The Organizational Design of the Project-Based Organization

Abstract

This article investigates organizational design choices and their antecedents for the design of project-based organizations. Extant literature acknowledges the diversity of project-based organizational forms, but neither the particular configurations of organizational design dimensions nor the reasons behind their differences are widely addressed. Based on interviews in 12 project-based organizations in various sectors, this study identifies three common organizational design configurations of project-based organizations. It further discusses a range of internal and external factors, which can influence the choice of configuration. The findings are summarized in five overriding conclusions.

How Does Governance Influence Decision Making on Projects and in Project-Based Organizations?

“…Its main business may be routine, but it is undertaking the project as an investment. Miterev & Turner (2017a,b) and Turner & Miterev (2019) identify several types of organization that use project management as a business process, to a different extent. With project-based organizations, almost all their work for customers is tailored or bespoke, and so project management is the business process they use, perforce.…”

“…Usually project-based organizations are project-oriented, but not always. Turner & Miterev (2019) interviewed a company that identified that it had three types of operation, which they labelled running, change and projects. Projects involved bespoke designs, and they used project management as the business process to manage that work.…”

“…It would all be managed through the routine organization. Turner & Miterev (2019) interviewed another organization where most of their work was running or change. They chose to manage it all through the routine organization.…”

“…Although they were project-based they chose not to be project oriented. Turner & Miterev (2019) identify a third type or organization, where a project-based back office does work for a routine front office. They call that the project-led organization.…”

Sustainable Business Models through the Lens of Organizational Design: A Systematic Literature Review

“…simple formulation, these holistic models are believed to be useful when used as analytical frameworks to study the ability of companies to adapt to novel environment. We have selected Galbraith's Star Model as a base for our analysis because it has evolved over time, incorporating elements from others models such as Waterman and Peter's or Nadler and Tushmans' [31], and because it has been selected in previous studies that have an analysis perspective on organizational design [11,[31][32][33]. Galbraith's organizational design is based on a five-factor schema (see Figure 1).…”