Coping with uncertainty and ambiguity through team collaboration in infrastructure projects

Managing risks and uncertainty are terms that are used interchangeably by project teams. Research on project procurement shows unexpected events in project delivery are often distinguished by these terms. This raises questions concerning how collaboration and coping ability help deal with inherent uncertainty and ambiguity. Using Weick's sense-making process of reflection and re-analysis a novel methodological approach was developed. A project database and contemporary literature was mined using the perspective of Snowden's Cynefin ambiguity framework. Two industry sourced examples provided support to the arguments made. The findings suggest that collaboration may lead to reduced people and process ambiguities and where ambiguity is revealed in projects it is often unrecognised, residing in a disordered zone. Observing ambiguity in this way provides a better understanding of ambiguity and advanced coping strategies. Having these perspectives is useful for identifying ambiguity where it may otherwise be missed or subsumed into risk and uncertainty.