Beyond Project Management: New Perspectives on the Temporary-Permanent Dilemma

350 Pages·2003·4.16 MB·English

by  Anders Soderholm

Beyond project
management
New perspectives on the
temporary - permanent dilemma
Beyond Project Management
ISBN 91-47-06403-X
O 2002 The Authors and Liber AB
Publishers editor: Ola Hakansson and Nigel Pickard
Design: Fredrik Elvander
Typeset: Gyllene Snittet AB
Printed in Sweden by
Daleke Grafiska AB, Malmo 2002
Distribution:
Sweden
Liber Ekonomi. Baltzarsgatan 4,
205 10 Malmo, Sweden
tfn 04@258600, fax [phone]
http://www.liber.se
Kundtjanst tfn 08-6909 3 30, fax [phone]
Norway
Abstrakt Forlag AS, Kristian 4's gate 15,
Postboks 6952, St Olaus Plass
0130 Olso, Norge
tel [phone], fax [phone]
Denmark
DBK, Siljangade 2-8, P.O. Box 1731
DK-2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark
phone: [phone], fax: [phone]
North America
Copenhagen Business School Press
Books International Inc.
P.O. Box 605
Herndon, VA 20172-0605, USA
phone: +70I3 6611 500, toll-free: +I800 758 3756
fax: +I703 6611 501
Rest of the World
Marston Book Services, P.O. Box 269
Abingdon, Oxfordshire. OX14 4YN, UK
phone: [phone], fax: [phone]
E-mail Direct Customers: direct.orderQmarston.co.uk
E-mail Booksellers: [email protected]
A
All rlghts reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrival system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo-copying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
To Rolf A Lundin from
friends and colleagues
Table of contents
Preface
INTRODUCTION
I The Scandinavian School of Project Studies
KERSTIN SAHLlN-ANDERSSON AND ANDERS SODERHOLM
Key features of the Scandinavian School of Project Studies 11 /
A projectified society 14 / Project portfolios in their corporate context
18 / Relating the temporary and the permanent zo / Project manage-
ment reconsidered 21 / Beyond project management 23
A PROJECTIFIED SOCIETY
z How project management got carried away
TOMAS BLOMQUIST AND ANDERS SODERHOLM
Projcct management as management knowledge 25 I Within industries,
via engineering professionals, and abetted by industry-specific require-
ments 27 / Among industries through consultants: Expanding the scope
and adding generic value 28 /Volume through professional associations:
Picking up the latecomers with success stories and offers of professional
identity jo / Long-term survival through standardization bodies, scien-
tific research, and university training: Creating normative pressure 34 1
Carry on into the future 36
3 The temporary society and its enemies:
Projects from an individual perspective
JOHANN PACKENDORFF
The individual in the projccticised society 39 1 Project work from an
individual perspective - a typology 41 / Project-hased work (type I) 44 1
Renewal project participation (type 11) 46 / Temporary work (type 111)
48 /Independent entrepreneurs (type IV) 51 /Project work forms and
life in the projecticised society 53 / Who are the enemies of the tem-
porary society? 57
4 Contracts of work in a project-based economy
ESKIL EKSTEDT
Introduction 59 1 Towards a project-hased economy 60 /Time aspects
of organizations and employment 62 / From the permanent to the
temporary 67 1 Market relations, transaction costs and contractual
forms in different kinds of organizations 70 / Conclusions 77
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PROJECT PORTFOLIOS IN THEIR CORPORATE CONTEXT
5 Stickiness and leakiness in inter-organizational innovation projects 81
MARIA BENGTSSON AND JESSICA ERIKSSON
Introduction 81 / Inter-organizational innovation projects 83 / Flows
in different contexts of innovation projects 84 / Four innovation
projects and their contexts 88 / Contextual influence and flows in
innovation projects 97 / Discussion 104
6 Information sharing among partnering project organizations 108
JEFFREY K. PINTO AND ZORICA NEDOVIC-BUDIC
Benefits of informamon sharing 109 / The potential for information
sharing 111 I Challenges and dynamics of data sharing 112 /
Conceptual framework 118 / Improving the prospects for data
sharing among project organizations Irz
7 Projects and core values
STEN JONSSON
Introduction 126 / Observations of premium product design in
context 128 1 The company history is the source of values 129 /
With Gyllenhammar a new era began 130 I Empirical observation
of value based product development14~/ Analysis 145 I The strong
narrative solution 146
8 Intensive innovation context and design system dynamics
The case of car Information Communication Entertainment (ICE)
systems 151
CHRISTOPHE MIDLER
Part one: The product trajectory: history and characterizat~on1 53 /
Part two: The innovative firm odyssey 161
RELATING THE TEMPORARY AND THE PERMANENT
9 Organizing in two modes
On the merging of the temporary and the permanent
170
BARBRO I. ANEI.1. AND TIMOTHY L. WILSON
Introduction 170 /Af ramework for discussion 172 / Observations 175 I
Merging of the temporary and permanent 182 / Reflections 18s
10 Regenerated professionalism
The librarian who went out on her own 187
ELISABETN SUNDIN
Introduction 187 1 The Swedish public sector 189 1 Entrepreneurs and
librarians 193 1 Why the librarian went out on her own 196 1 Shifts in
practice 197 / Shifts in theory 199
TABLE OF CONTENTS
11 Moving beyond the rhetoric of the post-modern corporation
Some observations on complementarities in innovative forms of
organizing 205
TOMAS MULLERN
Introducing the theme of innovative forms of organizing 205 I
Building the argument 207 I The Saab case 211 I The Cisco case214 I
Concluding reflections 21 8
12 Bridging the gap between temporality and permanency
HENRIK C.J. LINDEROTH
Action and the temporary organization 224 I Thc theory of the
temporary organization 226 / Building networks and translating ideas
into action 228 I The theory of the temporary organization meets
actor network theory 234 1 Concluding remarks 240
PROJECT MANAGEMENT RECONSIDERED
rj Project management as boundary work
Dilemmas of defining and delimiting
KERSTIN SAHLIN-ANDERSSON
The attractiveness of projects: Controllability and adventure 241 I
Boundary work 244 I Temporal, task, and institutional boundary
work 245 I Project definition as boundary work 259
14 The futile dream of the perfect goal
MATS ENGWALL
Project failures and unclear goals 261 1 The goal - the core of
every project assignment 263 I The necessity of goal ambiguity 267 I
The irrelevance of goals to project execution 271 I Project execution
- ap rocess of goal formation 275
r5 What goes on in projects?
On goal-directed learning processes
LARS LlNDKVlST AND JONAS SODERLUND
Introduction 278 I Scandinavian views on project processes 280 I
Project organization 285 / Project organizing 285 I A process model
286 1 Conclusions 290
16 The life of a project researcher
BARBARA CZARNIAWSKA
References
Author presentations
Preface
Room for new thought styles
In this anthology I find several important steps taken towards a new
style of thinking about projects. The first is the challenge of projects as
being completely planned activities. If we put the temporary activity
called project in a context marked by uncertainty it is self-evident that
in some way planning will not be complete. Those arguing for good
project planning will try to make the planning as completely rational
as possible.
The other way around taken here is to look at what happened to the
context when people started to have work and life organised in pro-
jects. Projectisation of society is a reality today. So is the organisation
of work in corporations. We face a swarm of new issues and problems
for research and studies in this new landscape generated by the ideas
created in the first generation of project thinking and its applications.
From an individual perspective it is a revolution of work and life so
far-reaching that it "has reshaped the conditions for family life in con-
temporary society" (Johannn Packendorff). The combined individual
effects are already noticeable in the Swedish society and economy.
The second step I here can see leading to a new thought style (in the
meaning of Ludwik Fleck) is the understanding of changing relations
between corporations and customers in their joint project work devel-
oping more complicated and unique products. "Exit mechanisms dom-
inating the market relations of traditional industrial organisations are
exchanged for voice and sometime even loyalty in project based activ-
ities" (Eskil Ekstedt).
The reader will certainly find other examples of steps taken here
making room for a new, much more sophisticated, stylised thinking
about projectified contexts.
Life as a project
Maybe also life itself could be a project context. However, while read-
ing Barbara Czarniwska's interview with Rolf Lundin "A Life of a Pro-
ject Researcher" in this book, a story came into my mind: A man was
asked to explain the diversity of his experience in work and in private
life. He answered, "There was no plan I just dived down and swam
around". It sounded strange to his friends in the field of project prac-
tise. He almost regretted his spontaneous answer.
Rolf's comment in his Post Scriptum could have been comforting for
the man: "It also appears that too much of feelings and whims rather
than planning took over my past life".
With my background as a mathematical economist during a long
period of my life I dare trying to formulate a general rule: Looking
back on a person's trajectory of life you always end up falsifying the
hypothesis that it could have been part of a project process. Along the
same modelling line of thought I remember that smooth trajectories
might in a more detailed resolution be of fractal character as in chaos
theory. Changing perspectives means entering new worlds.
Putting project studies and practises in contexts, that really matters,
does also mean opening doors to new worlds of thought.
The project academy as context
One new world of thought is the exploration of the contexts in which
projects are in action. Getting in touch with reality beyond project
management models is a necessity and a natural task for scholars in the
field. The Swedish Project Academy, and its current chairman Rolf
Lundin has formed such an arena for a growing host of practitioners in
industry and consulting firms and of university scholars seeking to
explore these broader issues. The aim of the academy is to enhance the
interchange of ideas and thoughts between people from different
spheres involved with project work.
This mixture of professionals was also the starting point for a clus-
ter of projects named Project Sweden, which sought to combine prac-
tical experience with scholarly analyses. It is too early to say anything
about how successful this scheme can be. It depends certainly upon
how deep the projects can deal with sensitive issues in the practical
world. But the scheme has potential to generate more complex context-
project issues where the new perspectives presented in this volume can
be put on trial.
This book honouring Rolf Lundin is written in a spirit resembling
that of the Swedish Project Academy and of Project Sweden. By com-
bining various experiences and professional perspectives, it opens up
new venues for project studies and for project activities, and I hope it
will rouse many to new project activities in new contexts.
Jan Odhnoff
Professor Emeritus, Teleinformatics, Royal Institute of
Technology, and founding chairman Swedish ProjectAcademy