From Organising as Projects to Projects as Organisations

Nowadays, projects and project management can be found in virtually all organisations. Accordingly, preventing project failure has become increasingly critical. In light of this, attempts have been made to redefine the conceptual bases of project management and to define new avenues for research, de...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Molloy, E, van Donk, D
Format: Journal article
Published: Pergamon 2008
_version_ 1797055379258998784
author Molloy, E
van Donk, D
author_facet Molloy, E
van Donk, D
author_sort Molloy, E
collection OXFORD
description Nowadays, projects and project management can be found in virtually all organisations. Accordingly, preventing project failure has become increasingly critical. In light of this, attempts have been made to redefine the conceptual bases of project management and to define new avenues for research, development of the field, and practical application. So far, theory from organisation design has been under-explored with respect to understanding project organisations and their structures. This paper contributes by considering projects as organisations, having a specific structure. Based on the seminal work of Mintzberg [Mintzberg H. The structuring of organizations. Prentice-Hall, 1979] we develop a typology of project structures. Two illustrative case studies are discussed. The typology shows that contingency factors of projects need to be reflected in appropriate project structures.
first_indexed 2024-03-06T19:09:52Z
format Journal article
id oxford-uuid:16693e11-e27f-4260-a1a8-cf538f47c2a5
institution University of Oxford
last_indexed 2024-03-06T19:09:52Z
publishDate 2008
publisher Pergamon
record_format dspace
spelling oxford-uuid:16693e11-e27f-4260-a1a8-cf538f47c2a52022-03-26T10:31:07ZFrom Organising as Projects to Projects as OrganisationsJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:16693e11-e27f-4260-a1a8-cf538f47c2a5Saïd Business School - EurekaPergamon2008Molloy, Evan Donk, DNowadays, projects and project management can be found in virtually all organisations. Accordingly, preventing project failure has become increasingly critical. In light of this, attempts have been made to redefine the conceptual bases of project management and to define new avenues for research, development of the field, and practical application. So far, theory from organisation design has been under-explored with respect to understanding project organisations and their structures. This paper contributes by considering projects as organisations, having a specific structure. Based on the seminal work of Mintzberg [Mintzberg H. The structuring of organizations. Prentice-Hall, 1979] we develop a typology of project structures. Two illustrative case studies are discussed. The typology shows that contingency factors of projects need to be reflected in appropriate project structures.
spellingShingle Molloy, E
van Donk, D
From Organising as Projects to Projects as Organisations
title From Organising as Projects to Projects as Organisations
title_full From Organising as Projects to Projects as Organisations
title_fullStr From Organising as Projects to Projects as Organisations
title_full_unstemmed From Organising as Projects to Projects as Organisations
title_short From Organising as Projects to Projects as Organisations
title_sort from organising as projects to projects as organisations
work_keys_str_mv AT molloye fromorganisingasprojectstoprojectsasorganisations
AT vandonkd fromorganisingasprojectstoprojectsasorganisations