Organizational enablers for governance and governmentality of projects: A literature review

This study identifies the organizational enablers for governance in the realm of projects. We first conceptualize organizational enablers as comprising of process facilitators and discursive abilities, each with its own factors and mechanisms. Then we apply this concept to the literature on project governance, governance of projects and governmentality. Outcomes indicate that governance is enabled through different forms of flexibility at different levels of governance, institutional setup and authority at the project level, flexible structures and mindsets of people at the organizational level, and through development of self-responsible, self-organizing people for governmentality in project settings. Questions for future research are indicated.     

Project governance interface and owner organizational identity: The Venice Biennale case

There is a considerable body of work on managing the governance interface in project organizing, yet there has been little consideration of how the organizational identity of the project owner might shape the design of that interface. This is important because organizational identity is known to shape various aspects of project organizing, such as how an organization is perceived by team members, so we might expect it also influence the performance of projects. We explore this question through a case study of how the Venice Biennale owner organization governs one of its temporary project events – the 2019 Venice International Film Festival. Through our empirical fieldwork, based on multiple data sources including a participant ethnography of the 76th Venice International Film Festival and semi-structured interviews, we found that the organizational identity of the project owner organization influences choices made for the governance of a delivery project. The study contributes to theory on project organizing by highlighting the importance of owner organizational identity for the design of the governance interface in project organizing and identifying the importance of an interpersonal approach to governance interface design for an owner organization with an identify of innovation and experimentation on its delivery projects.     

Doing strategy in project-based organizations: Actors and patterns of action

In the project management literature, projects have often been conceptualized as mere implementation sites of organizational strategy. However, such rationalization seldom draws on empirical evidence of strategy as it unfolds at the micro-level and at the interfaces between projects and the organization. Drawing on rich case-study data, this article explores strategy as-it-is-practiced in a large project-based organization. Using a Strategy-as-Practice lens to identify key patterns of strategizing actions, we found that project mind-sets and skill-sets afforded project actors legitimacy to act as strategists on all organizational levels. Project actualities therefore broadly shape strategy in the organization, and play a much larger role in organizational strategizing than typically portrayed in the literature. The findings are used to suggest new perspectives regarding who are strategists and what strategy is in project-based organizations, and outline new directions for a revitalized research agenda on strategy in the project-management field.     

The management of project management: A conceptual framework for project governance

For an organization to create optimal value from its investment in projects there must be a clear link between the outputs created by the projects and the requirements of the organization's business strategy. This means that organizations that have a structure in place for aligning the project deliverables with their organizational goals will be better placed to realize their investment in projects, and achieve the value defined by their business strategies. This paper examines existing research, ideas and concepts of project governance and enterprise project management, and offers a framework to build on current theory development and practice. Synthesizing existing literature of project/program management, governance and portfolio management, this paper proposes four key elements to improve the performance of projects and hence create value for organizations. These four elements are (1) portfolio management: focused on selecting the right projects and programs to support the organization's strategy, and terminating ones that no longer contribute to the business success of the organization; (2) project sponsorship: providing the direct link between the executive and the project or program manager, focused on the whole project lifecycle; (3) Project Management Office (PMO): providing oversight and strategic reporting capabilities; (4) projects and program support: the effective support and management of projects and programs are the measures of an effective governance system. The purpose of the framework described in this paper is to provide guidance to organizations in the development of effective project governance to optimize the management of projects.     

Enhancing project managers’ strategy commitment by leader-leader exchange: The role of psychological empowerment and organizational identification

Projects are considered an important means of implementing strategies in project-based organizations (PBOs). Project managers need to lead projects following organizational strategies in PBOs. As a result, project managers’ commitment to strategy, which reflects their intention to perform strategic behavior, plays an important role in strategy implementation in PBOs. This study examined the role of leader-leader exchange (LLX), psychological empowerment, and organizational identification of project managers in enhancing strategy commitment. Survey data were analyzed with structural equation modeling. The results show that both LLX and psychological empowerment of project managers enhance their strategy commitment. Besides, this study reveals project managers’ psychological motivational mechanisms by investigating the mediating role of psychological empowerment and the moderating role of organizational identification. This study contributes to PBOs strategy implementation literature by extending the enhancers of strategy commitment. It generates useful insights by revealing project managers’ psychological mechanisms between LLX and strategy commitment.     

Strategic change towards cost-efficient public construction projects

The cost of public construction projects is a central topic in project management. However, studies have primarily focused on cost at the project level, not on cost management at the portfolio level. In this paper, we take the perspective of a government agency, conducting a strategic initiative to increase cost-efficiency in their portfolio of construction projects. We use an action research approach to investigate the dynamics of the initiative and the implementation of resulting actions to achieve lasting change towards cost-efficiency. Co-creating actions for cost-efficiency together with the project teams was important for the success of the strategic initiative. For successful implementation, alignment of the objectives of the initiative with organizational strategy, and knowledge transfer between projects is central. This study expands the project management literature regarding strategic cost management of portfolios of construction projects and provides practical guidance for organizations.     

Investment project as an internal corporate venture

A capital investment project exhibits both deliberate and emergent strategic elements. The emergent strategic elements have been conceptualized as a project strategy, which is formed in a project to attain business-oriented results and to cope with organizational and market environments. We use corporate venturing literature to explain the formation of the strategy of an individual project. In the project studies that consider the deliberate strategic elements with projects, a project has been explained to solely implement the strategy of its parent organization: This paper addresses the relationship between a project and its parent and explains how the dimensions of the parent-project relationship affect the formation of a project's strategy which may diverge from the intended strategy of the parent. The empirical study is a case study on four investments projects in Neste Oil, a firm operating in the oil refining industry. The projects have a degree of autonomy in relation to the parent, depending on their relatedness to the existing capabilities of the parent.     

The utopia of order versus chaos: A conceptual framework for governance,organizational design and governmentality in projects

Images of utopia of order and chaos can serve to depict paradoxes observed in projects by illustrating the ongoing challenges presented by formal organization and informal social structure at the interface of temporary/permanent organizing. This paper develops a conceptual framework that shows that governance, organizational design and governmentality are all essential to an understanding of projects. We seek to clarify these concepts and to consider temporalities in the organizational project management context. This implies examining temporary/permanent organizing interaction at macro-meso-micro levels and challenging the traditional categorization of the formal and the informal aspects into two different and isolated streams of research. The paper offers a theoretical contribution to project studies by creating a bridge between process theory, the sensemaking perspective and the study of organizational project management. It also contributes to practice through the framework's analytical potential and improved understanding of the relationship between governance and organizational design.     

政府投资重大工程组织模式演变分析及实证研究

在政府—市场二元体制作用下,我国工程实践者和理论研究者逐步探索出一系列具有中国特色的政府投资重大工程组织模式,但目前国内对不同历史时期、不同政治经济环境、不同体制对组织模式影响的研究较少,尤其缺乏对不同历史时期不同模式之间演变的内在规律的研究,使得在重大工程的实践过程中,往往不能科学地决策采用何种组织模式。按政府参与程度的不同分类,选择４种典型重大工程组织模式作为研究对象,分析投资环境、管理体制环境和项目经营属性因素对我国重大工程组织模式演变的影响,并通过跨案例的实证研究,探讨组织模式演变的内在规律,为政府投资重大工程业主方的项目管理提供参考和借鉴。     

Operationalizing governance categories of projects

This study operationalizes an existing concept for the categorization of governance approaches for projects. For that the concept's four governance paradigms, based on the overlay of the shareholder–stakeholder orientation with the behavior–outcome control of a project's parent organization are measured. The measurement dimensions were derived from the intersection of governance and organization theory with project management theory, thereby addressing those areas of corporate governance and organizational control that extend into projects. The application of the measurement construct, its validity and reliability are tested through a world-wide questionnaire with 478 responses. Analysis of the responses shows the differences in governance structures for projects by country, project size, and project type. The results are important for managers developing governance structures and academics developing governance theories.     

Rethinking organizational design for managing multiple projects

This paper aims at positioning organizational design as an important phenomenon in the field of project management with a high potential of contributing to organizational theory. While organizational design has been neglected by scholars of management and organizational theory, it has been of great interest to those from the project management field. This incongruence—comprising the focus of this study—calls for new insights on theorization in context. The paper provides a preliminary theoretical framework combining contingency theory, the historical approach and social theory to understand organizational design, both as a thing and as a process. It provides empirical evidence from three case studies in healthcare. Findings confirm the specificity of each design while at the same time adopting a similar temporal pattern. We take this opportunity to highlight the seminal work of Rodney Turner on project-based organization and design.

Managing customer relationship management projects: The case of a large French telecommunications company

Customer relationship management (CRM) implementation projects reflect a growing conceptual shift from the traditional engineering view of projects. Such projects are complex and risky because they call for both organisational and technological changes. This requires effective project management across various phases of the implementation process. However, few empirical researches have dealt with these project management issues. The aim of this research is to investigate how a “project team” manages CRM implementation projects successfully, across the different phases of the implementation process. We conducted an in-depth case study of the “Firm-Clients Branch” of a large telecommunications company in France. The findings show that, to manage CRM implementation projects successfully, an integrated and balanced approach is required. This involves appropriate system selection, effective process re-engineering and further development of organizational structures. We highlight the need for a “technochange approach” to achieve successful organisational transition and effective CRM implementation. The study reveals that the project team plays a central role throughout the implementation phases. Furthermore the effectiveness of technochange depends on project team performance, technology efficiency and close coordination with stakeholders.     

Assessing the implementation of BIM – an information systems approach

Much attention has been paid to measuring the perceived benefits of Building Information Modelling (BIM). Yet despite an increase its adoption throughout the construction industry, important links between implementation, support and benefits are yet to be explored. We examine the constitutive elements of the BIM implementation process of two case studies implementing and using BIM: the first is a large urban regeneration project, and the second is a healthcare project. A well-recognised model of system success is mobilized from the field of information systems (ISs) to reveal that irrespective of project size and type, BIM benefits are confined to technically discrete productivity and efficiency gains when there is limited focus on the organizational aspects of BIM adoption. This paper focuses on the disconnections between organizational and project level BIM implementation using the DeLone and McLean Model as an analytical framework to systematically examine the benefits of BIM to each project in relation to the implementation approach employed. This study highlights the significance of these interdependencies and argues for a more comprehensive approach to BIM benefits capture that recognises this to usefully inform implementation strategy development.     

Project governance and stakeholders: a literature review

Despite the importance of stakeholders in project governance, project management literature lacks from an inclusive framework which defines the roles, relationships and positions of internal and external stakeholders inside and outside of the organization's governance structure. This paper has the purpose to report a review on project governance literature to draw attention to the context within which the stakeholders are positioned, to extract their roles and relationships inside and outside of the organization and to develop new avenues for research regarding stakeholders in project governance. The conducted thematic analysis reveals that there are three contexts influencing organization's approaches towards stakeholders: success, megaprojects and ethics. The developed conceptual framework illustrates that organizations are in direct contact with external stakeholders at the organizational level and project level. Strategic decisions made at the organizational level are operationalised at the portfolio level and influence the approach towards external stakeholders at the project level. Considering the lack of theories to support general doctrine of stakeholder theory, this research suggests that future governance researchers adopt a broader view in selection of theoretical lenses in order to include the social and psychological aspects of the management of external stakeholders.     

Governance-as-practice for major public infrastructure projects: A case of multilevel project governing

The aim of this article is to advance a conceptualization for governance-as-practice, based on current developing streams of processual and practice studies — strategy-as-practice and project-as-practice. Although project governance has gained recognition as an important object of inquiry, what is actually done by different actors having to manage those projects has been studied much less. This article presents a qualitative research based on a multiple-case study of four major public infrastructure projects in Quebec, Canada. Considering the role of material artefacts in this process, along with organizational change, the results show how projects performative practices were enacted against the ostensive ones, uncovering a process of multilevel project governing. The main contributions are: 1) to unfold the knowledge articulation process of an institutional project governance framework, as it is translated into projects, and 2) to understand and document governmental practices in order to reflect on them and gain deeper insights about project governance.     

Multi-level project governance: Trends and opportunities

Project governance is important in ensuring successful project delivery. In this article we conduct a systematic investigation of previous research to provide a content-driven review of the literature, and to provide future research direction. We use the textual data mining software Leximancer to identify dominant concepts and themes underlying project governance research. Our findings indicate that agency and stakeholder theories have been adapted to the project governance context to a greater extent than other theories. Furthermore, we find differences in project governance research, published in project management journals compared to general management, IT and engineering journals. We conclude the paper by presenting a framework that links governance theories to the multiple organizational levels relevant to project governance.     

Analysis Framework for the Low Carbon Eco-City Regulatory Plan Administration System: The Case Study on the Planning of Eco-City of Taihu New City,Wuxi, China

Chinese cities need the appropriate administration system and governance model to support the implementation of low carbon eco-city projects, and to effectively scale up this urban development model across the nation. Currently, local planning authorities are piloting the implementation of these low carbon eco-city projects through the statutory Regulatory Plans system(the local district zoning plans system). However, the focus has been put primarily on the use of the relevant technologies and the control through design approval. There is a lack on research and study on the establishment of an effective planning administration and governance environment for the subsequent promulgation of this development model. This situation is affecting the speed in the scaling up of the implementation of low carbon ecological projects in Chinese cities. This paper argues that while technology applications and design issues are important factors, attention shall be put to setting up innovative planning administration and governance models for the statutory Regulatory Plan to facilitate the implementation of the low carbon eco-city projects. This paper puts forth an analysis framework on the administration and governance system which includes 4 governance components:(1) Administration platform and local capacity;(2) Planning conditions and approval process;(3) External public policy context;(4) Developers involvement and participation. A case study was undertaken based on Taihu New City eco-city project located at Wuxi, China. Based on research and analysis of the project implementation process, the study examines the challenges faced by the local planning offi cials and development companies during the implementation stage of the low carbon eco-city project. Finally this paper puts forth initial recommendations that could lead to further research in this important area.     

基于关系治理的建设项目绩效研究

关系治理能够有效促进建设项目绩效提升,但既有研究缺乏对组织间关系治理与项目绩效机制边界条件的探讨。在建设项目背景下,以知识共享为中介变量,项目经理领导力作为调节变量引入关系治理机制,利用文献综述做出研究假设的基础之上构建具有调节机制的中介模型。实证研究发现:关系治理正向影响建设项目绩效;知识共享在关系治理对建设项目绩效的正向影响中具有中介作用;项目经理领导力在关系治理与知识共享之间起调节作用,即项目经理领导力水平越高,关系治理对知识共享正向影响越强;知识共享的中介机制受项目经理领导力正向调节。研究结果提出了关系治理影响项目绩效的新路径,对促进建设项目管理高质量发展具有指导意义。     

Applying systems engineering in the civil engineering industry: an analysis of systems engineering projects of a Dutch water board

The past decade, practice and literature have shown an increasing interest in Systems Engineering (SE) in the civil engineering industry. The aim of this study is to analyse to what extent SE is applied in six civil engineering SE projects of a Dutch water board. The projects were analysed using a framework that was developed from existing SE literature. The projects that scored highest on the application of SE were those where the project leader was highly motivated to apply SE, where top management support for SE was arranged, and where an experienced engineering consulting firm was involved. The lowest scoring project was a routine project in which project team members considered the use of SE unnecessary. To improve SE implementation and execution in organisations, it is recommended to arrange top management support for SE, to enhance the SE skills of employees, and to establish clear SE standards and procedures.     

片区整体开发型重大工程项目治理研究——以上海西岸传媒港为例

片区整体开发项目涉及到利益诉求多元化的开发主体,这些主体之间相互关联、相互合作,从而影响项目绩效,作为管理者,应采用适合的治理手段和工具来应对这种新型项目中的问题。在分析项目治理研究现状及我国重大工程项目治理特殊性基础上,结合上海西岸传媒港项目开发建设案例,采用单案例探索分析的方法,提出城市片区整体开发型重大工程情境下的一种基于“政府—市场”二元视角,包含“政府—合约—关系”3 个维度的项目治理结构概念模型,并在案例中予以了验证和应用。旨在拓展重大工程情境下项目治理结构研究的内容,构建新的理论模型,并供类似的城市片区整体开发型重大工程建设实践参考。