Managing and Working in Project Society

'Project Society: a utopia or a dystopia? The authors of this book avoid such extremes, which, though attracting attention, do little to prepare people for actual changes in their working lives. Well-balanced, well-documented and rich in insights, this text analyzes systematically and creatively one of the central phenomena of our times. It should be read by practitioners and theoreticians alike; by students and professors. The transformation has already started.' Barbara Czarniawska, Torsten and Ragnar Sderberg Professor of Management Studies, Gothenburg Research Institute, University of Gothenburg

'Kudos for this masterful integration of project scholarship to make a persuasive case for the emergence of Project Society. The authors comprehensively employ three organizational archetypes for project organizing to explain how each is uniquely suited to specific project work contexts illustrated by rich cases of practice. Overall, this volume combines both a breadth and depth of scholarship that should appeal to the diverse scholarly communities whose work is skillfully integrated in each chapter.' Robert DeFillippi, Sawyer Business School, Suffolk University, Massachusetts

'This book uniquely draws together evidence and insights with regards to the apparent projectification of our societies. The book benefits from the extensive knowledge of projects and managing projects of the authors, conveyed here through an interdisciplinary perspective. The book is unashamedly polemical making the case for greater engagement with projectification in societies. I am certain this book will provoke further debate which will have significant implications for project theory and practice.' Mark Hughes, Reader in Organizational Change, CROME, Brighton Business School

'Projects are a critical part of daily life and support our constant need to expand infrastructure, improve living conditions, and thrive in an interconnected economy. Within myriad public and private sector companies, this movement toward the 'projectification' of operations promises benefits and concomitant challenges. Written by eminent scholars and leading-edge thinkers and coming at a particularly auspicious time, this book tackles, head-on, our necessary reorientation in thinking and behaving to gain benefit from a project environment.' Jeffrey K. Pinto, PhD, Andrew Morrow and Elizabeth Lee Black Chair in the Management of Technology, Black School of Business, Pennsylvania State University

'The authors of this informative book correctly emphasize that as more of our work is carried out in flexible projects rather than stable industrial frameworks, existing institutional supports - including labor laws, education, market relations and political systems - must be reimagined and reconfigured if the potential of the new forms is to be realized.' W. Richard Scott, Stanford University, California

'Many authors seem to be interested in telling others how project should...

Rolf A. Lundin is Professor Emeritus of Business Administration at Jnkping International Business School and Courtesy Professor-in-Residence at Ume School of Business and Economics. He has received several prizes and awards for his research on projects and temporary organizations, including the 2014 Project Management Institute Research Achievement Award. He has published widely, with a concentration on temporary organizations, and has edited numerous special issues of journals focusing on the area of projects. Currently, his main focus is on innovative research on projects and temporary organizations. Niklas Arvidsson is Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Sustainability and Industrial Dynamics at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. He has also been working as a management consultant for over five years. His research is focused on innovation, learning and change in organizations and industrial systems, with a particular interest in processes in which currently dominating ideas and practices are replaced by new ones. Tim Brady is Professor of Innovation in the Centre for Research in Innovation Management at Brighton Business School, the University of Brighton, and Visiting Professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering Management at the University of Oulu, Finland. He was a member of the EPSRC-funded Rethinking Project Management network, and Deputy Director of the ESRC-funded CoPS Innovation Centre. His current research interests include the development of new business models for infrastructure, the management of complex projects and programs, and learning and capability development in project-based business. Eskil Ekstedt is Professor in Business Administration and Associate Professor in Economic History at Uppsala Universitet, Sweden. He was the founding editor of the Scientific Publication series, Work Life in Transition, and the project leader of several major research programs dealing with knowledge formation, and organizational and local economic development. His research has focused on knowledge formation, temporary organizations and structural change of business and work life. Christophe Midler is Research Director at the French National Research Council (CNRS) and Professor of Innovation Management at cole Polytechnique, Paris. He has received many prizes and awards for his research on project organizing, among them Doctor Honoris Causa at Ume University, Sweden, and the 2013 PMI Research Achievement Award. His research topics include project management and innovation management in relation to organizational theory and strategy, exploring them in various industrial contexts. Jrg Sydow is Professor of Management and Chair for Inter-firm Cooperation at the School of Business and Economics, Freie Universitt Berlin, and a Visiting Professor at Strathclyde Business School in Glasgow. He is a founding co-editor of two leading German academic journals, Managementforschung and Industrielle Beziehungen and i...

Preface: contents in a nutshell; Acknowledgements; 1. Project organizing and industrial organization - transformation dilemmas; 2. Projectification trends and organizational archetypes; 3. Managing in Project Society; 4. Work and employment regimes in Project Society; 5. Institutions and projectification; 6. Trends and theory implications; References; Index.