• Dissertation

    Building Bridges: A Study of Coordination in Projects

    by  • September 16, 2009 • Academia, Collaboration, Dissertation, ECC, Organizations, Publications, Research • 0 Comments

    On August 13, I successfully defended my dissertation. Today, I submitted my final, approved version to University of Michigan’s institutional repository. That version won’t be available until after I receive my degree in December, but you’re welcome to read a nearly identical version of my complete dissertation. Dissertation Abstract In our efforts to understand...

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    The Wrongheadedness of Best Practice Thinking

    by  • March 27, 2009 • Dissertation, Organizations, Practice, Research • 0 Comments

    I’ve come across a gem of a book introduction, and I’m writing to recommend that you read it. Yes, all of you. The introduction is from the book Strategic Procurement in Construction by Andrew Cox and Mike Townsend, published in 1998. The shelves of bookstores are crowded with advice for practitioners and business owners...

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    Relational Engagement in Project Teams

    by  • February 13, 2009 • Dissertation, Presentations, Research • 0 Comments

    I participated in the ICOS dissertation poster session today, and while there had a number of helpful conversations about my dissertation. One of the preliminary findings I included on my poster discussed the perspective-taking and social language use I’ve noticed in interviews with members of the bridge project. Perspective-taking is a concept found in...

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    Talking Shop

    by  • December 29, 2008 • Dissertation, Leisure • 0 Comments

    I had the great fortune to spend my afternoon at Sweetwaters with Jude and Ingrid. While working diligently on my dissertation, I have been somewhat of a recluse. I’ve been too tired to socialize at night and too dogged to interact much during the day. Today, I took a break from writing and analyzing...

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    Dissertation proposal defense, check

    by  • September 30, 2008 • Dissertation, Writing • 1 Comment

    I passed my official dissertation proposal defense on Sept. 19. My committee and I are confident I can complete my dissertation next spring or summer. I’m scheduling my third round of interviews, pouring over construction agreements and design documents, and reviewing literature I haven’t read since my field prelim. Preparing for my proposal defense...

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    What is an actor?

    by  • June 23, 2008 • Dissertation, ECC, Publications, Research, Writing • 0 Comments

    Some colleagues and I recently submitted a paper to a conference, and last week I sent in our rebuttals to the reviewers’ comments. Our paper introduces some terms from actor-network theory (ANT) to an audience that isn’t terribly familiar with ANT. I like ANT as a method, not really a theory, for helping sort...

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    Research is messy

    by  • February 12, 2008 • Collaboration, Dissertation, ECC, Research • 0 Comments

    Last week I participated in a mixed methods workshop with John Creswell. The workshop was quite valuable; we worked through designing a proposal for a real research project. I forget the name of the student whose project we outlined, but he was proposing to study biodiversity sustainability programs in Vietnam and Cambodia. We worked...

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    Working from Home

    by  • February 5, 2008 • Dissertation, Housing • 2 Comments

    I was born in 1980. That puts me in a somewhat ambiguous (like that? somewhat ambiguous. ha!) position as far as those trendy Generation X, Generation Y terms go. Luckily, there’s finally a full name for Generation that makes me happy. It’s called the Work from Home Generation. We WFH types are good for...

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