Freelance expatriates playing critical role in expediting infra projects in India: IIT-M

The IIT-M research paper offers critical insight into how megaprojects can be better managed

A study by the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) has found that freelance expatriates hired by Indian public sector clients play a critical role in the smooth execution of ‘vanguard’ or ‘first of their kind’ infrastructure projects such as highways, urban rail systems, and airports, among others.

Prof. Ashwin Mahalingam, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT-M, studied the challenges faced during the initial stages of infrastructure vanguards in India and how different views were negotiated to create a set of processes that can lead to the smooth management of these projects.

Developing nations across the world over are in a rush to catch up with the modern world, and India is no different. Ambitious projects for the construction of highways, urban rail systems, and airports are common in the country.

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A key finding of the paper was that most of these conflicts were resolved by a hitherto unheralded group of project participants - freelance expatriates hired by the Indian client. This research paper offers critical insight into how megaprojects can be better managed.

The author, whose findings have been published in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Project Management, analyzed empirical data from two metro rail megaprojects in India to conceptualize impasses arising due to contradictions in institutionalized logic relating to work practices used by various organizations on such projects.

The study showed that contradictory logic in carrying out work can lead to ’horizontal’ or process-based institutional voids, and ’vertical’ or role/hierarchy-based institutional voids that must be successfully navigated to ensure project progress.

“Expatriates are often hired for their technical skills. However, their outcome-aligned incentives and their ability to connect with other expatriates on the contractors' side helps them play an understated but critical role in resolving conflicts on projects – a strategy that megaproject organizations would do well to leverage,” Prof Mahalingam said.

He also said the expatriates resolved conflicts using three sets of coping strategies, re-architecting transaction spaces, reinforcing hierarchy, and mediation and the critical role that expatriates play in the management of such projects is perhaps the single most important practical finding of the paper.

In the case of reinforcing hierarchy, the expatriates would push to speed up the construction process by escalating matters up the chain of command until it reached progress-focused decision makers, the study said.

In other cases, the expatriates would play the role of a mediator by presenting more information and creating a dialogue between opposing sides. Their credibility due to their organizational affiliation with the client and their professional affiliation with other expatriates working with the contractor helped them play the role of a mediator on these projects, Prof Mahalingam added.