Sustaining Highly-Fragile Collaborative Developments: A Study of Planning Megaprojects in the UK

Abstract

This inductive study discusses the sustainability of highly-fragile, consensus-oriented developments which rely on voluntary contributions of resources. We ground our study on a fine-grained dataset of interorganizational controversies that arose during the planning of four mega infrastructure projects in the UK. We use Design Structure Matrices to qualify: i) the decomposability of the design structures; and ii) the distribution of the rights to directly influence performance expectations. We show that fixed deadlines, tight budgets, and equitability concerns constrain efforts to decentralise governance and seek local consensuses. Resource constraints also foreground bargaining and compromise at the expense of deliberative decision-making and effective collaboration. Hence, we argue, sustaining these strained and fragile collaborations is a measure of positive performance. We propose four mechanisms are critical to carry the parties along as the development process inches forward: target relaxation, global contingencies, flexible designs; and an umpire.