Exploring sustainable project management practices in Australian public projects - a constructivist view
Date of Award
2023
Document Type
Thesis
Publisher
Edith Cowan University
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Integrated)
School
School of Business and Law
First Supervisor
Denise Gengatharen
Second Supervisor
Kerry Brown
Abstract
The research examined sustainable project management (SPM) practices in Australian public infrastructure and construction projects. SPM is an emerging scholarly domain and the research explored gaps in knowledge relating to SPM principles, concepts, ontology, ethics, and planning. The research asked two questions:
RQ1 – In the context of Australian public projects, what institutional artefacts and factors shape and influence the use of sustainable project practices?
RQ2 – To what extent do these practices include measures that demonstrate the successful use of sustainable resources?
The ontological assumptions for the research were constructivist which helped capture the holistic intricacies of the context, beliefs, values, and subjective experiences of organisations and individuals involved. Epistemologically, the research adopted a social constructivist approach which, methodologically, used discourse analytical (DA) and constructivist grounded theory (CGT) methods.
An initial conceptual model was developed from literature and used to underpin an analysis of publicly available institutional artefacts from six selected Australian state and local government organisations (SGOs and LGOs). The DA was supported by a detailed analysis of the principles of project management from the current Standard for Project Management (The Standard) published by the Project Management Institute (PMI). The results of the DA informed a CGT analysis of 30 semi-structured interviews with project management professionals. Both analyses drew together concepts drawn from stakeholder theory, stakeholder practices, and ethical stewardship principles. The results confirmed the difficulties of understanding sustainability in SGO and LGO projects using traditional, reductionist constraints linked to time and cost as the ethical approaches needed to address the life-threatening hazards to Earth and life on it are not factors in reductionist approaches.
The DA and CGT analyses confirmed that ethical SPM principles, broad stakeholder engagement, the provenance of resources, and consideration for future generations represent grand challenges which have yet to be addressed. While SGO and LGO policies, frameworks and strategies had a common sustainability thread, all varied and were not unified around sustainable goals. Furthermore, SGOs and LGOs lacked an understanding of how to evaluate sustainable projects to determine if projects were genuinely sustainable.
The theoretical implications show that stakeholder theory can now be extended to government organisations using value concept arising from the public benefits of adopting sustainable approaches. Similarly, stewardship theory could be extended to explain why rational actors in sustainable public projects were unwilling or unable to realise sustainable value which may have a direct impact on themselves, their communities, or global stakeholders either now or in the future. This represents a deficiency in our current understanding of stewardship theory.
The findings of the research also have practical implications. The pollination of SPM concepts within the Australian government ecosystem will need to improve. Many SGO and LGO government policies, frameworks, and strategies do not coherently support SPM, so the gaps are being filled using voluntary schemes or ad-hoc individual interpretations. In addition, guidance about SPM from professional project management organisations is lacking. The Standard is not explicit about SPM and instead provides fractured and partially hidden guidance which could result in the grand challenges of SPM being downplayed or overlooked. The research findings also indicate that the primary constraint shaping most Australian public infrastructure and construction projects is a requirement to deliver within approved budgets. This cost constraint relates to both projects and the operational assets that each project creates. Consequently, even though the ethical principles of SPM are becoming clear, Australian public organisations and practitioners are generally not adhering to them.
The thesis outlines possible future research to examine the stewardship deficiency and to research why stewards in sustainable projects do not seek satisfaction from seeing the true value of sustainable stewardship. The exploratory nature of the research has highlighted the need for more work to delve into practitioner understanding of SPM, project principles, and the sustainable use of resources. The research also includes suggestions for future studies into assessing sustainable projects using more holistic program evaluations.
DOI
10.25958/j2eg-9m29
Access Note
Access to this thesis is embargoed until 23rd November 2026.
Recommended Citation
Hughes, R. (2023). Exploring sustainable project management practices in Australian public projects - a constructivist view. Edith Cowan University. https://doi.org/10.25958/j2eg-9m29