined for investigating the project initiation phase. The research investigates the project initiation phase to foster in-depth understanding and fulfil the identified research gaps. The research examines the Australian container stevedoring industry as a case study to develop evidence-based recommendations to improve the project initiation phase and provide a project initiation framework that fits the business context and needs. The research intends to answer the question: “What are factors that influence the project initiation phase within the Australian Stevedoring industry?”. In addition to an extensive literature review, a living research investigation of real projects initiated by a stevedoring company operating in Australia has been observed; the researcher spent six months as a participant-observer and witnessed the initiation of twelve capital projects, recorded more than ten thousand words of written observations, and conducted 34 semi-structured interviews. The collected data were qualitatively analysed using a four-step coding method. The findings from the overall analysis indicated that the project initiation phase in the case Australian stevedoring company is not optimised and suffered from many issues at the initiation phases. It is further found that the existing project management frameworks fail to integrate with the organisation’s culture, which poses an adverse impact on the project initiation. Some of these identified key elements of organisational culture observed were lack of workplace trust, high individualism, ineffective interdepartmental communication, and the lack of resources. All these factors posed a hindrance in following a structured project management framework. The findings also suggested that the industry operational considerations such as engineering and safety complexity and the productivity-driven environment impact the decisions made during the project initiation phase. Based on the overall findings, the research suggests that the case organisation must implement a unique project initiation framework to meet the needs and the context of the operationally-focused industry. It is further recommended that the suggested framework be customised and utilised for other similar industries to dictate the success of the project initiation phase.