Abstract
As previous chapters have discussed, project governance provides the management structures, policies, processes, roles and responsibilities which help ensure that (a) organisations choose projects which support their business strategy; (b) the objectives of business investment are translated into the right project objectives, activities and tasks; and (c) the project management structures and processes are in place such that implementation can be managed in line with objectives and business expectations. All of this is fundamentally about the organisational capability to make the right decisions at key points in the life of a project — where what is ‘right’ is a complex and uncertain matter on which multiple stakeholders will hold many different views. The effectiveness of project governance can therefore be seen in terms of how it supports organisational decision-making around projects.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Alderman, N., Ivory, C., McLoughlin, I. and Vaughan, R., 2005. Sense-Making as a Process within Complex Service-Led Projects. International Journal of Project Management, 23 (5), pp. 380–5.
Amason, A. C., 1996. Distinguishing the Effects of Functional and Dysfunctional Conflict on Strategic Decision Making: Resolving a Paradox for Top Management Teams. Academy of Management Journal, 39 (1), pp. 123–48.
Argyris, C., 1990. Overcoming Organizational Defenses: Facilitating Organizational Learning. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Argyris, C. and Schön, D. A., 1974. Theory in Practice: Increasing Professional Effectiveness. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Atkinson, R., Crawford, L. and Ward, S., 2006. Fundamental Uncertainties in Projects and the Scope of Project Management. International Journal of Project Management, 24 (8), pp. 687–98.
Ballard, G. and Howell, G. A., 2003. Lean Project Management. Building Research & Information, 31 (2), p. 119.
Balogun, J., Gleadle, P., Hailey, V. H. and Willmott, H., 2005. Managing Change Across Boundaries: Boundary-Shaking Practices. British Journal of Management, 16 (4), pp. 261–78.
Balogun, J. and Johnson, G., 2004. Organizational Restructuring and Middle Manager Sensemaking. Academy of Management Journal, 47 (4), pp. 523–49.
Blomquist, T., Hallgren, M., Nilsson, A. and Soderholm, A., 2010. Project-as-Practice: In Search of Project Management Research that Matters. Project Management Journal, 41 (1), pp. 5–16.
Bourdieu, P., 1977. Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Bourdieu, P., 1998. Practical Reason: On the Theory of Action. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
Brown, A. D., 1998. Narrative, Politics and Legitimacy in an IT Implementation. Journal of Management Studies, 35 (1), pp. 35–58.
Brown, A. D., Stacey, P. and Nandhakumar, J., 2008. Making Sense of Sensemaking Narratives. Human Relations, August 1, 61 (8), pp. 1035–62.
Brunsson, N., 1982. The Irrationality of Action and Action Rationality — Decisions, Ideologies and Organizational Actions. Journal of Management Studies, 19 (1), pp. 29–44.
Bryson, J. M. and Anderson, S. R. 2000. Applying Large-Group Interaction Methods in the Planning and Implementation of Major Change Efforts. Public Administration Review, 60 (2), pp. 143–62.
Buchanan, D. and Badham, R., 1999. Power, Politics, and Organizational Change: Winning the Turf Game. London: Sage Publications Ltd.
Cameron, E. and Green, M., 2004. Making Sense of Change Management: A Complete Guide to the Models, Tools and Techniques of Organizational Change. London: Kogan Page.
Chrusciel, D., 2006. Considerations of Emotional Intelligence (El) in Dealing with Change Decision Management. Management Decision, 44 (5), pp. 644–57.
Ciborra, C., 1999. A Theory of Information Systems Based on Improvisation. In W. L. Curry and R. Galliers, eds, Rethinking Management Information Systems: An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Cicmil, S., 2006. Understanding Project Management Practice through Interpretative and Critical Research Perspectives. Project Management Journal, 37 (2), pp. 27–37.
Cicmil, S., Williams, T., Thomas, J. and Hodgson, D., 2006. Rethinking Project Management: Researching the Actuality of Projects. International Journal of Project Management, 24.
Clarke, A. E., 1991. Social Worlds/Arenas Theory as Organizational Theory. In D. R. Maines, ed., Social Organization and Social Process: Essays in Honor of Anselm Strauss. Aldine de Gruyter, pp. 119–58.
Cohen, M. D., March, J. G. and Olsen, J. P., 1972. A Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice. Administrative Science Quarterly, 17 (1), pp. 1–25.
Corbin, J., 1991. Anselm Strauss: An Intellectual Biography. In A. Strauss and D. R. Maines, eds, Social Organization and Social Process: Essays in Honor of Anselm Strauss. pp. 17–44.
Crawford, L. and Pollack, J., 2004. Hard and Soft Projects: A Framework for Analysis. International Journal of Project Management, 22 (8), pp. 645–53.
Cummings, T. G. and Worley, C. G., 2008. Organization Development & Change. 9th edn. Mason, USA: South-Western Pub.
Cyert, R. M. and March, J. G., 1963. A Behavioral Theory of the Firm. 2nd edn. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey (publisher Prentice Hall, not Blackwell ): Blackwell Publishing.
Czarniawska-Joerges, B., 1997. A Narrative Approach to Organization Studies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Davenport, T., 1994. Re-Engineering: Business Change of Mythic Proportions? MIS Quarterly, 18 (2), pp. 121–7.
Dawson, P. and Buchanan, D., 2005. The Way it Really Happened: Competing Narratives in the Political Process of Technological Change. Human Relations, 58 (7), pp. 845–65.
De Meyer, A., Loch, C. H. and Rich, M. T., 2002. Managing Project Uncertainty: From Variation to Chaos. MIT Sloan Management Review, 43 (2), pp. 60–7.
Dunphy, D. C. and Stace, D. A., 1988. Transformational and Coercive Strategies for Planned Organizational Change: Beyond the O. D. Model. Organization Studies, January 1, 9 (3), pp. 317–34.
Dutton, J. E., Ashford, S. J., O’Neill, R. M. and Lawrence, K. A., 2001. Moves that Matter: Issue Selling and Organizational Change. Academy of Management Journal, 44 (4), pp. 716–36.
Edmondson, A., 1999. Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44 (2), pp. 350–83.
Edmondson, A., 2003. Framing for Learning: Lessons in Successful Technology Implementation. California Management Review, 45 (2), pp. 34–54.
Edmondson, A., Roberto, M. A. and Watkins., M., 2003. A Dynamic Model of Top Management Team Effectiveness: Managing Unstructured Task Streams. Leadership Quarterly, 14 (3), pp. 297–325.
Edmondson, A. C. and Smith, D. M., 2006. Too hot to handle? How to Manage Relationship Conflict. California Management Review, Fall, 49 (1), pp. 6–31.
Everett, J., 2002. Organizational Research and the Praxeology of Pierre Bourdieu. Organizational Research Methods, 5 (1), pp. 56–80.
Ford, J. and Ford, L., 2005. Deadline Busting: How To Be A Star Performer. Lincoln, USA: iUniverse.
Ford, J. D. and Ford, L. W., 1995. The Role of Conversations in Producing Intentional Change in Organizations. Academy of Management Review, 20 (3), pp. 541–70.
Ford, J. D. and Ford, L. W., 2003. Conversations and the Authoring of Change. In D. J. Holman and R. Thorpe, eds, Management and Language: The Manager as a Practical Author. London: Sage.
Fortune, J. and White, D., 2006. Framing of Project Critical Success Factors by a Systems Model. International Journal of Project Management, (24), pp. 53–65.
Foucault, M., 1977. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. London: Penguin.
Gabriel, Y., 1998. Psychoanalytic Contributions to the Study of the Emotional Life of Organizations. Administration and Society, July 1, 30 (3), pp. 292–315.
Gandz, J. and Murray, V. V., 1980. The Experience of Workplace Politics. The Academy of Management Journal, 23 (2), pp. 237–51.
Garfinkel, H., 1967. Studies in Ethnomethodology. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Giddens, A., 1984. The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Gioia, D. A. and Chittipeddi, K., 1991. Sensemaking and Sensegiving in Strategic Change Initiation. Strategic Management Journal, 12 (6), pp. 433–48.
Gioia, D.A. and Thomas, J.B., 1996. Identity, Image, and Issue Interpretation: Sensemaking During Strategic Change in Academia. Administrative Science Quarterly, 41 (3), pp. 370–403.
Goffman, E., 1959. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. London: Penguin.
Green, S., 2006. The Management of Projects in the Construction Industry: Context, Discourse and Self-Identity. In D. Hodgson and S. Cicmil, eds, Making Projects Critical. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Hardy, C., 1996. Understanding Power: Bringing about Strategic Change. British Journal of Management, 7 (s1), pp. S3–S16.
Hardy, C. and Clegg, S. R., 1996. Some Dare Call it Power. In R. S. Clegg, C. Hardy and W. R. Nord, eds, Handbook of Organisation Studies. London: Sage, pp. 622–41.
Holman, P., Devane, T. and Cady, S., 2007. Change Handbook: The Definitive Resource on Today’s Best Methods for Engaging Whole Systems. San Francisco, USA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Hope, O., 2010. The Politics of Middle Management Sensemaking and Sensegiving. Journal of Change Management, 10 (2), pp. 195–215.
Janis, I. L., 1982. Groupthink: Psychological Studies of Policy Decisions and Fiascoes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Jarzabkowski, P. and Searle, R. H., 2004. Harnessing Diversity and Collective Action in the Top Management Team. Long Range Planning, 37 (5), pp. 399–419.
Jarzabkowski, P. and Spee, A. P., 2009. Strategy-as-Practice: A Review and Future Directions for the Field. International Journal of Management Reviews, 11 (1), pp. 69–95.
Jones, M. and Karsten, H., 2008. Giddens’s Structuration Theory and Information Systems Research. MIS Quarterly, 32 (1), p. 9.
Kanter, R. M., Stein, B. A. and Jick, T. D., 1992. The Challenge of Organizational Change: How Companies Experience it and Leaders Guide it. New York: Maxwell Macmillan International.
Knights, D. and Murray, F., 1992. Politics and Pain in Managing Information Technology: A Case Study from Insurance. Organization Studies, 13 (2), pp. 211–28.
Koskela, L. and Howell, G., 2002a. The Theory of Project Management: Explanation to Novel Methods. Brazil: 10th Conference of International Group for Lean Construction, pp. 1–11.
Koskela, L. and Howell, G., 2002b. The Underlying Theory of Project Management is Obsolete. In PMI Research Conference, Seattle, WA.
Kotter, J. P., 1995. Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail. In Harvard Business Review on Change. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Langley, A., Mintzberg, H., Pitcher, P., Posada, E. and Saint-Macary, J., 1995. Opening up Decision Making: The View from the Black Stool. Organization Science, 6 (3), pp. 260–79.
Laufer, A., Denker, G. R. and Shenhar, A. J., 1996. Simultaneous Management: The Key to Excellence in Capital Projects. International Journal of Project Management, 14 (4), pp. 189–99.
Levine, H. G. and Rossmoore, D., 1994. Politics and the Function of Power in a Case Study of IT Implementation. Journal of Management Information Systems, 11 (3), p. 115.
Lewis, M., Welsh, M., Dehler, G. and Green, S., 2002. Product Development Tensions: Exploring Contrasting Styles of Project Management. Academy of Management Journal, 45 (3), pp. 546–64.
Lindblom, C. E., 1959. The Science of ‘Muddling Through’. Public Administration Review, Spring, 19 (2), pp. 79–88.
March, J. G. and Simon, H. A., 1958. Organizations. New York: Wiley.
March, J. G., 1988. Decisions and Organizations. New York: Blackwell.
March, J. G. and Sevon, G., 1988. Gossip, Information and Decision-Making. In J. G. March, ed., Decisions and Organizations. Blackwell.
Markus, M. L., 1983. Power, Politics, and Mis Implementation. Communications of the Acm, 26 (6), pp. 430–44.
Marshall, N., 2006. Understanding Power in Project Settings. In D. Hodgson and S. Cicmil, eds., Making Projects Critical. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Marshall, N. and Rollinson, J., 2004. Maybe Bacon Had a Point: The Politics of Interpretation in Collective Sensemaking. British Journal of Management, 15 (S1), pp. S71–S86.
McLoughlin, I., Badham, R. and Couchman, P., 2000. Rethinking Political Process in Technological Change: Socio-Technical Configurations and Frames. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 12 (1), pp. 17–37.
Mills, J. H., 2003. Making Sense of Organizational Change. London: Routledge.
Mintzberg, H., 1989. Mintzberg on Management: Inside our Strange World of Organizations. New York: The Free Press.
Mintzberg, H., Raisinghani, D. and Theoret, A., 1976. The Structure of ‘Unstructured’ Decision Processes. Administrative Science Quarterly, 21 (2), pp. 246–75.
Mintzberg, H. and Waters, J., 1990. Studying Deciding: An Exchange of Views Between Mintzberg and Waters, Pettigrew, and Butler. Organization Studies, 1 January, 11 (1), pp. 1–6.
Morris, P. W. G., 2004. Science, Objective Knowlege, and the Theory of Project Management. In Bartlett Construction and Project Management Research Papers. London: University College.
Nandhakumar, J. and Avison, D., 1999. The Fiction of Methodological Development: A Field Study of Information Systems Development. Information Technology and People, 12 (2), pp. 176–91.
Nutt, P. C., 1984. Types of Organizational Decision Processes. Administrative Science Quarterly, 29 (3), pp. 414–50.
O’Leary, T. and Williams, T., 2011. Can Social Theory Help Project Delivery? In IRNOP X: The Expanding Domain of Project Research. London: Montreal.
Office of Government Commerce, 2005. Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2. TSO.
Pettigrew, A. M., 1973. The Politics of Organizational Decision-making. London: Tavistock.
Pich, M. T., Loch, C. H. and Meyer, A. D., 2002. On Uncertainty, Ambiguity and Complexity in Project Management. Management Science, 48, pp. 1008–23.
Pinto, J. K., 2000. Understanding the Role of Politics in Successful Project Management. International Journal of Project Management, 18 (2), pp. 85–91.
Pinto, J. K. and Slevin, D. P., 1987. Critical Factors in Successful Project Implementation. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 34 (1), pp. 22–7.
Rhodes, C. and Brown, A. D., 2005. Narrative, Organisations and Research. International Journal of Management Reviews, 7 (3), pp. 167–88.
Roth, G. L. and Senge, P. M., 1996. From Theory to Practice: Research Territory, Processes and Structure at an Organizational Learning Centre. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 9 (1), pp. 92–106.
Rouleau, L., 2005. Micro-Practices of Strategic Sensemaking and Sensegiving: How Middle Managers Interpret and Sell Change Every Day. Journal of Management Studies, 42 (7), pp. 1413–41.
Sauer, C., 1999. Deciding the Future for IS Failures: Not the Choice you might Think. In W. L. Currie and R. Galliers, eds, Rethinking Management Information Systems: An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Schein, E. H., 1993. On Dialogue, Culture, and Organizational Learning. Organizational Dynamics, Autumn, 22 (2), pp. 40–51.
Schein, E. H., 2004. Organizational Culture and Leadership. 3rd edn. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Scherr, A. L., 2005. Managing for Breakthroughs in Productivity, Human Resources Management 28 (3), pp. 403–24.
Senge, P. M., 1993. The Fifth Discipline: Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. London: Random House Business Books.
Shenhar, A. J., 2001. One Size does not Fit All Projects: Exploring Classical Contingency Domains. Management Science, 47 (3), pp. 394–414.
Shotter, J., 1993. Conversational realities: Constructing life through language. Sage.
Sillince, J. A. A., Harvey, C. and Harindranath, G., 2006. Conflicting Rhetorical Positions on Trust and Commitment: Talk-as-Action in IT Project Failure. In D. Hodgson and S. Cicmil, eds., Making Projects Critical. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Staw, B. M., 1981. The Escalation of Commitment to a Course of Action. Academy of Management Review, 6 (4), pp. 577–87.
Strauss, A., 1988. The Articulation of Project Work: An Organizational Process. The Sociological Quarterly, 29 (2), pp. 163–78.
Strauss, A. L., 1993. Continual Permutations of Action. New York: Aldine.
The Agile Manifesto, 2001. http://www.agilemanifesto.org
Thomas, J., 1998. Making Sense of Project Management. In R. A. Lundin and F. Hartman, eds., Projects as Business Consituents and Guiding Motives. Boston: Kluwer Academic Press.
Thomas, J. and Mengel, T., 2008. Preparing Project Managers to Deal with Complexity–Advanced Project Management Education. International Journal of Project Management, 26 (3), pp. 304–15.
Thomas, R., Sargent, L. D. and Hardy, C., 2011. Managing Organizational Change: Negotiating Meaning and Power-Resistance Relations. Organization Science, 22 (1), pp. 22–41.
Turner, J. R. and Cochrane, R. A., 1993. Goals-and-Methods Matrix: Coping with Projects with Ill-Defined Goals and/or Methods of Achieving them. International Journal of Project Management, 11 (2), pp. 93–102.
Turner, R., 2007. Gower Handbook of Project Management. Aldershot, UK: Gower Publishing Company.
Vickers, G., 1965. The Art of Judgment: A Study of Policy Making. London: Chapman & Hall.
Walsham, G., 1997. Actor-Network Theory and IS Research: Current Status and Future Prospects. In IFIP TC8 WG 8.2 International Conference on Information Systems and Qualitative Research, pp. 466–80. London, UK, and Philadelphia, US: Chapman & Hall, Ltd.
Weick, K. E., 1979. Social Psychology of Organising. New York: McGraw-Hill Publishing Co.
Weick, K. E., 1995. Sensemaking in Organizations. London: Sage.
Weick, K. E., Sutcliffe, K. M. and Obstfeld, D., 2005. Organizing and the Process of Sensemaking. Organization Science, 16 (4), pp. 409–21.
Williams, T., 2005. Assessing and Moving on From the Dominant Project Management Discourse in the Light of Project Overruns. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 52 (4), pp. 497–508.
Winograd, T. and Flores, F., 1987. Understanding Computers and Cognition: A New Foundation for Design. Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley Longman.
Winter, M., Smith, C., Morris, P. and Cicmil, S., 2006. Directions for Future Research in Project Management: The Main Findings of a UK Government-Funded Research Network. International Journal of Project Management, 24 (8), pp. 638–49.
Zey, M., 1992. Decision Making: Alternatives to Rational Choice Models. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2012 Tim O’Leary
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
O’Leary, T. (2012). Decision-Making in Organisations. In: Williams, T.M., Samset, K. (eds) Project Governance. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137274618_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137274618_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-34897-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-27461-8
eBook Packages: Palgrave Business & Management CollectionBusiness and Management (R0)