IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jomstd/v44y2007i3p431-450.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Politics of Standards in Modern Management: Making ‘The Project’ a Reality

Author

Listed:
  • Damian Hodgson
  • Svetlana Cicmil

Abstract

abstract In this paper, we explore the standardization of contemporary management knowledge, focusing in particular upon the role of ‘standards’ in creating and reifying ‘organizational objects’, with powerful consequences and with often unrecognized ethical implications. It is our argument that modernist beliefs in ‘general, abstract and timeless ideas’ (Brunsson et al., 2000, p. 173), enshrined in a universal and abstract rationality, results in the marginalization of more reflexive forms of rationality and the suppression of autonomy, creativity and discretion in organizations. To investigate the consequences of standardization, we take as the focus of our analysis a specific management model which has a significant and growing impact on many sectors of contemporary industry; that of project management. Drawing on the work of Timmermans and Berg (1997), Bowker and Star (1999) and Brunsson et al. (2000), we draw attention to the reification of the object of management; in this case, the project itself, as a transhistorical, ‘real world’ object. By tracing efforts to establish and institutionalize ‘standards’ in this and other fields of management, in particular through the creation and dissemination of a universal ‘body of knowledge’ for this field, we draw attention to the political and moral significance of the ‘blackboxing’ of knowledge. It is our broader intention here to help to denaturalize this organizational object, to legitimize other modes of knowledge and practice in the field, and thereby to reopen debate in this and other arenas of standardization.

Suggested Citation

  • Damian Hodgson & Svetlana Cicmil, 2007. "The Politics of Standards in Modern Management: Making ‘The Project’ a Reality," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(3), pages 431-450, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:44:y:2007:i:3:p:431-450
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6486.2007.00680.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2007.00680.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2007.00680.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rolf Lundin & Christophe Midler, 1998. "Projects as Arenas for Renewal and Learning Processes," Post-Print hal-00262925, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Franklin Riley & David K. Allen & Thomas Daniel Wilson, 2022. "When politicians and the experts collide: Organization and the creation of information spheres," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 73(8), pages 1127-1139, August.
    2. Hanisch, Bastian & Wald, Andreas, 2014. "Effects of complexity on the success of temporary organizations: Relationship quality and transparency as substitutes for formal coordination mechanisms," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 197-213.
    3. Saleem Gul & Muhammad Nouman, 2009. "Time Flux: An Examination Of Non-Temporal Considerations In Projects," Business & Economic Review, Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar, Pakistan, vol. 1(1), pages 40-46, April.
    4. Liviu ILIES & Emil CRISAN & Ioana Natalia MURESAN, 2010. "Best Practices in Project Management," REVISTA DE MANAGEMENT COMPARAT INTERNATIONAL/REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL COMPARATIVE MANAGEMENT, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 11(1), pages 43-51, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Manning, Stephan, 2017. "The rise of project network organizations: Building core teams and flexible partner pools for interorganizational projects," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(8), pages 1399-1415.
    2. Neil Alderman & Chris Ivory, 2010. "Service-led projects: understanding the meta-project context," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(11), pages 1131-1143.
    3. Imre Kovách & Boldizsár Gergely Megyesi & Angela Barthes & Hasan Volkan Oral & Marija Smederevac-Lalic, 2021. "Knowledge Use in Education for Environmental Citizenship—Results of Four Case Studies in Europe (France, Hungary, Serbia, Turkey)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-17, October.
    4. Engwall, Mats, 2003. "No project is an island: linking projects to history and context," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 789-808, May.
    5. Cezar-Petre SIMION & Stefan Catalin POPA, 2017. "Evolution Of Research In Project Management. An Analysis Of The Research Results Published In The Period 1999-2017," Proceedings of the INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 11(1), pages 956-964, November.
    6. Carol Ekinsmyth, 2002. "Project Organization, Embeddedness and Risk in Magazine Publishing," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(3), pages 229-243.
    7. Peter B. Doeringer & Pacey Foster & Stephan Manning & David Terkla, 2013. "Project-based industries and craft-like production: structure, location and performance," Chapters, in: Frank Giarratani & Geoffrey J.D. Hewings & Philip McCann (ed.), Handbook of Industry Studies and Economic Geography, chapter 4, pages 99-151, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    8. Aggeri, Franck, 1999. "Environmental policies and innovation: A knowledge-based perspective on cooperative approaches," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(7), pages 699-717, September.
    9. Gernot Grabher, 2002. "The Project Ecology of Advertising: Tasks, Talents and Teams," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(3), pages 245-262.
    10. Christophe Midler, 2002. "Intensive Innovation Context and Design System Dynamics. The Case of Car Information Communication Entertainment (ICE) Systems," Post-Print hal-00262523, HAL.
    11. Romain Beaume & Rémi Maniak & Christophe Midler, 2009. "Crossing innovation and product projects management: comparative analysis in the automotive industry," Post-Print halshs-00402389, HAL.
    12. Gernot Grabher, 2002. "Cool Projects, Boring Institutions: Temporary Collaboration in Social Context," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(3), pages 205-214.
    13. Walfisz, Martin & Zackariasson, Peter & Wilson, Timothy L., 2006. "Real-time strategy: Evolutionary game development," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 49(6), pages 487-498.
    14. Otto Anne, 2005. "Wissens- und technologieintensive Dienstleistungsgründungen in Ost- und Westdeutschland," ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography, De Gruyter, vol. 49(3-4), pages 200-218, November.
    15. Davies, Andrew & Manning, Stephan & Söderlund, Jonas, 2018. "When neighboring disciplines fail to learn from each other: The case of innovation and project management research," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(5), pages 965-979.
    16. Mitsuru Kodama & Tomoatsu Shibata, 2013. "Research into Ambidextrous R&D in Product Development New Product Development at a Precision Device Maker," TMARG Discussion Papers 109, Graduate School of Economics and Management, Tohoku University.
    17. Dahlgren, J. & Söderlund, J., 2001. "Managing inter-firm industrial projects -- on pacing and matching hierarchies," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 305-322, June.
    18. Gilles Garel & Christophe Midler, 2001. "Front-Loading Problem Solving in co-Development : Managing the Contractual Organizational and Cognitive Dimensions," Post-Print hal-00262929, HAL.
    19. Gilles Garel & Christophe Midler, 2001. "Front-Loading Problem-Solving in Co-Development : Managing the Contractual, Organizational and Cognitive Dimensions," Post-Print hal-00262521, HAL.
    20. Borman, Mark & Janssen, Marijn, 2013. "Reconciling two approaches to critical success factors: The case of shared services in the public sector," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 390-400.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:44:y:2007:i:3:p:431-450. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0022-2380 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.