Emergence is the evolution of order bottom-up from local knowledge. Emergent Project Management is the method of using emergence to elicit local knowledge, integrate it with the global knowledge, and use the integrated knowledge to manage projects more effectively. Foreign mangers can leverage local knowledge using this method. The five key components of Emergent Project Management, based on the concept of Emergent Design [IBM Systems Journal 39 (2000) 768] are: (1) Constructionism, (2) Technological fluency, (3) Immersive environments, (4) Applied epistemological anthropology, and (5) Critical inquiry. Project managers who want to transcend state, regional, national, cultural, organizational and industry boundaries in today's global economy will need these new cognitive and behavioral skills.
Project management has to adapt and exapt [33] to be effective in the emerging global economy. It has to combine its normative top-down global knowledge with the emergent bottom-up local knowledge. Emergent Project Management is a method of attaining this synthesis. Foreign project mangers can leverage local knowledge, integrate it with their global knowledge, and use the integrated knowledge to manage more effectively by using this method.
The five key components of Emergent Project Management, based on the concept of Emergent Design [1] are: (1) Constructionism, (2) Technological fluency, (3) Immersive environments, (4) Applied epistemological anthropology, and (5) Critical inquiry. In lay terms these components emphasize the following traditional principles: learning by doing, deep familiarity, total immersion, a research spirit, dialogue and debate, and patience. Consequently, an ideal project manger has to be able to play multiple roles such as a learner, teacher, participant, anthropologist, linguist, epistemologist, researcher, communicator, and debater. At the very least a modern project manager has to have an exposure to these skills, if not expertise. A manager that knows what he or she knows and does not know will be more likely to sensitive to the richness, complexities, and nuances of local knowledge than one who is not. Such a manager is more likely to learn locally and act globally.
Taken together, the above actions can transform project management from being a normative methodology with rigid techniques and technologies to an emergent methodology with adaptive and exaptive [33] foundations. Such a transformation will not only enhance the global body of knowledge with the wide and varied bodies of local knowledge, but also aid the effective application of this body of knowledge in global project management. Project managers who want to transcend state, regional, national, cultural, organizational and industry boundaries in today's global economy will need these new cognitive and behavioral skills.
The two illustrations earlier show how Emergent Project Management can reduce potentially disruptive behavior and positively harness the forces underlying such behavior. However, more formal research is needed to determine whether Emergent Project Management will improve overall project performance, if so what aspects will be improved, and what are their cost and time implications.
