Recent developments in project-based organisations

Abstract

Project-based organisations (PBO) refer to a variety of organisational forms that involve the creation of temporary systems for the performance of project tasks. Recently, project-based organisations have received increasing attention in recent years as an emerging organisational form.Recent studies have demonstrated that mature project-based organisations need to adopt integrative approaches that will enable consistent structures, delivery of strategy and uniformisation of knowledge. However, it is generally recognized that project-based organisations are struggling to integrate knowledge and structures and that projects are often viewed as “singular ventures”.It is the purpose of this paper to further investigate and understand how the widespread adoption of a project management approach within organisations has come to gradually influence their strategy and governance approaches.This paper concludes that an important aspect of PBOs is yet unexplored and lies in the development of a collaborative relationship between the fields of project and general management and the importance of developing a common language that fosters dialogue. It also emphasises a two way relationship which recognises that project management practice can and will influence organisational practices as well as the obvious reverse.