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.
