Managing Infrastructure Projects in Australia: A Shift From a Contractual to a Collaborative Public Management Strategy

Public private partnerships (PPPs) have evolved as a strategic response to public sector resource deficits and for pooling technical, managerial, and financial resources from the private sector. In this article, we identify the key factors necessary for a collaborative management strategy and analyze the structural and operational issues of two infrastructure projects in Australia. This article explains how a PPP offers a different set of strategic options to deal with complex micromanagement issues and argues that the success of PPPs depends on the processes and actions used to cocreate managerial social capital, building mutual trust by sharing risks, responsibilities, and experience.