Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to facilitate further understanding of project complexity by highlighting the factors contributing to project complexity as reported by the practitioners facing the “actuality” of projects. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative research...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the transfer of experiences to improve the basis for overcoming the dilemma of trying to achieve analyses and systems that are both good and simple. The quality of decisions relating to projects depends on how well the assumed basis for the...

Purpose – Organisational trust is analysed through observation of operations or strategic prescription. The management and project management literature is largely prescriptive. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role and potential of strategic trust development and management to...

Purpose – Recent work on public private partnerships (PPP)/private finance initiatives (PFI) and on the construction industry has emphasised the importance of knowledge transfer, learning and innovation to improve the working processes and procedures of the industry. However, until recently...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the importance of human skills in project management success and the apparent emphasis placed on this within the context of university education. Design/methodology/approach – An investigation into the effectiveness of a British...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the sensemaking processes leading to project managers' responses to an unexpected event in an international project setting. High uncertainty and unexpected events are prevalent in international projects conducted in challenging and complex...

Purpose – While earlier literature has focused on the management tactics of unexpected events, this paper employs an inter‐organizational network perspective to the study of unexpected events in international projects. The paper aims to illustrate how a focal project's local stakeholder...

Purpose – The construction industry in Australia is characterised by a long work‐hours culture, with conditions that make it difficult for staff to balance their work and non‐work lives. The objective of this paper is to measure the success of a work‐place intervention designed to...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to offer insights into how emotions can influence project manager behaviours and decisions specifically within the context of undertaking their roles in relationship management in projects. It shows that the emotional awareness of project managers may be...

Purpose – The paper aims to investigate the communication of uncertainty information and knowledge between the project manager, owner and steering group. The purpose of the project is to identify the effects of project owner and steering group involvement in the process of uncertainty...