Social capital and construction project management: a vignette and theoretical framework

Abstract

Extant discourse of organizational social capital has been concentrated on permanent organizational settings. The basic tenet of the concept of social capital is that the social relations of actors within social sphere can be used to facilitate actions among the focal actors and those others that are directly or indirectly associated with the focal actors. This utilitarian notion of the concept should transcend organizational settings. In this respect, although paradoxical, with the construction project peculiarities of fragmentation, the lack of a central authority, transient organizing, interdependence and the resultant need for integration, and relative closure, social capital may be more relevant to project organizing. However, given that social capital represents the primordial feature of social activities among actors and its utility is contingent upon active use and engagement, the effects of social capital on project organizing is likely to be channeled through project organizational processes. We examined this proposition with the use of a vignette derived from case study of a building construction project in Hong Kong. Through the vignette, we demonstrate the applicability of the concept in construction project settings in relation to the proposition. Based on the findings, we put forth a theoretical framework of the social embeddedness approach to project organizing.