Building resilience through collective learning in project-oriented organizations in infrastructure planning
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Date
2019
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AESOP
Abstract
The performance of existing main transport infrastructure networks in The Netherlands is currently being challenged by for example climate change, new mobility technologies, ageing infrastructure and energy transition. These challenges call for an adaptive approach towards existing and new infrastructure. One way is to make physical infrastructure itself more resilient, another way is to create organizational resilience. Literature describes learning as a key element in organizational resilience. Most infrastructure network agencies are organized in a project-oriented way and consist of multiple projects and a parent organization. However, how do projects learn from each other and how does the whole organization learn from projects? This paper aims to enhance the understanding of collective learning and resilience of project-oriented organizations within the domain of infrastructure planning at three distinctive levels: within a single project, between multiple projects, and between projects and their parent organization. Findings are based on an in-depth case study at Rijkswaterstaat - the executive agency of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management in The Netherlands. The study uses Social Network Analysis to analyse the observed network. Based on this study, it seems that collective learning in project-oriented organizations still remains limited despite the urgency of it.
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Keywords
organizational resilience, collective learning, project-oriented organization, infrastructure planning