Leveraging Coordination in Project-Based Activities: What Can We Learn from Military Teamwork?

Abstract

Literature in project management widely recognizes the critical role played by coordination in ensuring the success of project-based activities. However, partly due to some contingency theory limitations, understanding of how coordination occurs under extreme conditions remains interesting to investigate. This article questions the opportunities for learning lessons from the coordination within small military teams. More specifically, it explores coordination practices developed by fighter aircrews and ground forces when they achieve air-to-ground operations in Afghanistan. In these conditions, team members often challenge the usual coordination patterns and enact new practices and managerial solutions that can be consequential for a project team's learning process.