Exploring lean project management as a facilitator of improvements in project management practice: a case study investigation in the construction industry

The contemporary construction project environment requires a different approach to traditional, ordered systems and relies on the co-operation and learning of multi-disciplinary temporary teams that is integral with distributed control systems (Bertelsen & Koskela, 2003; Besner & Hobbs, 2013). Given the challenges of navigating and managing projects in an increasingly complex world, LPM can offer the opportunity to better connect people, processes, workflows and delivery (MacIntyre, 2007; Antoniadis et al, 2011; Cole, 2019). Underpinned by lean principles of continuous improvement, mutually beneficial working relationships, collaboration, information and visual techniques, we explore the lived experience of practice (Geraldi & Söderlund, 2016; Saunders et al, 2016) through a single holistic case (Stake, 1995; Merriam, 2009; Yin, 2017). In combining elements of semi-structured interviews, non-participant observations, document and photographic evidence we capture nuances of lived actuality to explore and therefore better understand characteristics and mechanisms of the implementation of LPM. Our research is guided by the concept of practice theory to examine the ways in which individuals (or classes of individuals) inhabit a position, invoking practical knowledge, which enables them to function in particular situations (Bourdieu, 1977, 1998, 2000; Giddens, 1984; Baxter & Chua, 2008; Feldman & Orlikowski, 2011). Initial findings suggest the practice and process of implementing LPM may be as important, if not more so, than the theory (Pettigrew, 1997) and we develop propositions which contribute to the evidence base and extant literature.