Project organizing as a problem in information

Abstract

One of the most influential perspectives in business and management has been the Carnegie School, represented by such luminaries as James March, Hebert Simon, Oliver Williamson and Zur Shapira. The perspective underpins much of contemporary organization theory and organizational economics. Yet there have only been limited attempts to apply it to the domain of construction economics and management. An important exception to this statement is the application of Williamson’s transaction cost economics to the governance of inter-firm relations in construction, but the opportunity is presently being missed for a more thorough-going application. The aim, therefore, is to suggest what such an application might look like and why it might be useful in stimulating new lines of research enquiry. The principal tenets of the Carnegie School are examined, as well as the central role of uncertainty and bounded rationality in those tenets. The contributions to organization theory of the Carnegie School are drawn upon to conceptualize project organizing as a problem in information, and suggest a new perspective on the microfoundations for that theory.

Keywords:

• Carnegie School
• microfoundations
• organizational economics
• organization theory
• project organization

Acknowledgements

I am very grateful to Dr Roine Leiringer and Dr Natalya Sergeeva for their help in the preparation of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.