Description
For many years, project management was regarded as "the accidental profession" - people came into it often by accident rather than by choice. This paper reports an exploratory investigation into an observed organizational phenomenon: organizations both gain and lose capability in the management of projects, with capability seeming to be treated as if "occurring by accident" rather than choice. Four organizations were studied over extended periods and all both gained and lost capability in differing patterns over time. The purpose of the study was to establish the triggers for increasing organizational capability, but also the much less well investigated means by which this capability is lost. Our findings indicate that capability gains occur over extended time periods and require considerable organisational attention, but losing that capability can be achieved in a very short time. In addition, the loss of capabilities in the management of projects was consistent with a lack of a long-term organisational policy for the capability. Most interestingly, despite considerable attention being paid by most organisations to processes, these were found to be poor at retaining capability to the management of projects. In addition, it was seen that all the organizations were more heavily reliant on the capability of individuals than they had expected.| Period | 1 Jun 2011 → 4 Jun 2011 |
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| Event title | EURAM |
| Event type | Unknown |
| Degree of Recognition | International |