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Making sense of collaboration in major infrastructure construction projects

Christoffer Rönndahl et al.

Project Leadership & Society2025https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plas.2025.100178article
ABDC C
Weight
0.54

What the paper says

For complex and major infrastructure construction projects, relational governance and the importance of collaboration between project partners have led to the emergence of collaborative project delivery models. While collaboration has been studied from different perspectives, few studies focus on how collaboration is maintained and developed over time in major construction projects. Sensemaking is used as a theoretical lens to give more insight in how project actors give and make sense in relation to collaboration. Through a longitudinal case study with interviews (42) and observations, events, triggers and sensebreakers that stimulate sensemaking and sensegiving in the project are discussed. The study contributes with an empirical insight in how project actors make sense of collaboration through sensegiving, stimulating a sensemaking process while also exploring the influence of triggers and sensebreakers on this process. It underscores the dynamic and evolving nature of collaboration within the project context through sensemaking. • Sensemaking and sensegiving are crucial when projects face unexpected events. • Sensemaking facilitators aid projects in avoiding states of irreversible chaos. • Collaboration meetings and performance grading facilitate sensemaking processes. • Event-induced sensebreakers trigger sensemaking and sensegiving processes. • High trust and commitment improve communication and problem-solving.

9 citations

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plas.2025.100178

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@article{christoffer2025,
  title        = {{Making sense of collaboration in major infrastructure construction projects}},
  author       = {Christoffer Rönndahl et al.},
  journal      = {Project Leadership & Society},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plas.2025.100178},
}

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Making sense of collaboration in major infrastructure construction projects

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Evidence weight

0.54

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.52 × 0.4 = 0.21
M · momentum0.72 × 0.15 = 0.11
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.