Critical perspectives on project management

Johann Packendorff

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

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)

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)

Practical research framework

ISSUE / AREAOF STUDY

- body of knowledge deemed legitimate

Presumptions of the researcher about the phenomenon under investigation and about the nature of ‘practically relevant’ knowledge

…and assumptions about and concepts of

reality, science, knowledge, ethics,

values

- previous research- extant literature- current debates

THEORETICAL TRADITIONSused to understand and

explain the world of project management practice…

Conceptualisation and definition of the research problem/questionApproach to quality, usefulness and relevance of research

METHODOLOGY

- level of inquiry- view on empirical data

-view on the role of theory in the research

process

Methods of data collection and analysis:- procedures- tools and techniques- interpretation

Element 1 Element 2 Element 3

Reflection

© Sv Cicmil 2006

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

Knowledge Constitutive Interest

Basis of Human Interest

Type of Interaction

Underlying scientific paradigm /purpose

Methodology Approach

Technical(control)

Labour, work(instrumental control)

Man – nature Functionalist /prediction and control

Empiricism

Practical(understanding)

Communication(interaction)

Man – man Interpretative / understanding and consensus

Hermeneutics

Emancipatory(freedom)

Authority(power)

Man – self Radical or critical / enlightenment

Critique

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

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?

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 studiesHodgson D and Cicmil S (2006) Making Projects Critical Palgrave

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

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

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

What can a What can a critical perspectivecritical perspective bring to studies of bring to studies of projects?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

Some Critical Directions1. Project Organisation

– Devolvement of Task Responsibility– Work Intensification via Responsibilisation– Consequences for Life/Work Balance

2. Project Managers/Workers– Professionalisation and Control– Effects upon Autonomy and Discretion– Discontinuous/Flexible Employment

3. Project Management– PM Methodologies as Disciplinary Control

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

Two examples of critical studies

• Power and control

• Gender

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

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

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)

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

Readings

• Hodgson: Projects and the construction of the professional employee

• Lindgren & Packendorff: Projects as re-masculinisation of work life

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?