Social practices, structure and agency: Effects on environmental management in construction projects
Other conference contribution, 2006

This paper discussed social processes and practices associated with environmental management in project organisations. The focus is on the interplay between structural conditions and managerial agency and its effects. Drawing on a qualitative case study, organizational and social mechanisms that influence the interplay between environmental management and project management have been studied. Findings show the existence of built-in tensions in the relationship between how the environmental work respectively how the project is organized and managed. An effect from these tensions is that organizational units within the corporation, due to isolation, partly strive towards different goals. This way of organizing also restrains the environmental organizations ability to communicate environmental information as well as the project organizations ability to handle environmental issues properly. It is concluded that the way environmental issues are dealt with in construction projects largely depends on their legitimization in the project and how well socio-cultural communication processes succeeded in creating meaning and understanding for practitioners in relation to their specific practice, situation and context. It is also found that environmental work governed by a top-down controlled environmental management system match poorly with the decentralized and autonomous decision-making culture of project organisations, making them insufficient for situated project practice. It is concluded that top management need to support the establishment of communicative communities of practice by offering arenas where members from the two units can team-up.

communication

project organizations

organizational structures

environmental information

Project-based organizing

environmental management

social practice

Author

Pernilla Gluch

Chalmers, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Building Economics and Management

Henrikke Baumann

Chalmers, Energy and Environment, Environmental Systems Analysis

Christine Räisänen

Chalmers, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Building Economics and Management

13th International Greening of Industry Network Conference, City Hall, Cardiff, 2-5 July 2006

Subject Categories

Other Mechanical Engineering

Economics and Business

Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified

More information

Created

10/8/2017