Research Handbook on Complex Project Organizing

Research Handbooks in Business and Management series

Edited by Graham M. Winch, Professor of Project Management, Alliance Manchester Business School, UK, Maude Brunet, Assistant Professor, Department of Management, HEC Montréal, Canada and Dongping Cao, Associate Professor, Department of Construction Management and Real Estate, School of Economics and Management, Tongji University, China

This Research Handbook provides a cutting-edge review of complex project organizing (CPO), and suggests fruitful avenues for future research with a focus on grand challenges and a sustainable future.

‘Modern projects, whether undertaken by public organizations for societal benefit or private firms for commercial advantage, pose a genuine challenge for their sponsors, who often discover belatedly that their technical challenges are quickly eclipsed by other layers of complexity involved in managing myriad stakeholders (team members, cooperating organizations, public advocacy groups, and so forth). The more we can identify – in advance – the combination of technical and behavioral challenges to be addressed and begin to formulate the best means to respond to these challenges, the greater the likelihood our projects will realize their often-lofty goals. Professors Winch, Brunet, and Cao have created a singularly valuable book that comes at a welcome and opportune moment, as public and private sector money to be spent on projects continues to balloon. The work of three acknowledged, world-class thinkers on project management, Research Handbook on Complex Project Organizing is destined to be an immediate and significant addition to the literature and current managerial practice. Its arrival is both timely and of critical importance to our deeper understanding of project management challenges in the 21st century.’
– Jeffrey K. Pinto, The Pennsylvania State University, US