Michael Buhagiar, Julien Pollack and Sharon Coyle
Scholars are increasingly acknowledging the importance of conversations in the management of complex projects. Defining dialectics as “the art of purposeful conversation”, this…
Abstract
Purpose
Scholars are increasingly acknowledging the importance of conversations in the management of complex projects. Defining dialectics as “the art of purposeful conversation”, this paper aims to rationalise the somewhat disorganised field of dialectics by developing a categoreal scheme.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors refer to the current state of research into the conversational aspects of complex projects, and examine the historical development of, and philosophical and scholarly commentary on, the dialectical method.
Findings
The categories the authors propose are the Socratic, Conversational, Fichtean and Peircean. They differ in relation to the subject matter of the dialectic; their vulnerability to environmental influences; the degree of structure they require for optimal performance; and the situations in which they might most profitably be applied.
Research limitations/implications
A single categoreal scheme is rarely the last word, and the authors invite other scholars to explore the field in a similar way.
Practical implications
The scheme proposed here is intended to enhance the project manager's approach to conversations, by referring to the specific virtues and limitations of each of the categories.
Social implications
The informed use of dialectics may help to ameliorate the significant damage done to organisations and economies around the world by failed and underperforming projects.
Originality/value
The authors present the first categorisation of the field, with the aim of equipping the practitioner to think about dialectical approaches in a more systematic way.
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Julien Pollack, Jane Helm and Daniel Adler
The Iron Triangle, also called the Triple Constraint, is a central concept to project management research and practice, representing the relationship between key performance…
Abstract
Purpose
The Iron Triangle, also called the Triple Constraint, is a central concept to project management research and practice, representing the relationship between key performance criteria. However, there is disagreement about which criteria should be represented on the vertices of this triangle. The purpose of this paper is to explore which concepts are part of the Iron Triangle, and how these concepts have changed over time.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper explores 45 years of project management research, drawing on a database of 109,804 records from 1970 to 2015. Three corpora were constructed, representing the project management and Time, Cost, and Quality Management literature. Time and Cost are consistently identified as part of the Iron Triangle. However, the status of quality is contested. Key concepts in the project management literature were explored using scientometric research techniques, to understand the relationship between these concepts.
Findings
Significant links were found between Time, Cost, and Quality, verifying these concepts as the vertices on the Iron Triangle. These links were significantly stronger than links to alternatives, such as Scope, Performance, or Requirements. Other concepts that are core to the Iron Triangle were also identified, and how these have changed over time.
Originality/value
This research develops the understanding of a key project management concept by clarifying which concepts are part of the Iron Triangle, based on evidence of how the concept is used in research. This paper also reveals the context in which this concept is used, and how this has changed over the last 45 years.
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Madelon Willemsen, Julien Pollack and Chivonne Algeo
There are significant, ongoing threats of species extinction. Threatened species recovery programs are an important way of reducing this threat, but many recovery programs are…
Abstract
Purpose
There are significant, ongoing threats of species extinction. Threatened species recovery programs are an important way of reducing this threat, but many recovery programs are unsuccessful. The purpose of this paper is to explore the issues facing species recovery programs, and the potential benefits to be found in managing threatened species recovery from a project management perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
This research used the Grounded Theory Method to analyze the contents of four senate inquiries and 21 interviews with recovery experts. The Grounded Theory Method was then used to inductively develop concepts and theories that explain some of the issues faced in the delivery of recovery programs in Australia. These were explored from a project management perspective, to understand ways that project management could provide benefit to the recovery planning process.
Findings
Eight core challenges that have an impact on recovery emerged from the data. It was identified that there is a general lack of integration of project management into the recovery process. This was found to be particularly evident in terms of the recovery project lifecycle, risk management and stakeholder management. Strategies for addressing these issues are discussed.
Originality/value
Conservation scientists typically focus on technical recovery competencies. The authors argue that managing recovery from a project management perspective will increase recovery success rates through an increased focus on the contextual and behavioral competencies that are essential to the management and delivery of recovery projects and programs.
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Julien Pollack and Chivonne Algeo
Many projects involve an organisational change component. Project management (PM) and change management (CM) have the potential to jointly contribute to the delivery of…
Abstract
Purpose
Many projects involve an organisational change component. Project management (PM) and change management (CM) have the potential to jointly contribute to the delivery of organisational changes. However, there is a lack of clarity in the literature about the boundary and relationship between these disciplines. The purpose of this paper is to explore the contribution these disciplines make to a set of project critical success factors, to understand the ways that these disciplines can most effectively work together.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper analyses data collected through an online survey, examining project managers’ and change managers’ perception of each disciplines’ contribution to critical success factors. The survey received 455 responses.
Findings
This paper identifies the success factors that are most clearly influenced by PM and CM, and areas where practitioners of these disciplines hold significantly different perceptions of their contributions. The results have been used to rank and categorise success factors based on the influence of each discipline. This has been used to develop a risk-based questionnaire to guide the contribution of PM and CM to the mitigation of specific project risks.
Originality/value
These findings will be of use to practitioners managing organisational change projects, or projects with a significant change component. The findings will be of assistance in determining the ways in which these disciplines should work together to mitigate risks associated with specific critical success factors.
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This article introduces the best-worst scaling object case, a quantitative method of producing individual level models of heterogeneous perceptions, for use in behavioural…
Abstract
Purpose
This article introduces the best-worst scaling object case, a quantitative method of producing individual level models of heterogeneous perceptions, for use in behavioural decision making research in projects. Heterogeneous individual perceptions refer to observed or unobserved differences between individual perceptions that impact the outcome being studied. Individual level models of perceptions are important to account for the impact of heterogeneous perceptions on measurement tasks, so they do not become an unobserved source of variance that potentially biases research inferences.
Design/methodology/approach
An overview of individual heterogeneity is provided highlighting the requirement for individual level models in quantitative perception measurements. A literature review is then conducted of the quantitative methods and tasks used to measure perceptions in behavioural decision making research in projects and their potential to produce individual level models.
Findings
The existing quantitative methods cannot produce the necessary individual level models primarily due to the inability to address individual level scale effects, responses styles and biases. Therefore, individual heterogeneity in perceptions can become an unobserved source of variance that potentially biases research inferences.
Practical implications
A method new to project management research, the best-worst scaling object case, is proposed to produce individual level models of heterogeneous perceptions. Guidance on how to implement this method at the individual level is provided along with a discussion of possible future behavioural decision making research in projects.
Originality/value
This article identifies a largely unacknowledged measurement limitation of quantitative behavioural decision making research in projects and provides a practical solution: implementing the best-worst scaling object case at the individual level.
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Library administration is a balancing act: leading and managing the library and its employees while simultaneously responding to initiatives and demands of institutional leaders…
Abstract
Library administration is a balancing act: leading and managing the library and its employees while simultaneously responding to initiatives and demands of institutional leaders and/or trustees. This chapter provides an overview of emotional self-regulation, its importance to library administrators, and the roles that intentional reflective practice and mindfulness play in adaptive emotional self-regulation. There were few articles exploring the impact of intentional reflective practice or mindfulness in libraries, particularly with respect to emotional self-regulation. Much of the reviewed literature was from other disciplines; however, there was much to be applied to library administrators. There are a variety of techniques for intentional reflective practice that library administrators can use to improve emotional self-regulation (as well as improve other aspects of performance). There are fewer techniques to increase mindfulness, though there is stronger evidence of the benefits of mindfulness meditation on emotional self-regulation. This chapter is the first review applying intentional reflective practice and mindfulness on the emotional self-regulation of library administrators.