Managing and Working in Project Society: Institutional Challenges of Temporary Organizations

Rolf A. Lundin · Niklas Arvidsson · Tim Brady · Eskil Ekstedt · Christophe Midler · Jörg Sydow

Jul 2015 · Cambridge University Press

About this ebook

In this book, leading authorities on project organizing explore the growing deployment of projects and other types of temporary organizations, with a focus on the challenges created by projectification. The way projects are coordinated and handled influences the success of innovation and change within organizations and is critical for strategic development in our societies, yet it is often at odds with the institutions of traditional industrial society. Drawing on both theoretical perspectives and real-world cases, this book sheds light on the transformation toward a project society and explores the effects, opportunities, and conflicts it has created. As change continues, the authors make a case for renewing institutions and mind-sets and provide a foundation from which to discuss societal changes for the future. This is an invaluable book for researchers and students in project management and organizational theory programs, as well as professionals involved in the management of projects.

About the author

Rolf A. Lundin is Professor Emeritus of Business Administration at Jönköping International Business School and Courtesy Professor-in-Residence at Umeå School of Business and Economics. He has received several prizes and awards for his research on projects and temporary organizations, including the 2014 Project Management Institute Research Achievement Award. He has published widely, with a concentration on temporary organizations, and has edited numerous special issues of journals focusing on the area of projects. Currently, his main focus is on innovative research on projects and temporary organizations.

Niklas Arvidsson is Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Sustainability and Industrial Dynamics at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. He has also been working as a management consultant for over five years. His research is focused on innovation, learning and change in organizations and industrial systems, with a particular interest in processes in which currently dominating ideas and practices are replaced by new ones.

Tim Brady is Professor of Innovation in the Centre for Research in Innovation Management at Brighton Business School, the University of Brighton, and Visiting Professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering Management at the University of Oulu, Finland. He was a member of the EPSRC-funded Rethinking Project Management network, and Deputy Director of the ESRC-funded CoPS Innovation Centre. His current research interests include the development of new business models for infrastructure, the management of complex projects and programs, and learning and capability development in project-based business.

Eskil Ekstedt is Professor in Business Administration and Associate Professor in Economic History at Uppsala Universitet, Sweden. He was the founding editor of the Scientific Publication series, Work Life in Transition, and the project leader of several major research programs dealing with knowledge formation, and organizational and local economic development. His research has focused on knowledge formation, temporary organizations and structural change of business and work life.

Christophe Midler is Research Director at the French National Research Council (CNRS) and Professor of Innovation Management at École Polytechnique, Paris. He has received many prizes and awards for his research on project organizing, among them Doctor Honoris Causa at Umeå University, Sweden, and the 2013 PMI Research Achievement Award. His research topics include project management and innovation management in relation to organizational theory and strategy, exploring them in various industrial contexts.

Jörg Sydow is Professor of Management and Chair for Inter-firm Cooperation at the School of Business and Economics, Freie Universität Berlin, and a Visiting Professor at Strathclyde Business School in Glasgow. He is a founding co-editor of two leading German academic journals, Managementforschung and Industrielle Beziehungen and is a member of several editorial boards. His current research interests are management and organization theory, interorganizational relations and networks, innovation and project management, and industrial relations.