IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ororsc/v14y2003i5p574-590.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Constructing the Olympic Dream: A Future Perfect Strategy of Project Management

Author

Listed:
  • Tyrone S. Pitsis

    (School of Management, University of Technology, Sydney, Broadway NSW 2007, Sydney, Australia)

  • Stewart R. Clegg

    (School of Management, University of Technology, Sydney, Broadway NSW 2007, Sydney, Australia)

  • Marton Marosszeky

    (School of the Built Environment, University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2033, Sydney, Australia)

  • Thekla Rura-Polley

    (School of Management, University of Technology, Sydney, Broadway NSW 2007, Sydney, Australia)

Abstract

In this paper we investigate a uniquely complex organizational context—that of the fast-tracked large-scale project management of a significant piece of Sydney 2000 Olympic infrastructure, which we researched in terms of its management through the “future perfect.” In a grounded analysis we resolved to track how the future perfect developed in the life of one large, complex project whose uniqueness meant that it was unable to be strategically planned in advance. We tracked the use of what we term “future perfect strategy” through analysis of data collected both in leadership meetings of the directing agency, “PALT”—Project Alliance Leadership Team—as well as in individual interviews that we conducted in and around the project, and through analysis of media coverage. Overall, the project was a success, but some problems arose along the way to completion. Largely, these were focused on issues of social rather than technical construction—something even the most strategic of plans cannot account for. As well as identifying some of the specific mechanisms for encouraging future perfect strategy that were used in the project, including encouraging “strange conversations,” “playing end games,” “workshopping,” and “projecting feelings, concerns and issues,” we also suggest some ways that the social construction issues might be handled in the future.

Suggested Citation

  • Tyrone S. Pitsis & Stewart R. Clegg & Marton Marosszeky & Thekla Rura-Polley, 2003. "Constructing the Olympic Dream: A Future Perfect Strategy of Project Management," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 14(5), pages 574-590, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:14:y:2003:i:5:p:574-590
    DOI: 10.1287/orsc.14.5.574.16762
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.14.5.574.16762
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/orsc.14.5.574.16762?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Richard J. Boland, Jr., 1984. "Sense-Making of Accounting Data as a Technique of Organizational Diagnosis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(7), pages 868-882, July.
    2. Lenz, R. T., 1987. "Managing the evolution of the strategic planning process," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 34-39.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Manning, Stephan, 2017. "The rise of project network organizations: Building core teams and flexible partner pools for interorganizational projects," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(8), pages 1399-1415.
    2. Bret Crane, 2022. "Eudaimonia in Crisis: How Ethical Purpose Finding Transforms Crisis," Humanistic Management Journal, Springer, vol. 7(3), pages 391-416, December.
    3. Ronald Klingebiel & Arnoud De Meyer, 2013. "Becoming Aware of the Unknown: Decision Making During the Implementation of a Strategic Initiative," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(1), pages 133-153, February.
    4. Sarah Kaplan & Wanda J. Orlikowski, 2013. "Temporal Work in Strategy Making," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(4), pages 965-995, August.
    5. Kennedy, Deanna M. & Sommer, S. Amy & Nguyen, Phuong Anh, 2017. "Optimizing multi-team system behaviors: Insights from modeling team communication," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 258(1), pages 264-278.
    6. Alfons Van Marrewijk & Marcel B. Veenswijk, 2016. "Changing institutional practices in the Dutch construction industry," International Journal of Project Organisation and Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 8(1), pages 44-62.
    7. Tapinos, E. & Pyper, N., 2018. "Forward looking analysis: Investigating how individuals ‘do’ foresight and make sense of the future," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 292-302.
    8. Peter B. Doeringer & Pacey Foster & Stephan Manning & David Terkla, 2013. "Project-based industries and craft-like production: structure, location and performance," Chapters, in: Frank Giarratani & Geoffrey J.D. Hewings & Philip McCann (ed.), Handbook of Industry Studies and Economic Geography, chapter 4, pages 99-151, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    9. McKinlay, Alan & Pezet, Eric, 2018. "Foucault, governmentality, strategy: From the ear of the sovereign to the multitude," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 57-68.
    10. , Aisdl, 2020. "Becoming Attuned," OSF Preprints j7f8y, Center for Open Science.
    11. Carlsen, Arne & Clegg, Stewart R. & Pitsis, Tyrone S. & Mortensen, Tord F., 2020. "From ideas of power to the powering of ideas in organizations: Reflections from Follett and Foucault," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 829-835.
    12. , Aisdl, 2020. "The Serendipity Mindset," OSF Preprints w52y9, Center for Open Science.
    13. Nina Jakubeit & Willem Haanstra & Jan Braaksma & Mohammad Rajabalinejad & Leo van Dongen, 2022. "Co-Designing Sustainable Coordination to Support Inter-Organizational Decision Making," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-26, May.
    14. Isabell Stamm & Marie Gutzeit, 2022. "Group conditions for entrepreneurial visions: role confidence, hierarchical congruences, and the imagining of future in entrepreneurial groups," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 59(3), pages 1023-1041, October.
    15. Bent Flyvbjerg & J. Rodney Turner, 2017. "Do Classics Exist in Megaproject Management?," Papers 1710.09678, arXiv.org.
    16. Makridakis, Spyros & Hogarth, Robin M. & Gaba, Anil, 2009. "Forecasting and uncertainty in the economic and business world," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 794-812, October.
    17. Johan Ninan & Stewart Clegg & Steve Burdon & John Clay, 2023. "Reimagining Infrastructure Megaproject Delivery: An Australia—New Zealand Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-14, February.
    18. Paul Andon & Jane Baxter & Wai Fong Chua, 2015. "Accounting for Stakeholders and Making Accounting Useful," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(7), pages 986-1002, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stone, Dan N., 2001. "Accountant's tales," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 26(4-5), pages 461-470.
    2. Eric Fay & Lucas Introna & François-Régis Puyou, 2010. "Living with numbers: Accounting for subjectivity in/with management accounting systems," Post-Print hal-00771160, HAL.
    3. Masifern, Esteban & Vilà, Joaquim, 2002. "Strategic thinking: Strategy as a shared framework in the mind of managers," IESE Research Papers D/461, IESE Business School.
    4. Moon, Byeong-Joon, 2013. "Antecedents and outcomes of strategic thinking," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(10), pages 1698-1708.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:14:y:2003:i:5:p:574-590. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.