Organizational Maturity Beyond Risk Management

2018 ◽  
pp. 78-103
Author(s):  
Andreas G. M. Nachbagauer ◽  
Iris B. Schirl-Boeck
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
Project Management ◽  
Systems Theory ◽  
Organization Theory ◽  
High Reliability ◽  
Uncertainty Management ◽  
Organizational Level ◽  
Maturity Models ◽  
Organizational Maturity

Project-oriented organizations face environments differing in complexity, with different degrees of maturity needed to manage uncertainty. In this chapter, the authors analyze where, when, and by whom structure or autonomy should be made use of in project-oriented organizations, and which kinds of structure and autonomy are appropriate for dealing with complex, uncertain situations and unexpected events. After a short discussion of project management maturity models, the authors investigate the concepts of risk, uncertainty, and the unexpected based on organization theory inspired by decision-making concepts and systems theory. Implications for uncertainty management and managing the unexpected on project and organizational level and high-reliability practices are then derived with a critical look at recent approaches of project management adhocracy.

Managing the unexpected in megaprojects: riding the waves of resilience

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 694-715 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas G.M. Nachbagauer ◽  
Iris Schirl-Boeck
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Project Management ◽  
Systems Theory ◽  
High Reliability ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Organisation Theory ◽  
Temporal Dimensions ◽  
Universal Applicability ◽  
The Waves

Purpose Risk management and uncertainty in megaprojects is a flourishing topic in project management, while the unexpected is still a neglected matter. The purpose of this paper is to offer conceptual clarifications of the unexpected based on second-order-cybernetics and systems theory. While transferring findings from organisation theory to project management, the article provides fresh insights into managing the unexpected in megaprojects. Design/methodology/approach Being grounded on constructionism and systems theory, the conceptual paper explores selected research approaches from organisation theory: research on high-reliability organising, organisational resilience and organisational improvising, on contributions to managing the unexpected in megaprojects. Using the framework of meaning i.e. the factual, social and temporal dimensions, challenges of handling the unexpected are analysed and (effects of) decision-making structures for such projects are defined. Findings This paper argues that classic project management, while neglecting the fundamental distinction between risk, uncertainty and the unexpected, sticks to a planning-and-controlling approach. But the unexpected cannot be planned; however, organisations and managers can prepare for the unexpected. This requests a balance between structure and self-organisation in planning, communication, hierarchy and organisational culture. Understanding the contradictions inherent in managing megaprojects allows for smart decision-making when riding the waves of resilience. Originality/value The study adds to the literature on complexity and uncertainty in project management by enhancing the view to include the unexpected. While rejecting the universal applicability of rationality-based risk and controlling conceptions, shifting to second-order cybernetics and integrating elements of resilient organising increases the understanding of handling the unexpected in megaprojects.

scholarly journals An Assistance to Project Risk Management Based on Complex Systems Theory and Agile Project Management

Complexity ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Franck Marle
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Project Management ◽  
Complex Systems ◽  
Systems Theory ◽  
Project Risk Management ◽  
Project Risk ◽  
Complex Systems Theory ◽  
Agile Project Management ◽  
First Results ◽  
Complex Project

Project Risk Management is crucial in determining the future performance of a complex project. Increasing project complexity makes it more and more difficult to anticipate potential events that could affect the project and to make effective decisions to reduce project risk exposure. To tackle these conceptual and managerial issues, the proposed approach introduces Complex Systems Theory-based improvements into some PRM subprocesses and runs the global PRM process using Agile Project Management principles. We argue that these advanced techniques for managing project risk complexity, notably risk interdependencies, are coherent with the distributed, self-organized nature of agile teams. This new way of structuring and executing Project Risk Management offers the possibility to make decisions more frequently, when needed, with a more distributed authority, and with richer information about anticipation of events and consequences of actions. First results show an appropriation of this combined approach by project members due to agile principles that allows for getting the more reliable information promised by Complex Systems Theory.

Project-Based Organizational Maturity in Architecture, Engineering, and Construction

2018 ◽  
pp. 55-77
Author(s):  
Rick D. Johnson ◽  
Joan Adkins ◽  
Donna Pepper
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Maturity Models ◽  
Construction Organizations ◽  
Organizational Maturity ◽  
Theory Research ◽  
Prime Elements

“Theory and practice” seems to be a common phrase in project-based organizations these days due to the academic nature of the work involved in business. This chapter describes the authors' vision for how project-based firms, such as architecture, engineering, and construction organizations, can reach organizational maturity in their respective practices. The chapter articulates the utility of project management maturity models as a necessary means for maturity measurement and growth. Likert-type scales are mentioned as a tool used by consultants to assess organization parameters, as a way of quantifying certain data that can assist with necessary changes. The authors share recommendations in the technology arena, as well as theory research constructs that may help project-based practitioners and companies better understand and apply maturity strategies. These are some of the prime elements in use in these types of organizations because they create value as well as survival enhancements.

scholarly journals Project Management vs Systems Engineering Approach to Project Risks Management

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.V. Zlokazov
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
Project Management ◽  
Systems Engineering ◽  
Project Manager ◽  
Management Systems ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Project Risk ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
Project Risks

Risk management is a dynamically developing type of management. Risk management refers to processes associated with identification, risk analysis and decision-making, which include maximizing the positive and minimizing the negative consequences of risk events. Risk elimination is necessary to complete the project on time. Managing risks for a project manager can be easier with using several approaches described in this article. The article presents comparison of widespread approach to managing risks in projects with the set of instruments derived from systems engineering. These approaches are SEBoK (System Engineering Body of Knowledge) PM BoK and OMG Essence. Author tries to integrate sets of instruments present in various project management and systems engineering bodies of knowledge and show how ones derive from the others. Keywords: project, project management, risks of the project, risk management, systems engineering, stakeholders, project requirements, SEBoK

Organizational Maturity and Project

2018 ◽  
pp. 104-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergey Bushuyev ◽  
Olena Verenych
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Reference Model ◽  
Main Function ◽  
Maturity Models ◽  
Organizational Maturity ◽  
Team Project ◽  
Holistic Assessment ◽  
Mental Space ◽  
Project Lifecycle

The success of a project, program, or portfolio realization is dependent on cooperation between a project manager/team project and stakeholders. This cooperation can be provided via a blended mental space; the main function of it is interaction and communication support of all participants in the project process throughout the project lifecycle. The blended mental space building requires creation of the specific methodology, which is based on the technical maturity models used. In the frame of the chapter, two new organizational maturity models are described. They are offered by IPMA through its internationally widespread member associations: IPMA Delta for assessing and developing project management maturity and the IPMA Organizational Competence Baseline (OCB), acting as a reference model for IPMA Delta. In addition to this description, a case study reveals insights into the usage of IPMA Delta and the benefits realized through a holistic assessment of project management maturity.

Are Public Bureaucracies Supposed to Be High Reliability Organizations?

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Seibel
Keyword(s):  
Child Protection ◽  
Organization Theory ◽  
Goal Attainment ◽  
High Reliability ◽  
Human Action ◽  
High Reliability Organizations ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Public Bureaucracy ◽  
Account Standard

This article addresses the question of to what extent conventional theories of high reliability organizations and normal accidents theory are applicable to public bureaucracy. Empirical evidence suggests precisely this. Relevant cases are, for instance, collapsing buildings and bridges due to insufficient supervision of engineering by the relevant authorities, infants dying at the hands of their own parents due to misperceptions and neglect on the part of child protection agencies, uninterrupted serial killings due to a lack of coordination among police services, or improper planning and risk assessment in the preparation of mass events such as soccer games or street parades. The basic argument is that conceptualizing distinct and differentiated causal mechanisms is useful for developing more fine-grained variants of both normal accident theory and high reliability organization theory that take into account standard pathologies of public bureaucracies and inevitable trade-offs connected to their political embeddedness in democratic and rule-of-law-based systems to which belong the tensions between responsiveness and responsibility and between goal attainment and system maintenance. This, the article argues, makes it possible to identify distinct points of intervention at which permissive conditions with the potential to trigger risk-generating human action can be neutralized while the threshold that separates risk-generating human action from actual disaster can be raised to a level that makes disastrous outcomes less probable.

Risk management and decision making in remediation option selection

2009 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 345-353
Author(s):  
S. Colombano ◽  
C. Merly ◽  
H. Gaboriau
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
Option Selection
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