Managing creative projects: An empirical synthesis of activities

Abstract This paper proposes a radical empirical look on the concrete activities of project managers involved in creative projects, with a specific focus on “non-administrative” issues. Through four case studies in the video-game industry, multimedia, advertising and a circus, we propose an integrated synthesis of what creative project managers actually do. Beyond analytical, cognitive, psychological, symbolic and discursive activities, we identify four sets of activities carefully coined to acknowledge the everyday work of project manager involved in creative projects. We suggest that this project manager acts as a sense-maker, a web-weaver, a game-master and a flow-balancer. This empirical “picture” raises questions on the technical and theoretical focus of research in project management where creativity is an utmost strategic issue.

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