Abstract
PurposeDrawing on the literature on professional ignorance, here defined in affirmative terms as the capacity to act regardless of the incompleteness of available information in organizations and professional communities, the article reports empirical material from an urban development project wherein policy makers' instructions are vague and, in certain domains, inconsistent with market conditions.Design/methodology/approachUrban development projects regularly include uncertainty and risk taking, and policy makers' stated objectives regarding project goals may be incomplete or merely signal a political ambition. In such situations, first-line project participants need to make decisions as if uncertainties regarding policy objectives are manageable and preferably minimal. The purpose of the article is to substantiate the proposition that professional ignorance is a key mechanism in incomplete or imperfect governance systems.FindingsProject participants actively questioned policy but acted on the instructions just the same, which is indicative of how professional ignorance is supportive of governance system that relies on first-line market actors and agencies to implement also incomplete or vaguely stated policy objectives. Incomplete policies derive from challenges in political deliberation and bargaining processes, uncertainty regarding the future and shifting preferences among policy makers and constituencies more widely. In practice, incomplete policies regularly include issues for first-level actors (e.g. on the urban development project level) to handle and to reconcile in their day-to-day work.Originality/valueOn basis of an empirical study of a major urban development project, the study contributes to a growing literature that recognizes the value of professional ignorance in governance systems and in project management practice. The study invites further scholarly research that takes an affirmative of professional ignorance but without overlooking its risks and potential malfunctions.
Highlights
Project management models are essentially structured on basis of rationalist principles and mechanisms wherein costs and benefits are weighted against one another to optimize the return-on-equity investment (Lenfle and S€oderlund, 2019; Hodgson, 2004)
Professionalism is based on the capacity to act individually and collectively on basis of a combination of available information, assumptions made on basis of previous experience, extrapolations made on basis of existing data and qualified guess-work (Freidson, 2001; Abbott, 1988)
In governance systems characterized by political decision making, wherein preferences, priorities and agendas change over time, and where policy makers rely on qualified professional agents to handle the practical work to implement and to materialize policy (Riles, 2011), policy instructions are frequently vague or incomplete, which oftentimes result in policy implementation being a mere afterthought – an issue for lower-tier functionaries and market actors to practically handle
Summary
Project management models are essentially structured on basis of rationalist principles and mechanisms wherein costs and benefits are weighted against one another to optimize the return-on-equity investment (Lenfle and S€oderlund, 2019; Hodgson, 2004). Project management devices such as time charts (Yakura, 2002) and calculative practices (Miller, 2001) serve to conceal uncertainties and ambiguities that complex projects of necessity include to generate a sense of ontological certainty and being conducive of accountability. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
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