International Journal of Project Management最新文献

Increasing concerns about disruptions and the need for adaptation to drastic changes in social and ecological systems is reflected in the growing interest in resilience science. At the same time, the surge in medium to large scale projects around the world, known as projectification of societies, has resulted in considerable interest in the discipline of project studies. The disciplinary idiosyncrasies of project studies motivate a reflection on theoretical and methodological considerations in resilience science. This reflection rests on the experience of instigating research at the juncture of resilience and projects in this special collection. Specifically, we framed these observations as a set of principles that can inform resilience science, including the need for theoretical parsimony, deliberate attention to system boundaries in conceptualization of resilience, as well as critical considerations in measuring resilience. We posit that in its essence, project studies has to navigate a paradox through: (i) investigating projects as efficient form of organizing for a resilient, sustainable and just future, while (ii) unpacking the governance and accountability limitations of temporary organizing within projects that aim to ensure these long-term goals. The proposed principles are core to the broader research stream that we call “projects of future,” a collective inquiry to unpack these paradoxes and a research stream to engage project scholarship with the contemporary phenomena in Anthropocene.

Characterized by involvement of multiple stakeholders and temporary nature, projects can be risky and coupled with unexpected events and uncertain situations. Projects, as a common form of temporary organizations, require resilience capabilities that enable them to cope with unexpected events, recover from disruptions and crises, and adapt to external environments for effective project delivery. However, there is little consensus about what project resilience means and how it is composed. This study aims to unpack the concepts of project resilience capabilities and explore core dimensions and indicators to measure it. Drawing upon a capability-based view, project resilience capabilities are conceptualized as the abilities of project organizations to organize under a variety of scenarios, including disruptions in the form of shocks and stressors and adapt in a changing environment. Three main aspects of project resilience capabilities were identified inspired by a dynamic process-based thinking, anticipation, coping, and adaptation capabilities. A total number of 21 dimension with 74 indicators are then developed to formulate a measurement tool. Based on the conceptualization of project resilience capabilities in the project organizing domain, this study is considered as an important step to extend the idea of organizational resilience capabilities and add knowledge towards the project resilience literature.

Project managers often provide project status reviews in an aggregate overall status to convey central project status information to project steering committees. While the simplicity of this reporting form is potentially helpful for decision-makers, it is also prone to biases because the assessment is subjective, and project managers might intentionally misreport the current status. We investigate the impact of this optimistic and pessimistic reporting behavior on projects’ future performance using a sample of 46,474 project status reports from 1,229 projects. Surprisingly, and in contrast to previous research, the results suggest that optimistic reporting behavior is positively related to future project success and pessimistic behavior negatively. We further find that the positive and negative effects of reporting behavior diminish throughout a project and that reinforced behavior over time negatively affects the impact of both behavior types. This study is highly relevant to managers as it reveals that project managers’ subjective presentation of their project's status has a significant relationship with their project's future performance. Furthermore, the study's results surprisingly show that—depending on a project's current phase and its managers’ prior reporting behavior—optimistic and pessimistic reporting can have negative and positive consequences for projects’ future performance.

“Neither a descriptive narrative of the past nor an un-reflexive account of its production should guide us” is a critique of the lack of either theoretical or policy direction contained in the paper titled “The past will guide us”. What is at issue is the atheoretical accounting of the past through the reliance on a simple account of its representation by the keywords used in the IJPM and the non-accounting of a focus group held with the editors of the journal. The future of project management will not be sustainable if it is to be developed on these atheoretical foundations of method and a policy premised on ‘looking back’. The field needs theory, and it needs to be part of a future attuned to the attainment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (https://sdgs.un.org/goals).

Improvisation is an extemporaneous and creative process for dealing with uncertainty. Confronted with complex and dynamic uncertainties, megaprojects are fertile soil for diverse improvisation involving multi-level stakeholders. To unveil the complex taxonomy of megaproject improvisation (MI), we first develop a three-dimension theoretical framework of MI drawing on classical improvisation theory, taking into account improvisational degree, organizational level, and project phase. Based on the framework, an abductive approach is adopted utilizing 20 expert interviews and 863 MI event collections to explore MI taxonomy and its evolutionary features over megaproject lifecycles. Specifically, 13 MI types are identified by integrating improvisational degree and organizational level dimensions, and the evolution of MI taxonomy is unveiled from the project lifecycle perspective, indicating that distinct megaproject phases appeal to corresponding MI types to respond to unique uncertain circumstances. This study provides a systematic understanding of MI for better dealing with uncertainties in megaprojects.

Projects have become vital in initiating urban sustainability changes. In this study, we address the research gap regarding the dual role of a project in advancing change in public organizations and helping them to adopt roles in initiating and steering urban sustainability transitions. From a practice-theory perspective, we present longitudinal participatory action research on the activities of a project management team in a city organization. Our results show how praxes of a project team without hierarchical authoritative power to give orders or delegate change-related activities in the host organization create organization-level outcomes in the city's organization and urban living lab contexts amongst external stakeholders. We contribute to project management studies by increasing the understanding of how short-term project activities foster long-term strategic changes in siloed and departmentalized host organizations while at the same time creating outcomes in the external urban living lab context. This provides novel insights into the evolving intermediary roles of projects that support city organizations in acting as leaders in urban sustainability transitions.

As project management shifts towards agility, attention has centered on its performance outcomes. Yet, a critical area remains largely untapped: the human dimension. This study dives into the heart of this matter, focusing on the relationship between an agile project organization and the dedication of individual project team members. Venturing beyond traditional approaches, our agile project organization framework comprises five dimensions: culture, customer integration, work method, autonomy, and cross-functional capabilities. Additionally, we probe deeper to unearth the underlying factors that amplify or attenuate the relationship between agility and dedication. Grounded in a triple-informant sample encompassing 286 team members across 70 physical product development projects, our findings affirm not only agility's relationship with dedication but also three boundary conditions: a methodical implementation approach, a clear ideation strategy, and an entrepreneurial orientation. This exploration offers a richer, more holistic understanding, poised to reshape contemporary discourse on agile project management.

Skeptical stakeholder involvement – collaborating with stakeholders who may harbor negative attitudes - is a complex, uncertain process that poses substantial challenges for innovation project management. Developing complex innovations like those in urban spaces requires engagement with knowledge, behavioral shifts, and resources from both public and private stakeholders. As a result, these stakeholders might oppose the project's objectives, thereby exerting a significant influence on the project. However, scant attention has been directed toward investigating the role of skeptical stakeholder involvement. The goal of this research is to address this research gap by examining the underexplored impact of skeptical stakeholder involvement on the project front end, thereby underscoring the importance of innovativeness and implementation intention as outcomes during these initial project stages. The study draws on a unique combination of text mining, text analysis, and survey data derived from 107 publicly funded urban innovation projects in Germany. These projects encompass diverse innovation types and technologies that may affect nearly all stakeholders within a given city district, thus making the context an ideal empirical terrain for investigation. The study's findings reveal that (i) skeptical stakeholder involvement positively influences innovativeness and implementation intention, and (ii) a robust reservoir of project management resources, coupled with moderate levels of formal management, facilitates the integration of skeptical stakeholders. The study advances current literature on project stakeholder management and project front-end dynamics by highlighting the positive influences of skeptical stakeholder involvement. Consequently, these outcomes contribute to the broader literature on sustainable urban transformation and enhance our understanding of stakeholder management mechanisms in the realm of urban innovation projects.