Management Practices in the School Building Programme

How do management practices affect the success of the delivery of a major programme of construction work? The UK is engaged in a major school building programme. In England this is through the 'Building Schools for the Future' (BSF) programme, which seeks to rebuild or refurbish every secondary school in the country, and through the 'Primary Capital Programme', which is an investment in primary education. The last time there was such a large investment in education infrastructure was in the post-war period. Though there is a long tradition of organizational studies in schools (Rowan 1982; Meyer et al. 1994; Scott and Meyer 1994), there is surprisingly little organizational research on school-building given the scale of current government investment.

Through the AIM Fellowship, I am analysing management practices in this large construction programme. I have begun by studying the use of the Design Quality Indicators (DQI), indicators that are mandated for use on the BSF programme and have been used on 724 schools. I then plan to compare and contast the approaches taken in different parts of the country to better understand the role of management practices. 

PhD opportunities related to the Fellowship

There is funding available for UK residents (fees and £12-15k subsistence) and EU residents (fees only) in three broad areas related to the work that I am doing on this AIM Fellowship. Please apply before the deadline of 30th March:

PhD Area 1: Organizational issues related to the use of Building Information Models in design of buildings
http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AAL094/phd-studentship-1-in-design-innovation-in-the-built-environment-/

PhD Area 2: Organizing for design quality on programmes of building work (e.g. UK school-building)
http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AAL095/phd-studentship-2-in-design-innovation-in-the-built-environment-/

PhD Area 3: Visualizing digital models to improve designers appreciation of safety issues in construction
http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AAL096/phd-studentship-3-in-design-innovation-in-the-built-environment-/

To apply, please prepare a 1000 word proposal that details how you propose to take forward one of the above areas of study - with draft details of research strategy (e.g. aim, objectives, methods, timescales for delivery, plan for reading of the related literatures etc).  You can send a draft of this to me directly for comment before submission, but the formal application must go through the University of Reading website as detailed in the adverts. I suggest that if you email me you might give me some context to your application in the email, describing your work to date and what you want to learn from your supervisors and from being part of the team at the University of Reading.