Temporary Organizations Research Articles

New routine formation in temporary interorganizational project

Organizational routines have been a useful concept to understand how organizations work. In interorganizational settings, routines can largely influence the effectiveness of interfirm coordination and cooperation. New routines are often required to set up to facilitate the workflow between organizations and to balance competition and cooperation dynamics. Although we have a much better understanding of how routines are both for stability and change, we do not yet have a clear idea of how routines are born and established. In this paper, we chose to study the routine formation process and dynamics in a temporary interorganizational project, as establishing routine swiftly is vital for the survival and success of temporary organizations in an increasingly projectified society. Using an ethnographic approach, we investigated a Horizon 2020 innovation project and how its actors managed to establish the chicken sampling routine at the beginning of the project as fast as possible. In addition to the ostensive and performative aspect of routines, we identify a projective perspective that actors reflectively project and establish new routines in a layered process. We highlight the need to further explore when routines are born to better understand the lifecycle of organizational routines. In the end, we give practical suggestions to managers how the projective aspect of routines can be helpful in their day-to-day organizational life.

Efficient Crisis Management by Selection and Analysis of Relief Centers in Disaster Integrating GIS and Multicriteria Decision Methods: A Case Study of Tehran

In Iran, location is usually done by temporary relief organizations without considering the necessary standards or conditions. The inappropriate and unscientific location may have led to another catastrophe, even far greater than the initial tragedy. In this study, the proposed locations of crisis management in the region and the optimal points proposed by the Geographic Information System (GIS), taking into account the opinions of experts and without the opinion of experts, were evaluated according to 18 criteria. First, the optimal areas have been evaluated according to standard criteria extracted by GIS and the intended locations of the region for accommodation in times of crisis. Then, the position of each place is calculated concerning each criterion. The resulting matrix of optimal options was qualitatively entered into the Preference Ranking Organization Method for Evaluation (PROMETHEE) for analysis. The triangular fuzzy aggregation method for weighting and standard classification of criteria for extracting optimal areas using GIS and integrating entropy and the Multiobjective Optimization Based on Ratio Analysis (MOORA) method for prioritizing places in the region are considered in this research. Finally, by applying constraints and using net input and output flows, optimal and efficient options are identified by PROMETHEE V. Among the research options, only four options were optimal and efficient. A case study of the Tehran metropolis is provided to show the ability of the proposed approach for selecting the points in three modes, with/without applying weights and applying crisis management.

КОРПОРАТИВНИЙ ТАЙМ МЕНЕДЖМЕНТ: СУЧАСНА НАУКОВА КОНЦЕПЦІЯ

The necessity for corporate time management for domestic enterprises remains relevant, considering the existing and potential threats and challenges of the modern economic environment. First, the most enterprises do not have their own experience in the formation of corporate time management and corporate culture in general. Secondly, the income per employee in Ukraine is the lowest from European and world ones, which is complemented by the contradictory dynamics of income per employee. Thirdly, the challenge for the formation or improvement of corporate time management is the COVID-19 pandemic, which has changed the format of economic activity and made it necessary to apply technologies for the remote work. It is proposed to understand corporate time management as a complex of actions of the subjects for the providing of corporate time management and employees, aimed at planning, organizing and controlling working time in order to achieve the strategic goals of the enterprise. We agree with the provision that corporate time management focuses on the temporary organization of the work of all employees of the enterprise, the consequence of which is the effective use of time by each of them. It was revealed that the main prerequisites for implementation of time management into the enterprise management system are: the growth of requirements for the business activity of the enterprise and competition in the market for goods and services, therefore, competitive advantages will be gained by those enterprises that introduce and implement effective corporate time management; an increase in the proportion of intangible assets in the value of an enterprise, the transformation of its personnel, whose activities are based on corporate time management, into the main competitive advantage; the use of modern information technologies for the implementation and realization of corporate time management; complications of external control over the activities of employees caused by the actualization of remote work in conditions of adaptive and strict quarantine in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the formation of backup information technologies and corporate time management tools

Temporary and permanent aspects of project organizing – operation and maintenance of road infrastructure

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the interdependencies between temporary and permanent aspects of project organizing and how they affect the management of public infrastructure operation and maintenance (O&M) activities.Design/methodology/approachThe paper applies a case study approach and uses Lundin and Söderholm's (1995) framework of the temporary organization (with the themes of time, task, team and transition) to distinguish between temporary and permanent aspects of organizing two infrastructure O&M projects.FindingsThis paper adds to the literature on temporary organizations by recognizing a mixture of temporary and permanent aspects of project organizing in an empirical project-level example. In line with previous research, the themes of time, task, team and transition were shown to be interdependent. Furthermore, the paper broadens the theory of temporary organizations by presenting a project organization with significant permanent aspects.Practical implicationsProject managers of public sector projects need to be aware of the possible mixture of temporary and permanent aspects of project organizing. Management of projects that are found to have a mixture of temporary and permanent aspects should combine the perspectives and management practices of both temporary and permanent organizing. Not acknowledging permanent aspects could lead to management that is not adapted to the prerequisites of project organizing in this context.Originality/valueThe findings further develop the literature on temporary organizations by recognizing that there is not only a mixture of temporary and permanent aspects between the temporary organization and its permanent environment but there is also a mixture of temporary and permanent aspects of organizing within project organizations.

International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals

The article examines the legal and institutional foundations of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals. The analysis of the jurisdictional powers and functions of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals and the practice of its judicial activities is carried out. The problematic issues in the activities of the institutions of this Mechanism and the ways of their solutions have been identified. The establishment of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals is linked to the implementation of the UN Security Council’s concept of establishing a «small, temporary and effective organization» in the fight against international crime. The jurisdiction and functions of the International Residual Mechanism are defined both directly in UN Security Council Resolution 1966 (2010) and in its Charter, which is an integral part (annex) to this Resolution. Under the mandate, the functions of the International Residual Mechanism include final judicial proceedings in the first and appellate instances, which are inherited from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, including retrials, appeals, pending judgments, in the order of review and consideration of cases of contempt of court. Concentrating scholars’ efforts on the study of the legal and institutional framework of international criminal tribunals, in particular the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, will help to increase the effectiveness of the fight against international crimes. Key words: international court, international crimes, international residual mechanism, jurisdiction, cooperation, International Criminal Tribunal, UN Security Council, International Tribunal, Statute of the International Residual Mechanism.

Enabling the Project Owner Role for Benefits Realization Management: a case study of an IT project in a public organization

Added value from projects doesn’t depend only on the temporary organization; rather it is deeply modulated by the actions undertaken by the permanent organization that have defined the project and will transform the project deliverables in outcomes, and then in organizational benefits. Research has introduced the role of the project owner as an organizational capability to realize benefits. Based on a case study, this paper aims at analyzing the organizational enablers allowing the adoption of the project owner role for the benefit realization. We identified six organizational enablers, such as benefits management practices, change management practices, organizational leadership, information infrastructure, strong relationship with the project supplier and urgency for realizing benefits. Our results reveal that organizational enablers for enabling the project owner role emerged within and throughout the entire business unit that has launched the project and obtained the expected benefits.

Varieties of collaboration: On the influence of funding schemes on forms and characteristics of international collaborative research projects (ICRPs)

AbstractThis article discusses characteristics and forms of international collaborative research projects (ICRPs) and provides conceptual considerations as well as initial empirical insights on the impact of funding conditions on ICRPs in the social sciences and external project funding. Specifically, by presenting a German case study of funding formats in two national funding institutions and the funding tools of the European Commission in Horizon 2020. The findings draw on desk‐research and a review of research on the relationship between funding and international research collaboration. The analysis used a conceptual perspective, that understands research projects as temporary organisations, to discuss characteristics of international collaborative research projects and to provide a descriptive analysis of the funding conditions for ICRPs. The article systematises different forms of ICRPs and suggest differentiating them along their variety by four ICRP attributes: size, geographical distance, funding structures and funding formats. The discussion section elaborates on implications for future research and practice​.

Local Autonomy in Temporary Organizations: The Case of Smart City Pilots

Local actors are to an increasing extent engaging in national and European Union (EU)–based development and sustainability agendas. These ventures often materialize in the form of temporary organizations such as pilots and projects. This article contributes to debates on project-based, experimental and temporary organizations by unpacking the organizational architecture of pilots and analyzing how the democratic autonomy of local public actors is formed. Through the example of smart city pilots, the study shows how a range of intersecting relations and hierarchies enable and circumscribe public-sector autonomy—from local actors’ attempts to align pilots with political goals to the limitations of standardized and scalable knowledge and strict funding requirements.

Mobilizing the Temporary Organization: The Governance Roles of Selection and Pricing

Many marketing transactions between buyers and suppliers involve short-term collaborations or so-called temporary organizations. Such organizations have considerable value-creation potential but also face challenges, as evidenced by their mixed performance records. One particular challenge involves relationship governance, and in this respect, temporary organizations represent a conundrum: On the one hand, they pose significant governance problems due to the need to manage numerous independent specialists under time constraints. On the other hand, temporary organizations lack the inherent governance properties of other organizational forms such as permanent organizations. The authors conduct an empirical study of 429 business-to-business construction projects designed to answer two specific questions: First, how are particular selection and pricing strategies deployed in response to monitoring and coordination problems? Second, does the joint alignment between the two mechanisms and their respective attributes help mitigate cost overruns? The authors follow a formal hypothesis test with a series of in-depth interviews to explore and to gain insight into the validity of the key constructs, explanatory mechanisms, and outcomes. Managerially, the authors answer the long-standing question of how to mobilize a temporary organization. Theoretically, they develop an augmented “discriminating alignment” heuristic for relationship management involving multiple governance mechanisms and attributes.

Stakeholder Management of Temporary Sport Event Organizations

The aim of this study is to investigate, through the application of stakeholder theory, the challenges faced by the Bergen 2017 Organizing Committee when hosting the 2017 Road World Championship in cycling. Data for the case study were collected through interviews with eight senior representatives from stakeholders such as the Organizing Committee Bergen 2017 and international and national federations, event observations, and from the analysis of selected documents. The study examined the development of stakeholder relationships through three phases in the development and delivery of the event (i. e., preevent, event time, and postevent). The Bergen 2017 organizing committee members were referred to as happy amateurs by the media but proved to be astute in managing their relationship with the international federation as a primary stakeholder and resourceful in coping with a shortage of professional staff due to the help by volunteers. The research illustrates the problematic nature of stakeholder management in temporary event organizations and how it is possible to host a major event with limited resources, in terms of skills, time, staff, finance, and support from important stakeholders. These results have significant implications for event organizers facing similar resource challenges and who have to manage a complex network of stakeholders. The results also have implications for stakeholder theory in relation to the distinctive challenges arising from the temporary nature of the organizing committee and their evolution through the different phases.

The nature of IT use in temporary organizations

Temporary organizations (TOs) are organizational forms characterized by finite-life duration, novel tasks, heterogeneity of organizational members, and different phases of work. They have a greater proportion of emergent processes than more enduring organizations do. This poses particular challenges in the use of IT because it is difficult to foresee all IT applications that are required. This paper examines how IT is used to support the execution of processes in TOs. The empirical setting for our study is a particular and exemplar temporary organization: the 2016 Olympic Games Organizing Committee. Through immersive, in depth and qualitative fieldwork, based on participant observation, interviews, and internal documents, we find that TOs have a dynamic mix of operational processes in different phases of work. Accordingly, they have four patterns of IT use: (1) planned use - of formal IT, (2) planned use - of informal IT, (3) emergent use - of informal IT as a substitute for formal IT, and (4) emergent use - of informal IT combined with formal IT. We develop a theoretical explanation for how the patterns address the distinctive conditions facing TOs (i.e. a novel task done in a finite time, by multiple and heterogeneous people, across different phases of work) and its dynamic mix of processes through both planned and improvised use of IT. Practical implications include the impact of improvised IT use on aspects such as security, compliance, integration, and traceability.

Studying the Management of Project Networks: From Structures to Practices?

Although certainly of a much older (or even ancient) origin, during the last two decades or so project networks have become an established object of management and organization research in general and project management studies in particular. While projects are a common, if not the most common form of a temporary organization, project networks are typically conceived as being more than an only temporary form, combining – like other forms of project-based organizing – the temporary with the permanent in a specific manner. For in the case of project networks, the coordination of the temporary is enabled (but also restrained) by the more permanent networks of past relationships to other critical actors and their resources on the one hand. On the other, however, the prospects to maintain or re¬activate these relationships for future collaborations have an influence on respective coordinative practices in the present. As a consequence of coordinating relationships in the shadow of the past as well as in the shadow of the future, project networks are strictly speaking of a semi-temporary rather than a merely temporary nature. While there is still some debate about how exactly to define and conceptualize this particular organizational form, project managers have always known that in many if not most settings there is more to managing projects than managing just the temporary. Respective management tasks indeed even go, as will be shown shortly, beyond having an eye on the interface to the surrounding, immediate and more permanent structures of the organization, the inter-organizational network and/or the organizational field and how they support or constrain temporary organizing.

How Project-Based Organizations Cultivate Learning in Projects: A Social-Constructivist Perspective

A growing number of studies are now emphasizing the critical importance of learning and knowledge accumulation for firm-level competitiveness. Despite the growing awareness, relatively fewer project-based firms have institutionalized mechanisms to systematically capture new project knowledge and re-use it to improve the execution of subsequent projects. The peculiarity of projects presents unique challenges that make the cognitive approach to learning difficult to implement. As such, researchers are recommending the social constructivist perspective of learning as the most viable strategy for cultivating learning within and across projects. However, scant work has been undertaken from this sociological perspective to analyze how temporary organizations manage knowledge arising from and relating to projects. From this standpoint, the aim of this paper is to discuss the learning mechanisms of construction firms. The study adopted a quantitative strategy by employing a questionnaire survey into the learning practices of construction projects in Ghana. Drawing on preliminary findings from the literature, the study proposes a model for cultivating learning within projects from the social constructivist viewpoint. In the model, project management practitioners can purposefully nurture or structure a project learning activity through four mechanisms viz.: institutionalization, externalization, socialization and internalization. The proposed model is subsequently validated in an empirical study into the learning practices during the implementation of construction projects in Ghana. Based on the empirical results, it seems that knowledge sharing and transfers through the four aforementioned learning mechanisms proposed by the model are highly regarded within project management practice in Ghana.

A Paradox Lens to Systems Development Projects: The Case of the Agile Software Development

Research into organizations has concluded that organizational effectiveness is paradoxical (i.e., effective organizations must have simultaneously contradictory, even mutually exclusive, attributes). Although systems development projects constitute temporary organizations, researchers have largely omitted the paradox lens in their context. In this paper, I move toward rectifying the situation by focusing specifically on the agile software development (ASD) as a timely systems development approach in practice. I identify 11 interrelated and actable paradoxical tensions concerning the priority, structure, and execution of systems development projects. Each tension imposes competing demands on projects. To address them requires human ingenuity and judgement, though systems development methods and approaches can provide aid. I show that ASD comprises mechanisms for that purpose largely due to the reflective nature of the ASD process in which each retrospective assesses what went well in the previous sprint (iteration) and what could be improved in the next sprint. At the same time, ASD has built-in flexibility that makes it possible to adapt the method-in-use when deemed necessary or reasonable.

Peculiarities of territorial and temporary organization of hydrological monitoring in Buzky Gard National Nature Park

Peculiarities of territorial and temporary organization of hydrological monitoring in Buzky Gard National Nature Park

Powstanie i kulisy uchwalenia ustawy przechodniej z dnia 18 maja 1921 r. do Ustawy Konstytucyjnej z dnia 17 marca 1921 r. w sprawie czasowej organizacji władzy zwierzchniej Rzeczypospolitej

On February 10, 1919, the Legislative Seym met for the first session, whose main goal was to prepare a draft of the basic law for the reborn Poland. Over the next few months, in a specially created constitutional commission, work was carried out to create and submit to the Legislative Seym a draft of a new constitution. However, in order to ensure at least the basic framework for the functioning of the state, on February 20, 1919, a resolution of the Legislative Seym was passed entrusting Józef Piłsudski with the further exercise of the office of the Head of State. This resolution, commonly known as the Small Constitution, was formally in force until June 1, 1921, i.e. the day the March Constitution was announced. Despite the formal repeal of these provisions, they continued to function. In relation to the Seym, the provisions of the Small Constitution were formally in force until November 28, 1922, and in relation to the Head of State until December 14, 1922. However, due to noticing a legislative error in the Small Constitution and in the passing regulations, the provisions of the March Constitution were adopted on May 18, 1921; the Act passed to the Constitutional Act of March 17, 1921 on the temporary organization of the supreme power of the Republic, which “patched up” the incorrectly formulated provisions in the Small Constitution. The work was based on the literature on the Basic Law of 1921, draft laws and amendments presented in the Constitutional Committee, as well as on numerous shorthandings from the sessions of the Legislative Seym, the Seym of the Republic of Poland and the National Assembly.

Organizational practices that enable and disable knowledge transfer: The case of a public sector project-based organization

Project-based organizations (PBOs) are framed in a dynamic bi-directional interaction between the permanent organization and its temporary units (projects). The study of knowledge transfer in PBOs has focused exclusively on the knowledge transfer practices held at the realm of the temporary units; however, we still need to understand how the permanent organization can enable this knowledge transfer process. Using a deductive-inductive approach and exploring the case of a division managed as PBO in a provincial government agency in Canada, we analyzed how the practices led by the permanent organization enable the actual knowledge transfer across projects. We found that different practices conducted at the level of the permanent organization were enabling or disabling the performance of formal and informal knowledge transfer practices executed at the temporary units. In this work we show how by distorting the goal of the formal knowledge transfer practices the permanent organization pushed the project team members to the use of informal knowledge practices to overcome this flaw. We argue that a balanced deployment of formal and informal knowledge transfer practices not only can boost knowledge transfer but also can reinforce the temporary organizations’ embeddedness within the permanent organization.

Becoming part of a temporary protest organization through embodied walking ethnography

PurposeThis paper explores the consequences of researching temporary protest organizations through embodied ethnography, paying attention to how, when and why a researcher takes sides.Design/methodology/approachThe authors employed embodied walking ethnography to study Lyra's Walk, a three-day, 68-mile protest walk held in May 2019 to advocate for peace in Northern Ireland. Data were primarily ethnographic, complemented by an analysis of social media, photos, videos and media coverage.FindingsFirst the authors argue that embodied walking ethnography can provide an inhabited understanding of organizing. The social, physical and emotional experiences of walking encourage researchers to identify more closely with participants and obtain a greater understanding of the phenomena studied. Second, the authors identify that methodological choice can have a greater impact on side-taking than either the conflict setting or organization researched.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper demonstrates the promise and consequences of using embodied walking ethnography to study a mobile organization. It further illustrates the nuances and challenges of conducting ethnography in a temporary protest organization.Originality/valueThe paper makes two contributions. The novel use of embodied walking ethnography to study temporary protest organizations can lead the research to become intertwined with the temporary organization during its process of organizational becoming. With the researcher's body acting as a research tool, their sensations and emotions impact data collection, interpretation and findings.

Organizing the Usual Suspects: Structuring Temporary Organizations

Organizing the Usual Suspects: Structuring Temporary Organizations

A szervezett bűnözés hatása a rendvédelmi szervek fejlődésére

Sok tanulmány és dolgozat született már arról, hogy honnan indult, mit jelent, illetve miként és mivé fejlődött a szervezett bűnözés. Mint ahogy azzal is sokan foglalkoztak már, hogy az egyes rendvédelmi szervek hogyan fejlődtek, milyen jellemző stádiumok jelentek meg működésük során. Arról azonban már kevesebbet lehet olvasni, hogy ez a két dolog milyen kölcsönhatásban áll vagy állt egymással, pontosabban a szervezett bűnözés, valamint annak a fejlődése milyen hatásokat gyakorolt a rendvédelmi szervekre, milyen szervezeti változásokat generált egy-egy kiemelt bűncselekmény vagy egy-egy új elkövetési módszer. Jelen dolgozatban a szervezett bűnözés fogalmának és jellemzőinek meghatározását követően ezúttal az kerül bemutatásra, hogy a fejlődését és változásait milyen események, körülmények határozták meg Magyarországon, illetve milyen ideiglenes vagy állandósult szervezetek vették fel a harcot ezekkel a jelenségekkel. Végül pedig a szervezeti hatások mellett azok a képzési lehetőségek kerülnek ismertetésre, amelyek a rendvédelem működésének hatékonyságát segítették elő.