A Systemic Approach to Complex Project Management: Integration of Command‐and‐Control and Network Governance

Projects are becoming more complex given emerging uncertainties that are arising as a result of the exponential growth in technology and the ever‐growing involvement of the human factor. Subsequently, new management approaches are needed to improve project effectiveness and efficiency. This research focuses on identifying the strengths and limitations of two major existing approaches that are fundamentally different in addressing critical issues in complex project management and proposes a new integrative framework. One existing approach, command‐and‐control management, has been proven to be very useful in managing certain types of projects; yet, it can be too rigid to adapt to changes in the environment. On the other hand, network governance, a relatively new existing approach, is flexible and adaptive but lacks conformance and can easily revert to chaos. This paper offers a novel integrative systemic approach, which makes it possible to continuously assess a complex situation and to develop more holistic solutions to project management issues. A case study presented in the paper examines the theoretical application of the new approach in the context of the emergency response and recovery efforts of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster in Japan. Based on the research related to this incident and the ensuing recovery efforts, it is concluded that existing approaches have not been optimally effective. The proposed approach can bring significant advantages for complex project management by providing flexibility while retaining the ability to regulate the degree of control over the system, as demonstrated through the analysis of the response and recovery of the Fukushima Daiichi case. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.