Organizational rationality and project management

Abstract

PurposeDoes the organizational culture of the base organization affect the way its projects are carried out? The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between one aspect of organizational culture, namely the formal rationality of the base organization and how projects are approached. The concept of McDonaldization is used to describe formal rationality; it covers four aspects: efficiency, predictability, calculability and control. Two types of approaches (here called project perspectives) to project management are studied: the task perspective (focus on a clearly defined endeavour from the start of the project) and the organizational perspective (focus on supporting the base organization in its change efforts). The relationship between formal rationality of the base organization and choice of project perspective is revealed.Design/methodology/approachEmpirical study based on a survey of 164 managers.FindingsThe paper shows that the degree of formal organizational rationality affects choice of project perspective: the more rational the base organization, the more dominant the task perspective. The size of the project is of significance, telling us that, in general, larger projects are less task‐ oriented than smaller and medium‐ sized, everything else being equal.Research limitations/implicationsFurther studies may be of interest to reveal the relationship between organizational culture of the base organization and project management. Better operationalizations of the constructs of rationality and project perspective are presented, which opens up for further studies on the relationship between rationality and project management.Practical implicationsIt is important for managers to know that the way the project work is approached is affected by the organizational rationality of the base organization.Originality/valueThe paper shows the importance of the organizational culture of the base organization, especially the degree of formal rationality, for how project work is done. It presents new operationalizations of formal rationality and project perspective to make way for further studies on the relationship between organizational rationality and project management.