Did Megaproject Research Pioneer Behavioral Economics?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bent Flyvbjerg
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Behavioral Economics ◽  
Social Scientist ◽  
Development Projects ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Cass Sunstein ◽  
Major Project ◽  
Management Scholarship

With Albert O. Hirschman, project management scholarship has what it lacks the most: an eminent intellectual and social scientist who has thought long and hard about project management, and especially the management of large transformative projects. Cass Sunstein, co-author of Nudge and a key contributor to behavioral economics, distinguishes Hirschman as an early behavioral economist and says that his main contribution to project management, the book Development Projects Observed, “can plausibly be counted as a work in behavioral economics.” This chapter tests Sunstein’s claim by assessing Hirschman’s work in major project management, and asks what we can learn from Hirschman, as scholars, policy makers, and project leaders. The focus is on Hirschman’s principle of the Hiding Hand, first described in Development Projects Observed, because this is rightly considered his largest idea on project management and is one of his main contributions to economics and social science.

Select Your Social Scientist with Care

1984 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-71
Author(s):  
Ray Wyatt
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Social Scientist ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Moral Criticism ◽  
Policy Guidance ◽  
Oriented Research

ABSTRACTA public policy-oriented research project in Australia is used to point out the connections between typical social science motivations, such as moral criticism, truth-seeking and policy-guidance, and the research styles which such motivations produce, such as advocacy, impracticality and expediency. Each style's reliability, fundamentalism and policy applicability are discussed and suggestions are made for testing research validity. Finally, it is shown how policy makers can interpret advice from the different sorts of social scientist more intelligently.

The Utilization of Social Scientists in the Overseas Branch of the Office of War Information

1947 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 649-667 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonard W. Doob
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Social Scientist ◽  
Initial Period ◽  
Government Service ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Total War ◽  
The Government ◽  
Armed Services

Many social scientists employed by the government or in the armed services during the war found their research and scientific wisdom not eagerly accepted, wisely interpreted, or sensibly followed by policy-makers. Unlike some of the old-line departments, the war agencies had no established procedure for utilizing social science. Social scientists had a place on the ever-changing organization charts, sometimes merely because it was somewhat vaguely felt that all kinds of brains, even academic, were necessary to win a total war. Often they had to carve out for themselves the specific rôles they wished to play. They functioned, not in accordance with the charts, but within what Mansfield and Marx call informal organizations of their own making.In many situations, there was a discrepancy between what social scientists thought they could do and what the policy-makers were prepared to let them do. Some sought deliberately to bridge the gap by promoting and marketing their disciplines and themselves. Like their colleagues in the natural sciences, they wished to be consulted when problems involving their own expertness were involved.The informal techniques that social scientists employed in behalf of social science and themselves are worth recording because certainly similar ones must often be utilized whenever social scientist meets policy-maker. They should be mentioned to any social scientist about to enter government service, so that he can at least be aware of the problem and more easily survive the initial period of disillusionment and misery. They belong, it seems, within the purview of the student of public administration.

The contribution of project management offices to addressing complexities in principal construction contracting

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahmoud Ershadi ◽  
Marcus Jefferies ◽  
Peter Rex Davis ◽  
Mohammad Mojtahedi
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Survey Study ◽  
Two Stage ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Qualitative Survey ◽  
Functional Areas ◽  
Larger Sample ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Major Project ◽  
Construction Contracting

PurposeThe purpose of this study is twofold: first, to identify major project management (PM) complexities in principal construction contracting; and second, to study the contribution of project management offices (PMOs) to addressing such complexities.Design/methodology/approachA two-stage research design was adopted through a structured literature review (SLR) and a qualitative survey study.FindingsThe two-stage study resulted in mapping out the contribution of 10 functional areas to 15 complexity factors that were retrieved from the literature and categorized using the TOE (technical, organizational and environmental) framework. Six outcomes including (1) facilitated processes, (2) improved decisions, (3) improved coordination, (4) enhanced alignment, (5) addressed uncertainties and (6) integrated oversight were identified that describe how PMOs can contribute to tackling complexities.Research limitations/implicationsSimilar to other qualitative studies, this study has some limitations in terms of the replicability of results. Regarding the exploratory nature of this study to explain the contribution of PMO to complexity, further quantitative surveys can be conducted using a larger sample to statistically examine the significance of proposed relations between capabilities and complexity factors.Practical implicationsThis study provides an understanding of the contribution of PMOs to tackling ever-increasing complexities embedded in construction contracting. The authors suggest requirements to be considered by professionals toward overcoming such complexities.Originality/valueAlthough prior studies have separately investigated PMO functions and PM complexities, this study explores the link between these two spheres to discuss one important application of PMO in this context.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT IN THE TRANSITION TO A CIRCULAR ECONOMY

2021 ◽  
pp. 21-26
Author(s):  
Sergey Bushuyev ◽  
Denis Bushuiev ◽  
Victoria Bushuieva ◽  
Olena Verenych
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Organizational Development ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Life Cycles ◽  
Development Projects ◽  
Waste Products ◽  
The World ◽  
The Impact

The problem of creating effective models, methods and tools for strategic management of projects and programs for the development of organizations in the transition to a circular economy. Global trends in the development of organizations prove that the world is transforming with acceleration. The life cycle of knowledge and technologies for managing complex projects and programs is significantly reduced. The technical and technological complexity of organizational development projects increases due to innovations. These trends create significant challenges in the development of project management systems and programs for the formation of a circular economy in Ukraine. This is especially true of projects and programs in conditions of uncertainty about the impact of COVID 19 and anticipation of a global crisis after a pandemic. Today, the application of proven best practices (benchmarking) is no longer a way forward. Forming a vision, goals and strategy for the implementation of organizational development projects in advance makes our actions rigid, not flexible. When creating a project or program begins with focusing on what is valuable to our customers and the country, it is enough for us to use best practices. But the complexity and innovative orientation of development projects of organizations in the transition to a circular economy creates a number of challenges. One of the answers to these challenges is cost-effective work on project management and development programs, taking into account the trends of transition to a circular economy. Project management teams learn to distinguish between what is valuable and what doesn't matter, this is the path that management methodologies have taken for decades. A number of projects have taken the first steps in implementing the necessary cost-effective / flexible transition that supports sustainability and adaptability to turbulent environmental changes. In the conditions of modern destructive economic relations in the world community the problem of a choice of strategy of projects as drivers of development of the organizations is vital. One of the key approaches to the development of the EU is the transition to a circular economy with maximum utilization of both waste products and projects, and the disposal of project products after the end of product life cycles.

scholarly journals Managing an Integrated Project - Experiences from the Realigning Agriculture to Improve Nutrition project

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 5035 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai Matturi ◽  
Chris Pain
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
International Development ◽  
Project Manager ◽  
Management Approach ◽  
Development Projects ◽  
Donor Funding ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Working Together ◽  
Common Goals ◽  
Integrated Project

Over the last number of decades there has been a tendency within the international development sector to privilege the management of projects in a siloed manner. This translates to projects managed in a narrow way according to pre-defined parameters of say the education or health sectors. As a project manager you are held accountable for delivering education or health outputs. A shift in donor funding to focus on development projects that are considered easy to administer partly explains this siloed approach to project management within the development sector. However, there is a gradual kick back against the siloed project management approach. Instead we are seeing a return to an integrated managerial approach.An integrated managerial approach involves bringing together various technical specialists to work on common objectives in a coordinated and collaborative manner. A growing number of development actors such as Concern Worldwide are embracing this ‘new approach’. For Concern Worldwide integrated projects are interventions which address multiple needs through coordination across a variety of sectors and with the participation of all relevant stakeholders to achieve common goals. Integrated projects are about sector projects working together with the same target group in the same area in a coordinated manner. This paper reflects on Concern’s experience and evidence to date with integration drawing on the agency’s work in Zambia. The Realigning Agriculture to Improve Nutrition project in Zambia highlights the practical challenges and lessons of managing an integrated project.   

scholarly journals An overview of behavioral economics in Dutch policy making. the next step: how to nudge policy makers

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 27-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natasha Els Stroeker
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Economics ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Behavioral Science ◽  
Dutch Government ◽  
Science Knowledge ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Structural Integration ◽  
Dutch Policy ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Uk

This article describes the beginning of the influence of behavioral economics on the Dutch government. This started in the period that the UK started with its Behavioral Insights Team (BIT UK). The article presents explanation of the concept “nudging” and the way this is integrated in Dutch policy. Also leading publications and examples of how behavioral economics is used in policy making are presented. The advice of the government in 2014 on how to ensure a structural integration of behavioral science knowledge in policy is part of the next step. The next step contains two main parts: 1. How to nudge policy makers and 2. Embedding nudges in policy making on four aspects: positioning, projects, performance and professionality.

‘We Were All Very Sick and Very Stupid’

2020 ◽  
pp. 20-47
Author(s):  
Lise Butler
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Labour Party ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
John Bowlby ◽  
Child Psychologist ◽  
Social Importance

This chapter discusses the Conference on the Psychological and Sociological Problems of Modern Socialism held at University College Oxford in 1945. This event featured prominent left-wing policy makers, intellectuals, and social scientists, including the MP Evan Durbin, the political theorist G. D. H. Cole, the writer and politician Margaret Cole, the child psychologist John Bowlby, the historian R. H. Tawney, and Michael Young, who was then the Secretary of the Labour Party Research Department. The conference reflected multiple strands of inter-war and mid-twentieth century political thought and social science which emphasized the political and social importance of small groups, notably through guild socialist arguments for pluralistic forms of political organization, and theories about human attachment drawn from child psychology. The views expressed at the conference reflected a sense that active and participatory democracy was not just morally right but psychologically necessary to prevent popular political radicalization, limit the appeal of totalitarianism, and promote peaceful civil society. The chapter concludes by noting that the events of the conference, and the intellectual influences that it represented, would subsequently shape Michael Young’s project to promote social science within the Labour Party during the later years of the Attlee government.

IS Project Management Contemporary Research Challenges

2005 ◽  
pp. 1673-1678
Author(s):  
Maggie McPherson
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Project Management ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Service Improvement ◽  
Development Projects ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Modern Project ◽  
Modern Business ◽  
Traditional Fields

Although project management is often said to have its roots in other traditional fields, such as construction, Morris (2002) asserts that modern project management practices have their origins in the 1950s US aerospace agencies. Much has been written about Information System (IS) / Information Technology (IT) project initiatives in both the public and private sectors. In fact, many information systems frequently fall short of their requirements, and are, more often than not, costlier and arrive later than anticipated, if indeed they are completed at all. For instance, according to a report for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (2001), failures of major IT investments and key systems development projects have raised concerns for the achievement of service improvement through information technology. Additionally, it has been argued that failures in IT projects are more common than failures in any other aspect of modern business (Nulden, 1996).

Crossing the Valley of Death: Managing the When, What, and How of Innovative Development Projects

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 447-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christophe Midler
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Product Development ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Innovation Process ◽  
Development Projects ◽  
Development Phase ◽  
Specific Content ◽  
Global Innovation ◽  
Valley Of Death

The last few decades have seen a profound transformation of innovation project management within automobile firms. During the 1990s, the product development phase was revolutionized by the deployment of heavyweight project management, project portfolio processes, and platform strategies. The 2000s saw the forces of change move upstream in the innovation process, with the development of new methodologies intended to develop and orient creativity, as well as new upfront units acting as innovation labs. However, many upfront creative endeavors still encounter an innovation valley of death when they move into the rigid and risk-averse development phase. Thus, the frontier of innovative project organization seems to be the ongoing quest to reconcile the emergence of breakthrough innovations in the upfront phase with the more rationalized nature of development phases. Based on a case study of a disruptive low-cost car, this article analyzes how the product development phase can support innovative exploration to overcome the challenge of achieving a major cost breakthrough. We analyze the specific content of the project’s innovations ( fractal innovation) and the management practices and organizations used to implement them. We characterize how such innovative product development can contribute to a new economy of innovative effort within the global innovation funnel of the firm. We compare this global innovation process, where development projects play a major role as a locus for organizational learning, to the customary one in automotive firms, where learning happens essentially in front-end marketing and engineering departments.

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