Project Management Journal Research Articles

Theory Use in Project Management Research: An Exploratory Content Analysis Approach.

The frequency and richness of the theories developed, tested, and used by researchers in an academic discipline exemplify several pertinent factors, namely, the growth, the maturity, the independence, the legitimacy, and the influence of the discipline. Although organizations have been working on projects for centuries, Project Management (PM) is a considerably new academic discipline with emerging research themes, models, methodologies, frameworks, and paradigms. These PM concepts are anchored on or reinforced by new or existing theories. This exploratory study aims to add to the existing PM body of knowledge by investigating the prevalence of theory use in PM research. A systematic content analysis of 9200 PM research articles published from 2000 to 2019 (20years) in the leading PM journals identified 248 unique theories. These results reveal that the PM discipline is increasingly embracing the use of theories with game theory, fuzzy theory, agency theory, contingency theory, and stakeholder theory emerging as the most dominant theories in the reviewed research articles. Also, although PM is developing its theories, the results revealed that PM researchers continue to heavily use theories borrowed from other academic disciplines such as psychology, sociology, mathematics, and economics.

Artificial Intelligence and Project Management: Empirical Overview, State of the Art, and Guidelines for Future Research

Desk rejections of artificial intelligence (AI)–related submissions to the Project Management Journal® (PMJ) are high. This article provides an overview and state-of-the-art snapshot on academic and practitioner work to derive at potential future research topics and guidelines on the execution and reporting of AI-related studies in project management.

Do Tourism and Project Management Need Each Other?

While the relationship between tourism and project management (PM) seems logical in business practice, it seems that academic literature does not follow this reasoning. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether there is an interrelationship between tourism and PM in the academic literature, and if so, what is the nature of this connection. To reach this objective, the author examined ten top-ranked PM and tourism journals represented in Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC). PM journals do not recognize tourism as an attractive field of research because only nine papers (out of 2,995 published) refer to tourism or tourists. Additionally, from 11,332 papers published in tourism journals, 269 papers allude to projects mostly focusing on three major themes: (1) tourism development projects, (2) local communities, and (3) tourist experiences. However, the term “project” refers mostly to studied cases, while Knowledge Areas (PMKAs), which are the core of PM, are mentioned only sporadically. The findings suggest that the connection between tourism and PM in academia is not as strong as the business practice would suggest. Academics should pay more attention to the fact that PM knowledge needs to be applied and integrated into the tourism industry and its projects.

It’s About Time: A Systematic Review of the Study of Time in Project Management

Time is one of the most important aspects of project management practice. Timely delivery of projects is one of the main success criteria for projects. Every year nearly half of all projects that start then fail to complete on time or miss their initial deadlines. Many project underperformances and failures are associated with time-related issues. Despite its acknowledged importance in project management practice, time-related phenomena are not often at the forefront of project management research. This paper takes stock of time-related research in project management discipline. We report how time is conceived and applied in project management research. First, we review time-related scholarship appearing in all issues of three leading project management journals. Then we review scholarship on time-related phenomena in project management published outside of three journals. Analysis of 165 articles reveals time-related research in project management is scarce and scattered, addressed in background or supporting positions rather than focal point of investigation. We identify gaps in seven themes of temporal research and present a research agenda for each to bring time-related phenomena to the forefront of project management research, which will prove beneficial in project management practice. We propose a shift in focus to studying time-related phenomena in project management to address some of the costly time-related issues.

Synthesizing extreme context studies in project management journals: introducing a time-based project management typology

PurposeThe present article analyses extreme context studies published in leading project management journals with the aim of developing a time-based typology that could be of value for the project community at large.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, the authors reviewed 62 articles on extreme contexts published in three main project management journals (IJMPB, PMJ and IJPM) and two specialized outlets Disaster Prevention and Management (DPM) and International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment (IJDRBE).FindingsThe authors present a typology, in which emergency, risky and disrupted (RED) contexts are related to the manageability of time. It shows that when pressure rises, due to high levels of urgency, uncertainty and ambiguity, control over time decreases, causing the organizational response to shift from formalized into improvised.Research limitations/implicationsBased on this review, the authors theorize the influence of extreme contexts on project management in general.Originality/valueThe study responds to the scholarly call to advance the academic debate on the relatedness of project and temporary organizations by perceiving temporality as a continuum.

Why clear managerial recommendations matter in major projects research: Searching for relevance in practice

• This essay celebrates Peter Morris’ legacy on major projects and how his work inspired generations of researchers. • The overwhelming perception of industrial partners is that they cannot use the research findings to address their own challenges in major projects. • Major projects research needs to shift towards an impact driven agenda, actively proposing the solutions to improve the performance of major and megaprojects. • Academics need to articulate the managerial recommendations in a direct and unambiguous manner, what needs to be done to implement the findings, how, when, and by whom. • Project Management journals could create a mandatory Managerial Summary section, to be available together with the Abstract in open access.

Thank You to the Reviewers of Project Management Journal®

Thank You to the Reviewers of <i>Project Management Journal</i>^®

Project Management Journal® Special Issue on Project Behavior

<i>Project Management Journal^®</i> Special Issue on Project Behavior

Processes, Methods, Tools, Techniques, and Management Science for Project Management Journal®

Processes, Methods, Tools, Techniques, and Management Science for <i>Project Management Journal</i>^®

Digital project management: rapid changes define new working environments

PurposePrior to the COVID-19 pandemic, project management was undergoing gradual shift and moving from traditional ways of working toward embracing digitization. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this transformation. This paper highlights the importance of digital project management (DPM), its adoption of digital technologies, the changing role of digital project manager, significant and abrupt swing in the rise of virtual teams and the benefits and challenges of remote project teams. This paper aims to discuss the latest development in project management and to lay out the rationale why DPM is here to stay even after the pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThe author has based this research on reviewing publications from the project management journals and publications, interviews of project management professionals and analyzing data from a project management consultancy.FindingsThe pandemic accelerated the digitalization of project management including the adoption of digital tools and technologies, embracing an agile approach to implementing projects; working collaborative in remote teams; and breaking traditional barriers of geography, time zones and fundamentally how project teams collaborate.Practical implicationsProject management is being digitized, changing how teams work. Fueled by the pandemic, DPM accelerated its momentum. The rate of adoption is likely to be strong after the pandemic. Organizations and individuals should consider embracing DPM but with the full knowledge of both benefits and challenges.Originality/valueDPM is still in its early days even though the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated its use. Today and likely after the pandemic, organizations and people are increasingly embracing digital technologies, remote teams and agile project management approaches to project management. It is likely that in the foreseeable future, nearly all project managers will be digital project managers, giving rise to the importance of understanding the challenges and benefits and building the digital skills for both individuals and organizations.

Thank You to the Reviewers of Project Management Journal®

Thank You to the Reviewers of <i>Project Management Journal^®</i>

Plagiarism in Project Studies

Plagiarism is condemned yet remains a frequently occurring form of academic misconduct. This editorial informs project scholars about plagiarism and Project Management Journal’s ( PMJ®) approach to it. We define plagiarism as the theft of words, ideas, and representations, and explain three principles to judge plagiarism based on our expectations on research integrity: honesty, originality, and authorship. Accordingly, plagiarism detection services (PDS) assist but do not limit our judgment. We hope to lay the foundation for a comprehensive understanding of plagiarism in project studies, and thus help (early career) scholars understand the different facets of plagiarism and thereby avoid it.

Investigating collaboration in project management research: using action research as a meta-methodology

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to investigate collaboration in project management research. Although the literature shows an increase in collaboration between scientists and social scientists for various reasons, it is unclear how and why such collaboration takes place in project management research. The literature does show that co-authorship of articles published in project management journals is on the rise due to increased collaboration between researchers in developed countries and emerging economies as well as developing countries. However, no detailed study has been conducted to investigate how such collaboration occurs in practice in project management research. This article addresses this gap.Design/methodology/approachWe use a multi-method approach (action research as a meta-methodology and surveys) using qualitative data to reflect on a successful collaborative externally funded research project. At the end of the study, a survey was used to investigate how collaboration occurred among the 26 researchers involved, who were spread over nine countries to collect data on a sponsored research project led by the authors who were the principal investigators. We also compare our findings from the original project with findings from a second survey of a purposeful sample of ten project management researchers who have conducted or are conducting collaborative research in order to validate our findings.FindingsThrough this study, we were able to compare the reasons for increased collaboration in scientific research reported in the literature with what we learnt from our own experience in collaborating on a large-scale project across geographical boundaries and cultures around the world. We were also able to get some insights on enablers and barriers to collaboration from peers who have collaborated on project management research from the second survey. We found that, although some of the reasons explained in the literature were confirmed in our study (e.g. the reputation of lead researchers), some other reasons (e.g. the prestige of institutions) were not that important. The conclusions section of this article provides a more detailed comparison. We also found that using a project management approach would deliver better outcomes. The literature on scientific collaboration was divided on the value of a project management approach and preferred a combination of firmness and flexibility. We found that using action research as a meta-methodology to reflect on our research gave us further insights into why we did what we did at certain critical points in our research that moved us forward.Research limitations/implicationsOur study used two surveys with a limited number of researchers to compare what was found in the literature on reasons for collaboration in scientific research and how research outcomes were measured using citation rates. Conducting interviews or focused groups could have provided more nuanced findings. However, our findings did show that collaboration is beneficial to both experienced and early career researchers and helps them to publish in higher-ranked journals resulting in better visibility for the research. This is an interesting observation and merits further investigation. Theoretical implications: Findings from this research contribute to the broad literature on collaborative research in science and social science with a focus on practice-based fields such as project management where collaboration between academics and practitioners is becoming important.Practical implicationsThe study provides some insights into the reasons for processes used and benefits from collaboration in project management research. Our findings have also been validated with our peers. Thus, this study will be useful for setting up and managing collaborative research in project management.Social implicationsEffective collaboration in research can provide social value through mentoring of early career researchers.Originality/valueThis is the first detailed study of collaborative research in project management. It also proposes an action research model that can be used to retrospectively analyse long-term research projects to reflect upon and improve.

Capacidade Absortiva em Gestão de Projetos: Uma Revisão Sistemática de Literatura

Objetivo: O presente estudo teve como propósito compreender a estrutura intelectual dos estudos sobre capacidade absortiva na área de gestão de projetosMétodo: Para este fim, foi realizada uma revisão sistemática de literatura dos artigos publicados sobre capacidade absortiva no International Journal of Project Management (IJPM), e Project Management Journal (PMJ), e International Journal of Managing Projects in Business.Originalidade/Relevância: A capacidade de perceber um conhecimento externo, assimilá-lo e aplicá-lo para fins comerciais é definido como capacidade absortiva. Esta capacidade proporciona as organizações vantagens competitivas. Além disso, estudos tem apontado projetos como uma arma poderosa para criar valor organizacional. No entanto, pouco se conhece sobre capacidade absortiva em gestão de projetos e, é nesta lacuna que este trabalho se inseri.Resultados: Os principais achados apontam a existência de duas linhas de pesquisas em gerenciamento de projetos que abordam o constructo de capacidade absortiva. A primeira linha de pesquisas apresenta artigos que versam sobre a transferência de conhecimento entre projetos e projetos e organizações. Artigos nesta linha apresentam que transferência de conhecimento depende, principalmente, da organização que receberá o projeto, bem como destacou a importância dos diferentes mecanismos de integrações sociais neste processo. Na segunda linha, capacidade absortiva e performance em projetos, identificou-se os diferentes papeis da capacidade absortiva realizada e potencial no desempenho dos projetos.Contribuições teóricas/metodológicas: O artigo contribuiu com a literatura de gerenciamento de projetos quando identificou as linhas de pesquisa em que a capacidade absortiva está inserida na área e propôs uma agenda de pesquisa.

Theoretical review on critical risk factors in oil and gas construction projects in Yemen

PurposeThe oil and gas construction projects are affected negatively by the drop in oil price in recent years. Thus, most engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) companies are opting to optimize the project mainly to mitigate the source of risks in construction to achieve the project expectation. Risk factors cause a threat to the project objectives regarding time, cost and quality. It is additionally a vital component in deviating from the client's expectation of productivity, safety and standards. This research aims to investigate the causes of risk in the oil and gas construction projects in Yemen.Design/methodology/approachA comprehensive literature review from various sources including books, conference proceedings, the Internet project management journals and oil and gas industry journals was conducted to achieve the objectives of this study. This initial work was predicated strictly on a literature review and the judgments of experts to develop the risk factor framework for the oil and gas construction projects in Yemen.FindingsThe authors found a few studies related to risk factors in oil and gas construction projects and shared a similar view about general construction projects. However, only a fraction of the factors accepted have included the variances of other studies on a regional basis or specific countries, such as the Yemen situation, due to the differences between the general construction industry and oil and gas industry. Moreover, the factors of these attributes were still accepted due to their applicability to the oil and gas industry, and no significant variances existed between countries. Research has indicated that 51 critical factors cause risks in the oil and gas construction projects in Yemen. Such risk factors can be divided into two major groups: (1) internal risk factors, including seven critical sources of risks, namely client, contractor, consultant, feasibility study and design, tendering and contract, resources and material supply and project management; and (2) external risk factors, including six sources of critical risk factors, namely national economic, political risk, local people, environment and safety, security risk and force-majeure-related risk factors. A risk factor framework was developed to identify the critical risk factors in the oil and gas construction projects in Yemen.Research limitations/implicationsThis research was limited to the oil and gas construction projects.Practical implicationsPractically, this study highlights the risk factors that cause a negative effect on the success of oil and gas construction projects in Yemen. The identification of these factors is the first step in the risk management process to develop strategic responses for risks and enhance the chances of project success.Social implicationsThe identification of risks factors that cause the failure of construction projects helps develop response strategies for these risks, thereby increasing the chances of project success reflected in the oil and gas sector, which is a main tributary of the national economy in developing countries.Originality/valueThis research is the pioneer for future investigations into this vital economic sector. Given the lack of resources and studies in the field of construction projects for the Yemeni oil and gas sector, the Yemeni government, oil companies and researchers in this field are expected to benefit from the results of this study. The critical risk factors specific to the oil and gas construction projects in Yemen should be further investigated with focus only on Yemen and its oil and gas industry players.

The chief project officer: a new executive role for turbulent times

PurposeWhile it is common for most C-suite executives to have substantial project responsibilities, many do not have a strong understanding of project management leading to significant failures. As projects are the main mechanisms for implementing changes, project performance has disproportional impact on the competitiveness and viability of organizations. This paper aims to attempt to raise awareness of the Chief Project Officer (CPO) role and lay out important skills and capabilities that are needed for managers to ascend to this role as well as key topics of concern when preparing the mindset to be a successful CPO.Design/methodology/approachThe authors have based this research on reviewing publications from the project management journals and publications, interviews of project management professionals and drawing from our industry experience in the field of project management.FindingsMost organizations have project managers, either formal or informal, to lead projects. As project environment intensifies across industries, larger organizations rely on a project executives and project management office to oversee projects and performance of C-suite tasks. However, these projects and project management office (PMO) managers often lacks the authority and legitimacy to fully carry out the expected function. This is a clear gap in organizational management, and the gap is growing as more resources are dedicated to projects. Many organizations are equipped with the human resource to develop a CPO, the authors identify five main skills and 20 key topics that are crucial to the success of this vital role.Originality/valueWhile the awareness of the CPO is still in its infancy, most organizations have equivalent or emerging senior project executive roles that may evolve and become CPOs. Today, organizations are increasingly pushed to pursue project-oriented structures to a rapidly changing environment, global market and fast-paced technological advances. It is likely that the CPO role will grow and become a crucial component in top management teams in the coming years to help organizations in moving forward to achieve their strategic goals and objectives.

Several Notes on the Existential Hermeneutic Phenomenology for Project Management and Possibilities of Its Extension by Other Existential Concepts: Case Study From the Research Project Team

In this article, we follow up the approach of employing existential hermeneutic phenomenology (EHP) (Rolfe et al., 2016) published in Project Management Journal® and we show that this innovative method, useful in managerial self-development, represents an important tool for learning not only in the private sector, but also in public research projects where managerial skills are required. In this article, we propose an extended EHP framework that includes the original ideas of phenomenologists Fink and Patočka. We present the results of our interpretative phenomenological analysis study, where issues of communication and interpersonal relationships emerge as key problems in project work.

Sistem Informasi Pengelolaan Tugas Akhir Mahasiswa dan Jurnal Penelitian Internal Jurusan Teknik Informatika Politeknik Negeri Ketapang

Information system is a matter that must be owned by an agency to be able to support managerial activities and performance in any field. Each agency must have its own information system. The system built in this study is the Final Project Management and Internal Research Journal of the Informatics Engineering Department at the Ketapang State Polytechnic. This analysis is used by collecting data in research. In designing, the authors create a computerized work through the process of designing component models, databases, and user interface components. This system is designed to provide information for students about each Final Project from students of the Informatics Engineering Study Program at the State Polytechnic of Ketapang. Final Project Management can provide services to students. Therefore this study aims to develop IT technology in the Informatics Engineering Department of the Ketapang State Polytechnic. This system was built to facilitate users such as admins and students in managing student final assignments.

Qualitative Research Submissions to Project Management Journal®

Qualitative Research Submissions to <i>Project Management Journal^®</i>

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF THE INFLUENCE OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE ASPECTS ON PROJECT SUCCESS

Recently the global trend to organize the activities of companies in different spheres and sectors of the economy on the project principle has become more relevant and acute. Heads of companies currently pay particular attention to the assessment of the result of the project and find the factors that affect its success. At the first stage of development of this problem, the researchers focused on the study of the indicators of the “iron triangle”, on the achievement the strategic goals of the company or on the meeting the interests of the project customers. Contemporary scholars focus on a wider range of project success factors, their ambiguity and multi-dimensionality. Organizational culture of a project is one of the most important factors as, on the one hand, its impact is well recognised, but on the other hand it is difficult to identify its impact as the culture interacts with other factors. Therefore, it is difficult to determine the boundaries of the impact. However, extending the success factors of a project to include aspects of organizational culture provides managers with an additional tool to achieve project results. The purpose of the article is to test the OCPS (Organizational Culture – Projects Successful) method that has been modified by the author according to the features of the Russian economy. The method allows determining the impact of organizational culture on the project success in different branches of activity. The research is based on a systematic and synergistic approach that considers the project success as a complex system in which the effect of the control action is not directly proportional to the efforts made. This is due to a wide range of possible factors that affect the success of the project, a high degree of uncertainty of the environment, as well as a variety of internal impulses of an organization. The method has been applied and tested in the case study of companies operating in a construction industry as a project is the main type of business for them. In this sector of economy, projects can attract large cash flows. However, unsuccessful projects lead to financial instability of a company. Qualitative and quantitative methods have been used in the study. The main results that have been obtained are 1) the determined aspects of organizational culture that affect the project success in the organisations operating in construction industry of economy: teambuilding, external communication and leadership; 2) the generation of criteria for their assessment and recommendations on the use of the identified aspects of organizational culture in order to increase the probability of success of construction projects. For this purpose a matrix of levels of success of construction projects has been proposed. The application of the matrix allows quickly responding to the problems existing in the project team. The obtained scientific results will allow project managers to get an additional tool to study the aspects that affect the success of an organization’s projects, as well as to identify the elements, influencing on which increases the opportunity to achieve project results. Further studies will be devoted to the testing of the suggested method in the case study of projects made by companies operating in other branches of economy. Subsequently, it will verify the method in the context of applicability to organizations regardless of their sphere of activity. Keywords project management, project success, organizational culture, organizational culture aspects, project efficiency, OCPS methods, construction industry of economy, institutional peculiarities.