The Mandate of Project Management Offices Beyond Organizational Boundaries—Still A Blind Spot for Organizational Design?

Abstract

Based on conceptual reasoning, combined with illustrations from the air cargo industry, this article proposes a gradual broadening of the concept of what project management offices (PMOs) are responsible for to provide added value to the collaborating organizations when planning for and executing inter­organizational projects. Thus far, the ability of PMOs to support interorganizational projects and practices has been restricted—this goes for project management practice as well as a lack of concepts and theoretical reasoning from research in the domain of project studies. Against this background, this article distinguishes four types of PMOs and identifies promising organizational design elements pointing to functions and barriers, as well as to the interorganizational bridging practices of PMOs in support of their inter­organizational responsibilities.