PurposeThe aim of this article is to give an overview of the development and current state of projectification research. The inquiry was driven by a threefold research question: How has ...projectification been understood and defined over time, what has the trajectory of the development been and what are the main trends and emerging ideas?Design/methodology/approachThe article is an integrative literature review of research done on the notion of projectification to date. An interdisciplinary, integrative literature review was conducted using Scopus and Web of Science as primary sources of data collection. The full data set consists of 123 journal articles, books, book chapters and conference contributions. With the data set complete, a thematic analysis was conducted.FindingsAmong other things, the review outlines the development and scope of projectification research from 1995 until 2021 and discusses four emerging images of projectification: projectification as a managerial approach, projectification as a societal trend, projectification as a human state and projectification as a philosophical issue. These characteristics emphasize some common features of each of the images but also imply that the way projectification is understood changes depending on the paradigmatic perspective taken by the researcher, the time and place in which the observation was made and the level of observation.Originality/valueThe authors have outlined and discussed four images of projectification – projectification as a managerial approach, projectification as a societal trend, projectification as a human state and projectification as a philosophical issue – where each image represents a special take on projectification with some prevalent characteristics. By doing this, the authors provide a systematic categorization of research to date and thus a basis upon which other researchers can build when furthering the understanding of projectification at large.
The project form-the very model of 'a project' as a type of purposive and transformative action-animates social environments the world over. As a social form, projects constitute a versatile, ...organizational structure predicated on the management of time, tasks, and resources toward some pre-determined, non-routine goal. Projects combine logistical practical reasoning with visionary aspirational ends. They readily appear across fields of science, education, business, government, and the arts. This essay inquires into the conditions and consequences of the project form, asking: how have norms and practices of project making shaped historical formations, social environments, and our understanding of them? In answering this question, the essay contextualizes the project form within a history of the modern world system. It then develops a theory of the project form, illustrating how the logistical and visionary aspects of projects emerge as effects of genre-mediated processes of project making. Finally, the essay considers how social theories that are blind to the project form risk naturalizing its logics. Through these steps, the essay reflects on the limits and limitations of the project form. This essay is part of the special issue, 'Genre Work in the New Economy,' edited by Ilana Gershon and Michael Prentice.
Towards a project-led economy Montaudon-Tomas, Cynthia M.; Pinto-López, Ingrid N.; Amsler, Anna
Dyna (Medellín, Colombia),
08/2023, Volume:
90, Issue:
228
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
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.
Abstract
Urban experimentation has proliferated in recent years as a response to sustainability challenges and renewed pressures on urban governance. In many European cities, diverse and rapidly ...changing experimental forms (e.g. urban living laboratories, pilots, trials, experimental districts) are becoming commonplace, addressing ambitious goals for smartness, circularity, and liveability. Academically, there is a growing concern for moving beyond the focus on individual experiments and the insistence on upscaling their primary transformation mechanism. However, the phenomena of ‘projectification’ – whereby project-based forms of organising have become ubiquitous, shaping expectations about experimentation – is increasingly perceived as a barrier. Nevertheless, how specifically experimentation and projectification intersect remains unclear. Our theoretical perspective examines how the widespread tendency towards projectification shapes urban experimentation and the potential implications for urban transformations. It problematises the current wave of experimentation and how it contributes to the
projectification of urban change processes
. We present three steps to redress this issue and indicate directions for future research.
While recent science and technology studies literature focuses on “projectification” and its felt tensions for researchers, a surprising scarcity of empirical work addresses experiences at the “other ...end,” such as funding bodies often held “responsible” for tensions encountered by researchers. Actors in funding bodies experience similar tensions, however. While projectification necessitates predictability and individual project objectives, research funding is also increasingly organized in networks promoting local experimentation. Moreover, funding bodies are part of a system of accountability in which investments are legitimized politically in often reductionist ways. We argue for the salience of more detailed empirical investigations into the work of funding bodies as they navigate these tensions. We apply a dramaturgical perspective to investigate the “staging work” of program committees responsible for the management of funded programs, identifying three forms of staging work: setting the scene, temporal narration, and signifying success. All come with discursive, material, and symbolic dimensions. We develop the notion “adaptive coherence” to show how the program committee sought to maintain the coherence of the overall program despite continuous risks of fragmentation due to projectification, local experimentation, and divergence in interests. “Adaptive coherence” proves productive in incorporating the temporal and spatial dimensions of staging work in networked contexts.
“Projectification” is an emerging subdomain of project management research which argues that proliferation of projects is one of the most important current trends in the public sector. As an emerging ...sub-field within projectification research, “public sector projectification” has been given increasing attention in the past few years. This article presents a structured literature review (SLR) on “public sector projectification”, with the aim of systematising the existing empirical knowledge guided by the research question: “What are the empirical implications of public sector projectification at the personal, organisational and societal levels in journal articles?” The SLR search detects 53 articles published between 2009 and 2021. Articles were detected by a literature search in three selected scholarly research databases and by reviewing cited references in the articles detected. By analysing researched empirical implications from the projectification literature at the three levels of personal, organisational, and societal, the SLR demonstrates that public sector projectification is a multilevel phenomenon with contradictory implications and interesting dynamics between the levels, which should gain increased attention in both research and practice to release the potential for organising projects in the public sector context.
Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), was adopted in Indonesia with an ambitious vision to promote a new mode of governance for Indonesia's forest, replacing a mode of ...‘projectification’. Projectification, as described by Li (2016), is understood as a process through which plans for systematic long-term change collapse into incremental, simplified technical solutions. These proposals often fail to address complex socio-economic problems and political-economic contexts, allowing large-scale deforestation drivers to persist.
We analyze whether Indonesia is on track toward transformational change or is conversely locked into projectification. We construct our analysis using results from a long-term study comprising surveys in 2012, 2015, and 2019 analyzing the evolving role of REDD+ in Indonesian forest governance. Combining qualitative and quantitative analysis, we examine changes in (i) discursive practices and policy beliefs; (ii) institutions and power relations; and (iii) informal networking relationships.
Our findings show that despite high hopes and some promising developments, REDD+ has not yet fully succeeded in creating transformational change. Ideas of REDD+ remain focused on efficiency and technical aspects of implementation and do not question business as usual and the current political economic conditions favoring deforestation. The changing structure of the REDD+ policy network and exchanges between actors and groups over time suggest government actors and large funding organizations are becoming increasingly dominant, potentially indicating a return to established patterns of project-based governance.
•In Indonesia, REDD+ has not (yet) induced lasting, transformational change.•REDD+ has been turned into a technical and managerial project rather than programmatic change over time.•Powerful actors such as government and donors remain dominant in information exchange and collaboration networks.
Crowdsourcing Wilson, Kathleen Bridget; Bhakoo, Vikram; Samson, Danny
International journal of operations & production management,
05/2018, Volume:
38, Issue:
6
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to link crowdsourcing, operations management (OM) and project management (PM). The study demonstrates how crowdsourcing as an open innovation mechanism is ...operationalised within a complex PM context. Specifically, the study seeks to understand how crowdsourcing as a novel form of OM improves key outcomes. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted exploratory research involving five pure-play crowdsourcing firms based in the USA and Australia. Findings The findings indicate that the firms practise a form of crowdsourcing that allows flexible, efficient and low risk operations and links to contemporary notions of PM such as projectification and project society. The crowd can be used in a new manner to boost success factors tied to PM through open innovation and operational novelty. In terms of OM, crowdsourcing offers flexibility, speed, dynamism and scalability to project processes. Research limitations/implications This research is based on five case studies. Further fine-grained, longitudinal research is required to fully understand this phenomenon in a wider range of contexts. Practical implications The paper contributes to practices tied to open innovation and provides guidance on how organisations might use large crowds to enhance PM success. Originality/value The study represents early scholarship on crowdsourcing and project operations. It makes three contributions. First, the authors introduce a new theoretical framework linking PM and novel aspects of crowdsourcing to extend understandings of projectification, as well as open innovation frameworks. Second, the authors showcase the flexibility and fluidity of the crowdsourcing project process. Third, the authors examine crowdsourcing operations in terms of size, efficiency and scalability which results in timely and efficient output due to innovative technology, along with the element of trust among stakeholders.
Local actors are to an increasing extent engaging in national and European Union (EU)–based development and sustainability agendas. These ventures often materialize in the form of temporary ...organizations such as pilots and projects. This article contributes to debates on project-based, experimental and temporary organizations by unpacking the organizational architecture of pilots and analyzing how the democratic autonomy of local public actors is formed. Through the example of smart city pilots, the study shows how a range of intersecting relations and hierarchies enable and circumscribe public-sector autonomy—from local actors’ attempts to align pilots with political goals to the limitations of standardized and scalable knowledge and strict funding requirements.
Project studies have emerged as a thriving subfield of management and organisation research. Central to project studies, is the idea that engaging in projects has long-term effects on businesses ...capabilities and structure. While understanding organisational change has been central to business history's mission, historians have paid little attention to the role projects play in shaping organisations. We address this gap. Based on three cases, we analyse why and how businesses in different contexts increased their engagement with projects, whether their engagement was part of a conscious strategy, and how it affected their structure and capabilities. The article contributes to business history by showing how concepts developed in project studies cast new light on projects as a historical phenomenon and provides a valuable theoretical framework for explaining organisational change. Based on this, we suggest projects constitute a fruitful avenue for further historical research and interdisciplinary dialogue with management and organisation research.
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