Abstracts – Browse Results
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Afxentiadis, D E (2010) Interpreting a major event organization's efforts to reliably manage information security risks: the case of the Athens 2004 Olympics, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London).
Barros de Oliveira, N R (2013) A theory of coordination voids in dynamic inter-organisational relationships: a study of social housing projects in England, Unpublished PhD Thesis, Department of Management, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London).
- Type: Thesis
- Keywords: collaboration; content analysis; contracting; coordination; England; housing projects; management theory; network analysis; policy; social network analysis; strategic management
- ISBN/ISSN:
- URL: http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/695/
- Abstract:
Inter-organisational relationships are at the heart of economic activity and the benefits of inter-organisational collaboration are widely reported. However, theoretical understanding of how inter-organisational relationships are coordinated and why they encounter coordination problems remains limited. I address these questions through a study of seven social housing projects in England, completed between 2008 and 2011. Drawing on the richness of data from over 3,900 pages of minutes from meetings and project reports, I integrate social network analysis techniques (SNA) used to map dynamic inter-organisational relationships with content analysis, through which I explore coordination-related aspects. Surprisingly, coordination proved not to be (directly) related to administrative mechanisms. Instead, I show that coordination stems from the interplay between administrative mechanisms and the structure of the inter-organisational relationships, as shown by two theoretical mechanisms: organising and relating. The former captures the finding that the use of contracting fosters hierarchy, while the latter shows that monitoring organisations foster density of inter-organisational relationships. I discover that inter-organisational relationships are coordinated through the juggling of these mechanisms over time. Furthermore, my analysis demonstrates that coordination problems stem from: contractual bottlenecks and organisational expertise-driven homophily. Interestingly, this exposes a tension between mechanisms intended to aid coordination and the manifestation of coordination problems. Theorising on this tension, I am led to a framework of coordination voids – discontinuities in the fabric of inter-organisational relationships resulting from mechanisms intended to aid coordination, but in fact hampering coordination under certain conditions. I discuss a set of theoretical contributions to the strategic management and organisational and management theory, alongside a methodological contribution. I conclude my discussion of the contributions of this thesis by drawing practical implications for managers and policy-makers. I hope that my study will stimulate a research agenda on the coordination of inter-organisational relationships, preferably one that also engages with societal challenges.
Bowers, R (2019) Gendered economies of extraction: seeking permanence amidst the rubble of Bengaluru's construction industry, Unpublished PhD Thesis, Department of Anthropology, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London).
Cho, Y (2000) The Korean housebuilding industry: aspects of growth, efficiency and diversification, 1980-1995, Unpublished PhD Thesis, Department of Economics, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London).
Eccles, T S (2009) The English building industry in late modernity: an empirical investigation of the definition, construction and meaning of profession, Unpublished PhD Thesis, Department of Economics, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London).
Morton, C N (1979) Collective bargaining in building and civil engineering: a case study of three major re-development protects in the City of London, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London).
Stephenson, J (2015) The organisation of work and wages in the London building trades in the long eighteenth century, Unpublished PhD Thesis, Department of Economic History, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London).
Thiel, D J (2005) Builders: the social organisation of a construction site, Unpublished PhD Thesis, Department of Sociology, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London).
Watson, H B (1975) Organizational bases of professional status: a comparative study of the engineering profession, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London).