Sub-theme 53: Organizing in Projects and Temporary Organizations
Call for Papers
Organizations initiate projects and participate in projects to improve innovative
capacity, to carry out fast changes, and to enhance adaptive capability. Projects can be seen as a source of competitive advantage
and they can serve as strategic arenas to develop new capabilities that can be reused in future business (Davies & Hobday,
2005), and as bridges across organizations in networks and project ecologies (Grabher, 2002; Sydow et al., 2004). A parallel
development trajectory is tied to the role of projects in accommodating complex business transactions. The importance of project-based
modes of organizing work has been recognized in a wide range of industries, and project-based modes have even been said to
represent a new logic of organizing in market based economics (Whitley, 2006).
Projects and project-based firms
provide a rich context for studying different organizational phenomena and temporary organizations. The context is characterized
by complex projects that are implemented in dynamic environments and consist of multiple firms in various roles, with each
firm and project having their own business objectives. Although project research has developed quite independently from organization
science, there is an increasing amount of high quality academic research addressing the project way of organizing from different
theoretical perspectives. One such stream of research is organizational capabilities and learning, which has been extensively
studied in the context of project-based firms (Brady & Davies, 2000; Prencipe & Tell, 2001; Ibert, 2004; Sydow et
al., 2004, Manning & Sydow, 2011).
Project research is multidisciplinary in nature and the aim of this sub-theme
is to provide an arena for scholars from different theoretical backgrounds to discuss their research findings and advance
project research by identifying the most relevant theoretical discourses. We are looking for papers from different theoretical
perspectives that recognize the special contextual characteristics of projects and project-based organizations in their quest
to advance organizational and management research. Such perspectives include:
- Relationship between permanent and temporary organizations
- Process and longitudinal research to uncover changes and their mechanisms
- Routines in temporary organizations
- Governance of complex transactions
- Networks and interorganizational relationships
- Stakeholder management
- Contingencies in managing temporary organizations
- Organizational capabilities and learning
- Innovation management
Please note!
The German Project Management Association (GPM, www.gpm-ipma.de/), member of International Project Management Association (IPMA), will sponsor the participation of up to 3 doctoral students (max. ¤ 1,000 each) in sub-theme 53.
Prospective candidates whose short paper has been accepted by the convenors of sub-theme 53 should apply until April 1, 2012, to Reinhard Wagner (r.wagner@gpm-ipma.de).
References
Davies, A. &
T. Brady (2000): "Organizational capabilities and learning in complex product systems: Towards repeatable solutions." Research
Policy, 29, 931–953
Davies, A. & M. Hobday (2005): The Business of Projects. Managing Innovation in Complex
Products and Systems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Grabher, G. (2002): "The project ecology of advertising:
tasks, talents and teams." Regional Studies, 36 (3), 245–262
Ibert, O. (2004); "Projects and firms as discordant
complements: Organisational learning in the Munich software ecology." Research Policy, 33, 1529–1546
Manning,
S. & J. Sydow (2011): "Projects, paths and practices: sustaining and leveraging project-based relationships." Industrial
and Corporate Change, 20 (2), 1–34
Prencipe, A. & F. Tell (2001): "Inter-project learning: processes and outcomes
of knowledge codification in project-based firms." Research Policy, 30, 1373–1394
Sydow, J., L. Lindkvist &
R. DeFillippi (2004): Project-based organizations, embeddedness and repositories of knowledge." Organizational Studies,
25 (9), 1475–1489
Whitley, R. (2006): "Project-based firms: new organizational form or variations on a theme?" Industrial
and Corporate Change, 15 (1), 77–99
Windeler, A. & J. Sydow (2001): "Project networks and changing industry
practices: Collaborative content production in the German television industry." Organization Studies, 22 (6), 1035–1060