Activity Theory: A Useful Framework for Analysing Project-Based Organizations

Abstract

This paper contributes to the efforts to understand the dynamics of project mode of work and project-based organizations by highlighting the usefulness of Activity Theory and the associated concepts from practice-based approaches to organizations. The author utilizes his experiences during his doctoral work in the setting of software development firms in India. Initially, the theoretical roots of the Activity Theory are explored in the context of other practice-based frameworks. Through an elaborate structuring of the elements in social and organizational situations, the concept of “activity” tries to overcome the separation of human action from the relevant elements embedded in the context. By engaging with various aspects of systemic and individual peculiarities in understanding a situation, the Activity Theory strives to make the analysis of organizational situations richer and deeper. The importance of such an approach for analysing project mode of work is explored and its feasibility is illustrated by suggesting that projects in software development can be analysed effectively as “activities”. While conceptualizing organizational units like software projects as activities, it is important to also visualize devices for understanding their interactions with other activities within and outside the organization. This is especially true for outsourced software development work. For this, the ideas of “boundary objects” and “boundary spanners” are conceptualized in an activity theoretical way. By utilizing these ideas, it is illustrated how two dimensions of inter-activity interactions can be identified and studied. It is especially noted that multiple activity memberships and trajectories of organizational actors and tools can be profitably incorporated into research efforts that strive to bring such interactions in project-based organizations to the limelight. From a practice perspective, the ideas associated with the Activity Theory can help in looking at the challenges of project management in newer ways. For example: It can give them a vocabulary to understand expertise in newer ways. Resultantly, it can help them explore ways of facilitating the creation and maintenance of expertise in the project. The theory can also help them create processes for inter-activity interactions creatively by considering the socio-historical aspects of other activities both within and outside the company. Like other frameworks used for organizational analysis, the Activity Theory focuses on certain aspects of human action and interprets them using a unique vocabulary and theoretical standpoint. This inevitably results in concerns, limiting factors, and the grey areas where the framework may not be as illuminating. These are explored and some directions in which they could be addressed are pointed out at the end of the article.