Leadership in Temporary Organizations: A Review of Leadership Theories and a Research Agenda

Projects and other temporary forms of organizing are different from standard organizational processes. As most leadership theories are based on the assumption of stable organizational environments, the increase in temporary forms of organizing poses specific challenges to leadership theories. We evaluate existing leadership theories in terms of their applicability on temporary environments and identify theories, which are adaptable to temporary settings and therefore may be the basis for empirical investigations in this field. On this basis we derive a research agenda by proposing individual leadership theories and combinations of different leadership approaches to be further assessed in research.     

Toward High Reliability Project Organizing in Safety‐Critical Projects

High reliability organizations claim to be special organizations that have consistently demonstrated safe performance in operating environments, which are simultaneously of high technical complexity, high consequence, and high tempo. This article argues that the literature on high reliability organizing, which emerged through studying day‐to‐day operations in the nuclear industry, air traffic control industry, and U.S. navy aircraft carriers, might hold important lessons for how the project management community can approach the management of safety‐critical projects—projects in which safety is of paramount importance. Its aim is to consider how high reliability organizing might be realized in these safety‐critical projects.     

Project System Vulnerability to Political Risks in International Construction Projects: The Case of Chinese Contractors

This study aims to explore the variables affecting the project system vulnerability to political risks in international construction projects. A questionnaire survey was conducted and 138 responses were received from both academia and industry. The exploratory factor analysis was then adopted to uncover the relationships among these variables. The results showed that three exposure factors (i.e., attribute‐based exposure, strategy‐based exposure, and transaction‐based exposure) and three capacity factors (i.e., core competitive capacity, relative bargain capacity, and integrate adaptive capacity) were believed to be the significant underlying factors for the project system vulnerability to political risks. Also, case studies were conducted and the results indicated that the emergent framework was suitable and tractable for application in the future. This study provides a method for measuring the project system vulnerability to political risks; thus, international construction enterprises can decrease their risk exposure and enhance their capacity for dealing with political risks in international construction projects.     

Managing the Intangible Aspects of a Project: The Affect of Vision,Artifacts, and Leader Values on Project Spirit and Success in Technology‐Driven Projects

Successful projects are often characterized by a unique spirit. Phase one results, based on 193 employees partaking in 60 projects across organizations, support a model positing that leader building activities affect employees' emotions, attitudes, and behavioral norms that are focused on expected project outcomes, termed project spirit. Spirit affects employees' contextual performance behavior, which in turn affects success as proposed. Phase two cases, designed to ground these results in technology‐driven project contexts, highlight the value of managing the project's intangible aspects captured by spirit. Quantitative and qualitative findings imply that leaders can be coached to execute behaviors that generate a project's spirit, which boosts contextual performance behavior and increases project success.     

Mastering complexity and changes in projects,economy, and society via Project Management Second Order (PM‐2)

Project Management Second Order (PM‐2) is based on new insights in modern natural and social sciences, which were analyzed in a research program. This was explained in a previously published article in this journal (Saynisch, 2010 ). PM‐2 is a new paradigm and will be the leading concept for the next decades. The concept of PM‐2 was awarded the IPMA Research Award 2007 and the International Centre for Complex Project Management Research Prize 2010. The model represents a reference model. This article will explain the genesis of PM‐2 as well as the principles, methods, and processes. Further, practical use will be discussed and real examples of transfer will be shown as well as PM‐2 in the context of project‐oriented companies. Integration aspects of CPMCS (ICCPM), ICB3 (IPMA), PMBOK® Guide/OPM3® (PMI) as a future view will be shown.     

Stakeholders’ Attributes,Behaviors, and Decision‐Making Strategies in Construction Projects: Importance and Correlations in Practice

Project managers need to make decisions on how to balance competing claims between the different stakeholders in projects. Previous studies have suggested that the choice of decision‐making strategies is highly related to stakeholders’ attributes and behaviors in practice; however, limited studies have been conducted in the construction field to analyze the importance of stakeholders’ attributes, behaviors, and decision‐making strategies, and validate the correlations between the factors and decision‐making strategies. To analyze the underlying meanings of stakeholders’ attributes, behaviors, and decision‐making strategies from the practitioners’ perspectives, and indicate the influence of stakeholder‐related factors on decision‐making strategies, an interview, questionnaire survey, and case study were adopted. Empirical studies suggest that three stakeholder attributes (power, urgency, and proximity), and four types of stakeholder behaviors (cooperative potential, competitive threat, opposite position, and neutral attitude) are perceived by the practitioners as important to dealing with stakeholder claims. Depending on stakeholders’ salience levels and behavior types, strategies of defense, compromise, or concession/adaptation are chosen and applied by project managers in practice. The findings can help project managers to proactively understand stakeholder performance, place emphasis on particular attributes and behaviors, and formulate appropriate schemes under different circumstances.