Megaprojects combine multiple external stakeholders, and a common narrative is essential to drive the project among often conflicting objectives. The research project considers the single in-depth qualitative case study of the High Speed Two (HS2) megaproject in the UK to explore how narratives are mobilized through narrative instruments and processes. Since the focus is on narratives, 113 online news articles on the megaproject are systematically studied. A qualitative analysis using open codes and axial codes is employed to understand the narrative instruments and processes. The “talk the walk” strategy to improve the rigor in qualitative research is described. The use of power quotes and proof quotes to reduce the word count while not compromising on the trustworthiness of qualitative research is explained. Finally, the case offers guidelines on the use of online naturalistic data such as digital news media data to explore project management practice in the 21st century.@en

Projects are peopled at all levels, and people make sense of their lives via narrative thought as the temporal and dramatic dimension of human existence is emphasized in them. Narratives organize people’s lived experiences and create order out of random incidents and events. Such an order can help them understand the passage of events and even guide action. Narratives such as the need for the project, sustainability of the project, innovation in the project can be crafted and maintained in different ways. In this chapter we discuss how different organizational theories such as sensemaking, social identity theory, and organizational power can help understand the narrative practices in project settings. We review studies in project settings that apply narratives to shape the project vision, identity, and image to improve the project management practice.@en

The mobilization of narratives is essential in integrating people and constructing identities that help in navigating complexity, uncertainty, and conflictuality. This paper explores how comparisons are used as a discursive tool to shape narratives and bring about changes in policy and society, using the High Speed Two megaproject in the UK as a case study. We examine the comparisons that promoters and protesters employ in an organizational setting. In particular, we explore how the narratives that result from these comparisons—on questions including the need for the megaproject, the benefits of the megaproject, alternatives to the megaproject, and issues of noise, sustainability, compensation, and branding—help their efforts to organize. The research highlights how comparisons serve as an important cue in discourse and how different forms of comparison can help to create narratives and shape policy outcomes.@en

The objective of this research study was to investigate the role of narratives in shaping multiple innovations in the UK construction industry. A total of 133 innovation stories published in a year are compiled from a digital portal Infrastructure Industry Innovation Partnership (i3P). The stories are qualitatively analyzed using open coding, axial coding, and constant comparisons to understand their motivations. The resulting framework explains how narrative shapes innovation across health, safety, sustainability, and productivity. The use of online research methods has increased in the modern era with the internet becoming more interactive and ubiquitous. However, there is still limited knowledge on how to handle these large amounts of digital data. In this case study, we provide some practical steps to improve data collection, analysis and presentation of online data. All innovations for a year were collected to get a representative sample without excluding any to reduce the researcher bias of exclusion. During presentation of findings, steps were undertaken to guard the privacy of respondents.@en

This book is a novel contribution to a field dominated by conventional approaches to project management; it is about narratives in megaprojects. Among the questions examined in this original new book are: What are narratives? Why are they important in megaprojects? How are they formed and used in megaprojects? How do promotors of and protestors against megaprojects craft narratives to their advantage? What strategies can project managers employ to effectively use narratives in megaprojects? Built from longitudinal research studies in combination with internationally recognised teaching materials, this book will provide readers with a theoretical understanding of narratives and projects, as well as practical international case studies, including HS2, the Dakota Access Pipeline, the Eden Project and Thames Tideway, to support their understanding. The authors explain the different types of narrative, and how and why they are important in general and in relation to a megaproject and its lifecycle, but also explore how to craft narratives in different situations, and how they are changed and maintained over a project’s lifecycle. Narratives in Megaprojects doubles as a text supporting more advanced courses on project management or aspects thereof, and as a reflection of the state of the art in this particular perspective on megaprojects. It is essential reading for all students and professionals in project management, construction and infrastructure as well as executive leaders involved in megaprojects and infrastructure delivery.

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The nature of the construction industry is different from other sectors due to the unique and temporary nature of projects which makes incremental improvements difficult necessitating the need to understand the practice of innovation. This research aims to explore the role of narratives in shaping innovation, as these provide a way to manage the tensions prevalent in the industry. We study 133 innovations across different construction projects in the UK and seek to understand the role of narratives in motivating these innovations. For instance, “innovations that enable project completion,” “innovations that improve productivity,” “innovations in health and safety” and “innovations in sustainability” are discussed. Whilst we acknowledge that factors such as incentives and rewards can motivate innovation, we argue that narratives shape or guide innovation in a particular direction. Since construction projects are interorganizational and multileveled, the industry-level narratives need to be adopted by firms to enable innovations at project sites. Innovators actively look for areas where they can intervene, and narratives improve the visibility of some areas thereby guiding innovations to them.

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Megaprojects along with creating value to the economy, create environmental, social and political disruptions in its local environment. Narratives guide social action and hence both the promoters and the protesters of a project mobilize narratives to advance their interest. In this process, narratives and counter-narratives are (re)created and their interaction often establishes the dominant narrative. Using the case of the High Speed Two (HS2) megaproject in England, we highlight that it is through a continuous process of interaction between the promoter narratives and protester narratives that the narrative of the project vision evolves in practice. The strategies employed to resist the counter-narrative such as rejecting the counter-narrative, delaying it, and accepting part of it is discussed. We propose a model of how narratives of the project evolve through multiple narratives and counter-narratives. Thus, megaprojects are an arena where multiple battles are fought with narratives, to win one’s vested interest in the project. @en

Megaprojects combine multiple external stakeholders, and a common narrative is essential to drive the project among often conflicting objectives. Narratives help organize people toward an agenda and therefore have performative and strategic implications. In this research, we explore how narratives are mobilized through narrative instruments and processes using the case study of the High Speed Two (HS2) megaproject in the United Kingdom. We record the use of three instruments—stories, labels, and comparisons—that undergo four processes: repeating, endorsing, humorizing, and actioning. These instruments and processes enable megaprojects to mobilize a narrative that helps in managing external stakeholders.

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Labels as part of narratives are instrumental in the process of organising, particularly in megaprojects that seek to garner legitimacy and support of external stakeholders. While organisation scholars acknowledge that the process of labelling is contested, research on how different organisations navigate these labels remain limited. Within megaproject settings, labels such as largest, sustainable, efficient, etc., are frequently exercised and there is currently a dearth in megaproject management literature on how these labels come into becoming, are contested, and are maintained. Using the case study of the shaping phase of the High Speed Two Limited (HS2) megaproject in the UK, this research explores the multiple labels given to the megaproject, people, and practice by the promoters and protesters, and the ways labels play a role in shaping organisational identity. The processes that maintain and contest the labels such as using the same label, using other labels, explaining the label, and using labels in the title of the organisation are discussed. Thus, labels exist in megaproject arenas as a labyrinth with multiple labels for megaproject, people, and practices, from different agencies, which are then contested and maintained through more labels. This research therefore theorizes label creation, maintenance, and contestation in megaproject settings.

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