Project organization: Change in the work atmosphere for engineers

Abstract Project organization is often used to increase organizational efficiency and flexibility as a means to meet the demands of the environment. This exploratory study was carried out in order to investigate how working conditions changed when project organization was introduced into new product development work. Forty-five members of five product development projects in the mechanical engineering sector were interviewed. Two of the projects were carried out within the functional organization of the companies concerned, while three took place in a project matrix organization and were supervised by a project manager. The interviews revealed that commitment, dynamism, support, solidarity and communication increased when a project organization was introduced, and that these aspects were positively valued by the project members. However, time pressure and the risk of conflicts also increased with the introduction of a project organization, sometimes with negative repercussions for the individuals concerned. Individual project members also surrendered some of their autonomy to the project group. All members of a project group jointly took some of the decisions that were earlier taken by individuals. Critical issues for the individual member in a project organization are workload, time schedules, and risk of conflict.