Project studies: What it is, where it is going Geraldi, Joana; Söderlund, Jonas
International journal of project management,
January 2018, 2018-01-00, Volume:
36, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Project organising is a growing field of scholarly inquiry and management practice. In recent years, two important developments have influenced this field: (1) the study and practice of projects have ...extended their level of analysis from mainly focussing on individual projects to focussing on micro- as well as macro-level concerns around projects; and (2) there has been a greater interest in different kinds of scholarly inquiry. Taken together, these two developments call for closer scrutiny of how the levels of analysis and the types of inquiry are related and benefit each other, and of the explanations of project practices they could offer. To discuss avenues for future research on projects and project practice, this paper suggests the notion of project studies to better grasp the status of our field. We combine these two sets of ideas to analyse the status and future options for advancing project research: (1) levels of analysis; and (2) type of research. Analysing recent developments within project studies, we observe the emergence of what we refer to as type 3 research, which reconciles the need for theoretical development and engagement with practice. Type 3 research suggests pragmatic avenues to move away from accepted yet unhelpful assumptions about projects and project organising. The paper ends with an agenda for future research, which offers project scholars a variety of options to position themselves in the field of project studies, and to explore opportunities in the crossroads between levels of analysis and types of research.
•We suggest project studies as an umbrella term to embrace the status of our field.•Project scholars and their interests shape and are shaped by project studies.•Project scholars follow Habermas' technical, understanding and emancipatory interests.•Project studies spans from micro (individual) to macro (societal) levels of analysis.•Project studies demand more type 3 research following emancipatory interests.
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.
Plagiarism is condemned yet remains a frequently occurring form of academic misconduct. This editorial informs project scholars about plagiarism and Project Management Journal’s (PMJ®
) approach to ...it. We define plagiarism as the theft of words, ideas, and representations, and explain three principles to judge plagiarism based on our expectations on research integrity: honesty, originality, and authorship. Accordingly, plagiarism detection services (PDS) assist but do not limit our judgment. We hope to lay the foundation for a comprehensive understanding of plagiarism in project studies, and thus help (early career) scholars understand the different facets of plagiarism and thereby avoid it.
Abstract
Control‐trust dynamics are fundamental to organizational life, but managers struggle to balance them because these dynamics draw on opposing mechanisms. Past research has mainly assumed that ...substitution and complementarity constitute key control‐trust dynamics, which has limited scholars' understanding of why these dynamics are difficult to balance and how managers deal with them over time. We explore managers' responses to paradoxical control‐trust dynamics. We conducted a longitudinal case study of how managers in a pharmaceutical company dealt with these dynamics in an interorganizational relationship with a university and a biotech firm. Our findings show (a) a new category of response to control‐trust dynamics beyond substitution and complementarity (the More‐Than), (b) three new enacted responses beyond balancing (paradoxical thinking, fulfilling promises, and transcending), and (c) a governance path that managers' responses evolve over time. Our findings suggest that managers' responses to paradoxical control‐trust dynamics ensure the performance and endurance of interorganizational relationships.
With the support of the Project Management Institute (PMI), we are excited to launch the PMJ College, a global, cross-journal initiative to nurture future leading academics in project studies. The ...initiative is important now, as academia struggles to attract and retain talent, yet really needs academics. Society requires good projects and project management to survive and hence also a vibrant academic project ecology to extend knowledge and help project practice. The PMJ College aims to attract, retain, and help early career academics through a series of workshops and mentorship, fostering passionate and engaged scholarship. Applications are open, and its process is described in this editorial.
This article advances a temporal understanding of project success through a process study of Vindeby, an exploratory project developing the world’s first offshore wind farm. Pursuing a situated ...temporal view, our findings reveal how actors constructed Vindeby’s success differently when seeing the project as future, present, and past and how these constructions mutually shaped each other. Adding to prior literature adopting an over-time or in-time perspective, we develop a through-time perspective of project success and a model explaining the interplay of the three perspectives. We discuss how projects may serve as temporal stepping stones toward sustainable futures in the green transition and propose ways for project managers and policymakers to nurture this potential.
This paper studies multi-project firms at the edge of chaos, i.e. the ability of these companies to deal with the coexistence of order and chaos. It specifically defines the edge of chaos for ...multi-project firms based on the match between complexity of project portfolio and flexibility of its organisational units. It also provides a map to assess this match and mismatch. This map proposes four regions or organisational archetypes: the creative-reflective, the mechanic-structured, chaotification of order and bureaucratisation of chaos. Studies present in the literature illustrate these regions, and their importance to the management of projects and of these companies. The paper concludes by presenting possible applications of the framework and future research.
Projects are inherently uncertain and face unexpected events, from small changes in scope to unforeseen client’s bankruptcy. This paper studies how project managers respond to such events and how ...successful and unsuccessful responses differ from the perspective of the practitioner. We analysed 44 unexpected events faced by 22 experienced project managers in defence and defence-related organisations. The project managers compared two unexpected events that they faced, one that they considered the response successful and the other unsuccessful. We identified three pillars supporting successful responses to unexpected events: (1) responsive and functioning structure at the organisational level, (2) good interpersonal relationship at the group level and (3) competent people at the individual level. The events and respective responses analysed suggest that improvement in project management can be achieved by better managing these three pillars, allowing project and programme managers to “
create their own luck”.
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