Introducing Justice and Care in Complex Project Systems: An Empirical Study

Abstract

While projects are becoming increasingly more complex in their organizational, technological, and environmental dimensions; complex systems are deemed by being unjust by nature. Previous research has suggested that heedful interconnection among the actors of the system can enhance organization’s capability in ethical coping with complexity. However, project-based organizations tend to cope with complexity through developing adaptive capacity within the borders of the organization and marginalizing the demands and concerns of some stakeholders. By investigating the controversial project of Rome Metro Line C and drawing on ethics of care and ethics of justice, this article suggests that coping with complexity is attainable by extending the organization’s border to include all stakeholders of the network. The empirical study proposes that by fostering the interrelation of a broader range of stakeholders with the organization through a decentralized decision making will improve the extended organization’s capability in identifying and absorbing complexity.