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Political Hybrids: Tocquevillean Views on Project Organizations

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  • Stewart Clegg
  • David Courpasson

Abstract

ABSTRACT For the past decade, project organization has become increasingly central to management and organization studies, particularly as these seek to discern the contours of post‐modern organizations. Yet, these contours frequently seem to be sighted without bearings on the current realities of project management. In this paper we take such bearings, using data derived from detailed qualitative, ethnographic enquiry into the experience of project management. From this data we construct the contours of project management more sharply. Rather than being a harbinger of an autonomous and more democratic future, free from extant bureaucratic organization controls, we find that project management has distinct modalities of control that we outline in the paper: reputational, calculative, and professional. Indeed, rather than foreshadowing a future transformational form, we find traces of a much older design: that of de Tocqueville.

Suggested Citation

  • Stewart Clegg & David Courpasson, 2004. "Political Hybrids: Tocquevillean Views on Project Organizations," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(4), pages 525-547, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:41:y:2004:i:4:p:525-547
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6486.2004.00443.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Hanisch, Bastian & Wald, Andreas, 2014. "Effects of complexity on the success of temporary organizations: Relationship quality and transparency as substitutes for formal coordination mechanisms," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 197-213.
    2. Dischner, Simon, 2015. "Organizational structure, organizational form, and counterproductive work behavior: A competitive test of the bureaucratic and post-bureaucratic views," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 501-514.
    3. Joanna Moczydłowska & Joanna Sadkowska & Beata Żelazko & Carmen Nadia Ciocoiu & Ewa Stawicka, 2023. "Understanding Risk Culture in the Context of a Sustainable Project: A Preliminary Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-16, March.
    4. Céline Michaïlesco, 2007. "Contrôle de gestion de projet au 19ème siècle," Post-Print halshs-00338976, HAL.
    5. Grégoire Lacoste, 2010. "Organizational Trajectory of a public and private actors' territorial network in the [Trajectoire organisationnelle d’un réseau territorial d’acteurs publics et privés dans le domaine de l’efficaci," Post-Print hal-04518480, HAL.
    6. Curt B. Moore & G. Tyge Payne & Igor Filatotchev & Edward J. Zajac, 2019. "The Cost of Status: When Social and Economic Interests Collide," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(5), pages 869-884, September.
    7. Anaïs Boutru Creveuil, 2021. "Legitimation of temporary organizations: The case of a strategic alliance in the French retail sector," Post-Print halshs-03157384, HAL.
    8. Sage, Daniel & Dainty, Andrew & Brookes, Naomi, 2013. "Thinking the ontological politics of managerial and critical performativities: An examination of project failure," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 282-291.
    9. Smith, Simon & Ward, Vicky, 2015. "The role of boundary maintenance and blurring in a UK collaborative research project: How researchers and health service managers made sense of new ways of working," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 225-233.
    10. Ramboarison-Lalao, Lovanirina & Gannouni, Kais, 2019. "Liberated firm, a leverage of well-being and technological change? A prospective study based on the scenario method," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 129-139.
    11. Darren McCabe & Sylwia Ciuk & Margaret Gilbert, 2022. "‘This Is the End’? An Ethnographic Study of Management Control and a New Management Initiative," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 36(3), pages 503-521, June.
    12. Vincent Pasquier & Thibault Daudigeos & Marcos Barros, 2020. "Towards a New Flashmob Unionism: The Case of the Fight for 15 Movement," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 58(2), pages 336-363, June.
    13. Gazi Islam & Roberta Sferrazzo, 2022. "Workers' Rites: Ritual Mediations and the Tensions of New Management," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(2), pages 284-318, March.

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