Critical perspectives on project management

1. Critical perspectives on project management Johann Packendorff

2. Framing the World around us through Projects • Projects, project performance, the management of projects, and ‘projectification’ of everything (including the Government) • Consequences: PM standards and methodologies, PRINCE 2, PMMM, global export of best practice • Project managers, project workers, educators/trainers/consultants, PMI, APM, IPMA • Programmes, portfolios, society, globalisation, sustainable development; work/life balance • COMPLEXITY

3. PM in question? • Practice: Paradox, controversy and failure to deliver on its promises (unpredictable/unreliable outcomes such as Scottish Parliament, Denver Airport, NHS IT, Bath Spa, The Olympics; Shell’s Sakhalin Project; The Three Gorges Dam; ) Issues of risk, environmental responsibility, ambiguity of goals, diverse stakeholders’ agendas • Theory-practice gap: The issue of relevance and usability of PM research / knowledge; ‘science wars’ Growing criticism of the PM bodies of knowledge and PPM methodologies (Packendorff, 1995; Clarke, 1999; Hodgson, 2002; Williams, 2004; Cicmil, 2006)

4. What does ‘Theory’ imply in management research? A specific representation of (way of looking at or talking about) an organisational phenomenon A corresponding research methodology as the process of knowledge creation about the phenomenon The nature of the created knowledge and its relationship with practice / practitioners (Habermas)

5. Element 1 Element 2 Element 3 THEORETICALTRADITIONS used to understand and explain the world of project management practice… METHODOLOGY - level of inquiry - view on empirical data ISSUE / AREA OF STUDY - body of knowledge deemed legitimate Presumptions of the researcher about the phenomenon under investigation and about the nature of ‘practically relevant’ knowledge Conceptualisation and definition of the research problem/question Approach to quality, usefulness and relevance of research Methods of data collection and analysis: - procedures - tools and techniques - interpretation …and assumptions about and concepts of reality, science, knowledge, ethics, values • view on the role of theory in the research process - previous research - extant literature - current debates Reflection Practical research framework © Sv Cicmil 2006

6. An interpretation of the theory of knowledge constitutive interests (adapted from Oliga, 1996, Mingers 1992)

7. Differentiating between organisational theories – choosing a lens • the level of analysis that a theory considers • the methodological position that it argues for (the role of researcher / manager) • The manner in which it deals with paradox between control and unpredictability • The approach to space and time-flux (change) • the position a theory takes on human nature and nature of interaction among individuals and groups • the position a theory takes on human psychology, the nature of knowledge and the process of learning

8. Challenges to PM Research • Is there a universal explanation of what projects are and how projects evolve? • What is the meaning behind the concepts in use, that is, the terms such as ‘project’, ‘project management’, and ‘project success’? • What are the implications of the ‘mainstream’ definitions of ‘project’ and ‘project management’ for the nature of knowledge and the intellectual foundations of studies of project-based organising, work, and management? • What are the consequences of project organising as currently prescribed, both for project managers and project workers? • What alternative perspectives upon projects exist beyond the mainstream? • Whose interests are being served by the reproduction of the status quo in the field?

9. PROJECT – Possible representations Approaches, assumptions, and implications for project management knowledge • Normative, rational PLC; Contingency and middle-range theory approach • Political: temporary multiparty coalition (J March) • Sociological: an arrangement for joint accomplishment of a sophisticated collaborative activity ‘required for living’ (Stacey, 2003) • Social construction, postmodernism – project management as a language game; projects as complex responsive processes of relating, projects as cultural landscapes • Critical social theory / Critical management studies Hodgson D and Cicmil S (2006) Making Projects Critical Palgrave

10. Contrasting Project Life Cycle Models :Which is the right one? PLC as we know it • Idea, concept, definition, business case • Planning • Execution / Implementation • Close and hand-over Taggert and Silbey, (1986). • Wild enthusiasm • Disillusionment • Total confusion • Search for the guilty • Punishment of the innocent • Promotion of non-participants

11. The emergence and promise of PM • Typically, rational/economic explanation • Projects as versatile forms for volatile environments • PM as effective in delivering results • PM as offering “controllability and adventure” (Sahlin-Anderson and Söderholm, 2002) • Fits discourses of late-modern capitalism • Associated with Change and its Management • ICT-enabled business process restructuring • Self-managing teams/devolved responsibility • Ideology of the knowledge society/knowledge worker

12. A Palette of Management Theory and Schools of Thought • Alternative theoretical frameworks • Strategic choice theory • Learning organization theory • Open systems theory • Chaos & complexity • Complex responsive processes of relating • Different assumptions about: • The nature of human interaction • Views on human nature & psychology • Methodological position • Dealing with paradox

13. What can a critical perspective bring to studies of projects? • Identifying and challenging assumptions behind ordinary ways of perceiving, conceiving and acting in project settings; • Recognising the influence of history, culture, and social positioning on beliefs and actions; • Imagining and exploring extraordinary alternatives, ones that may disrupt routines and established orders; and • Being appropriately sceptical about any knowledge or solution that claims to be the only truth or alternative

14. Some Critical Directions • Project Organisation • Devolvement of Task Responsibility • Work Intensification via Responsibilisation • Consequences for Life/Work Balance • Project Managers/Workers • Professionalisation and Control • Effects upon Autonomy and Discretion • Discontinuous/Flexible Employment • Project Management • PM Methodologies as Disciplinary Control

15. Critical management research and the studies of projects and project management • Revising Understandings of Project Performance • Or Considering Projects in Non-Performative Terms • Recognising Power Relations and Social Order within which Projects are Situated • Giving Consideration to Issues of Morality, Equality, Exploitation and Discrimination • Adopting Critical Management Methodology

16. Two examples of critical studies • Power and control • Gender

17. Power and control • Organisational structure = a set of rules for exercising power and control • Projects are a possible structural form for organize collaboration • Individuals are both aware and unaware of how the project form affects them • Full awareness = emancipation

18. Examples of power analyses • The project form as re-creating individual skill • The project form as re-bureaucratisation • The project form as a professional necessity • Foucault’s prison:- Disciplining space- Disciplining time- Disciplining minds

19. Gender analysis • Work life is full of mental images of what is masculine and what is feminine • These mental images affects the expectations on what men and women should do and how they should behave • Every individual is a combination of masculinities and femininities • Many claim that – independently of their perspective on gender – that work life is becoming femininized(democracy, competence, unique contribution, differentiation)

20. Examples of gender analyses • Project management as a masculine construction • The project form as re-masculinisation of work life • The project form as colonising private life and families

21. Readings • Hodgson: Projects and the construction of the professional employee • Lindgren & Packendorff: Projects as re-masculinisation of work life

22. Discussion questions • Summarise the two articles (as usual) • What can the negative consequences of project work be for (1) individuals, (2) teams, (3) organizations, (4) society? • How can these negative consequences (at the four levels of analysis) be avoided, while still preserving the good things with the project form?