مدیریت پروژه و فرهنگ ملی : مطالعه موردی هلند و فرانسه

This case study explores the impact of national context in the integration of project management. It analyses the implementation of project management during a Dutch/French cooperation. Evaluation and monitoring are easily adopted by the Dutch whereas they are avoided by the French partners. This qualitative and inductive research unravels the entanglement of the practice in two different contexts. It sheds light on the role of Dutch consensus as making the transfer of the practice easier. It reveals the difficulty encountered in making project management a part of French logic of “métier”. The research underlines the fact that weak and limited articulations between the individual and the group and between the persons and their activities are key factors in the appropriation of project management. This paper is also theoretically oriented. It proposes an analytical framework adapted to investigate managerial practices within their contexts of implementation.

Despite the belief that managerial tools and processes can be exported worldwide, a different reality is often experienced at the local workplace. Even within Europe, the transfer of managerial practices can take a long time. Implementation of a new management process can be subjected to avoidance, resistance or rejection. When this occurs, a manager may wonder why and seek the source of the problem. A portrayal of managerial tools as objective and universal is mainly a matter of a dominant discourse. Yet, it is difficult to think of a practice as “suspended in the air”, detached from actors and their contexts. Managerial practices are both designed and implemented within defined political, institutional and social contexts. They interact with cooperation and coordination processes. Whereas the logic inherent to a practice is consistent with the context in which it has been elaborated, it may be at odds with the local contexts to which it is transferred. In which case, a manager will strive to reconcile the practice and the context. He/she will benefit from knowledge about the underlying logics that govern such a situation. This research explores the influence of national context in the implementation of project management (PM). It takes advantage of a critical situation, a Dutch/French cooperation project in the field of R&D. The two partners adopt contrasting positions towards managerial aspects of the project and, more specifically, monitoring and evaluation. The research identifies the logics at stake and their interplay. This paper describes the theoretical background for this research (Section 2) and the background for this case study (Section 3). Then, the text proceeds with the description of the case (Section 4). It analyzes the procedures and unfolding of the project and further interprets the perception of Dutch and French partners about the project, its evaluation and monitoring. The last section discusses the origin of the discrepancy between Dutch and French partners and proposes methodological developments (Section 5).

This research explores the impact of national culture on PM by means of a bi-national case study and thick description. It disentangles the logic of PM and that of Dutch and French contexts. It targets the mechanism by which PM interacts with local forms of cooperation, coordination and decision processes. It unravels the means by which Dutch consensus makes integration of PM easier. It indicates how French decision process can hinder the implementation of PM. The work underlines the added value of contextualized case studies of PM and thick descriptions. It proposes a conceptual framework which targets the relations between individual, collective and actions and their role in cultural variability. In a period governed by intense internationalization and globalization, the field of management can benefit from research that focuses on the mechanisms of articulation between local and global. Next step in this research is to reinforce the work with complementary case studies. On the one hand, we are turning our attention on implementation of PM in French profit organization. On the other hand, we are investigating PM in Dutch non profit organizations in that specialized on social integration. Both types of case studies may provide relevant information about the borders and limits of project management in The Netherlands and in France.