The social organization of errors and the manifestation of rework: learning from narratives of practice

Despite the considerable amount of research that has examined rework causation in construction, it remains an inherent problem that can potentially result in adverse project outcomes. This situation has arisen as studies have tended to ignore the social organization of errors (i.e. the pattern of re...

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Main Authors: Love, Peter, Matthews, Jane
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP210101281
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/90137
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author Love, Peter
Matthews, Jane
author_facet Love, Peter
Matthews, Jane
author_sort Love, Peter
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Despite the considerable amount of research that has examined rework causation in construction, it remains an inherent problem that can potentially result in adverse project outcomes. This situation has arisen as studies have tended to ignore the social organization of errors (i.e. the pattern of relationships and social interactions between and among individuals and teams). Instead, studies have adopted a ‘reductionist view’ of rework causation by identifying its proximal and root causes rather than addressing the conditions resulting in its manifestation. This paper uses a case study approach with a sense-making lens to create a series of narratives of rework events that arose while constructing a transport mega-project. By making sense of the context surrounding the error events, it is revealed rework manifests from failures in ‘negotiated order’ which stems from role ambiguity, misunderstandings, misinterpretations, and break-downs in communications and interactions between people and organizations. As a consequence of these findings, their theoretical and practical implications arising from the research are discussed.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-901372023-11-01T04:10:12Z The social organization of errors and the manifestation of rework: learning from narratives of practice Love, Peter Matthews, Jane Science & Technology Technology Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing Operations Research & Management Science Engineering Construction errors negotiated order mega-project social organization rework SAFETY MANAGEMENT MISTAKES FAILURES CULTURE INQUIRY LESSONS MODEL RISK Despite the considerable amount of research that has examined rework causation in construction, it remains an inherent problem that can potentially result in adverse project outcomes. This situation has arisen as studies have tended to ignore the social organization of errors (i.e. the pattern of relationships and social interactions between and among individuals and teams). Instead, studies have adopted a ‘reductionist view’ of rework causation by identifying its proximal and root causes rather than addressing the conditions resulting in its manifestation. This paper uses a case study approach with a sense-making lens to create a series of narratives of rework events that arose while constructing a transport mega-project. By making sense of the context surrounding the error events, it is revealed rework manifests from failures in ‘negotiated order’ which stems from role ambiguity, misunderstandings, misinterpretations, and break-downs in communications and interactions between people and organizations. As a consequence of these findings, their theoretical and practical implications arising from the research are discussed. 2022 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/90137 10.1080/09537287.2022.2117664 English http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP210101281 TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD fulltext
spellingShingle Science & Technology
Technology
Engineering, Industrial
Engineering, Manufacturing
Operations Research & Management Science
Engineering
Construction
errors
negotiated order
mega-project
social organization
rework
SAFETY
MANAGEMENT
MISTAKES
FAILURES
CULTURE
INQUIRY
LESSONS
MODEL
RISK
Love, Peter
Matthews, Jane
The social organization of errors and the manifestation of rework: learning from narratives of practice
title The social organization of errors and the manifestation of rework: learning from narratives of practice
title_full The social organization of errors and the manifestation of rework: learning from narratives of practice
title_fullStr The social organization of errors and the manifestation of rework: learning from narratives of practice
title_full_unstemmed The social organization of errors and the manifestation of rework: learning from narratives of practice
title_short The social organization of errors and the manifestation of rework: learning from narratives of practice
title_sort social organization of errors and the manifestation of rework: learning from narratives of practice
topic Science & Technology
Technology
Engineering, Industrial
Engineering, Manufacturing
Operations Research & Management Science
Engineering
Construction
errors
negotiated order
mega-project
social organization
rework
SAFETY
MANAGEMENT
MISTAKES
FAILURES
CULTURE
INQUIRY
LESSONS
MODEL
RISK
url http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP210101281
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/90137