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We develop a model of practices undertaken by project managers to address the challenges of organizational fields in an emerging economy context. We anchor the model in a qualitative study of project managers’ activities in a major construction industry firm in India. We make three contributions. First, our study illustrates how the micro activities of project managers, in coordination with the actions of senior management, address the emerging economy challenges, and project managers’ responses hold lessons for the emerging literature on “projects as practice.” Second, we augment the dominant cognitive orientation in the discussion of organizational fields in project management literature with a practice perspective. Finally, we enrich the institutional theory stream in project management. In addition to the mechanisms identified in that stream of literature, our data suggest that the activities of project managers in major construction projects may act as a mechanism of transition in emerging economies. While the project managers in the Indian construction industry firm undertook numerous field building activities that were crucial for their projects’ success, these activities were simultaneously addressing major gaps in the economic infrastructure of India. Thus, our data portray construction industry managers as not merely engaged in project execution, but as active participants in the economic transition of a country. Similarly, labor and supplier markets in India were underdeveloped, and the projects had to bear the cost of this development.

Sustainable social responsibility (SSR) toward multiple stakeholders is proclaimed as an obligation of firms rather than a voluntary deed. Keeping in view the stipulation of sustainability, this paper examines the influence of SSR on sustainable competitive position (SCP) and firm performance (FP) in the context of 307 Chinese small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises. The results indicate a significant influence of aggregated and segregated SSR on SCP and FP. With the exception of SSR toward owners, the dimensions of SSR toward employees, the environment, the community, suppliers, and customers exhibit a significant positive influence on SCP and FP. Simultaneously, the results show that SCP has a mediating role in the relationship between SSR and FP. The findings of the study inculcate the managers to stretch substantial consideration to the interests of multiple stakeholders rather than owners only. Based on the evaluation, theoretical and practical implications are presented for managers, owners, and local governments.

Project managers experience unique careers that are not yet sufficiently understood, and more people than ever before are pursuing such careers. The research on project management and careers is therefore urgently needed in order to better understand the processes and systems shaping the careers of project managers. We address this gap by reviewing several key career theories and constructs and examining how these are mobilized to understand project managers’ careers in existing research. Our main conclusion is that boundaryless career theory has been the dominant career perspective in project management research, whereas other career theories—specifically protean career theory, social cognitive career theory, career construction theory, and sustainable career theory—are far less often mobilized as a basis for studies. We also find that some of the most popular constructs in careers research, such as career success and employability, have been used in recent project management research. However, their use in these studies is often implicit and does not necessarily leverage existing work from the careers field. We argue that there is strong potential for further and more systematic integration between project management and careers research in order to enrich both fields, and we offer a research agenda as a starting point.

This exploratory research examines who supports what aspects of career development on projects. Our main finding is that, although project professionals receive support from formal and informal sources, a compensatory mechanism is at play. When support does not come from direct line managers, project professionals are compelled to initiate informal practices, including mentoring, buddy systems, and communities of practice. Practical implications arise for organizations regarding how to ensure sufficient mechanisms are in place to compensate for lack of line management career support and to allow project professionals to access the development opportunities they need by supporting their self-initiated efforts. Project Management Institute

We explore publishing trends regarding HRM and PBO in the main journals in the field of project management to highlight key empirical and theoretical contributions during the period 1996–2016. We offer three contributions to the field of project management. The first is theoretical where we analyze twenty years of research in key project management journals by adapting and extending the framework of Wright and Boswell (2002), and identifying categories of HRM research at three levels of analysis. This analysis provides an overview integrating exemplary research to date on the HRM-PBO link at different levels, showing areas where research is well-developed and also areas that, while promising, have not been examined in a systematic manner to date. Our second contribution is that we highlight a variety of theoretical as well as methodological resources from the HRM field that can be applied in project studies and in so doing promote cross-fertilization of ideas and approaches between these two fields. Finally, a key managerial contribution is that we introduce the project as a temporary organization level of analysis, explicitly making visible HRM practices on the project. This can guide both HRM practitioners, and project managers, in terms of the importance of projects as sites for human resource management and employment activities including careers, employee participation and employment relations all of which are critical issues and deserve more attention.

This chapter began by providing an explanation of what the literature has to say about stakeholder engagement and the entities that may be considered legitimate stakeholders. It went on to present a stakeholder spectrum in Figure 14.1, ranging from those with direct to those with indirect impact and interactions, and the discussion led towards stakeholder legitimacy, with Table 14.2 describing differences between stakeholder approaches and Figure 14.2 illustrating the stakeholder-engagement spectrum. The discussion then moved from a general to a specific IPD-stakeholder perspective. The chapters aim in shaping the discussion of current best practice in stakeholder engagement was focussed by posing two questions: 1 What processes best facilitate stakeholders engagement and action with both external and internal stakeholders to successfully realise a project? 2 How are these stakeholder-engagement processes enacted in practice within an IPD alliancing context? The first question was answered by analysis of the general stakeholder-engagement processes reported upon in several case study examples. This last section of the chapter answered research question 2 by providing examples of how stakeholder practice takes place in alliancing with case study insights from both Australia and Finland. The chapter provided a valuable new contribution to stakeholder literature with its specific focus on stakeholder engagement from an IPD-alliancing perspective

Purpose – As a transitional country and the newest EU Member State, Croatia is facing a more turbulent business environment, which imposes a need for change of companies seeking to achieve a competitive advantage. Being a labour-intensive business, adaptation of construction companies’ strategy strongly depends on the underlying values of their employees. The purpose of this paper is to determine cultural profiles within the construction industry in Croatia. Design/methodology/approach – The research has been conducted using inferential analysis based on primary and secondary data sources. After an extensive literature review, the empirical research was conducted based on a national sample. In all, 108 managers working in construction companies were surveyed using the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument. Reliability of variables was tested by calculating Cronbach α reliability coefficients. Differences among identified mean scores were examined by ANOVA analysis. Findings – The results were analysed in respect of the size, core business, regional orientation and ownership of the respondents’ employing companies. The findings show that, on average, construction companies in Croatia currently function with domination of the hierarchy type of organizational culture, which insufficiently responds to the increasingly competitive environment. Additionally, the study identified the clan as the preferred culture type in Croatian construction companies. Originality/value – The paper offers insights into the organizational culture of Croatian construction companies, which has not been studied before. The value of the paper is the novelty of findings regarding existing and preferred cultural profiles, which have the potential to improve team cohesiveness, team leading, communication among the main stakeholders and efficiency of performance in this transitional country’s construction industry.

In this special issue on project stakeholder management, the aim is to advance the understanding of this topic by looking into theory outside the project management field and by presenting findings from case studies. In this overview article, we identify the theoretical roots of the stakeholder concept and the current state of the field. We point to early proponents of stakeholder thinking. In addition, we point to recent concepts and developments outside the project management field that are relevant in the project management context; then, we introduce the articles included in the special issue; and, finally, we identify other relevant publications.

According to research, stakeholder disappointment is a root problem within projects. In this article, the dilemmas related to stakeholder inclusiveness, in other words, engaging a broad range of stakeholders, are discussed. Based on a longitudinal case study, three propositions are offered: Applying stakeholder inclusiveness in a project (1) increases the likelihood of more engaged and satisfied stakeholders; (2) increases the danger of losing focus on those stakeholders who possess the most critical resources for the project's survival and progress; and (3) increases the danger of inducing stakeholder disappointment due to expectation escalation and impossibility of embracing conflicting requirements and wishes.

It is increasingly common for work activities to take place in projects, and projects are therefore of growing importance as sites for career development, for leading and managing professional workers, and for individual and organizational development. Links between human resource management (HRM) activities that occur on projects, and their broader implications for project-based organizations in terms of knowledge, learning, and competence development, are therefore important foci for research. Projects are also important from the perspective of the well-being, ethical treatment, and motivation of workers. Projects are established within and between organizational functions (Bredin & Söderlund, 2011) but also span organizational boundaries (Lundin & Steinthórsson, 2003; Swart & Kinnie, 2014). Projects involve people from within and between organizational departments and also within and between disciplinary specialties. The implications of project-based organizing for managing human resources would appear to be significant (Huemann, 2015; Keegan, Huemann, & Turner, 2012; Palm & Lindahl, 2015; Söderlund & Bredin, 2006; Vicentini & Boccardelli, 2014), and yet traditional HRM models, where projects are not a key consideration, continue to dominate mainstream HRM theorizing (Swart & Kinnie, 2014). In mainstream HRM theorizing, traditional long-term and stable employment relationships are assumed and focal organizations are those with clearly defined internal and external boundaries. Project management literature has also traditionally downplayed what could be called the human factor – human capital or people aspects of project organization and management (Keegan & Turner, 2003). A shift from the mainly technical to increasingly people-focused aspects of project management has, however, been discernible in the past decade (Huemann, Keegan, & Turner, 2007). Project management researchers have started to explore more systematically HRM issues and their possible contribution to the performance of organizations that do most of their work in projects (Bredin & Söderlund, 2011). The systematic study of project professionals’ careers has developed recently, reflecting an increased appreciation of the importance of projects as a major part of many organizations (Crawford, French, & Lloyd-Walker, 2013; Hölzle, 2010) and the resulting increased importance of HRM issues and “people capabilities” (Bredin, 2008) required of project-based organizations is slowly increasing. Similarly, even though HRM theorists have not, to date, fully embraced the importance of the project context for practices, processes, and outcomes, this too appears to be changing as studies of HRM become more contextually sensitive.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze how various approaches to stakeholder management, as well as sustainable development principles, are included in internationally‐used project management standards; and to consider the demands these approaches and principles place on project stakeholder management.Design/methodology/approachAn analytical framework was developed based on stakeholder theory within general management, as well as on sustainability research. Desk research was carried out by applying the analytical framework to three project management standards: ICB, PMBOK and PRINCE2.FindingsThe research findings suggest that stakeholder issues are treated superficially in the project management standards, while putting stakeholder management in the context of sustainable development would ask for a paradigm shift in the underpinning values. The current project stakeholder practices represent mainly a management‐of‐stakeholders approach, i.e. making stakeholders comply to project needs, whereas a management‐for‐stakeholders approach may be beneficial.Research limitations/implicationsAs the analysis is based on document studies of bodies of knowledge, the authors cannot be sure to what extent the standards represent real‐life practices. However, the standards are developed by practitioners agreeing on common practices. Further, they are used to certify project managers worldwide. Therefore, the authors find it safe to claim that the findings are relevant when discussing project management practices.Originality/valueThe value of this paper lies in the enrichment of the understanding of project stakeholder management by applying concepts from general stakeholder theory and sustainable development research.

This paper debates upon the adoption of a social learning platform to support the highly dynamic industry of consumer electronics' providers, acknowledging the role of emerging technologies on the delivery of efficient lifelong learning solutions. The discussion is based on mixed research methods, in which structured interviews and online questionnaires were used and customized for various stakeholders of such a social learning platform within the Danube region: students, professors, representatives of career development centers of universities and private companies. Having a clear regional value, the conclusions can still easily be extended to the world-wide current context, in which individuals are challenged to constantly further develop, to stay attractive on the labour market and aligned with continuously changing trends of digital age.

The chapter describes the importance of balancing risk reduction and “taken risks” and what role a holistic risk identification plays in the context of Sustainable Development (SD). It provides a theoretical background on SD, Risk Management and the Environmental Impact Analysis (EIA). It discusses the implementation of SD in the EIA as one example for a holistic risk identification. The link between SD and risk management is discussed and the identified learning potentials for further developing traditional risk identification methods are explained. A risk identification explicitly considering SD as well as considering project and stakeholder risks is presented within a case study. The case study project is Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) of a wind park farm in Brazil from the supplier perspective. Based on SD both, the risks of the project as well as the risks of the project stakeholders are considered. Whereby the chapter shares the risk identification as such as well as the process for which a systemic board constellation was applied.

The topic of what human resource management (HRM) responsibilities are devolved from the HRM department to line managers has attracted much interest in recent years. We report findings from a study on the devolution of HRM practices in four project-oriented companies (POCs) and argue that although HRM practices are carried out beyond the HRM department, they are also carried out beyond the line. While the literature on devolving HRM responsibilities to line management is burgeoning, the HRM responsibilities of managers beyond the line organization are neglected. We make two contributions to the literature. Firstly, our study reveals that some HRM practices are the domain of the project manager rather than either the line manager or the HRM department. The complex interplay of the roles of the HRM department, line management and project management creates challenges and pitfalls where people are managed across the boundaries of the permanent and temporary organization. We identify a potentially powerful role for the HRM department in both monitoring and guiding the different players from the line and the project organizations, and in protecting the well-being of employees whose work traverses these organizational boundaries. Our second contribution is that we map the diversity of practices in different POCs for managing the interplay between the three main parties delivering HRM practices and offer project orientation as a contextual indicator that contributes to diversity in HRM practices.

Our point of departure is the performance paradox in major projects. The use of projects as a means to deliver strategy for firms, policy for governments, and as a core business process for earning...

The paper reports on a longitudinal multi method case study of a company from the telecommunication industry. The company has developed into a project-oriented company during the last 12 years (1997–2009). In this paper the development is analyzed and structured into phases. The limits of planning and managing change processes in practice are reflected. The development of the case study company towards project-orientation was rather ad hoc than planned and structured. The findings indicate that in a project-oriented company Human Resource Management also needs to change from an administration function to become a proactive business partner supporting project-oriented management.

As part of a wider study into human resource management (HRM) practices in project-oriented organizations, we investigated the issue of employee well-being. Project-oriented organizations adopt temporary work processes to deliver products and services to clients. This creates a dynamic work environment, where additional pressures can be imposed on the employee from fluctuating work-loads, uncertain requirements, and multiple role demands. These pressures can create issues for employee well-being and ethical treatment, which need to be managed. HRM has traditionally had two roles, a management support role, providing the organization with competent people to undertake the work processes, and an employee support role, caring for the well-being of employees. In this paper we report our results on the HRM practices adopted in project-oriented organizations to fulfil the second role. We find that by and large in project-oriented organizations the management support role dominates, and they are not very good at caring for employees. The need for profit and responding to client demands often takes precedence over employee well-being. However, some of the organizations we interviewed have adopted HRM practices to care for employees, and we report those. Also providing employees with career development opportunities is as important for the individual as it is for the organization, and we report practices for that.

Human resource management (HRM) can be viewed as core processes of the project-oriented company, affecting the way the organization acquires and uses human resources, and how employees experience the employment relationship. Knowledge about HRM is produced by researchers and theorists who, through publishing their work in books and journals, construct knowledge in particular ways and in so doing frame the way HRM debates take shape in the academic and practitioner literatures. In most of the extant literature HRM is framed primarily in terms of large, stable organisations, while other organisational types, such as, those relying on projects as the principle form of work design, are marginalised in discussions about what HRM is and how it should be practiced. The authors argue that due to specific characteristics of the project-oriented company, particularly the temporary nature of the work processes and dynamic nature of the work environment, there exist specific challenges for both organisations and employees for HRM in project-oriented companies, and that these have – been neither widely acknowledged nor adequately conceptualised in the extant mainstream HRM or project management literatures. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of past research on HRM in the context of projects, published in the project management, general management, and HRM literatures. We develop a model of what we see as the critical HRM aspects of project-oriented organizing, based on prior research and use it to structure the review. Finally we summarize what we see as the major shortcomings of research in the field of HRM in the project-oriented company and outline a research agenda to address outstanding areas of research on this topic.

The consideration of Sustainable Development (SD) becomes more and more important for investments and the projects which implement those investments. In the project initiation process, the decision regarding the realization of an investment is made. Analyzing the investment is one of the main tasks of the project initiation process. Thus, this process is identified as most important for the integration of SD principles. The authors define SD with the following principles: economic, ecologic, and social-orientation; short, mid, and long term orientation as well as local, regional, and global-orientation. Furthermore, SD is value-based and considers values such as transparency, fairness, trust, etc. In this chapter, the authors describe the concept of responsible and ethical investment, which may also provide the basis for an investment decision within a project's initiation. While global project and program management standards show very limited consideration of comprehensive investment analysis, the authors draw on the Logical Framework Approach used by the World Bank to see how SD principles are considered in investment analysis methods. They then propose the integration of SD principles into the discipline of project initiation. This more holistic approach considers the investment life cycle, the consideration of different stakeholders, and investment method, which explicitly integrates SD principles.

submission deadline: 1 October 2015 Paper submission deadline: 1 March 2016 Notifications to authors: 1 June 2016 Expected publication date: early 2017. References Achman, R., 2013. Stakeholders' perspectives on sustainability in project management. In: Silvius, A.J.G., Tharp, J. (Eds.), Sustainability Integration for Effective Project Management. IGI Global Publishing. Bal, M., Bryde, D., Fearon, D., Ochieng, E., 2013. Stakeholder engagement: achieving sustainability in the construction sector. Sustainability 6, 695–710. BSR/GlobeScan State of Sustainable Business Poll, 2012. . Retrieved from. http://www.globescan.com/component/edocman/?task=document. viewdoc&id=43&Itemid=591. Eskerod, P., Huemann, M., 2013. Sustainable development and project stakeholder management: what standards say. Int. J. Manag. Proj. Bus. 6 (1), 36–50. Gareis, R., Huemann, M., Martinuzzi, A., 2013. Project Management & Sustainable Development Principles. Project Management Institute, New- town Square, Pa. Lundin, R.A., Soderholm, A., 1995. A theory of the temporary organization. Scand. J. Manag. 11, 437–455. Maltzman, R., Shirley, D., 2010. Green Project Management. CRC press, Boca Raton, FL, USA. Silvius, A.J.G., Schipper, R., 2014. Sustainability in project management: a literature review and impact analysis. Soc. Bus. 4 (1), 63–96. Silvius, A.J.G., Schipper, R., Planko, J., van den Brink, J., Kohler, A., 2012. Sustainability in Project Management. Gower Publishing, Farnham. Turner, J.R., Muller, R., 2003. On the nature of the project as a temporary organization. Int. J. Proj. Manag. 21 (3), 1–8. 720 M. Huemann, G. Silvius / International Journal of Project Management 33 (2015) 719–720

This chapter proposes a conceptual framework for integrating project strategy for Sustainable Development (SD) within the context of corporate sustainability strategy. Project SD strategy is the missing link between SD at the corporate level and project level. The framework draws on a literature review of concepts, definitions, and theories in strategic management, corporate sustainability, and projects. The conceptual framework presented in this book chapter has six key components. These are: (1) corporate sustainability strategy; (2) project understanding of SD and SD business case; (3) strategizing at project initiation stage; (4) project autonomy to negotiate and adapt in the project context; (5) project capability to translate corporate SD strategy to project SD strategy; and (6) project capability in stakeholder management. The premise of the framework is the compatibility of the socially constructed realities of the project and SD, as indicated in SD and project literature. The aim is to help develop new knowledge and insight into how business can integrate SD principles into core business operations such as projects from a process perspective, rather than sustainability content perspective. This chapter is based on doctoral dissertation research by the lead author.

The chapter reports on the case study project of the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) of a wind park farm in Brazil from the supplier perspective of Siemens Ltd. In the case study, researchers, together with practitioners, further developed project stakeholder analysis by explicitly integrating Sustainable Development (SD) principles. The chapter offers an operative approach and describes the working form systemic board to better handle the increasing dynamics and complexity in contemporary projects and contexts. For project stakeholder management, the consideration of SD principles means in particular: applying a more comprehensive stakeholder management approach with underpinning values that support sustainable development; integrating economic, ecologic, and social interests of project stakeholders into the project objectives to create shared benefit for the project investor and other project stakeholders; broadening the time perspective to consider not only current stakeholders but also future stakeholders of the investment initialized by the project; broadening the spatial perspective to consider local, regional as well as global impacts of the project for stakeholders; using systemic working forms to allow for making the dynamics and complexities of the project and the project contexts better visible to the project manager, the project team, and the project owner; taking consequences in the project organization which lead to more integrative project organization structures to support cooperation on a project and with its stakeholders.

The Theory of Production Competence (TPC) established the link between operational competence and organizational performance for repetitive operations; however, this link has never been established for projects and project-based operations (PBOs) despite their importance and ubiquity. This paper uses established theory on production competence in PBOs to explore whether and under what conditions it holds in PBOs. ‘Organizational project competence’ (OPC) describes the fit between organizational requirements for project delivery, and its capabilities to deliver projects.We identify four dimensions of competence: transformational, commercial, technical and network competence. It has specificity along four non-exclusive dimensions of competence: delivering technical projects, competence to deliver projects as a business and through networks, and to achieve transformation through projects. We report on four organizations who, over time, both gained and lost OPC. Operations choice of human resources, infrastructure and processes were associated with changes in competence. Competence gains required considerable effort and occurred over extended time periods, but losses were achieved with relative ease and quickly. We develop a framework for aligning project resources with strategic requirements and suggest not just that such an approach is effective for project-based operations, but under what conditions.

In this chapter quality management in projects and programs is described. It begins with a brief history on quality management and an overview on different quality management concepts. The application of general quality concepts such as certification, excellence models, reviews and audits, benchmarking, and accreditation are described in a projects context. In the chapter I differentiate between quality of the contents processes and their outputs and the management processes of the project or program and their outputs. I also make the point that the management quality can be assessed.

Heavily pressured by mounting costs and increasing competition, many enterprises have already started to search for new ways and methods of improvement to cut down expenses. Benchmarking (BM) shows the way to this aim, being a method by which new impulses, hints and understanding can be gained through direct comparison with other firms in order to achieve the maximum in one’s own enterprise.