Doing Project Management Ironically

Abstract

The central claim of this paper is that contemporary project management is practiced within the constraint of a single archetype, that of the ‘scientific’ project manager, and identification with that archetype has been a limiting factor in the development of project management as a sophisticated human practice. This paper argues for the inclusion of alternative disciplines within the over-all project management framework, and suggests philosophical hermeneutics as one such approach. Richard Rorty's particular pragmatic variation of the philosophic hermeneutic, which he calls ‘ironism’, is offered as the most suitable with which to support the practice of project management. Rorty's ironism is found to be mirrored in the everyday activities of project managers in the field via a series of phenomenological interviews. Through their own voices, project managers demonstrate that much of what they practice could already be considered ‘ironic’, yet are unable to articulate this aspect of their practice within existing, formal project management methodology. The result of this is significant disruption to the meaning project managers are able to derive from their work, and the results they are able to achieve. In advocating ironism, this paper does not seek to replace the corpus of formal project management theory, but rather to highlight its shortcomings and in so doing contributes to the expansion of the methods at the project manager's disposal.