Project Management Journal

Many virtual project teams perform better when leadership is shared (rather than centralized with the formal team leader); however, team leaders are often neither prepared to identify shared leadership potential nor to actually share leadership responsibility. Based on a study of 96 globally dispersed software development teams we show that team leaders tend to underestimate the team members’ capacity to lead themselves. As a consequence, these leaders monopolize decision-making authority and provide insufficient levels of autonomy for team members to tackle their tasks. Preventing the team members from unfolding their true potential, these leaders unconsciously jeopardize virtual team performance. Paradoxically, it is thus team leaders themselves hindering leadership effectiveness in virtual teams.

Which executive profiles currently govern the construction value chain? Addressing this lively research question is the key point of our article and it appears central to scholars, practitioners, and policymakers interested in project management in general, and construction and real estate in particular. For this reason, we draw from Upper Echelons Theory in studying the executive profiles of 109 important firms currently active in Italy. Our statistical analysis shows that, although homogeneity substantially regards the executive's gender, age, and level of education, heterogeneity is associated more with his or her functional background. We thus prospect some conceptual and methodological avenues for further analyses in this challenging area of research.

Theory-based studies claim that informal processes interfere with the formal mechanisms and structures of projects in the construction sector. These processes structure and transform multi-organizations. This four-year case study reveals empirical evidence about how processes effectively evolve over time and affect formal mechanisms and structures. The results show: (1) the significant differences between what is planned and what actually unfolds in project processes; (2) how iterative processes overshadow linear ones; (3) how informality and “iterativity” eventually end up as self-, eco-, and re-organizing projects and organizations, confirming that projects (re)create the very processes and structures that initiate them.

Information technology (IT) outsourcing has been a business practice for more than two decades. Researchers have suggested successful risk management as a key factor in successful IT outsourcing projects implementation. The documented investigations, however, have mainly addressed risk management only from a single perspective of either clients or IT vendors. Considering only one perspective allows for an omission of possible risks considered critical by the other party, as suggested by agency theory. This study explored the potential perception inconsistency regarding the risks between the client and the vendor for IT outsourcing projects by using a quasi- Delphi approach. The analysis results indicated some inconsistencies in the risks perceived by the two parties: (1) the clients regarded (a) lack of vendor commitment to the project and (b) poor vendor selection criteria and process as top critical risks but the vendors didn't; and (2) on the other hand, the vendors perceived (a) unclear requirements and (b) lack of experience and expertise with project activities as significant risks but the clients didn't. Insights into how the client and the vendor perceive risks may help both parties determine how to partner and manage project risks collaboratively to succeed in outsourcing.

Project risks evolve dynamically, so variations in risk influences during the life cycle of an information system development project require analyses to devise risk management strategies cost effectively and at the appropriate stages. This study extends the Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory technique, using network theory, to assess the risk interdependencies for distinct project phases. A multiphase observation of a university information system development project in Taiwan provides a more in-depth understanding of the key risk factors. To enhance risk assessments, this study proposes integrating an interdependency indicator with risk exposure measures.

Collaborative research projects form a specific project type, aimed at organizing innovation endeavors between industry, academic, and public partners. They've become increasingly widespread and their management is challenged due to ambiguously defined goals and the heterogeneous interests of many partners. We present a situation-specific approach that enables managers to select established project management knowledge according to changing needs along the project life cycle. Making use of thematic analysis, we develop a graphical framework to describe and analyze project situations. Further we establish situation profiles as a concept to relate each situation to a management method that corresponds with its managerial needs.

Defining “project success” has been of interest for many years, and recent developments combine multiple measurable and psychosocial factors that add to this definition. There has also been research into success factors, but little research into the causal chains through which success emerges. Following the multi-dimensionality of “success,” this article shows how success factors combine in complex interactions; it describes factors contributing to project performance by a company working on two major construction programs and shows how to map and analyze paths from root causes to success criteria. The study also identifies some specific factors—some generic, some context-dependent—none of these is uncommon but here they come together synergistically.

This study aims at exploring the organizational enablers (OEs) for organizational project management (OPM) in the Chinese context. From the resource-based view of firms, we conceptualize OEs as important drivers for the business value creation processes in project-based organizations. The preliminary factor framework was constructed through literature review and expert interviews. Questionnaire surveys elicited 146 responses from Chinese project management practitioners; thereafter, factor analysis was performed to test the OE system empirically. The resulting final OE system contains 49 enablers in nine categories for three management hierarchies; this OE system, constructed by exploratory analysis and verified by confirmatory analysis, comprehensively clarifies the framework of OEs in the Chinese context; it facilitates further investigations into the interaction among OEs and their effects on organization performance. Firm managers may also find this system helpful in formulating identifiable, measurable, and manageable OE frameworks for their own firms, and enabling their organization's strategies with robust OEs.