Abstract:
This paper emerged as the authors struggled to make sense of a phenomenon
observed during fieldwork. We had entered the field knowing a project-based
organisation to be performing poorly and to be in need of improvement in its
management of projects. We expected that the organisation would be actively
trying to achieve the necessary improvement. We found that the organisation as a
matter of course was not pursuing any improvement activities. It was only
following a crisis with its major client that limited changes were introduced,
and then business as usual resumed. This we have termed, the improvement
paradox. The paradox exists because there are two systems of logic operating:
that of the researcher in forming the expectation of change and that of the
organisation in not changing. Both of these systems provided insight. Our
expectations reflected a bias for the logic that there was inherent goodness and
desirability in improving PM practices. Furthermore, we are actors in an
environment that actively promotes improvement and provides mimetic, coercive
and normative pressures on an organisation to improve. The logic of the
organisation was founded on complicity - between the organisation and its
client, and between multiple levels of the organisation. This complicity was
seen to be causal in maintaining a series of defensive routines - routines that
perpetuated the status quo. Further reflection revealed many paradoxes in the
world of projects and project management. Given the prevalence of paradoxes
perhaps we should move beyond labelling these phenomena to explore them more
deeply and to contribute insights which better reflect the complexity and
ambiguity in project contexts.