Beyond the line: exploring the HRM responsibilities of line managers, project managers and the HRM department in four project-oriented companies in the Netherlands, Austria, the UK and the USA

The topic of what HRM (Human Resource Management) responsibilities are devolved from the HRM department to line managers has attracted much interest in recent years. We report findings from a study on the devolution of HRM practices in four POCs (Project-Oriented Companies) and argue that although HRM practices are carried out beyond the HRM department, they are also carried out beyond the line. While the literature on devolving HRM responsibilities to line management is burgeoning, the HRM responsibilities of managers beyond the line organization are neglected. We make two contributions to the literature. Firstly, our study reveals that some HRM practices are the domain of the project manager rather than either the line manager or the HRM department. The complex interplay of the roles of the HRM department, line management and project management creates challenges and pitfalls where people are managed across the boundaries of the permanent and temporary organization. We identify a potentially powerful role for the HRM department in both monitoring and guiding the different players from the line and project organizations, and in protecting the well-being of employees whose work traverses these organizational boundaries. Our second contribution is that we map the diversity of practices in different POCs for managing the interplay between the three main parties delivering HRM practices and offer project-orientation as a contextual indicator that contributes to diversity in HRM practices

Crafting project managers’ careers:Integrating the fields of careers and project management

Project managers experience unique careers that are not yet sufficiently understood, and more people than ever before are pursuing such careers. The research on project management and careers is therefore urgently needed in order to better understand the processes and systems shaping the careers of project managers. We address this gap by reviewing several key career theories and constructs and examining how these are mobilized to understand project managers’ careers in existing research. Our main conclusion is that boundaryless career theory has been the dominant career perspective in project management research, whereas other career theories—specifically protean career theory, social cognitive career theory, career construction theory, and sustainable career theory—are far less often mobilized as a basis for studies. We also find that some of the most popular constructs in careers research, such as career success and employability, have been used in recent project management research. However, their use in these studies is often implicit and does not necessarily leverage existing work from the careers field. We argue that there is strong potential for further and more systematic integration between project management and careers research in order to enrich both fields, and we offer a research agenda as a starting point

Editorial: Developing new knowledge: A virtual collection of project management review articles

publishedVersionNon peer reviewe

Für eine breitere Perspektive auf Projekte

Im Projektmanagement hat bisher keine substantielle Auseinandersetzung mit den Prinzipien nachhaltiger Entwicklung stattgefunden. Derzeit arbeiten Expert(inn)en aus Nachhaltigkeitsforschung und Projektmanagement gemeinsam an einem konzeptionellen Rahmen, neuen Instrumenten und ersten Fallstudien

Nachhaltigkeit und Projektmanagement: Für eine breitere Perspektive auf Projekte

Im Projektmanagement hat bisher keine substantielle Auseinandersetzung mit den Prinzipien nachhaltiger Entwicklung stattgefunden. Derzeit arbeiten Expert(inn)en aus Nachhaltigkeitsforschung und Projektmanagement gemeinsam an einem konzeptionellen Rahmen, neuen Instrumenten und ersten Fallstudien