Amos Peter Haniff

The Virtual Collaborative Organization: Magnifying Transcultural, Technological and Strategic Complexity

This paper introduces the concept of the Virtual Collaborative Organisation (VCO), as an evolution from the single, temporary organisation. A VCO is described as a structure where multiple organisations enter strategic partnerships through a collaborative virtual project. The paper undertakes a critique of existing literature on temporary organisations to examine the complexity of achieving strategic alignment within a multiple organisation virtual collaboration. Themes arising from the management of such organisations are discussed in detail, before the role of technology in negotiating strategic alignment within and across multiple organisations is considered. Finally, tensions arising from alignment are debated, and the conclusion is drawn, while the VCO offers organisations a useful route to successful collaboration, tensions remain in the quest for strategic alignment.

Managing Projects in Architecture: A Study of Leadership in a Creative Industry

The paper reports a qualitative, exploratory study of the experiences of a small sample of architects in terms of leading and managing projects. Specifically, the paper considers issues specific to architecture as creative industry and the balance architects have to achieve between the creative and business objectives of their projects. Leadership in projects is examined in the context of projects most often being understood as task-centred and the paper explores the tension between this and modern leadership theory and practice in organisations, both of which tend largely to be based on a focus on people. In particular, the paper reports findings that relate to managing and leading projects whilst maintaining conditions that are stimulating and motivating for creative workers. The study finds that there is indeed a tension between creative and business objectives in the sampled architecture firms. It finds also that modern person-centred techniques are used by architects when leading and managing projects. These can mitigate negative effects business and creative objectives might have on one another, and are observed to prompt value in projects as the autonomy and scope afforded by these techniques encourages creativity.

Strategic Project Management and Leadership

Significant growth in project organising across different industries and sectors over the past twenty years has evidenced that projects become an integral component of organizational strategic operations. Projects are now commonly viewed as suitable vehicles for business transformation, continuous improvement, organizational change and strategy implementation [1, 2]. As a consequence, there has been a growth of interest in strategic approaches to project management throughout the research community [3, 4]. This has shifted the focus from quantitative project control mechanisms and human recourses, that has underpinned traditional project management since the first edition of the Project Management Body of Knowledge [5], to inspection of the complexity of implementing strategy through projects and maintaining alignment of those projects with organizations’, long-term, strategic aspirations [6-9].