Managing Interdisciplinary Projects

Construction, architecture and engineering projects are complex undertakings, involving a temporary grouping of people and companies, with different agendas and experience, coming together to achieve a project goal. This book investigates the dynamics of the relationships between individuals involved in architecture, engineering and construction projects. It combines a structured theoretical framework, derived from social psychology and mainstream management theory, with case studies and research from the built environment sector. Focusing on how people interact, communicate and work together, it examines how best to manage the interdisciplinary relationships that form and reform during the project life cycle. The book covers vital areas of project management, whose importance has recently come to be recognized, and will be valuable for students at both undergraduate and graduate level. Practitioners will also find it a useful insight into the social aspect of project management, with implications and applications that apply to all projects in the built environment sector.

1. Interfaces -- 2. Communication -- 3. Trust -- 4. Discussions -- 5. Decisions -- 6. Context -- 7. Assembly -- 8. Development -- 9. Learning -- 10. Implementation.

Project management has been practiced for thousands of years, but only recently have organizations begun to apply systematic management tools and techniques to manage complex projects. Today's approaches to project management can be traced directly to methodologies designed by the U.S. military and Department of Defense in the years after World War II. Subsequent advances in management information systems have helped to codify project management practices; most recently, the Internet has dramatically enhanced the ability of individuals, teams, and organizations to manage projects across continents and cultures in real time. The Story of Managing Projects showcases cutting-edge research conducted around the world on emerging practices in project management. Covering an enormous spectrum of subjects and industries—from an upgrade of the Greek railway system to infrastructure reconstruction in Kuwait—the authors explore the full range of inter-personal, technical, and organizational dynamics of project management, contributing new insights to its theory and application.

This collection describes the preconditions, processes, and results of well-managed interdisciplinary research projects from the United States, Canada, Israel, Japan, Brazil, the German Democratic Republic, and Rumania. Based on a 1986 conference at the University of Minnesota, the book is divided into three sections: introductory papers establishing major themes; geographically grouped papers addressing North America, South America, Europe, and Asia; and papers reviewing the present state of knowledge in interdisciplinary work. Throughout, the work addresses the problems and approaches to successfully managing research projects in government, private firms, and universities.

Collaborative Projects - An Interdisciplinary Study presents research in disciplines ranging from Education, Psychotherapy and Social Work to Literacy and anti-poverty Project Management to Social Movement studies and Political Science. All the contributions are unified by use of the concept of 'project'. 'Project' is 'leading activity' for Child Development, whilst 'life project' may play a crucial role in personal development and Psychotherapy; the social fabric of a community can be understood as woven from projects which may be sustained by NGOs, or develop from social movements to institutions. Giving concrete content to the concept of 'project' in each domain of research, opens a prospect of a genuinely interdisciplinary human science. Contributors are: Igor Arievitch, Michael Arnold, Lynn Beaton, William Blanton, Andy Blunden, Michael Cole, Brecht De Smet, Natalia Gajdamaschko, Virginia Gordon, Manfred Holodynski, Naja Berg Hougaard, Vera John-Steiner, Elena Kravtsova, Gennadiy Kravtsov, Ron Lubensky, Morten Nissen, Jennifer Power, Mike Rifino, Keiko Matsuura, Francisco Medina, Anna Stetsenko, Greg Thompson, Chiel van der Veen, Eduardo Vianna, Lynne Wolbert, and Helena Worthen.

This insightful How to guide is expertly crafted to assist mid-career academic and non-academic researchers in preparing for new and innovative ways of working in international multidisciplinary environments.

'Interdisciplinarity' has become a rallying cry among funders and leaders of research. Yet, while the creative potential of interdisciplinary research is great, it poses many challenges. This book provides a practical guide to interdisciplinary research: to help build interdisciplinary skills and mobilise a new and growing research community.

'Interdisciplinarity' has become a rallying cry among funders and leaders of research. Yet, while the creative potential of interdisciplinary research is great, it poses many challenges. If you don't have disciplinary boundaries, how do you decide what to include or leave out? And what are the parameters for evaluating the research? This book provides a practical guide for researchers and research managers who are seeking to develop interdisciplinary research strategies at a personal, institutional and multi-institutional level. The book draws on examples from across the social and natural sciences but also offers valuable lessons for other combinations of more proximate disciplines. At a time when interdisciplinary research is increasingly centre stage in the research agenda, this book offers a crucial practical guide for researchers, research funders and managers from all backgrounds and contexts.