شالوده شکنی مدیریت پروژه : تجزیه و تحلیل جنسیتی در مورد دستورالعمل های مدیریت پروژه

Strong isomorphic forces are at work in the emerging project management profession. At the same time, competent project management practice is evolving and expanding to include both soft and hard skills. Contemporary gender scholarship purports that these different skill sets are founded on inherently gendered logic systems. Thus, questions regarding the role of masculine and feminine logic systems in project management become increasingly important. We deconstruct portions of one of the pre-eminent isomorphic forces at work today —the Project Management Body of Knowledge® (PMBOK)—to initiate discussion on the ways in which gendered logic systems play a role in generally-accepted project management practice.

Project management has been characterized as a “macho profession” [1] and [2]. As the profession confronts the growing need to manage expectations, relationships and trust [3] and [4], this style of behaviour is being called into question. As this profession evolves, scholars are noting a shift from a discipline based on technology and control to a focus on interactions and learning [5]. This trend towards accepting the “softer” side of project management appears to correlate with the increasing acceptance of feminine strengths legitimized by literature in organizational theory, management, and the sciences. In this context, questions regarding the role of masculinity and femininity become increasingly important to the emerging profession. Examination of masculinities and femininities is contentious in organizational research, generally because people view masculine behaviour as outside the realm of possibility or appropriateness for women, and feminine behaviour as outside the respectable capacities of men. Taking our lead from developmental theories that claim that healthy adult life involves moving toward wholeness, we argue that both male and female project managers need to understand the differences inherent in masculine and feminine ways of managing projects and claim the strengths of both approaches. Ultimately, the practice of project management is influenced by the textual representation of appropriate practice. Every document contains implicit assumptions that influence readers’ choices of appropriate behaviours and ways of thinking—texts support some ways of thinking and discourage others. This research deconstructs an important socialization document produced by the Project Management Institute (PMI) to illuminate implicit assumptions and their implications for the practice of project management. Our motive in this endeavour is straightforward: as long as the underlying logic in a profession remains implicit and undiscussed, members remain captive of an untheorized regime, limited in their capacity to see choices about how they work and lead others [6]. To introduce these issues, we review the theory of isomorphism and PMI's role as an isomorphic force in the emerging project management profession, highlight management research into the gendered nature of thought and action at work, present our methodological approach to this piece of work, and discuss findings from our preliminary textual analysis.

Documents such as the PMBOK strongly influence the development of the emerging profession. PMBOK is a potent force for isomorphism, signaling project managers worldwide about the appropriate use of masculinity and femininity. An exploration of the gendered nature of project management oversimplifies the profession by claiming to label its processes or people as either masculine or feminine. It is both. We see no value in inappropriately concluding a resolution to this dichotomy that sees both masculinity and femininity as presently—and appropriately—part of the reality of the PM profession. Neither masculine nor feminine ways of reasoning or behaving are inherently superior to the other. However, both have underlying assumptions about what should be valued, and both have consequences and implications that the profession needs to acknowledge. By exploring the symbolic language indicators of appropriate project management behaviour, we suggest that the hard masculine logic systems exert considerable influence on the “best practice” outlined in the PMBOK. Softer feminine logic systems appear less influential and presumably less valued or trusted in the profession. The project management profession, acting as it does as a potent symbolic interpretive system, has an important opportunity (and an obligation?) to acknowledge and champion both gendered logic systems. This ongoing analysis suggests that the stewards of the project management profession place their greatest confidence in the unambiguous and clear in an attempt to develop the caliber and status of their evolving professional practices. By explicitly acknowledging a broader number of legitimate ways to attain project success, the profession could validate those professionals who operate with currently underrepresented logic styles, and encourage those who manage projects through overvalued logic styles to learn and practise diversifying their gendered cognitive and behavioural skill sets. This research has significant practical import if we acknowledge the growing requirement for project managers to be professionals capable of making decisions and applying knowledge to changing and ambiguous situations rather than the traditional emphasis on simply making a plan happen. The measure of a professional is the ability to apply a body of knowledge to complex and dynamic work situations and readiness to justify that the appropriate and necessary actions for that particular situation were taken. Dealing with the ambiguity and interrelatedness of a profession will require project management professionals of both biological sexes to have keenly developed masculine and feminine logic systems. With such skill sets, we believe the profession will increase its value to corporations whose global competitiveness can be improved through more flexible, responsive project management. Emphasizing project management's ability to deal with ambiguity and uncertainty is the route for project management to be recognized as a strategic asset in tomorrow's organizations. This research initiates a discussion about the ways in which masculine and feminine logic systems and behaviours are conceived as valuable resources to project managers. Our intent was to make visible the gendered discourse operating within the profession. As long as the masculinity and femininity embedded within the profession's norms remain undefined, they remain inaccessible to dialogue and conscious choice [6]. If we have left you with more questions than answers, we are satisfied that we have opened the discourse and increased awareness of these perplexing issues.