Al-Hachami, Zeiad
(2020)
Decision Making in the Oil and Gas Construction Project
Management: Structured VS Discretionary.
Doctor of Business Administration thesis, University of Liverpool.
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Abstract
Background: The oil industry in southern Iraq suffers from significant and unreasonable delays in construction project execution. The project's planning part goes to its final stages, but the implementation phase gets stagnated due mostly to delay in decision-making. Objectives/Amis: Investigating the potential impact of five factors influencing the decision-making process; Project management methodology/system, organizational context, bureaucratical/procedural practices, project context, and the role of experience and competence. Developing an action plan for change through understanding the impact of these factors. Methodology: An action research conducted by a native researcher utilizing a qualitative approach to inquiry through semi-structured interviews with eleven project management professionals in a major international oil and gas company in southern Iraq in addition to observation and field notes. Findings: Findings presented direct and indirect linkage between project management methodology and delay in decision making. There was evidence of system impact on project leadership and lack of decision ownership regardless of project size and type. Findings also presented that the oil and gas industry attempt to mechanize project execution through standardized procedures with a weak matrix organizational structure where the design of such procedures best be left to field experienced individuals. There was also strong evidence of a relationship between the project organization and decision speed attributed to a significant impact on communication speed. Originality: Aside from planning and project selection decisions, the execution decision research framework in this thesis broadens the human element decision-making understanding, thereby enabling project managers in identifying factors and attributes that optimize their decision-making process under standardized work requirements in a time-pressured and dynamic construction execution. Conclusion and Implications: This thesis investigated five areas with a potential impact on execution decision-making in southern Iraq's oil and gas industry. Based on the empirical findings, Key practical implications identified and an action plan presented in this study, if applied, could have a substantial improvement in decision speed and accuracy.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctor of Business Administration) |
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Management |
| Depositing User: | Symplectic Admin |
| Date Deposited: | 07 Sep 2021 15:17 |
| Last Modified: | 18 Jan 2023 22:50 |
| DOI: | 10.17638/03120681 |
| Supervisors: |
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| URI: | https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3120681 |
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