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Leading Human Values in Complex Environments

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Practices for Network Management

Abstract

The need to distribute leadership beyond top management is particularly pertinent in project-based organizations (PBOs). PBOs rely on semi-autonomic teams that provide their customers with the complex goods and services they have ordered. The teams are often faced with uncertainty both when it comes to changes in customer demands and in the surrounding (project) environment. In project management, a rigorous regime of planning, reporting and monitoring dominates coping with complexities and uncertainties. Disregarding the human aspect of management is a considerable disadvantage for organizations in terms of achieving functional collaboration within their networks, not to mention improved customer relations. We have developed a tool that offers project managers a robust framework for analyzing stakeholders and negotiating challenges related to them.

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Acknowledgements

We are very grateful for the collaborative disposition of our case company and for the cooperation with members of their staff: this constituted the core of our research. Furthermore, we would like to acknowledge Dr. Magnus Gustafsson for providing valuable insights. Finally, this would not have been possible without our programmers, Mr. Mikael Sand and Mr. Robert Syring, who are gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland

    Johnny Långstedt, Robin Wikström & Magnus Hellström

Authors
  1. Johnny Långstedt
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  2. Robin Wikström
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  3. Magnus Hellström
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Vaasa, Vaasa, Finland

    Jukka Vesalainen

  2. VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Tampere, Finland

    Katri Valkokari

  3. Åbo Akademi University, Åbo, Finland

    Magnus Hellström

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Långstedt, J., Wikström, R., Hellström, M. (2017). Leading Human Values in Complex Environments. In: Vesalainen, J., Valkokari, K., Hellström, M. (eds) Practices for Network Management . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49649-8_4

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