Considering representational gaps - how subsidiaries' relationship affects multi-location project management

Abstract

Our study of project cooperation between two company subsidiaries addresses everyday challenges in project management with a new focus on shared cognition. By conducting 36 in-depth interviews, we found that the relationship between the subsidiaries affects team-level perception in distributed product development. Based on the each subsidiary's specific role, each team develops a joint representation, or mental model, of the task and its role in the project. Having different roles, the teams' understanding of the project differs. With inconsistent assumptions and divergent expectations, the two mental models are incompatible. From this phenomenon called representational gaps, goal conflicts arise. We advance project management research by identifying the relationship of the cooperating groups - a result from the respective roles the subsidiaries play in the company's strategy - to be an important driver of typical challenges in project management. Consequently, we propose a model that acknowledges the influence of the site strategy on project cooperation, an aspect of everyday project management, rather neglected so far.