From the wall of the industry to the soul of society: a review and multi-level analysis on projectification

Abstract

PurposeThe growing presence of projectification is affecting more than its cradle, the industry, characterizing it as a broader phenomenon than initially envisioned. This study aims to provide a literature review on the concept.Design/methodology/approachThe sampling process includes articles from two databases, Web of Science and Scopus, and a backward snowballing sampling through the references, entailing the analysis of 103 documents. The publications were analyzed applying bibliometric, content and semantic analyses both manually and with the assistance of VOSViewer, Bibliometrix, NVivo11 and Tropes v.8.FindingsThe results identified 55 definitions of projectification. The study synthesizes them in five levels of analysis to capture their main distinctive aspects, as follows: (1) Private Organizations; (2) Public Sector; (3) Academy; (4) Individuals (work and private life); and (5) Society. The paper concludes by depicting factors as general effects, negative effects, tensions, funding and knowledge, embedded within each level of analysis.Originality/valueThis work sheds light on the evolution of projectification concept, presents a multilevel analysis of its consequences and brings forward the related topics, which still require further investigation.

Building the Foundation for a Necessary Debate: Projectification of Society

“…All the positive aspects of projectification provide a reason to support the process, and this is the sense used in some research work [17]. However, the concept of the driver used in this research implies direct participation in the process, either through pulling or pushing actions.…”

“…In the case of organisations, projectification brings changes in a way that means they can manage human resources, the definition and assignment of tasks, their organisational structure and labour relations [17].…”

Institutionalizing Projectification—The Case of Kyrgyzstan

“…Research has been looking into projectification for almost 30 years. At the outset, research into the phenomenon focused primarily on the effects of a growing number of projects on permanent structures and processes and on the transformation organizations undergo as a result [5]. Later, projectification was also investigated at the micro level, i.e., the impact it may have on individuals in the affected organizations ("meso").…”

Understanding the Phoenix Phenomenon: Can a Project Be Both a Failure and a Success?

“…With the wide deployment of projectification (Midler, 1995) in increasingly diverse application contexts, the criteria and, more generally, the points of view for evaluating the outcomes of projects have diversified beyond the initial vocation of projects as temporary organizations for getting things done. Whereas academic research on project success is old and abundant (Pinto & Slevin, 1988), this very success of project management in contemporary society paves the way to an academic revival of the old notion of project evaluation, as evidenced by recent papers (Aubry et al, 2021;Fregolente et al, 2022;Pinto et al, 2021;Rode et al, 2022;Scheepers et al, 2022).…”