Why do projects often deviate from their assigned paths despite careful planning? Leading international scholars in project management research offer invaluable insights into the complex outcomes of projects and the challenges posed by their high complexity and uncertainty. A key resource for practitioners, policymakers, and project professionals.
Despite careful planning, projects often deviate from their assigned paths. Delays, cost overruns, benefit underruns, stakeholder disappointments, and sustainability shortfalls are common challenges during project initiation and execution. The Cambridge Handbook of Project Behavior addresses the underlying causes of project behavior and misbehavior, while offering evidence-based strategies for remediation. Featuring guidance for anticipating project outcomes and practical advice for dealing with projects when they branch off assigned paths and veer off track, this Handbook is a valuable resource for practitioners, policymakers, and project professionals responsible for delivering high-profile and complex projects. It includes contributions from leading experts in the field of project management, providing a unique international perspective. As mega-projects become increasingly prevalent on the global stage, understanding the dynamics of project behavior and misbehavior has never been more critical. The Cambridge Handbook of Project Behavior offers essential insights and solutions for successfully navigating the challenges of project management.
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'Lavagnon A. Ika and Jeffrey K. Pinto offer a timely theory of project behavior to explain (under and over) performance of projects. This rich and well-argued book with carefully selected practice examples is a must read for scholars and practitioners alike. Nothing is more practical than a good theory.' Martina Huemann, The Project Hub, University College London and WU Vienna 'Explanations of project behaviour have been increasingly (sometimes vociferously) discussed recently. Here is a welcome, thorough and coherent assembly of the issues in one handbook. Many well-known names are here including major figures outside the sometimes limited 'project management' world. In his afterword, Professor Clegg summarises the whole in reflections which are thoroughly well-grounded theoretically, but also practical.' Terry Williams, Professor of Management Science and Director of the Risk Institute, University of Hull
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A key resource on project behavior theory and practice by leading scholars in project management research.
Introduction to the Handbook of Project Behavior Lavagnon A. Ika and
Jeffrey K. Pinto; Part I. Guiding Principles: What is Project Behavior and
Why it Matters:
1. The rise and fall of the planning fallacy: from the
impulsion to the compulsion to theorize Lavagnon A. Ika;
2. Unveiling the
hiding hand Graham Room;
3. Voyages of discovery: balancing leadership,
control and capabilities in megaproject delivery Rebecca Vine, Dicle
Kortantamer and Andrew Davies;
4. Temporal structuring and project behavior
Ann Langley and Gerry McGivern;
5. Managing project complexity and
uncertainty through dynamic and systemic stakeholder modelling Fran Ackerman;
Part II. Deviating from Plans: How Complexity and Uncertainty Affect Project
Behavior:
6. Averaging out divergent project behavior: an unintended
consequence of project structures Kim van Oorschot, Therese F. Dille and
Jonas Söderlund;
7. Intra and inter-organizational governance and the
behavior of projects Ralf Müller;
8. Strategic alignment, uncertainties, and
realignment of project portfolios Miia Martinsuo and Siiri Tuominen;
9.
Stakeholder perceptions and project performance Kate Davis, Liz Machtynger
and Francesco Di Maddaloni;
10. Governance shifts and short-term performance
Maude Brunet;
11. Maximum feasible project failure: the German reform of
money laundering prevention Wolfgang Seibel and Katharina Eßmeyer;
12.
Project misbehaviour in infrastructure projects: mega-projects for
mega-corruption Regis Signor and Peter E. D. Love; Part III. Practical Tips:
How to Shape Project Behavior and Curb Project Misbehavior:
13. Setting
realistic project goals Ofer Zwikael, Alicia Gilchrist and Jack Meredith;
14.
At the brink of a project: heuristics to block potential project disasters at
the early project opportunity screening Joana Geraldi, Verena Stingl and
Maximilian Schriewersmann;
15. The roles of governance mechanisms to manage
misbehaviours in the project front-end Joseph W. Harrisson, Jens K. Roehrich
and Michael A. Lewis;
16. Coping with changes to the plan: dealing with
twists and turns in projects Ashwin Mahalingam;
17. Project behavior,
disruptions and the antifragility spectrum Jeffrey K. Pinto and Greg Usher;
18. Curbing cost increases and benefit shortfalls Morten Welde and Gro Holst
Volden; Afterword: a fundamental problem with projects or project management?
Stewart Clegg.
Lavagnon A. Ika is Professor of Project Management in the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa, Canada. Professor Ika is at the forefront of the project behavior debate as protagonist of the Planning Fallacy versus Hiding Hand debate and proponent of Fifth Hand theory. He is the author of the PMI award-winning book Managing Fuzzy Projects (2023) and his work on project behavior has won two International Project Management Association (IPMA) research awards. Jeffrey K. Pinto is Andrew Morrow and Elizabeth Lee Black Chair in Management Technology in the Black School of Business at Penn StateErie, The Behrend College. Professor Pinto has been considered one of the top scholars in his field for nearly three decades. He has written and edited 27 books and several hundred scientific papers, and has received numerous awards for his research in project management.
