CRGP has granted Sampo Tukiainen of the Helsinki School of Economics a position as a visiting fellow for three months, from June 1, 2006 to August 31, 2006. Mr. Tukiainen is nearing the completion of his Ph.D and is studying how the developers of major power plants develop experience and transfer knowledge from project to project. The details of his study are as follows:

• Overview: A longitudinal case-study of two consecutive Finnish-Polish power plant projects carried out in Poland - the first was extremely successful, and the second experienced long delays;
• Unit of analysis:The management board of the projects, consisting of the CEOs of the Finnish parent and the Polish subsidiary, the Vice President of the Finnish parent, the Head of the West European operations group (a Finn), and the Polish and Finnish project managers;
• Research question #1: Why did certain strategically significant, project management board –level disagreements (between the nationalities), that were encountered and overcome during the 1st project, reappear at the beginning of the 2nd project?
• Research question #2: What kind of impact did the experience and learning between the two nationalities in the 1st project have in the reappearance of the disagreements during the 2nd project?
• Research question #3: How did the cross-national learning mediate from the 1st project to the 2nd project?
• Data: Detailed, in-depth data on the nature of the disagreements; on the critical events leading to and producing these disagreements; on the roles, motives, and main arguments of the board members in the events; and on the personal learning between the nationalities in the project management board
• Data Collection Process: Interviews with key personnel - both Finns and Poles, research project meetings, four workshops, monthly project progress reports and memos, contract agreements between the main parties, internal project progress reviews, and email correspondence.

Contact Sampo Tukiainen for more information.

Posted by rjorr at March 23, 2006 4:43 PM