The integration of contractor's knowledge and expertise as part of a complex project management organisation's people capability: a case of an Australian defence acquisition organisation

An integral part of the organisation’s capability is people and the way it uses and develops competence. The question this thesis seeks to answer is ‘How effective is the integration of contractor’s skills and expertise as part of the people capability of complex project based organisations?’ A qualitative approach based in action learning implementing using Soft Systems Methodology has been chosen to address the question. The approach is based on a ‘liberation’ praxeological philosophy that seeks to give primacy to praxis or ‘action that is based on knowledge informed by theory and performed according to certain ethical and moral principles for political ends’ (Bredillet, 2013 p.60). This approach rooted in practice attempts to address the gap between theory and practice in that it provides opportunities for learning by doing and advocates ‘knowing as practicing’. <br><br>The results critically highlight issues with accountability, competence development, risk sharing along with others. These issues centralise the problem in the human resource or people capability space. Creative reasoning arising from a narrative based soft systems methodology led to theory about practice in an extension of the people capability framework (Bredin, 2008b). This framework considers the integration of contractors into complex project management based organisations and the development of a model of people management for application in a complex project management organisation setting. Also developed is a ‘theory for practice’ in the provision of a model for integrating contractors as part of a complex project management organisation and theory in practice in the application of soft systems methodology as part of an action learning intervention in a complex project management organisation. A limitation of the research could be seen to be the extent to which the research which is based in a particular acquisition organisation can be regarded as generalisable. Further, complementary research in people management and the capability of temporary project based organisations in governance, operations management, transitioning and the effectiveness of performance appraisals would provide a more rounded view of practice and theory in this area.<br><br>