Redesigning the virtual organisational structure for the management of prefabricated buildings

Abstract

An effective organisational structure is vital for the management of prefabricated buildings. This study aims to redesign a virtual organisational structure for such projects. Two-pronged action research was adopted. The survey was to redesign the virtual organisational structure. The case study was to validate the virtual structure redesigned and conduct an in-depth description of the application of the virtual organisational structure on real prefabricated projects. The result shows that the virtual organization’s core actors are client, general contractor, designer, and PC manufactory. The chain of command starts with the client, and ends with peripheral actors such as subcontractor elements. Meanwhile, prefabricated buildings that adopted the virtual organisational structure proposed are better managed and have better project performance than those that did not. This study contributes to the knowledge of the management for prefabricated buildings by showing that a virtual organisational structure needs to incorporate stakeholder salience attributes and stakeholder relationships.

Keywords:

• Prefabricated buildings
• project management
• virtual organisational structure
• stakeholder
• social network analysis

Data availability statement

Data available on request from the authors.

Disclosure statement

There is no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

The National Natural Science Foundation of China; the National 13th Five-Year Science Technology Program.