Academics report feeling unable to cope in the managerialised university. To confirm these feelings are symptoms of managerialism's tightening grip, we use Bourdieusian concepts of field and capital ...to compare academics and professional staff experiential statements in an Australian university. We compare their field conditions and examine how their differences enable or hinder the accumulation of capital that defines their field. Findings show that managerialism requires professional staff to share work tasks and be on‐campus, which enables them to accumulate the capital they require. Managerialism also permits and resources academics to working out‐of‐office to accumulate their required capital. Consequentially though, university operational knowledge becomes informal and only accessible to professional staff who accumulate the required social capital to access it. Professional staff are thus fish‐in‐water; easily accumulating social capital through day‐to‐day activities. But academics become fish‐out‐of‐water (office); they flounder to access operational knowledge, which leads to feelings of not coping.
If centralising university services is regarded as operationally ineffective, why do managerialised universities continue to organise themselves this way? We investigate an occurrence of this paradox ...at a regional Australian university, where professional staff services were centralised for a period of 7 years. They were separated from academics and their role repurposed to focus on student needs rather than continuing to support academics. As a method of analysis, we use a Bourdieusian lens to illuminate the power dynamics between fields to reveal, what we argue appears to be a symbolically violent view of centralising services. We conclude that universities continue to centralise services to increase management power, yet this strategy undermines managerialism's own efforts of increasing operational outcomes because it increases conflict between the staff it relies on to be a university.
Grounding in continental philosophical perspectives, and in alignment with the calls to rethink project management, this article reconceptualises what is a project. This conceptual paper uses the ...theoretical concepts of Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Dawkins as an interpretative lens to consider project work. The findings are that no activity is innately a project. A project is an experience that arises when there is a lack of inherent capability to undertake the activity. It is associated with a projecty experience: spikiness, roughness, and emotional ups and downs. Furthermore, it is found that there is no point of clear distinction between operational and project work: there is a projectyness spectrum. Based on these findings, we identify that project managing is about managing a lack of inherent capability and managing multiple people's experience (not a single detached activity). Furthermore, the point at which to adopt project management techniques is not definitive.
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•An activity is not ‘a project’ or ‘not a project’ in itself.•Projects are particular experiences from a specific perspective.•A projecty experience is the result of one's lesser capability to undertake an activity.•Projectyness is a result of the relationship between person/s and an activity.•Degree of projectyness is a function of inherent capability.
Aesthetics is concerned with the knowledge and affects related to sensory experience and corporeality (the body). While there has been an increase in the literature based on non-positivist ...foundations and focusing on the “lived experience” of projects, there remains a need to recognize aesthetic factors—for example: dress, office layout, and body language—in the project experience. Aesthetics enable us to access facets of the project experience that are beyond the rational and analytic. This article uses Heideggerian concepts to explore this “missing mass” in project management and proposes the need for further research and education in this area.
This exploratory study provides an influence diagram that shows the network of conditions that influence the use of visuals to effectively engage executives. The diagram was developed from the ...experiences of project managers and executives elicited through twenty-four semi-structured interviews. Twenty-nine conditions are found to influence the use of visuals to effectively engage executives. These are grouped into four categories: the executive's disposition to the use of visuals; the organisational conditions to create visuals; the project manager's understanding of the executive's information needs; and the executive's and project manager's appreciation of the benefits of using visuals. The study's results highlight that while the interviewed executives had a predisposition to the use of visuals as they are generally time-poor, capability to create visuals to support executive engagement was not widespread. Practical contributions include disclosing the criticality of organisational support for creating visuals and the vulnerability of executives in making project decisions.
•Executives' work conditions influence their preference for visuals.•Creating visuals is not a widespread competency among Project Managers (PMs).•PMs require organisational support to create visuals.•Use of visuals is motivated because both executives and PMs benefit from their use.
This study investigates the nuanced relationship between public sector project managers and their adherence to organizational project management protocols, as defined by reference documents such as ...PRINCE2 and PMBOK® Guide. It investigates why these project managers frequently deviate from these protocols. The study investigates the practical relevance yet perceived redundancy of these documents through interviews and a focus group with nine experienced project managers in the Australian public sector. Using thematic analysis and a Derridean perspective, we show how these documents create a project manager's their authority and autonomy. The study concludes with the proposal of a deconstructive theory of public sector project management, emphasising pragmatism over rigid adherence to established project management ideologies.
•Public sector managers often bypass standard project management processes.•These project management processes stem from project reference documents.•A Derridean lens is applied to public sector project manager transcripts.•Reference documents act as treaties, not guides, creating authority and autonomy.•Study suggests re-evaluating the role of project management reference documents.
PurposeTo prepare project managers for the human aspects of project work using a new classroom-based approach to foster abilities in collective sensemaking.Design/methodology/approachThe authors ...developed an approach for fostering collective sensemaking abilities through three class sessions inspired by Merrill's First Principles of Instruction. The authors implemented the sessions in two cohorts of students, with a total of 57 participants, and evaluated its impact through a series of surveys.FindingsFindings demonstrated how each component of the educational approach contributed to an increase in students' sensemaking understanding and ability. Through explanation, demonstration and application components, students reported increasing levels of confidence in their ability to facilitate collective sensemaking in practice.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors’ findings are based on a sample of 57 students in one university setting. Further studies are required to evaluate the educational approach; such studies could use larger numbers of students or other education settings. Triangulating students' reported understanding and abilities would increase confidence in the effectiveness of this approach.Practical implicationsBy explaining the authors’ approach to sensemaking education and providing initial evidence of its success, they provide educators with an example of how to foster collective sensemaking through classroom-based project management education. The approach has potential for teaching other interpersonal skills.Originality/valueThis research provides a novel classroom-based approach to foster sensemaking awareness and skills, and for dispersing contemporary project management thinking and tools to practitioners.
Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) is perceived as important by universities and industry for equipping students with employability skills. This study contributes to the literature by using a ...methodological approach that visualises the sustained underinvestment in WIL by both universities and industry, which leaves professional staff who administer WIL placements with the burden of maintaining and stabilising the WIL system. Consequently, WIL administrators feel burnt out. Through a systems thinking methodology, extant literature is combined with empirical data collected from WIL administrative staff across multiple disciplines at 12 Australian universities. Influence diagramming visualises how WIL administrators are positioned in a burnout loop within a Growth and Underinvestment systems dynamic archetype. As such, no matter how hard WIL administrators strive to deliver quality WIL experiences, their efforts are systemically undermined by an underinvestment in job resources, insufficient industry placement opportunities, unproductive relationships with colleagues, and poor student preparedness for WIL.
By resisting the temptation to “sanitize” project management education, we show how embracing unpredictability and authenticity can enhance learning. In response to COVID-19 restrictions, we moved an ...interactive role-play online and explored the resultant learning through analysis of student performance and students’ individual reflections. Findings suggest that the online role-play boosted learning by exposing students to a challenging environment, which included tasks that stretched their capabilities and thus enhanced the level of “Desirable Difficulties”. Drawing on the concepts of Desirable Difficulties and “role-play-as-rehearsal”, we discuss the benefits of formative “testing” and propose a new concept: “role-play-as-testing”. Additionally, benefits to learning were attributed to the online setting, which reflects the increasing virtualization of practice. We hope to inspire other educators to embrace Desirable Difficulties and resist the temptation to sanitize project management education to create opportunities for future project leaders to test their learning in authentic settings.
•Student feedback demonstrated nuanced learning from a challenging online role-play.•Desirable Difficulties theory explains how challenging experiences boost learning.•Role-plays offer a formative testing experience that we term ‘role-play-as-testing’.
This empirical research article assesses the use of the project-space model as a tool for improving communication and understanding of a project's status, and the enablers and constraints to its ...progress. The study is driven by the Rethinking Project Management network calls for new approaches and frameworks that enable projects to be considered from different perspectives. The project-space model is already established in the literature as a project communication tool. This study uses an action research method, underpinned by an interpretivist research methodology, in a single case study environment. The model is found to be successful in enabling an improved strategic, integrated and holistic conversation regarding the case study project's status that reflects the ‘lived experience’. This article contributes to the literature by providing empirical testing of an alternative tool for communication of project status, enablers and constraints.
•The Project-Space Model has been proposed as a new project management tool.•In this study the model is tested in an action research case study.•The model is found to be a valuable tool for the project manager and board.•Its value includes providing a holistic view of the reason for the project's status.•The tool provides an alternative, ‘lived experience’ perspective on project work.
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