Governance challenges in temporary organizations: a case of evolution and representations

Authors

  • Magali Simard École des sciences de la gestion, Département de management et technologies, Université du Québec à Montréal
  • Danielle Laberge École des sciences de la gestion, Département de management et technologies, Université du Québec à Montréal

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12821/ijispm020402

Keywords:

project governance, temporary organization, project coordination committee, sensemaking, project coordination

Abstract

According to the literature, formal project governance often stops at the steering committee, which is also identified as the main link between the permanent and temporary organizations. Generally, top managers play an active role as sponsors in this committee until the project is approved and launched. Afterwards, the project execution is usually delegated, enabling middle managers to participate in strategy operationalization. As such, they are likely to take part in the project governance and its operationalization. In this study, we are especially interested in the governance zone reporting to the steering committee. Within this zone, formal and informal governance is intertwined, and there is likely to be considerable overlap with the permanent organization. Our study focuses on a specific liaison device within this zone: the Project Coordination Committee, which has rarely been studied. We explore how project governance evolves and is represented by project participants. Our results show a surprising diversity in participants’ representations. This allows us to identify a number of conclusions that go beyond the governance form issues and relate to the complexity of this governance zone and its influence on the disruptions between permanent and temporary governance structures within a large organization.

Downloads

Published

2022-02-09

How to Cite

Simard, M., & Laberge, D. . (2022). Governance challenges in temporary organizations: a case of evolution and representations. International Journal of Information Systems and Project Management, 2(4), 39–58. https://doi.org/10.12821/ijispm020402

Issue

Section

Articles