The impact of Puritan ideology on aspects of project management

Whitty, Stephen Jonathan; Schulz, M. F.

doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.05.002

Cited by 24 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Project management tools and techniques tend to be mechanistic and linear and based on industrial revolution or scientific management concepts. The theoretical underpinnings were developed by Taylor, Fayol, Gantt and their contemporaries (Morris 1994) who proposed order and structure as the best means of control, based on the assumption that there was 'one best way' to do each job (Whitty & Schulz 2007).…”

Section: Project-based Planningmentioning

confidence: 99%

The rise and fall of project management: are we observing the birth of a new discipline?

Young

2012

PPPM

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This conceptual paper examines the state of the project, program and project portfolio management literature and highlights the divergent views of strategy that exist between project managers and top managers. Project management concepts are shown to be based on approaches to planning that top managers had rejected after thirty years of unsuccessful experience with strategic planning. Persistently high project failure rates and recent developments at the board level suggest that we might have reached the limits of our current approaches, and the question is asked whether project management is destined to follow the rise and fall of strategic planning.Alternatives to the traditional linear mechanistic approaches are explored and it is suggested that the project management field would need to embrace the delivery of strategy as the common ground to engage top managers. Approaches would need to be developed that are consistent with how strategy emerges in turbulent environments. Program and portfolio concepts are found to have the most potential to contribute to the emerging field of strategy implementation.Keywords: rethinking project management; new project management approach; top management; project strategy Introduction Strategy is derived from the Greek word strategos. It is an ancient concept first expounded in a military context and refers to a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal (Ghemawat 2002). Modern corporate strategy was created after the writings of Clausewitz, Sun Tzu and other military strategists were applied to the business domain in the mid-20th century. However, the application has not been consistent and there are different understandings of strategy. In particular, there is a different level of focus between top managers and project managers. The need for research into the overlap between strategy in the management literature and projects to implement strategy has been noted but never fully explored (Okumus 2003).

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Section: Project-based Planningmentioning

confidence: 99%

The rise and fall of project management: are we observing the birth of a new discipline?

Young

2012

PPPM

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“…The more complex representation of spirit in project settings, in comparison to earlier work [Brannick et al (1997); Kinjersk and Skrypnek (2004); Whitty and Schulz (2007)] should enhance our understanding of the ways to create, intervene in, and manage participants' spirit in order to drive project outcomes. By focusing spirit expressions on project expected outcomes, the project manager can regulate principal behaviors of participants in project-based work that appear to be directly related to valuable project outcomes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Spirit is the driver that unleashes untapped power imbedded in almost everyone [Bruch and Ghoshal (2003); Magni et al (2009); Shenhar (2004)]. Researchers make at least a tacit argument that positive business results will arise from gains in spirit [Brannick et al (1997); Cavanagh (2000); Duchon and Ashmos Plowman (2005); Giacalone and Jurkiewicz (2003); Kinjersk and Skrypnek (2004); Whitty and Schulz (2007)]. Studies document leaders' roles in project outcomes [Keller (2006); Aronson et al ( , 2008].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Vision, Artifacts, and Leader Values on Contextual Performance Behavior and Success in Technology Challenging Projects: Qualitative Evidence

Aronson

Shenhar

Wang

2014

Int. J. Innovation Technol. Management

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In high-tech projects, which we refer to as technology challenging projects, all or mostly new technologies are used. While an e®ective project manager may be the source for a project team's spirit, there are other possibilities, like the satisfying nature of the technical challenge of hightech projects or the opportunity for new learning on the job. In the current case study, we center on the views of partakers' in successful and failed technology challenging projects, and examine the importance of maintaining and managing a project's spirit, regardless of the level of spirit partakers bring to the project, and irrespective of the satisfying level of the technical challenge. The project cases highlight the value of managing employees' emotions, attitudes and behavioral norms that are focused on expected project outcomes, termed spirit, in technology challenging projects. Qualitative¯ndings imply that leaders can be trained to execute behaviors that generate spirit in high-tech projects, which boosts contextual performance behavior and increases success.

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“…Work on project management in this tradition tends to criticise project management methodology, as, first and foremost, the attempt to impose control upon employees (Metcalfe, 1997), using similar principles of work fragmentation and the maximisation of visibility and accountability to those underpinning Scientific Management (Whitty and Schulz, 2007). Some of this work points to the selfdefeating nature of the control imperative central to project management (Drummond and Hodgson, 2007); other work points to the deleterious effects of control and work intensification on learning and knowledge transfer in such environments (Koch, 2004).…”

Section: Towards a Constructive Critiquementioning

confidence: 99%

The other side of projects: the case for critical project studies

Hodgson

Cicmil

2008

International Journal of Managing Projects in Business

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Purpose -The purpose of this research note is to articulate the limitations that project management (PM) currently faces by outlining the PM literature's frequent neglect of political, social and ethical dimensions of PM work in order to raise a number of important themes that can be usefully integrated into mainstream PM literature. Design/methodology/approach -Extensive research note which updates us on where PM research is heading. Findings -PM is a highly complex, political and social process. The paper challenges readers, PM academics and practitioners to view PM more critically and to expand their appreciation of PM work as being more complex in its social context that merely delivering instrumentalist and mechanistic functional management processes. Originality/value -This paper triggers a debate using critical PM research to engage with all levels of the project hierarchy with the aim of initiating some transformation in how actors perceive themselves, their voice, their broad responsibility and their influence in shaping their own social place.

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The impact of Puritan ideology on aspects of project management

Cited by 24 publications

References 27 publications

The rise and fall of project management: are we observing the birth of a new discipline?

The rise and fall of project management: are we observing the birth of a new discipline?

The Effect of Vision, Artifacts, and Leader Values on Contextual Performance Behavior and Success in Technology Challenging Projects: Qualitative Evidence

The other side of projects: the case for critical project studies

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