Browsing by Author "Pinto, Jeffrey K."

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Chapter 15: Normalization of deviance in projects: its causes and implications for effective governance
    (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2023-09-15) Pinto, Jeffrey K.; Davis, Kate
    Organizational mistakes and accidents have a long history in practice and have been studied extensively in the engineering and organizational literature. One of the primary causes of persistent organizational error is the existence of deviance, i.e., behavior violating organizational norms. This chapter examines the behaviors and motivations of project team members in situations where deviant behaviors have been accepted and normalized as part of project operations. It discusses how normalization of deviance (NoD) manifests in terms of (1) project proposals and strategic misrepresentation, (2) client/contractor relationships, (3) planning and scheduling dynamics, and (4) workplace safety, and provides examples of NoD in practice. The chapter concludes with implications of NoD for organizational performance improvement and offers advice for how to avoid NoD situations.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Chapter 20: Corporate innovation and agile project management
    (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2023-10-01) Davis, Kate; Pinto, Jeffrey K.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Coming to terms with project success: current perspectives and future challenges
    (Elsevier, 2022-09-10) Pinto, Jeffrey K.; Davis, Kate; Ika, Lavagnon A.; Jugdev, Kam; Zwikael, Ofer
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    The corruption of project governance through normalization of deviance
    (IEEE, 2022-07-11) Davis, Kate; Pinto, Jeffrey K.
    Organizational mistakes and accidents have a long history in practice and have been studied extensively in the engineering and organizational literature. One of the primary causes of persistent organizational error is the existence of deviance; i.e., behavior violating organizational norms. We examined the behaviors and motivations of project team members in situations where deviant behaviors had been accepted and normalized as part of project operations. We used NVivo content analysis to classify the narratives of 52 project professionals as they related to normalization of deviance (NoD) situations, their perceived causes, and subsequent outcomes for their organizations. Our findings suggest that NoD occurs in three primary dimensions: project processes, relationships, and outcomes. We discuss the implications of these findings for project organization performance improvement and avoiding NoD situations.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Governance in a crisis and the decision to replace the project manager
    (Sage, 2025-02) Pinto, Jeffrey K.; Davis, Kate; Turner, Neil
    This article explores the concept of governance behaviors during project crises, which demand rapid responses. Grounded in the Cynefin model for decision-making and inspired by Iftikhar et al., (2021), we sought to explore in greater detail the challenge of a particular and common response to crisis: project manager replacement. We address governance as essentially a two-level function: sensemaking under crisis conditions and offering guidance within the critical early stages of project manager replacement, when the need for governance is crucial. Finally, this article offers some guidance for the employment of governance within different Cynefin complexity domains for maximizing effective replacement steps.