Projects have become omnipresent not only in the economy but also in our society and our lives. Projects organize and shape our actions at work, in our professional profiles and networks, and also in ...our homes and free time activities. Drawing on the philosophical cornerstone concepts of activity, time, space, and relations, this article introduces an alternative conceptualization of projects as a “human condition.” The article concludes with implications to the project management community, in terms of both project management practice and research.
In Project Society, organizing by projects plays a prominent role. This type of society is already here, but projectification continues to lead developments and transformations along a set of paths ...and trajectories. One way to describe this trend is to say that there is societal organizing in which various types of projects are becoming even more prevalent and diverse. The projectification trend seems to be the result of a variety of mechanisms at work, where a wide set of traditional institutions—ranging from laws to mindsets—is constantly challenged and reformed. Managing, along with the nature of work, are changing and adapting.
Toward a project-led economy Pinto López, Ingrid Nineth; Montaudon Tomas, Cynthia M; Amsler, Anna
Dyna (Medellín, Colombia),
09/2023, Volume:
90, Issue:
228
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
En años recientes el fenómeno referido a la proyectificación se ha incrementado. Los proyectos han comenzado a desplazar ciertos tipos de operaciones en empresas alrededor del mundo. Esencialmente ...esto significa que el trabajo por proyecto se ha intensificado debido a un incremento en las economías del trabajo independiente y de freelance, esto representa un reflejo de tiempos cambiantes y de organizaciones que cambian también. Este artículo tiene por objetivo presentar una perspectiva general de la evolución de los proyectos y las tendencias futuras al utilizar esta metodología en el mundo del trabajo. La metodología es la revisión de la literatura que permitirá identificar eventos críticos y agentes clave en el proceso.
In recent years, the phenomenon referred to as projectification has escalated. Projects have increasingly started to displace certain types of operations in businesses across the globe. In essence, it means that project work has intensified due to an increase in the freelance and independent work economy. This represents a reflection of changing times and changing organizations. This article aims to present a general overview of the evolution of projects and the future trends in using this particular way of working. The methodology is a literature review that helps identify critical events and key agents in the process.
While projectification of society has received attention in research, little has been done to exemplify underlying processes and actors involved. By applying institutional theory, we offer an ...explanatory avenue. Our explorative research advances the understanding of how project management associations influence the projectification of society. To answer this question, we drew on available insights, interviewed international experts and conducted a case study on institutional work of the German Project Management Association.
Project management associations have so far focused primarily on the corporate world and have done little for the projectification of society overall. Especially in times of disruption and major challenges for society, the support of project management associations becomes necessary. The application of institutional theory opens promising perspectives for future research on the projectification of society. Our findings on project management associations are not only relevant for researchers, but also for decision-makers in all areas of the society.
•Institutional theory offers a promising avenue for understanding projectification of society.•Project management associations exert influence through institutions on the projectification of society.•Associations have so far focused primarily on the corporate world and have done little for the projectification of society overall.
This paper develops a general-purpose framework for the governance of projects. The framework is structured by the concepts of governmentality and governance of projects, in the context of different ...levels of projectification in organizations. It visualizes the organization-specific profiles for these concepts. The dimensions and scales underlying the three concepts derived mainly from the literature on governance, general management, and project management. Eight case studies in four industries in Scandinavia and China validated the dimensions and scales and identified a new dimension for the concept of governmentality. This dimension, called precept, addresses the predominant theme in governmentality as being either organizational values, process compliance, or project well-being. Theoretical implications are in the integration of so far separate concepts plus a new governmentality dimension into one overall framework and visualization of it. Practical implications are in the identification of organization specific profiles, which can be used to develop generic profiles for industries, geographies, or otherwise different governance regimes.
•An integrated framework to assess and profile governance and governmentality•Visualizes governance and governmentality approaches at different levels of projectification•Identifies “governmentality precept“ as a new dimension of governmentality•A precept is the dominating content (values, process, or project) in governmentality.
Aims:
To identify factors perceived by local government employees to affect the implementation of a municipal public health plan.
Methods:
Qualitative individual interviews (n=13) were carried out. ...Participants were sampled from three districts in Oslo municipality, Norway, and asked about their experiences with an ongoing implementation of the Oslo Public Health Plan (2017–2020). The conceptual framework of public sector projectification – a growing reliance on project organisation of policies – informed the study. The consolidated framework for implementation research was used to aid data coding and subsequent thematic analysis.
Results:
Implementation facilitators included factors perceived to support flexibility, including plan adaptability to the local setting, and factors perceived to enable structure and control during the implementation process, such as the articulation of specific goals and a shared understanding of public health work. Barriers were mainly related to complex aspects of the plan, such as the need to involve multiple stakeholders and levels of governance, and to tensions between the time-limited implementation process and the permanent organisational structures.
Conclusions:
This study has demonstrated how research-based methods can be used for the evaluation of a local community implementation process. It has identified implementation determinants using a predetermined taxonomy of operationally defined factors that are likely to influence implementation. However, while implementing a time-limited public health plan can be seen as ‘taking action’ in relation to multidimensional and complex problems, further research is needed to investigate whether plan implementation has a long-term impact on the surrounding organisation and, eventually, on public health outcomes.
Knowledge translation platforms (KTPs) are seen as an important collaborative arrangement between researchers, policymakers, and practitioners. Yet, their ‘sustainability’ is a recurring issue. ...Several studies describe what makes KTPs sustainable, and focus on the role of institutional and contextual factors therein, yet few studies show how sustaining of KTPs is done in practice. We therefore performed an ethnographic case-study on ‘sustaining work’ of KTPs in Jordan, Cameroon, and Nigeria. This approach focusses on what KTP actors do to make and keep their platforms productive. We followed the KTP actors for two years and interviewed the KTP actors and their colleagues (n = 63), observed the KTPs' practices (59d), and reviewed related documents to construct thick descriptions of their practices. We collected all data between September 2017 and November 2019. Our analysis revolves around three work processes of translating, contexting, and institutionalising and shows that sustaining takes place within the platform actors' everyday work. Sustaining work, while not necessarily purposive, and without a clear ending, was crucial: the KTPs were not sustainable by themselves, but were actively sustained through the struggles and efforts of the platform actors. This move from ‘sustainability as such’ to sustaining work has important theoretical ramifications for understanding how KTPs work and are made to perdure. Most importantly, this requires a shift from identifying factors that make KTPs sustainable towards constructing environments in which sustaining work can be done. This includes further exploring the role of (research) projects in sustaining KTPs. Additionally, our analysis showed that the sustaining of KTPs was contingent on the capacity of platform actors to forge productive dependencies with other actors and ongoing policy or research agendas. Our analysis thereby offers a practice-based perspective that can inform capacity-building programmes for KTP actors and that can guide the actual sustaining of KTPs.
•In practice, sustainability is not a state, but a process of ongoing work by actors.•This sustaining work takes place within the mundane activities of actors.•Knowledge translation platforms rely on sustaining work to remain productive.•Sustaining work involves creating productive dependencies with others.•We identify three work processes: translating, institutionalising, and contexting.
The focus of this case study is the question, 'How can research integrity be taught in higher education?' I will share my experience of teaching this topic over the past three years, organising the ...various dimensions of research integrity under the broader theme of integrity in science, specifically in terms of norms, functions, and unity. Norms refer to how science conforms or deviates from normative standards, such as those proposed by Robert K. Merton. Functions relate to how science and research are endowed with a functioning, non-damaged mechanism. The third meaning pertains to the notion of science as an unbroken and undivided entity. This innovative approach may aid students in understanding the various aspects of research integrity, help them addressing the contradictions they may encounter in their work, and introduce them to the historical, philosophical, and sociological elements of science, including those from the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS).
The neoliberalization of higher education in western countries has led to work intensification, projectification, and work-life balance issues for academics. This article draws on interviews with ...Digital Humanities practitioners in higher education conducted in 2017-2018 in three Nordic countries to introduce the concept of the 'work-work balance', an under-researched phenomenon in contemporary academe. The term 'work-work balance' refers to the ways in which workers in higher education seek to balance conflicting concurrent work demands made on them. Four such work scenarios emerged from the data: the 50/50 split across different jobs; working across multiple projects simultaneously; occupying multiple functional roles; and conflicting demands within one job. The article argues that work-work balance, or rather imbalance, issues result in the inability of higher education workers to meet the demands put upon them. This raises questions regarding the role of HEIs and research funding regimes in the generation and maintenance of work-work balance scenarios and suggests that work-work balance issues need to be researched further as well as requiring urgent attention from HEIs and research funders.
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