Coping and Constructing: A Narrative Perspective on Project Dynamics

Abstract

Recent studies on collaborative practices in large infrastructural projects address the importance of discursive strategies and power relations in dynamic project arenas [1]-[3]. This paper focuses on the coping narratives developed by contract team members during the building phase of a large-scale infrastructural project. Coping narratives relate to the management based grand narr-ative of the project and are produced and shaped in the process of sense making. By analyzing this interaction and the developments in a specific sub-team of a project, which is faced with multiple identity claims, this paper aims to contribute to the knowledge on how policies, views and deci-sions on an organizational level work out in project teams. The empirical material relates to a re-cent Dutch Mega-Project regarding the construction of a new sea defense and boulevard in Sche-veningen. This paper shows that developments, discourses and decisions on an organizational level are of importance for the commencing coping narratives in project teams.