Investigating the long-term effectiveness of an organisation: A methodology developed and applied to the Port Authorities of Rotterdam and Antwerp

Investigating the long-term effectiveness of an organisation: A methodology developed and applied to the Port Authorities of Rotterdam and Antwerp

Engelsman, H.M.

Dijkema, G.P.J. (mentor)
Vellinga, T. (mentor)
Slinger, J.H. (mentor)
Stikkelman, R.M. (mentor)

Technology, Policy and Management

Energy and Industry

Industrial Ecology

2014-09-26

In this research the long-term effect of large-scale projects on organisational effectiveness is investigated with respect to organisational structure, -culture and working approach. This study is potentially relevant for the Port Authorities of Rotterdam and Antwerp, for organisations inspired by Industrial Ecological solutions and for organisations in general that aim for effectiveness improvement. The Port of Rotterdam and Port of Antwerp are international seaports that are crucial for world economy; however both have a high potential for environmental impact. Over the recent years, the awareness about this impact and the number of related initiatives have been increasing within the Port Authorities. Meanwhile, dynamics of international trade drove the Port Authorities to expand their port capacity via respectively the Maasvlakte 2 and Deurganckdok. However, they experienced unfavourable but inescapable resistances, such as rejection(s) by the Council of State. Internal organisational changes took place within the Port Authorities to anticipate on the high level of project complexity and to further execute the project strategies. Specific focus was on environmental impact and stakeholder involvement. Better understanding about organisational characteristics might contribute to improvement of such anticipation in case of further port development and to the yielding of successes from internal organisational strengths. This research provides a methodological framework to identify these organisational characteristics (via typification of the organisational structure and -culture) and subsequently investigate the long-term effect of a large-scale development project on the organisational effectiveness (via analysing the change in organisational characteristics and in working approach, and the relation between them). This framework is conceived from a range of acknowledged methods, which are selected from a literature study performed within a prior determined scope. It is applied to the Port of Rotterdam and Port of Antwerp Authorities regarding respectively the Maasvlakte 2 and Deurganckdok project. Results show that the Maasvlakte 2 project had significant long-term effect in organisational structure, no apparent long-term effect in organisational culture and significant long-term effect in working approach. The Deurganckdok project had significant long-term effect in organisational structure, apparent long-term effect in organisational culture and clearly visible long-term effect in working approach. Recommendations with respect to performed research include improvement of the organisational typifications representativeness and further integration of the different framework elements. Those with respect to further research include the performance of further empirical testing of the framework usability, the integration of external factors able to influence organisational effectiveness and the investigation of framework potential as a tool along strategy development.

organisational structure
organisational culture
port authorities
Maasvlakte 2
Deurganckdok
organisational effectiveness

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:acd021dc-2cf0-4454-bf9a-7c6d9d887951

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2014 Engelsman, H.M.