Deconstructing project management: a gender analysis of project management guidelines

Abstract

Strong isomorphic forces are at work in the emerging project management profession. At the same time, competent project management practice is evolving and expanding to include both soft and hard skills. Contemporary gender scholarship purports that these different skill sets are founded on inherently gendered logic systems. Thus, questions regarding the role of masculine and feminine logic systems in project management become increasingly important. We deconstruct portions of one of the pre-eminent isomorphic forces at work today —the Project Management Body of Knowledge® (PMBOK)—to initiate discussion on the ways in which gendered logic systems play a role in generally-accepted project management practice.