Organizational Development Projects Research Articles

Towards a comprehensive framework for risk assessment of organizational development project portfolios

The benefits of risk management in the context of project portfolios have been widely recognized in the literature. However, approaches that assess the risk of organizational development project portfolios from the perspective of how the portfolio delivers value to the parent organization remain largely unexplored. To address this gap, our research takes a constructivist approach and an organizational perspective on project portfolios. We conducted twenty-eight semi-structured interviews and used thematic analysis to identify and relate four themes of a comprehensive project portfolio risk assessment (PPRA) framework: "project portfolio as the organizational unit for PPRA"; "organizational capabilities as portfolio outcomes in which PPR can be assessed"; "project portfolio levels as sources of risk factors in PPRA"; and "balance between project portfolio attributes complexity". Within the framework of organizational development project portfolios, this study contributes to our understanding of PPRA by providing two propositions: (1) The capabilities to be generated by the project portfolio can be used as the portfolio primary results on which PPRA can assess the risk of the project portfolio, establishing the impact of PPR on the project portfolio value delivering to the parent organization, and (2) The risk factors that impact the project portfolio expected results can be represented into PPRA as ‘output-related’ risk factors and ‘outcome-related’ risk factors.

Organizational learning capacity and international development project success in West Africa: A case study

Very few studies have focused on organizational learning within a team as a key success factor for international development projects. In particular, the relationship between organizational learning capacity, organizational efficacy, and project success has received little attention. This is the objective of this case study. It explores this relationship based on 23 semi-structured interviews with project coordinators, team members, and beneficiaries of two projects financed by the West African Development Bank (WADB) in Benin and Senegal. The results show that the social process of developing organizational learning capacity within a project team is a crucial issue for organizational efficacy and project success. Points for practitioners Within a team, establishing a framework for developing organizational learning capacity, characterized by autonomy, experimentation, and interaction with stakeholders, is a key project success factor. Flexible and adaptive approaches may foster organizational learning and help explore, through action, new project capacities. Such approaches may help increase the odds of project success in terms of international development and, thus, create value for stakeholders including beneficiaries.

Factors Affecting the Competence of Quantity Surveying Professionals in Zimbabwe

The increased complexity of construction projects necessitates the need for quantity surveying professionals to achieve and maintain the highest levels of competency. However, various factors have inhibited their expected professional practice aptitude. Hence, this study reported on the factors affecting the competency of surveying professionals. A questionnaire-based descriptive survey strategy was undertaken to collect quantitative data from both consultant quantity surveyors and contractor quantity surveyors on the factors that influence their competence. The factor analysis revealed four significant components, including inadequate project and professional practice, inadequate academic and technological advances, inadequate organisational structure and teamwork and unclear individual career development goals. In addition, an assessment of the statistically significant differences based on the ranking by consultant and contractor quantity surveyors was undertaken. Contractor quantity surveyors consider inadequate polytechnic education and training, inconsistent project implementation strategies and unclear organisation development goals as impacting most negatively on the competence of quantity surveying professionals. This finding reveals a need to establish collaboration between higher education institutions and professional bodies for the development and implementation of relevant strategic plans to resolve these inadequacies. Also, organisational development goals and project implementation strategies are relevant and important for contractors as opposed to firm consultants. The withdrawal of primary data from quantity surveying professionals was the only limitation; however, the factors primarily affecting quantity surveyors and their insights are vital.

Modeling the Risk of an Organizational Development Portfolio

Project portfolios have been seen as a structured way to implement business changes based on the organizational strategic goals. In this regard, portfolio risk could be related with the risk factors impact on strategic objectives. However, risk factors related to the project portfolio do not directly impact strategic objectives; their strategic impact is related to how the portfolio delivers value to the organization. This paper describes a risk assessment implementation conducted in an organizational development project portfolio case study, showing how the project portfolio risk is linked with the strategic goals. This was accomplished based on a proposed conceptualization for project portfolio risk assessment (PPRA). The risk assessment was conducted considering interdependencies between risk factors and how risk factors derived from both project and portfolio levels impact primarily on projects within the portfolio. And then, considering how the risk factors prior impact is transferred from projects to portfolio outcomes and, in turn, to strategic objectives. The risk assessment results allowed to identify the most influential risk factors for the portfolio case study, representing an essential input for designing the risk response plan.

Disclosing the Tacit Links between Risk and Success in Organizational Development Project Portfolios

Project portfolios aim to impact organizational strategic goals, influencing both the organization’s business model and its processes. Nonetheless, the actual impact is dependent on the portfolio’s success, which is affected by the materialization of risk factors. This study aims to examine the tacit conceptualization of project portfolio risk as a risk measure explicitly based on project portfolio success itself. In order to focus on the portfolios of organizational development projects, Social Representation Theory was adopted to analyze empirical evidence from twenty-eight semi-structured interviews conducted with project portfolio practitioners. Findings showed that strategic fit, future preparedness, and stakeholder satisfaction were dimensions of success within which project portfolio risk could be conceptualized. Additionally, results evidenced that risk factors influenced project portfolio success through systematic and non-systematic impacts on project portfolio outputs, and also had direct impacts on project portfolio outcomes. This paper provides empirical evidence to back up the conceptualization of project portfolio risk explicitly oriented to portfolio success as a multidimensional risk measure. It represents a new avenue for conducting portfolio risk analysis for both practitioners and academics, orienting the decision-making process based on the portfolio success rather than only on the success of each project.

Strategic Planning and Performance Management for Citizens of Harghita County with the Introduction of the CAF Based Quality Management Tool (CAFHR) Project

Abstract The Harghita County Council has decided to carry out a self-assessment to evaluate the adequacy of its processes in the framework of a complex organizational development project using the CAF (Common Assessment Framework). The outcome of the performed self-assessment showed the capabilities and results of the operation, as well as the tasks of ensuring short- and medium-term development. This article aims to point out the needs and possibilities for improving administrative processes by presenting the experiences of the project. An important experience of the project is to prove the necessity of taking into account the specific features in addition to prove the general applicability of the model.

Narcissistic Leadership and Project Success in IT Industry: Moderating the role of Risk Management Technology

Narcissistic leaders supersede others opinions while dealing with different projects is an area of concern because they create the risk of various projects' success. However, risk management technology can balance this leadership to mitigate the project failure risk. Therefore, this study aims to examine the impact of narcissistic leadership on project success with the moderating role of risk management technology. A self-administrated questionnaire measured the narcissistic leadership constructs with two dimensions (i) admiration, (ii) rivalry as antecedents, risk management technology as moderating construct, and project success with five dimensions (i) cost (ii) schedule (iii) quality (iv) performance and (v) operating environment as an outcome from 242 IT professionals working in IT firms. Using structural equation modelling, the results reveal that narcissistic admiration has a negative significance, but the narcissistic rivalry has no significant impact on project success. Therefore it suggests that narcissistic admiration associated with positive attributes such as high esteem, envy, forgiveness, etc., with an overall motivation to focus on achievements may benefit in success of the project. The results further reveal that risk management technology has no moderating role between narcissistic admiration and rivalry with project success, which suggests risk management technology is not enough to reduce the narcissism leadership to contribute to project success. Further, the results do show the positive impact of risk management technology on project success. The study is helpful for organizational development (OD) professionals, project leaders, and IT firms. The study also provides a new avenue of investigation for academic researchers to tighten up the gap in narcissistic leadership.

Reinstitutionalization of Project Management Offices by Large-Scale Agile Frameworks

This article contributes to the understanding of project management offices (PMOs) from the current momentum towards large-scale agile frameworks (LSAFs) as the dominating approach to organizing development projects. LSAFs embrace many typical PMO responsibilities; however, this study highlights that PMOs receive new and tentatively critical responsibilities when moving from a stakeholder position (ISO 21500) to (re-)institutionalizing as a core element in the project governance of enterprises. Essential PMO roles can be top-management alignment and reporting, cross-project coordination, funding and staffing, controlling, and external management of “political” and organizational matters. The research limitations relate to the use of Denmark as the key setting and the targeting of mostly larger companies and larger projects.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT IN THE TRANSITION TO A CIRCULAR ECONOMY

The problem of creating effective models, methods and tools for strategic management of projects and programs for the development of organizations in the transition to a circular economy. Global trends in the development of organizations prove that the world is transforming with acceleration. The life cycle of knowledge and technologies for managing complex projects and programs is significantly reduced. The technical and technological complexity of organizational development projects increases due to innovations. These trends create significant challenges in the development of project management systems and programs for the formation of a circular economy in Ukraine. This is especially true of projects and programs in conditions of uncertainty about the impact of COVID 19 and anticipation of a global crisis after a pandemic. Today, the application of proven best practices (benchmarking) is no longer a way forward. Forming a vision, goals and strategy for the implementation of organizational development projects in advance makes our actions rigid, not flexible. When creating a project or program begins with focusing on what is valuable to our customers and the country, it is enough for us to use best practices. But the complexity and innovative orientation of development projects of organizations in the transition to a circular economy creates a number of challenges. One of the answers to these challenges is cost-effective work on project management and development programs, taking into account the trends of transition to a circular economy. Project management teams learn to distinguish between what is valuable and what doesn't matter, this is the path that management methodologies have taken for decades. A number of projects have taken the first steps in implementing the necessary cost-effective / flexible transition that supports sustainability and adaptability to turbulent environmental changes. In the conditions of modern destructive economic relations in the world community the problem of a choice of strategy of projects as drivers of development of the organizations is vital. One of the key approaches to the development of the EU is the transition to a circular economy with maximum utilization of both waste products and projects, and the disposal of project products after the end of product life cycles.

“Sagen – Fragen – Verstehen” – Towards health literate health organisations in Vienna

Abstract The concept of health literate health care organisation (HLHO) was introduced in 2012. Organisational health literacy is defined as an effort to transform and develop organisations (in the health sector) to enable users and employees to navigate, understand and use information and services to take care of their health. To support hospitals and long-term care facilities in Vienna to become HLHO the Vienna health promotion (WiG) has set up a project (2017 - 2021) with 11 pilot units from 5 care institutions. Starting with an interprofessional self-assessment tool (SAT) on HLHO, most modules, like employee and patient/next of kin empowerment, trainings to improve the quality of staff-patient communication as well as workshops on health literacy are being carried out concurrently and similarly by all pilot units. In addition, pilot units implement local organisational development projects addressing issues identified in their SAT. As part of process monitoring pilot unit project leads meet regularly in workshops to discuss their learnings and project progress. Preliminary results show that health literacy workshops in participating institutions are well-received, also the joined learning in the regular project lead workshops. Many employees in the participating institutions took part in project-associated evaluation measures. Communication trainings were very popular, especially the use of simulated patients was rated highly. Project impact on doctor-patient-communication is currently being evaluated. Health literacy workshops seem appropriate to sensitise employees for the importance of patient-staff communication, but are challenging in terms of organisation. The SAT was considered useful to approach the topic of HLHO, but was perceived as somewhat lengthy. The interprofessional approach to the SAT could be a barrier for some institutions. Developing handouts in cooperation with persons concerned can be challenging but is highly gainful. Key messages As result of this project the 11 participating pilot units are one step closer to becoming HLHO. The concept of HLHO seems useful in improving health literacy.

Too Smart to Participate? Rational Reasons for Employees\u2019 Non-participation in Action Research

Action research literature promotes broad participation in order to gain better insights into prevailing issues and cope with both present and future challenges in organizations. For good reasons, action researchers view participation as desirable and even necessary. However, emphasizing participation also creates a blind spot: researchers tend to assume that employees are willing or even eager to take part in organizational change projects. A group of action researchers involved in a large-scale organizational development project in a Norwegian public organization initially also had this optimistic assumption. Over time, they realized that many employees were reluctant to participate and often kept silent, so they conducted follow-up research to explore the reasons for employees’ non-participation. The findings show that the employees had rational reasons not to participate, and that employee participation should not be taken for granted. The paper outlines eight different rationales for non-participation, and discusses implications for action research.

Project governance mechanisms and the performance of software development projects: Moderating role of requirements risk

Over the years, practitioners and academicians have been perplexed by low efficiency and poor performance in IT projects. Previous studies have uncovered a variety of critical factors, including effective project governance mechanisms that can trigger project performance and curb opportunism. However, an obvious question that emerges is how effective these governance mechanisms are at improving the performance of an IT organization and software development project in the presence of risk factors. Hence, the overarching objective of the current study is the development of a moderation model to investigate the effectiveness of these governance mechanisms in the presence of requirements risk. This paper follows a positivist research philosophy where a quantitative deductive approach has been used to collect the data of 318 respondents from 175 software development firms based in Pakistan. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) through SmartPLS 3 have been used to analyze the hypotheses. The results of the study indicate that contractual and relational governances significantly influence project performance and are useful in reducing opportunism. Moreover, there is evidence that the presence of requirements risk tends to negatively moderate the influence of contractual and relational governances on project performance. The findings will help not only Pakistan's software firms, but also those in developing countries that want to improve performance through effective project governance and risk management.

Fra skøn til algoritme

Den danske offentlige sektor præges af en ambitiøs digitaliseringsdagsorden, som blandt andetindebærer automatisering af stadigt flere arbejdsprocesser. Indførslen af ’digitaliseringsklar lovgivning’betyder, at lovgivning skal designes, således at det samtænkes, hvordan administrativeprocesser kan automatiseres, hvordan professionelle skøn kan reduceres, og hvordan dette spillersammen med tekniske løsninger. Problematiseringen af den administrative sagsbehandler og ikkemindst hendes professionelle skøn ændrer organiseringen af arbejdet på væsentlige punkter i denoffentlige sektor – rutinearbejde skal varetages af robotter på ’hovedvejen’, og kun det kompleksearbejde skal varetages af mennesker på ’sidevejene’. Bag dette ligger en effektiviseringstankegangog en ambition om ensartethed og øget retssikkerhed, som kun sjældent tematiserer det kompensationsarbejde,som offentlige ansatte må udføre, når robotter erstatter professionelt skøn.

Introducing a New Form of Socially Responsible Journalism

This study examines the professional self-understanding of the social responsibility of journalism. It is based on an action research project that invited Finnish journalists to workshops to develop the notion of “conciliatory journalism” together with researchers. The project’s aim was to find ways to reorient journalism during the times of social polarisation, and it drew from various forms of socially responsible journalism, conflict mediation and online moderation. This study discusses what happens when a new approach to journalism is introduced. It shows how the journalists in the project implemented conciliatory journalism as an approach that assesses the complex nature of conflicts and provides room for constructive disagreements. The journalists applied the idea as a tactic that could be integrated into their everyday practices, a strategy that supported improvements in media organisations and their brands, or as a launch pad for professional identity renewal. Hence, the concrete forms of conciliatory journalism also varied, from self-critical analyses and organisational development projects to examinations of sourcing, presentation and online discussion practices. New concepts attract attention and social responsibility continue to resonate, because they offer an avenue for journalists and media organisations to deal with their professional concerns and look for ways forward amid increased pressures.

Exploring staff involvement in an organization development intervention in a school in the Kavango region, Namibia

The study is to explore staff involvement in organization development (OD) intervention in one of a rural junior secondary school in Kavango region, Namibia and aimed at determining the level of participation in change initiative and probing in participants’ perception and experience of the intervention process. In a democratic country such as Namibia every citizen is expected to bring change and participating in activities to improve their own institution for example School. It is a common practice among teachers of Ntokota School that they are passive to take action in change initiative for improving working relationship and Organization. This study introduced an OD intervention to a School in order to inspire the mindset of staff to be active in change initiative for School improvement by using bottom-up approach strategy of staff participation in series of activities that would enable them to improve and eventually moving the School to the intended goal. OD concept Model of seven steps was used for intervention and it is a participant driven that encourages staff to release their potential to initiate change for improvement. The study is located within qualitative interpretive and critical paradigm. Observation and semi-structured interviews were the main data collection tools used in the study. The researcher transcribed, grouped similar data into category, coded and translated data into a real meaning and identifies themes that address the research goal. The paper reveals that the absence of staff cooperation, involvement in the decision making processes, democratic leadership were the main factors perceived retarded the staff activeness in change initiative and participation. Staff viewed OD intervention as the most significance approach to change as it offers significant understanding and conception of change and embraced new approach of fostering democracy, inclusion of staff in the decision-making process, taking a decentralized decision and enhancing cooperation among staff. The study is of potential significance to educators and educational leaders to use OD approach for change to improve human working relationship and behavior in their own organization. It may motivate researchers to pursue OD studies and conduct OD projects with any organization of their choice.

The impact of story: measuring the impact of story for organisational change

Purpose The role of dialogue has recently been identified as being important in generating impact in organisations, but the purposeful use of narrative or story-based approaches to effect organisational change and service improvement is still relatively innovative. The purpose of this paper is to document and examine two projects in health and social care settings which aim to generate organisational development and service improvement. Design/methodology/approach The paper evaluates and compares two case studies of story-based organisational development and service improvement projects in the UK. This involved developing an appropriate evaluation framework and assessing the impacts in each case using semi-structured interviews and thematic content analysis. Findings This paper reports the diversity of impacts and outcomes that were generated by the projects. Specifically, it is argued that there is a strong indication that story-based projects best achieve their objectives when clearly linked to key organisational strategic drivers or pathways, as evidenced by robust evaluation. Practical implications This paper recommends that researchers and practitioners, working with story-based methods, design credible and robust evaluative practices, in order to evidence how their work supports organisations to meet current sector challenges. The paper recommends a flexible evaluation framework for evaluating story-based projects in the workplace. Originality/value This paper offers new evidence and insight into the impacts and outcomes of using story-based approaches, and a new evaluation framework for these sorts of projects.

The supervisors who became leaders: Leadership emergence via changing organizational practices

This paper examines leadership and leader emergence as a contextual process. The paper argues that the emergence of leader identities is a contextual process which is premised on relations between organizational actors and practices. We adopt a social constructionist view on leadership emergence, applying a practice theory perspective on an empirical case of supervisory leadership emergence. Our empirical material consists of informant accounts and corporate documentation of a multiyear organization development project. The empirical narrative explores how the expectation set for a group of supervisors in the organization to act as leaders of production was initially impaired by a lack of participation in central organizing activities. The organization development project reformed the supervisory work to include more tasks related to production activities, which facilitated a new interpretation of the supervisors as leaders. We analyse how the inclusion of supervisors in the daily production practices induced an identity change where the supervisors came to be identified as leaders in production. We argue that contextual changes at the level of organizing practices can influence leadership and leader emergence.

Implementation of a Critical Care Nurse Career Pathway

The aim of this organisational development project is to put in place an implementable plan for the delivery of a standardised critical care nursing career pathway. The pathway relates to the professional development of critical care nurses at every stage of their career, from new graduate to advanced practitioner. Through standardisation there will be the ability to increase the number of nurses doing accredited education, through implementation of the pathway across the hospital groups. This will be through the establishment of working groups consisting of the key stakeholders to explore and develop methods of implementation. An agreed governance structure for these working groups will ensure standardisation. To understand requirements the annual Critical Care Census will be updated to recognise what is required to ensure that the correct supports are in place to prevent burnout of both the new entry nurses to critical care but also the senior staff. Standardisation of professional development for critical care nurses has been recommended and the pathway represents this. Utilising the HSE change model, the initiation and planning stages are discussed where a shared vision was developed and support of the key stakeholders ensured. An outline of what is required for implementation and mainstreaming of the pathway, through the structure of the newly formed hospital groups is put forward.

Human-centred design practice and challenges in four Finnish organisational information system development projects

The objective of this study was to recognise challenges that designers face when they are applying a human-centred design approach into organisational information system development projects. Participant-observation during the years 2004&2013 and inductive analysis were used to gain an understanding of designers' everyday work practices and real-life obstacles. Analysis led to the four categories of human-centred design work barriers: contract limitations, contradictory expectations, technological disinterest and isolation of designers. These barriers indicate that the designer's role in development projects is still vague and unclear, which makes it harder to work productively and affect usability related decisions.

Human-centred design practice and challenges in four Finnish organisational information system development projects

The objective of this study was to recognise challenges that designers face when they are applying a human-centred design approach into organisational information system development projects. Participant-observation during the years 2004&2013 and inductive analysis were used to gain an understanding of designers' everyday work practices and real-life obstacles. Analysis led to the four categories of human-centred design work barriers: contract limitations, contradictory expectations, technological disinterest and isolation of designers. These barriers indicate that the designer's role in development projects is still vague and unclear, which makes it harder to work productively and affect usability related decisions.