Facing Management Choices: an analysis of managerial choices in 18 complex environmental projects

Abstract
This article looks at how managers in large infrastructure projects in The Netherlands deal with difficult choices, which are labelled as dilemmas in this article, in their managerial activities. It presents the results of a survey of 32 managers in 18 complex decision-making projects in which public-private partnerships (PPPs) play an important role. The managers were presented with a number of choices and asked to rate the amount of attention they paid to each of the choices. The article focuses on four (groups of) dilemmas managers face in the inter-organizational context of these processes: (1) interaction with parties, (2) strategic orientation, (3) management style and (4) process dynamics. After a brief elaboration of the role of (network) managers in complex PPP projects and the nature of the dilemmas they face, the four groups of dilemmas are explored by looking at how managers scored on the dilemmas within each group. Conclusions are drawn about managers’ perceptions of these dilemmas and the differences between projects. The different choices of dilemmas are then compared with the differences between the scores of the outputs of the projects as perceived by the managers. Finally, general conclusions are made about the dilemmas chosen by managers and the consequences of these choices.