The purpose of this paper is to suggest a situated conception of projects, in order develop finer understanding of how these endeavors emerge and unfold over time. The author…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to suggest a situated conception of projects, in order develop finer understanding of how these endeavors emerge and unfold over time. The author proposes that these understandings should be rooted in a process ontology, conceive action as situated and focus on actual practices as they are performed by all project actors. Taken together, these dimensions can renew how one views and approaches projects and their management.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is illustrated with examples taken out of a study of a software development project, conducted in the ethnographic tradition.
Findings
The examples expose how a specific practice, planning, was accomplished differently depending on the moment and was affected by different circumstances and constraints. The paper also discusses how preferring a processual worldview is especially befitting projects. As endeavors instigated to create or to make something happen, projects are perpetually changing and in movement; it is therefore relevant that their conceptualization takes fully into consideration their intimate nature.
Originality/value
The originality and value of the paper lie in the combination of perspectives, which can be both useful in theorizing projects differently, and in enhancing practitioners' reflexivity. This combination, it is argued, can address a wide array of issues in the context of projects, can favor localized reflection on project management prescriptions and tools, and can help practitioners to sharpen their sensitivity to their own practice.
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Viviane Sergi and Anette Hallin
The purpose of this paper is to explore the consequences of doing research that uses qualitative approaches. Anchored in a process ontology, this paper starts from the idea that…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the consequences of doing research that uses qualitative approaches. Anchored in a process ontology, this paper starts from the idea that doing research implies a performance in which the researcher is fully immersed, and explores the implications of the processual nature of doing research.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper takes use of vignettes; short stories of research in action, told by different researchers that are analyzed to reveal the richness of the situation in question. These vignettes illustrate how performing qualitative research is an emotional, embodied and deeply personal experience.
Findings
The authors show that when grounding qualitative research in a process ontology, research is the fruit of the researcher's performance: doing research is performing it, and performing it cannot happen without feeling a wide range of emotions, without appealing to who we are or without questioning what we are doing. Thus, this exploration reveals that doing research is a rich, complex and multi‐level experience that mobilizes the whole person conducting this inquiry – that is, that doing research takes the form of a thick performance.
Originality/value
The value of the paper lies in its roots in a process ontology to understand the doing of qualitative research, which makes it possible to fully acknowledge the importance of subjectivity in all the steps that make up the research endeavor, from the fieldwork to writing – thus offering not only a richer image of what research is about, but an image that is also closer to the experience of doing it.
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Markus Hällgren and Marcus Lindahl
The purpose of this editorial is to reflect on the growing interest of situated project research.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this editorial is to reflect on the growing interest of situated project research.
Design/methodology/approach
The editorial is conceptual and relies on published work and the articles included in the special issue.
Findings
With this special issue it is found that practice‐based studies, also called Projects‐as‐Practice studies, interested in the everyday activities of project practitioners, are multi‐faceted and rich. What may also be seen is that practice‐based studies are not yet a coherent area. However, it is more important that practice‐based studies allow researchers to understand the organization less as an entity and more as a socially‐accomplished task.
Research limitations/implications
Several implications for research are offered, including the need for studies that emphasize the small details of organizing, and that practice‐based studies are not restricted to a certain methodology but depend on what a particular paper tries to accomplish.
Practical implications
With an ever‐growing stream of research focusing on projects the guest editors argue that it is about time to look into the details of organizing. This could be accomplished through a number of ways but in this special issue it is proposed that approaching traditional areas with a conscious naivety when asking the questions may do it. For the practitioner, the special issue offers important insights into how things are done in practice, which may be used as a mirror or reflection upon their own practice.
Originality/value
This editorial and special issue offer insights for any academic interested in understanding projects differently.
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Damian Hodgson and Svetlana Cicmil
The purpose of this paper is to review the formation and evolution of the “Making Projects Critical” movement in project management research.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review the formation and evolution of the “Making Projects Critical” movement in project management research.
Design/methodology/approach
Retrospective and discursive paper.
Findings
Reflections on tensions and challenges faced by the MPC movement.
Originality/value
The paper establishes the historical trajectory of this movement and clarifies the tensions and challenges faced by MPC.
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This methodological paper aims to push the boundaries of workplace ethnographies, where technologies in general and the implementation of new technologies in particular are being…
Abstract
Purpose
This methodological paper aims to push the boundaries of workplace ethnographies, where technologies in general and the implementation of new technologies in particular are being studied. Intrigued by the experience that “being there” is not enough, and sometimes not even possible, we discuss complementing aspects of the “how” of the work on the ground that set the foundation for high-quality ethnographic studies.
Design/methodology/approach
To this end, we mobilize Latour’s (1992, 1993, 2005) thinking around a sociology of translation and how non-humans bring essential force to social relations, and Leonardi’s (2017) three-step methodology for dealing with material, materiality and how matter comes to matter. We illustrate our argument with ethnographic material telling a story of the “life and death” (c.f. Law and Callon, 1992) of visualization boards at a local site of a global manufacturing company.
Findings
Our findings suggest that detailed ethnography is the foundation for allowing the progressive detective and imagination work we argue is required in technology-focused workplace ethnographies. “Being there” is the foundation, and it grants us the privilege of doing the important work of joining the dots where senses-enabled trajectories disappear.
Originality/value
The paper puts forward an approach to ethnographic on-the-ground work that encourages detective work and imagination to “join the empirical dots” when “being there” is not enough.
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Leandro da Silva Nascimento, Júlio César da Costa Júnior, Viviane Santos Salazar and Adriana Fumi Chim-Miki
Coopetition is a well-studied phenomenon in traditional enterprises. However, it lacks deepening in the social sphere, specifically on hybrid organizations (social and commercial…
Abstract
Purpose
Coopetition is a well-studied phenomenon in traditional enterprises. However, it lacks deepening in the social sphere, specifically on hybrid organizations (social and commercial goals). This paper analyzes the configuration of coopetition strategies in social enterprises and how these strategies can improve social value devolution.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a multicase study with Brazilian social enterprises and a social incubator. Semistructured interviews with founders of the social enterprises and the president of the incubator were the primary sources of evidence, supported by observations and secondary data.
Findings
The authors identified four main findings: (1) the social incubator induces coopetition among social enterprises; (2) coopetition is necessary to improve market performance; (3) coopetition is a natural strategy resulting from the activity of the social enterprise; (4) the behavior and context of social enterprises generate a new framework for coopetition formation. This framework comprises three stages of value: a social cooperation level to co-creation of value; second, a social competition level to the appropriation of value; and the third coopetition-balanced level to social value devolution.
Originality/value
The authors advance knowledge on coopetition in an exciting, underexplored context, social entrepreneurship. The authors highlight that the coopetition nature and outcome in social enterprises have specificities compared to traditional businesses. The authors also improve the understanding of social value devolution based on simultaneous cooperation and competition among small social enterprises, allowing theoretical and practical implications. Thus, they advance the recurring discussion in coopetition literature beyond the generation and appropriation of value.