CBPM Conference 2026 · Vol. 2026, Issue 1

Narrative Infrastructure Under Disruption: Reconfiguring Resilience Narratives in Large South African Construction Contractors

Zamageda Zungu

Keywords: construction contractors, disruption, narrative infrastructure, organisational resilience, strategy-aspractice

Abstract

Large South African construction contractors operate in conditions of recurring disruption shaped by market volatility, project fragmentation, and competing stakeholder demands. Construction strategy research has largely focused on formal plans and tools, with limited attention to how resilience is sustained through the everyday narrative processes that make strategy intelligible and actionable in practice. This paper examines how narrative infrastructure shapes the reconfiguration of resilience narratives under disruption. The study adopted an interpretivist multiple case design across four large South African construction contractors. Data was generated through 18 narrative interviews and supported by organisational artefacts, including planning documents, risk registers, reporting packs, meeting minutes, and internal guidance notes. Analysis combined thematic coding with structural narrative analysis. The findings suggest that narrative infrastructure does more than support communication. Recurring strategic forums, documentary routines, and learning practices help stabilise strategic direction during uncertainty, legitimise shifts in priorities, and convert disruption experience into shared strategic reference points. The paper contributes a practice-based account of resilience by showing how continuity under disruption is accomplished through the ongoing reworking of narrative infrastructure rather than through formal strategy alone.