On the nature of the project as a temporary organization

Section: Tension From Co-existing Institutional 'Logics'mentioning

confidence: 99%

Inside service-intensive projects: Analyzing inbuilt tensions

Ojansivu

Alajoutsijärvi

2015

“…While the conceptualisation of projects as organizational forms rather than content advances the idea of projects as temporary organizations (Lundin and Söderholm, 1995;Turner and Müller, 2003), it does not fully harness the key insight of Weick (1979Weick ( , 1995 that organizations, even temporary ones, are essentially about organizing and learning (sensemaking) rather than form. Using an organizing lens, the emphasis shifts from the social construction of the form of the project as a temporary organization to the organizing activities that constitute the project as a process of temporary organizing and the drivers of these organizing activities.…”

Section: Projects As Modes Of Organizing and Learning For Temporary Umentioning

confidence: 99%

Knowledge formation and learning in the management of projects: A problem solving perspective

Ahern

Leavy

Byrne

2014

In contrast to traditional projects, which are assumed to be fully specified and then executed with little learning anticipated, complex projects cannot be fully specified at the outset and require continuous learning over their life cycles. Nevertheless, the key role of knowledge formation and learning in managing complex projects is under-developed for expanding project capability boundaries to include knowledge uncertainty and indeterminacy.Drawing inspiration from Karl Weick's enactivist ideas and an empirical study of two organizations that developed project capability for complex projects, the paper develops an integrated view of projects and project management that is grounded in problem solving learning and organizing.More specifically, a project is reconceptualised as 'a mode of organizing to accomplish a temporary undertaking' with intrinsic learning. This perspective views complex projects under knowledge uncertainty as learning organizations, with implications for project management theory and practice.

“…Saunders (2015) argued that safety-critical projects -like operations -are complex, highly consequential, and under tremendous pressure to deliver safe outcomes. However, there remain a number of key differences between operations and projects, including the non-routine and temporary nature of project work and the strong change mandate that drives many projects (Reich et al, 2013;Turner & Mueller, 2003;Williams, 2009). Safety-critical projects also typically progress at a more measured pace, are more loosely coupled and less highly dynamic than an active operational context such as the real-time operating environment of a nuclear power plant.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Responding to project uncertainty: Evidence for high reliability practices in large-scale safety–critical projects

Saunders

Gale

Sherry

2016

In large-scale safety-critical projects unforeseen events and uncertainties must be carefully managed to safeguard the integrity of the end product and deliver projects to time and cost. Based on 47 'vignettes' of uncertainty across projects in two safety-critical sectors, this study provides an empirical examination of whether practices consistent with theories of high reliability organising are adopted by project managers as a response to project uncertainty. Our findings are that confronting uncertainties in safety-critical projects does involve many high reliability practices. Respondents expressed a sense of balancing competing demands, and provided evidence of learning, acting mindfully, avoiding over-rigid processes, and of upholding constructive tensions, conceptual slack and close interdisciplinary working.However these practices are often fragile in nature and dependent on key individuals. There are also differences between the two sectors studied, with more widespread evidence of high reliability project organising in civil nuclear than in aerospace projects.