Contingent management in temporary, dynamic organizations: The comparative analysis of projects

Abstract One of the most common ways in which organizations create change is through the project organization. Projects can be seen as temporary, dynamic organizations created and disseminated within existing organizations, and while their extent of use is growing, their theoretical and conceptual understanding are still in their early days. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods and the findings of a field study of 26 case projects, the purpose of this research is to suggest a conceptual framework for the study of project contingencies. As found, projects have a wide range of variations demonstrated by an implicit two-dimensional contingency model. According to this model, projects were classified into four levels of technological uncertainty at the moment of project initiation and three levels of system scope based to their location on a hierarchy of systems and subsystems. While this framework can be used explicitly as a basis for building a typological theory of projects, it offers some theoretical insights into additional areas of investigation in temporary organizations. They include strategic choices, portfolio planning, risk management, innovation management, and entrepreneurship management.

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