Financial & project management
Project management
Guest lecture: Temporary Organiza ons and Financial Management
Projects are all over the place
Projects are part of 'temporary systems'
projectification
Intuitive approach
Think-Pair-Share:
o What is a project?
Time-bound, dedicated budget
o What is/are difference(s) between a project and an organization?
Organization intends to be timeless
Organizations have goals; projects have a task to complete (task-oriented)
o What is project management?
Possible (intuitive) answers
Project = an organizational form; distinctions among org. Forms reflect social processes and
boundary creation (where does the organization stop?)
An organizational form is an entity comprising multiple people and resources with a partical
purpose/goal/aim.
In any organizational form, mainly two aspects of work exist; ongoing operations and
projects
Projects are defined as unique, temporary endeavors (inspanningen) with a specific
beginning and end (time-bound)
Operations constitute an organization's on-going, repetitive activities, such as accounting or
production
Permanenet vs. Temporary
Routine vs. unique
Operations versus Projects: some examples
Operations:
Taking class notes
Daily entering sales receipts into the accounting ledger
Practicing scales on the piano
Manufacturing Apple iPods
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,Projects:
Writing term paper
Setting up a sales kiosk for a professional accounting meeting
Writing a new piano piece
Designing an iPod that is 2x4 inches and can carry 10,000 song
Project Management
Project Management is the process and activity of planning, organizing, motivating, and
controlling resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals.
The primary challenge of project management is to achieve all the project goals and
objectives while honoring the preconceived constraints. The primary constraints are scope,
time, quality and budget (+ stakeholder satisfaction)
Project Management & Social Sciences?
''How is your project going?''
Temporary Systems: PBOs and Projects
A temporary system in business, science, and society is typically defined as a collaborative
endeavor that is carefully planned to achieve a particular aim. They can be further defined as
temporary rather than permanent social systems that are constituted by teams
(people/organizations) within or across organizations to accomplish particular tasks under
time constraints.
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, Temporary:
o Pre-defined end point in time
o Once completed.
Intra-organizational: Project & Project-based Organization
o Team members come from the same organization
Inter-organizational: IO Temporary Organizations
o Team members come from different/multiple organizations
Types of Temporary Systems
What is a PBO (Intra-organizational)?
PBO = Project-based Organization
What is it?
o An independent organizational form (an organization) in which the project (and not
a functional department) is the primary organizational unit for economic or societal
activities (e.g., production, innovation, change, and competition).
Where can we find them?:
o In private manufacturing enterprises, also in other organizations public and private
(legal profession, consultancy, marketing, film industry, advertising, aid).
PBO vs. other organizational structures
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, Functional organization
Project-based organization
PBO: typical characteristics
Appropriate for complex, non-routine tasks
Competences and capabilities build from project to project
Help to adapt to uncertain, risky, and changing environments
Populated by integrators (commercial & technical) and brokers (to external clients)
Project managers have high status and control over functions, personnel, and resources
PBO is flexible and reconfigurable (cf. large hierarchies)
PBO = series of projects
Often: close user-producer interaction
PBO: Advantages
Well-suited for innovation & learning, coping with emerging properties & demands from
clients;
Flexibility high and response time to changing circumstances relatively low;
High employee loyalty to protect goals due to short lines with project manager.
o Feeling connected to task/product, you get more commited and get to see results
PBOs: Disadvantages
Ill-suited for coordination of resources and capabilities across projects, routine production
activities, achieving economies of scale;
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