Editorial

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, Volume 5, Issue 4

From the Editor

Derek H.T. Walker, School of Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia, e-mail: derek.walker@rmit.edu.au

About this issue

This final issue for 2012, Volume 5 comprises ten papers, one regular paper, a thesis research note and one thesis research note paper in a special issue “Classics in Project Management: Revisiting the Past, Creating the Future” guest edited by Jonas Söderlund from BI Norwegian School of Management, Oslo Norway and Joana Geraldi from University College London, London, UK. It is an honour to have these contributions. The scholarly insights that have been presented should provide a very useful and highly citation-worthy set of paper. They provide a guest editorial that explains the theme, papers and contributions to PM knowledge that this represents. We also include a book review in this issue.

The special is supplemented by two additional papers regular papers. The first regular paper entitled “Health and safety maturity in project business cultures” by Aeli Roberts, John Kelsey, Hedley Smyth and Adam Wilson from University College London, London in the UK. This paper provides an examination of the relationship between health and safety (H&S) and organisational culture in project business, in particular to explore the validity of current cognitive emphases of linear organisational maturity towards a “safety culture”, and normative models and prescriptions. The cases were characterised by diverse organisational cultures and diverse H&S practices informed by habits and intuitive behaviour as well as cognitive strategies and decisions for implementation. They found that H&S was not the top priority for these cases. Good performance related to alignment with the prevailing culture rather than pursuit of a “safety culture”. This paper provides a useful picture of what is actually happening as opposed to what normative notions of what should be happening.

The Thesis Research Notes “Global careerists’ identity construction – a narrative study of repeat expatriates and international itinerants” by Malin Näsholm from the Umeå School of Business and Economics, Umeå Sweden. This paper presents a very interesting perspective on her thesis topic about the impact of being an expatriate working on trans-national projects. This also illustrates her PhD journey as well as summarising the content of her thesis. I was interested in this thesis because in so many ways it seems to be a metaphor for project managers transitioning in and out of projects and their cultures and how that adjustment impacts upon project managers.

Finally, Derek Walker provides a review of the book published by Gower entitled Leading Complex Projects by Kaye Remington. This book is a natural sequel to her 2007 Tools for Complex Projects which now has some additional case study findings and insights from a series of research studies undertaken over the past five years and so this is a valuable addition in this area.

Volume 6 will include several special issues supplemented by selected regular papers so that readers can gain a bonus from previous volumes by having additional papers to read and absorb and a have both access to the special themes as well as benefit from contributions of regular papers.

Derek H.T. Walker