The traditional doctrine of project management, having evolved from operations
management, has been dominated by a rationalist approach in terms of planning and
control. There is increasing criticism that this prescriptive approach is deficient for the
management of dynamically complex projects which is a common characteristic for
modern-day projects.
In response to this and the relative lack of scholarly literature, this study uses an emergent
grounded theory design to discover and understand the softer, intangible aspects of
project management.
With primary data collected from twenty semi-structured personal interviews, this study
explores the lived experiences of project practitioners and how they ‘muddle through’ the
complex social setting of a knowledge intensive financial services organisation.
The model which evolved from the research portrays the project practitioner as being
exposed to multiple cues, with multiple meanings around five causal themes:
environmental, organisational, nature of the task, role and knowledge capability.
In response to these cues, the practitioner reflects upon their emotions and past
experiences in order to make sense of the uncertain situation to determine their necessary
course of action. As a coping strategy the project practitioner takes on the role of
bricoleur, by making do by applying combinations of the resources at hand, in order to
facilitate the successful delivery of their projects
