Reducing transformation friction: the role of organisational leadership in transformational project outcomes

Abstract

Projects, a form of temporary organisation, comprise an increasing share of organisational activity and financial commitment. Organisational leaders initiate projects to realise strategic aspirations, reduce enterprise risk and to achieve grand national and economic objectives. Despite the increasing popularity of projects as a form of work organisation, their track record in achieving their intended outcomes is poor. While the precise definition, extent and causes of project success and failure are contested, there is little argument that poor project performance continues to plague organisations and the practice of project management. It is no surprise that project governance is a burgeoning area of focus, but, to date, project governance has been investigated mainly from the perspective of the projects themselves rather than the organisations that initiate them. Project management literature infers the critical role of organisational leaders for projects to achieve the intended outcomes but is less clear on the interaction between project and corporate governance. Similarly, in the corporate governance literature, although the scope of corporate governance infers monitoring of project performance, the focus of board attention has been on strategy setting rather than strategy execution.The purpose of this study is to better understand the influence that organisational leaders have on the outcomes of transformational projects. This thesis begins by examining three different fields of literature on the same phenomenon, namely, the role of organisational leaders in transformational change projects. Each literature depicts a different figure: an absent parent in the corporate governance literature, a superhero in the strategic change literature, and a governor in the project management literature. These depictions reflect the limitation of disciplinary silos and a failure in industry and academia to collaborate to address a significant organisational and societal problem. The question this study sought to answer was “What do organisational leaders do to ensure transformational projects achieve their intended outcomes? So as not to be biased by any particular literature, an inductive method was chosen, coupled with a form of engaged scholarship using abductive logic. The main case for the study was an organisation undergoing a digital health transformation, implementing the same technology solution across different autonomous health services.The research findings are that organisational leaders play an active and dynamic role in successful transformation projects. The main contribution from these findings is a Theory of Transformation Friction to explain the forces between the perpetual organisation and the transformation project, and to identify the dynamic capabilities organisational leaders need to influence the outcome and pace of that transformation. The theory provides two major developments. The first is to provide clarity, empirical insight and the potential to further synthesise interdisciplinary research on the leadership and governance of transformational change. The second is a new and useful concept, a Theory of Transformation Friction, to inform interaction between perpetual and temporary organisations, and between corporate and project governance, and the impact this has on transformational outcomes. The resulting contribution to practice is simple but profound: organisational leadership plays an active role in transformational projects that should not be abdicated to consultants or project managers. The theory also identifies the activities organisational leaders perform to reduce transformation friction, namely, instilling a compelling purpose, unifying the leadership team, navigating transformation paradoxes and dialogical adapting of the transformation. Finally, the thesis contributes to research methods by further developing the philosophy and practice of engaged scholarship, particularly in the area of theory development and evaluation.