Dr Ralf Müller is Professor of Project Management at BI Norwegian Business School, Norway and their former Associate Dean for the BI-Fudan executive programs. He is also adjunct professor at the University of Technology Sydney, and distinguished (Haitian) scholar at Dalian University of Technology in China.
In the past, he was Professor of Business Administration at Umeå University, Sweden, and held adjunct and visiting professor positions at SKEMA Business School in France; TIAS Business School, Netherlands; University of Economics and Business, Austria; ISM University, Lithuania; Henley Business School, UK; and Tasly Pharmaceuticals Project Management School, China. He lectures in Master’s, doctoral and executive programs and researches in leadership, governance and organizational project management. Herein he taught about 350 PhD candidates in doctoral-level research methods for SKEMA Business School, France, Tsinghua University in China, and Umeå University in Sweden. He supervised 14 doctoral (PhD/DBA) candidates to successful completion, and was opponent to 31 doctoral candidates.
He is a co-founder of the Project Management Institute’s (PMI) first European Chapter, the Frankfurt Chapter, as well as the Munich Chapter and the Institute for Project Management at the University of Iceland. Currently he is the Chairperson of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Association of International Project Management Officers (AIPMO) and member of the Doctoral Committee at ISM University in Lithuania.. In addition he was the co-organizer of the 2013 IRNOP conference at BI Norwegian Business School, and since 2003 member of conference organizing committees for EURAM, IRNOP, and other project management related academic conferences.
Since 2003 he has received research grants in the excess of € 1,3 million from institutions like the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), the Project Management Institute (PMI), and the Norwegian Center of Project Management (Prosjekt Norge). His studies addressed governance, leadership, organizational project management, and research-informed standards. The results of his research appeared in more than 300 publications including leading peer reviewed journals like Long Range Planning, IEEE Transaction on Engineering Management, Production Planning & Control (all ranked ABS 3*), Journal of Management in Engineering (ranked among the top 10% of all management journals), International Journal of Project Management (a NVI level 2 journal), as well as books at NVI level 2 listed publishers like Edward Elgar, Oxford University Press, and Cambridge University Press. He is frequent speaker at global research conferences such as IRNOP (International Research Network for Organizing by Projects) and the European Academy of Management Conference, as well as practitioner conferences, such as those of NASA, PMI and IPMA (International Project Management Association).
In parallel, he is the Managing Director of PM Concepts AB, a Sweden-based management consultancy, advising larger corporations and governments, such as SAP, IBM, Volvo, or the Ministry of Interior in Lithuania. Prior to joining academia, he was the Worldwide Director of Project Management at NCR Corporation’s Headquarters in Dayton, OH, USA, where he also was a member of the global leadership team of the corporation’s Professional Services line of business. He has worked in 50+ different countries for the improvement of project management in large organizations and governments. Projects he worked on span from small up to USD 5 billion in value. In these projects, he worked closely with AT&T and Bell Laboratories, USA.
Ralf Müller holds a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) degree from Brunel University, UK and an MBA from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, UK, as well as Master’s Certificates in Global Business Management and in Project Management from George Washington University, USA. Furthermore, he holds a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from PMI, USA.
Ralf received 21 awards in the last 20 years, including two lifetime achievement awards from PMI, USA and Antura, Sweden, two Fellow Awards from PMI and the Centre for Excellence in Project Management, two IPMA Research Awards for studies on leadership and Project Management Offices (PMO), the Walt Lipke Project Governance Excellence and Control Award for his work on organizational project management, and a number of best paper, best reviewer, and best supervisor awards from Universities, journals and conferences. A recent study by Stanford University identified him as among the top 2 percent of the world's most influential scientists. Research.com ranked him in 2023 among the top 4 most influetial scientist in Business and Management in Norway. His doctoral thesis was ranked by EDAMBA as among the top 10 doctoral theses in business and management in 2003.
Ralf Müller is Editor-in-Chief for the Project Management Journal (a leading academic journal in project management research), and serves at the Editorial Review Board of seven other academic journals. He is invited member of Sigma Xi - The Scientific Research Honor Society, member of Academy of Management, the Project Management Institute (PMI), the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations in the US, and the Royal Institute of Philosophy in the UK. He contributed to the PMI Standards for Organizational Project Management Maturity (OPM3), for Program Management, and for Portfolio Management. He also contributed to the practitioner standards of the International Association for Project Management Officers (AIPMO). He frequently consults ISO and other global institutions in governance related subjects.
This paper develops a framework for understanding the interaction between person-centered leadership by project managers (a.k.a. vertical leadership (VLS)) and team-centered leadership by individuals in the project team (a.k.a. horizontal leadership (HSL)). It builds on Archer's Realist Social Theory and its morphogenetic cycle, which describes the interaction of structure with agency for task fulfillment and the resulting reshaping (morphogenesis) or continuation (morphostasis) of structure for subsequent iterations of the cycle. Data were collected globally in 33 case studies with 166 interviews and analyzed using Alvesson's Constructing Mystery technique. A theory about the cycles and events that shape the interaction between VLS and HLS is developed, which includes events such as nomination, identification, selection, execution and governance, as well as transitioning. Managerial and theoretical implications are discussed.
Müller, Ralf; Zhai, Li & Wang, Anyu (2017)
Governance and governmentality in projects: Profiles and relationships with success
This study investigates the role of governance and governmentality in project and organizational success. Results from 121 responses to a worldwide survey provided for profiling of different governance and governmentality approaches at different levels of success, and quantitative investigation of the relationships between them. Results support the model of governmentality being positively related with both project level and organizational level success. Governance as structural context variable moderates this relationship. Moderation takes place at the project level through the governance mechanisms (trust and control) influencing the strength of the relationship, and at the organizational level through governance complexity, measured as the number of governance institutions involved in projects, influencing the form of the relationship. Contingency theory serves as a theoretical lens to interpret and discuss the findings, as well as theoretical and managerial implications.
Müller, Ralf; Pemsel, Sofia & Shao, Jingting (2015)
Organizational enablers for project governance and governmentality in project-based organziations
Organizational project management (OPM) integrates project-related activities in organizations, including project management offices (PMOs) and their services. Using an organizational design perspective, this study models nine different PMO service delivery categories along scope, frequency, and delivery entity and identifies their particular OPM contexts (i.e., landscapes). Two hundred and sixty-five responses to a global survey identified nine types of OPM landscapes, grouped into three regions, with their particular logic of investment in OPM and their particular PMO service mix. The framework helps practitioners set up their PMOs in line with established practices. Academics benefit from a base for theorizing organizational designs using OPM.
Desk rejections of artificial intelligence (AI)–related submissions to the Project Management Journal® (PMJ) are high. This article provides an overview and state-of-the-art snapshot on academic and practitioner work to derive at potential future research topics and guidelines on the execution and reporting of AI-related studies in project management.
Müller, Ralf Josef (2023)
Exploring the future of research in project management
Research in project management provides an understanding of working practices, organizational, technological, and other phenomena in the realm of projects. The present article addresses the expected development in research topics over the short to mid-range period. It starts with a look into recent predictions, then adds the currently proposed research topics of the leading academic journals in project management, and processes this into five potential streams of future research in project management. These streams cover research in the realm of Grand Challenges, the human side of project management, the general understanding of (megaprojects) project management, advanced tools and techniques (such as Artificial Intelligence), as well as anticipated new research methods and their implications for the relevance of research findings for practitioners. Practitioners will gain insight into potential topics they might be interested in and want to read more about in the future. At the same time, academics gain from various potential research topics and directions.
Müller, Ralf Josef (2023)
From Network Governance to Metagovernance
Müller, Ralf Josef; Sankaran, Shankar & Drouin, Nathalie (red.). Research Handbook on the Governance of Projects
Müller, Ralf Josef (2023)
Ethics and Trust Implications of Governance
Müller, Ralf Josef; Sankaran, Shankar & Drouin, Nathalie (red.). Research Handbook on the Governance of Projects
This paper captures a better understanding of the career development of people leading megaprojects through the use of biographical research method. The characteristics of megaprojects cause serious and diverse challenges for their leaders, but programs where they are trained to overcome these challenges are not easily available around the world. We used a biographic research to gather sixteen life histories of megaproject leaders from ten different countries. This approach helps to explore megaproject leaders as people and how they have learned to become leaders. Findings show that leaders learned to manage megaprojects through a lifetime interaction of: (1) personal characteristics of leaders, (2) turning points in their lives, (3) value orientations stemming from their family, region or religion, (4) their relationship to the project team, and (5) their professionalization through a diversity of projects. These findings add to our knowledge on leaders’ career development that this not only depends on individual agency but also on contextual influences which span a lifetime. Furthermore, the findings contribute to the debate on narrative inquiry methods by demonstrating the full potential of biographical research method for understanding megaproject leadership. Finally, the findings contribute to the debate on megaprojects leaders with real accounts of how people have become leaders through self-development.
Project management research has evolved over the past five decades and is now amature disciplinary field investigating phenomena of interest to academics, practi-tioners and policymakers. Studies of projects and project management practicesare theoretically rich and scientifically rigorous. They are practically relevant andimpactful when addressing the pursuit of operational, tactical and strategicadvancements in the world of organisations. We want to broaden the conversa-tion between project management scholars and other scholars from cognate disci-plines, particularly business and management, in a true scholarship of integrationand cross-fertilisation. This Manifesto invites the latter scholars to join effortsproviding a foundation for further creative, theoretical and empirical contribu-tions, including but not limited to tackling grand challenges such as climatechange, pandemics, and global poverty. To this end, we identify five theses: 1. Projects are often‘agents of change’and hence fundamental to driving theinnovation and change required to tackle grand challenges. 2. Much project management research leverages and challenges theories acrossdisciplines, including business, organisation and management studies, con-tributing to developing new theories, including those specific to projects andtemporary organisations. 3.‘Projects’are useful units of analysis, project management research is idealfor scientific cross-fertilisation and project management scholars welcomeacademics from other communities to engage in fruitful conversations. 4. As in many other fields of knowledge, the project management research com-munity embraces diversity, welcoming researchers of different genders andvarious scientific and social backgrounds. 5. Historically rooted in‘problem-solving’and normative studies, project man-agement research has become open to interpretative and emancipatoryresearch, providing opportunities for other business, management and orga-nisational scholars to advance their knowledge communities.
Wang, Linzhuo; Müller, Ralf Josef & Zhu, Fangwei (2023)
Network Governance for Interorganizational Temporary Organizations: A Systematic Literature Review and Research Agenda
Governance of interorganizational networks for joint project execution has become a popular research theme in recent years. However, little is known about how the knowledge in this field is structured and how to further develop it based on the given structure. This systematic literature review identifies three main categories of literature in this field: design of network governance, network performance, and theory in network governance. Each of these categories is further divided into subcategories, which are assessed for the timely development and current state of knowledge. This provides the foundation for the development of a research agenda, which includes configurational understanding of network governance design, governing for temporary organizing particularities, and level-crossing theoretical development.
This study operationalizes and tests a multilevel governance model for interorganizational project networks. Results of a qualitative multicase study are used to develop a framework model with three levels of governance, namely metagovernance, governance of networks, and network governance. This framework is validated through a global survey with 225 responses. Type I and Type II governance are confirmed as the organizational elements of network governance, and the relationships between the different levels are established. Metagovernance directly impacts network governance and this relationship is mediated through governance of networks for Type I governance and moderated through governance of networks for Type II governance.
While project governance research is burgeoning, the prevalence of a structural focus and project business perspective may impede the understanding of governing practices and contextual interaction. Therefore, we adopt a multidisciplinary systematic review and begin by scrutinizing the main topics, theories, and methodologies of project governance research. Then, and most importantly, we elaborate a comprehensive framework with four alternative archetypes: organizational project governance, organizational project governing, institutional project governance, and institutional project governing. These four archetypes extend previous views and clarify the underlying commonalities and differences among different project governance studies. Moreover, we identify the practice turn and contextual turn as two promising shifts for conceptualizing the governance phenomenon as an ongoing process interacting with a broader societal context. Our findings will not only help scholars to recognize the lived experience and situated contexts of governing practices, but also encourage them to generate dialogs across different archetypes and the theory-practice gap.
Sankaran, Shankar; Clegg, Stewart Roger, Müller, Ralf Josef & Drouin, Nathalie (2022)
Energy justice issues in renewable energy megaprojects: implications for a socioeconomic evaluation of megaprojects
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate and discuss stakeholder issues faced by renewable energy megaprojects and in particular solar and wind power projects and their relevance to socioeconomic evaluation of megaprojects. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses secondary data collected from the recent literature published on stakeholder issues face by mega solar and wind power energy generation projects around the world. The issues are then analysed across specific challenges in five continents where these projects are being developed. The paper then focuses on the literature on energy justice to elaborate the type of issues being faced by renewable energy megaprojects contributing to the achievement of UN Sustainable Goal 7 and their impact on vulnerable communities where these projects are situated. Findings – Renewable energy megaprojects are rarely discussed in the project management literature on megaprojects despite their size and importance in delivering sustainable development goals. While these projects provide social benefits they also create issues of justice due to their impact of vulnerable populations living is locations where these projects are situated. The justice issues faced include procedural justice, distributive justice, recognition inequalities. The type of justice issues was found to vary intensity in the developed, emerging and developing economies. It was found that nonprofit organisations are embarking on strategies to alleviate energy justice issues in innovative ways. It was also found that, in some instances, smaller local projects developed with community participation could actually contribute more equitable to the UN sustainable development goals avoiding the justice issues posed by mega renewable energy projects. Research limitations/implications – The research uses secondary data due to which it is difficult to present a more comprehensive picture of stakeholder issues involving renewable energy megaprojects. The justice issues revealed through thesis paper with renewable energy megaprojects are also present in conventional megaprojects which have not been discussed in the project management literature. Post-COVID19 these justice issues are likely to become mor prevalent due to the pandemic’s impact on vulnerable population exacerbating the issues and increasing their severity on these populations. Therefore it is becoming even more critical to take these into account while developing renewable energy megaprojects. Practical implications – Proper identification and response to energy justice issues can help in alleviating stakeholder issues in renewable energy megaprojects. Social implications – Contributes to the equitable achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7. Originality/value – This paper addresses a gap in the project management literature on the exploration of stakeholder issues on renewable energy megaprojects. It also brings out the importance of justice issues which can assist in expanding stakeholders issues faced by megaprojects as these issues have not received sufficient attention in the past in the project management literature.
Increasingly, scholars are recognising the importance of resilience in projects. However, there is a lack of research on the resilience of temporary inter-organisational projects while considering the intricate relationship among multiple stakeholder organisations. We conducted an embedded comparative case study to investigate the mechanisms how stakeholder relationships involving prior ties and inter-organisational governance in the project support its resilience. Our results show that few prior ties among stakeholders keep them vigilant, fostering the readiness and preparedness for resilience, while many prior ties keep social solidarity among stakeholders, fostering the response and recovery for resilience. Contractual and relational governance improves resilience by clarifying stakeholders’ roles and responsibilities and forming collective cognition, respectively. We believe a plural governance design based on prior ties among stakeholders will improve resilience of the inter-organisational project, by promoting dynamically distributed and centralised stakeholder engagement in preparing, responding and recovering from the unexpected.
The complexity, internal and external risks, and significant social impact of megaprojects make their organizational resilience particularly important. To survive potential adversities, megaproject organizational resilience depends on collective mindfulness. Drawing on an attention-based view, this study investigates the mechanisms of collective mindfulness for megaproject organizational resilience as a process that functions prior to, during, and after recovery from crises. The results from analyzing six embedded crisis events in two megaprojects indicate that collective mindfulness influences organizational resilience processes through the mechanisms of awareness allocation, emotional detachment, and attention alignment. The study's theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Balanced Leadership: Making the Best Use of Personal and Team Leadership in Projects
Oxford University Press.
A new theory of balanced leadership in projects Leadership is not static. Instead, authority in projects shifts dynamically between project managers, individual team members, and sub-teams, depending on the situation. Leadership may be exercised through a vertical, horizontal, shared, or distributed leadership approach. However, balanced leadership ensures the best suitable approach is used in any given situation. Based on an award-winning global program of research studies, Balanced Leadership is a thorough investigation of balanced leadership in projects. Ralf Müller, Nathalie Drouin, and Shankar Sankaran present a project-specific leadership approach as well as a theory of balanced leadership, and the situations in which different strategies are required. They also outline the five building blocks that enable balanced leadership: nomination of team members, identification of potential leaders, selection and empowerment of leaders, empowered leadership and its governance, and leadership transition. The book explains the coordination of these building blocks through the socio-cognitive space shared by project manager and team. Using real-life case studies and clear examples, this book offers a new way of considering and utilizing dynamic leadership in project settings.
Drouin, Nathalie; Müller, Ralf Josef, Sankaran, Shankar & Vaagaasar, Anne Live (2021)
Balancing leadership in projects: Role of the socio-cognitive space
Based on social comparison theory and organizational justice, this research explores how Guanxi with the horizontal leader (HL) influences coworker turnover intention. We used the snowball sampling method to collect survey data from 203 employees in 22 project teams. Overall, Guanxi with the HL had an indirect influence on turnover intention through perceived distributive justice pertaining to HL identification. Additionally, procedural justice had a negative, cross-level moderating effect on the relationship between Guanxi with the HL and perceived distributive justice. However, the individual-level moderating role of interactional justice was not supported. Theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed.
This research aims to link leadership and employees’ well-being in the architecture, engineering, and construction (A/E/C) industry while focusing on horizontal leadership, which is displayed by subordinates, and job burnout among remaining team members. Based on social information processing theory and conservation of resource theory, we propose a moderated mediation model. We hypothesize that the presence of a horizontal leader (HL) in A/E/C project teams is related to remaining team members’ job burnout, which is mediated by perceived career opportunity (PCO). However, the relationship between HL’s presence and PCO changes from significantly positive among project team members with relatively low status conflict to significantly negative among team members with relatively high status conflict. The relationship between HL’s presence and job burnout is also reversed. The results of a scenario study (Study 1) using Masters of Engineering Management candidates as the sample (N=150) and a field survey (Study 2) involving 313 real team members support our hypotheses. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
Iftikhar, Rehab; Müller, Ralf Josef & Ahola, Tuomas (2021)
Crises and Coping Strategies in Megaprojects: The Case of the Islamabad–Rawalpindi Metro Bus Project in Pakistan
This study focuses on crises in megaprojects and on the strategies used to cope with them. The context examined is the Islamabad–Rawalpindi Metro, a megaproject in Pakistan. Our empirical data comprise semistructured interviews, illustrative materials, and archival data, analyzed using grounded theory. In the crisis management model, we divide crises into four categories: (1) internal technical/economic; (2) internal social; (3) external technical/economic; and (4) external social crises; and link them to six distinct coping strategies: communication, coordination, resource mobilization, planning and multitasking, negotiation, and compensation. We observe that the first three of these strategies are generic in nature, whereas the three latter are crisis-specific strategies.
Sankaran, Shankar; van Marrewijk, Alfons, Drouin, Nathalie & Müller, Ralf Josef (2021)
Conclusions and reflections: What have we learnt about megaproject leaders?
Drouin, Nathalie; Sankaran, Shankar, van Marrewijk, Alfons & Müller, Ralf Josef (red.). Megaproject Leaders
The purpose of this article is to investigate collaboration in project management research. Although the literature shows an increase in collaboration between scientists and social scientists for various reasons, it is unclear how and why such collaboration takes place in project management research. The literature does show that co-authorship of articles published in project management journals is on the rise due to increased collaboration between researchers in developed countries and emerging economies as well as developing countries. However, no detailed study has been conducted to investigate how such collaboration occurs in practice in project management research. This article addresses this gap.
Denne artikkelen diskuterer hvordan man kan kombinere vertikalt og horisontalt lederskap effektivt i prosjekter, altså hvordan lederskapet i prosjektet kan skifte mellom teammedlemmer og den formelt utpekte prosjektlederen avhengig av situasjonens krav. Vi konseptualiserer denne kombinasjonen av vertikalt og horisontalt lederskap som balansert lederskap. Et treårig, globalt forskningsprosjekt gir innsikt i når det er hensiktsmessig å skifte lederskapet i prosjektet mellom teammedlemmer og den formelt utpekte prosjektlederen, og hvordan dette kan gjøres. Våre funn indikerer at fem delprosesser sammen bidrar til balansert ledelse i prosjekter. Det er sentralt her hvordan prosjektleder identifiserer teammedlemmer som kan ta ledelsen, og legger til rette for at dette skal kunne skje ved å dyktiggjøre og bemyndige dem, samt hvordan prosjektleder følger opp teammedlemmenes ledelse og tar tilbake ledelsen på en god måte. Avslutningsvis viser vi hva prosjektledere som ønsker balansert lederskap, bør legge vekt på for å oppnå dette. Vi peker på sammenhengen mellom balansert ledelse, prosjektresultater og prosjektsuksess samt hvordan balansert ledelse kan bidra til økt motivasjon og egenutvikling hos prosjektmedlemmer som får større ansvar og en mulighet for å teste ut ulike personers evne til å ta lederansvar.
Sankaran, Shankar; Müller, Ralf Josef & Drouin, Nathalie (2020)
Creating a ‘ sustainability sublime ’ to enable megaprojects to meet the United Nations sustainable development goals
Despite cost and schedule overruns and benefits shortfalls, megaprojects (which are large‐scale projects that typically cost over a billion dollars and take years to develop and build) continue to be promoted and built creating a megaproject paradox. Prominent megaproject scholar Bent Flyvbjerg (2014) argued that this could be motivated by four ‘sublimes’—technological, political, economic and aesthetic that drive new megaprojects being put forward despite their poor performance. Recent evidence shows that better governance practices are helping to improve the overall performance of megaprojects. Despite the United Nations setting 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030, there are severe shortfalls in initiatives from governments, public organizations and private businesses endangering the achievement of targets set for these goals. In addition, time is running out to achieve these goals with only a decade left. The current initiatives contributing to these goals appear to be focused on individual SDGs even though many of these are interrelated. This article proposes that if politicians, engineers and scientists, businesses leaders and design thinkers could be motivated by a ‘sustainability sublime’ to create megaprojects that contribute to SDGs, it could benefit both the society and the planet. It also argues that a more integrated view of UN SDGs and a suitable governance structure should be applied to ensure that megaprojects created as a result of the sustainability sublime deliver benefits towards achieving UN SDGs.
Followership is the free will recognition of leadership in the commitment toward realization of the collectively adopted organization vision and culture. The purpose of this paper is to identify the relationship between project managers’ leadership and their followership. Most project managers are both leaders and followers at the same time, but research typically investigates only their leadership. This ignores followership as an important aspect in understanding and predicting behavior, and further in the selection of project managers
Through an exploratory multiple-case study in the context of project-based organizations in China, this study aims to identify the antecedents that facilitate three prevalent types of ambidexterity, namely, structural, sequential, and contextual ambidexterity. To understand and theorize on this phenomenon, seven case studies with 76 qualitative interviews were held. The results show that unpredictable and changing environments set the enabling context for ambidexterity, whereas design choices involving dimensions of structure, processes, empowerment, rewards, and human resource policies serve as structural antecedents. The managers and employees who respectively behave in supportive and initiative ways ultimately trigger different types of ambidexterity.
Vaagaasar, Anne Live; Müller, Ralf Josef & De Paoli, Donatella (2020)
Project managers adjust their leadership: to workspace and project type
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the triadic relationship between project workspace (i.e. spatial context), project type and project manager’s leadership style. It develops the concept of leadership construct (i.e. mental models of leadership to predispose the way leadership is performed) to explain related preferences for workspace and behaviors.
Horizontal leadership is temporary and often short-term compared with vertical leadership. Therefore, the role identity of horizontal leaders' is more difficult to be legitimated. In this study, we investigated how different factors interact and work in concert to influence horizontal leaders' role identity (hereafter, HLs' role identity). A sequential mixed method approach was chosen to conduct this research. Twenty-four interviews were analysed, and we identified eleven influencing factors associated with HLs' role identity. Subsequently, a sample of 150 questionnaires was analysed by using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to ascertain the collective effect of different influencing factors on HLs' strong and weak role identities. The results showed that high job complexity, intrinsic rewards, self-efficacy and personal expectations were the necessary conditions for HLs' strong role identity. The lack of expectations of other team members was the only necessary condition that resulted in HLs' weak role identity. Based on the 13 configurations of HLs' strong and weak role identities that were obtained from this research, we formed an HLs' role identity model. It was found that the expectations of other project team members together with empowerment by project managers are the most common and effective ways to establish HLs' strong role identity. Through a comparison, experienced and less experienced team members take different paths towards a strong or weak role identity. The theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.
Considerable confusion prevails in the mutual positioning and relationship of concepts like management, leadership, governance and governmentality in projects. This article first develops a framework to distinguish these terms conceptually by use of Archer’s structure and human agency philosophy. This provides for clearer conceptualization and lesser redundancy in the use of terms. Then the interaction between governance and governmentality in the context of projectsis assessed, using a contingency theory perspective. This addresses long-standing questions about the nature of the impact of governance and governmentality on each other and on project and organizational performance. The results show that higher levels of project sovereignty (as a measure of governance), are associated with lower levels of authoritarian, but higher levels of neo-liberal governmentality, as well as higher levels of project and organizational performance. The article continues with a discussion of the theoretical implications from different perspectives of causality, which provides for different approaches to improve project performance through deliberate fine-tuning of governance and governmentality.
The contemporary discourse on organizational project management (OPM) complements project, program, and portfolio management with emerging elements, such as governance, projectification, the project management office (PMO), and organizational design. This creates the need for an integrated model that defines the content and roles in OPM. This article addresses this by conceptually developing a seven-layered model that organizes 22 OPM elements, ranging from the corporate level to the management of individual projects. A theory is developed to explain the interaction of the elements and the layers within the model.
This paper examines how to design project control modes to improve knowledge integration under different types of uncertainty. Uncertainty can be the precondition of project control choice, and it gives rise to the differing relations between project control (behavior, outcome, clan and self) and knowledge integration. We have conducted a multiple case study from the engineering, software, machinery and infrastructure industries, and examined the project controls design effectively dealing with high uncertainties. On the basis of control theory and knowledge-based theory, this article compares project control modes impact from the three knowledge integration dimensions of efficiency, scope and flexibility. Findings suggest that behavior control improves knowledge integration efficiency under uncertainty related to computational complexity, self-control improves knowledge integration efficiency under uncertainty related to project novelty, clan control enhances knowledge integration flexibility under uncertainty related to ambiguity of user requirements, outcome control enhances knowledge integration scope under uncertainty related to technological complexity. These findings are integrated into a model of the choice of project controls. Implications of these results are drawn, and directions for future research are suggested.
Silencing behavior among project team members (PTM) poses a potential threat to project results. Hence, breaking silence in projects is critical to motivate team members and beneficial for project outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between transformational leadership (TL) of project manager (PM) and silence behavior of PTMs. It proposes a mediating role of feeling trusted (FT) to fill this gap by conducting an empirical research. A theoretical model was developed and a series of hypotheses were proposed based on existing literature. Then, regression analysis was conducted on a sample of 219 team members of a diverse set of projects in China. The paper empirically shows that TL of PM is significantly negatively related to team members’ defensive and prosocial silence (PS), but not with their acquiescence silence. In addition, the study also discovered that team members’ FT mediates the effects of TL on team members’ defensive and PS. This study contributed to the project management literature by showing that feeling trusted link the relationship between TL of PM and PTMs’ silence. The studies’ findings also contribute to the silence theory in project context through discussions of the rationale behind the main effects. Practical implication is provided for PMs that making the most of TL can reduce the silence of PTM, through building trusted feelings. The limitation to this study is the research setting regarding culture-related issues that focused only on projects in China. This research is one of the early studies that address the issue of silence behavior in project context, which is a contribution to the coordination and communication in project management.
Dwivedula, Ravi; Bredillet, Christophe & Müller, Ralf Josef (2018)
Work Motivation in Temporary Organizations: Establishing Theoretical Corpus
Management and Organizational Studies, 5(3), s. 29- 42. Doi: 10.5430/mos.v5n3p29
Dwivedula, Ravi; Bredillet, Christophe & Müller, Ralf Josef (2018)
Practopoietic lens to conceptualize temporary organizing
Leadership in projects can shift between the project manager (a.k.a. vertical leadership) and one or more team members (a.k.a. horizontal leadership). Our study examines the processes, dimensions, and conditions for empowerment of project team members to temporarily assume leadership of project processes. Twenty interviews were conducted in 10 organizations in China. Results show that empowerment for horizontal leadership is a 3-stage process, wherein the project manager takes justification perception and demand factors as essential conditions for his/her empowerment orientation, which in turn frames the announcement, acceptance, control, autonomy and future of horizontal leaders. Four categories of horizontal leaders were revealed, namely Deputies, Future Stars, Bench Players and Oysters. Managerial and theoretical implications are discussed.
Drouin, Nathalie; Müller, Ralf Josef, Sankaran, Shankar & Vaagaasar, Anne Live (2018)
Balancing vertical and horizontal leadership in projects: Empirical studies from Australia, Canada, Norway and Sweden
Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold: to identify how horizontal leaders (within project teams) execute their leadership task in the context of balanced leadership; and to pinpoint scenarios that can occur when horizontal leaders are identified and empowered by the vertical leader (senior or project managers) and a project task is handed over to them to lead. This research is based on the concept of balanced leadership, which conceptualizes leadership as a dynamic, situation-dependent transition of leadership authority from a vertical leader (like a project manager) to a horizontal leader (a project team member) and back again, in order to contribute positively to a project’s success. Balanced leadership consists of five events (nomination, identification, empowerment, horizontal leadership and its governance, and transition). This paper focuses on the fourth event, and its specific aspect of leadership distribution between horizontal and vertical leader. This event begins when a team member(s) accepts the empowerment to assume the role of horizontal leader. This paper explicitly links the leadership style of the vertical leader based on Frame’s (1987) leadership styles and the nature of decisions taken by both the vertical and horizontal leaders to deliver the project. Design/methodology/approach The method used for this paper is the qualitative phase of a sequential mixed methods (qualitative-quantitative) study. Data were collected through case studies in four different countries, using a maximum variety sampling approach. Data collection was through interviews of vertical leaders (senior leaders who were often sponsors of projects or members of senior management or project managers) and horizontal leaders (team leaders or members) in a variety of industry sectors. Data analysis was done through initial coding and constant comparison to arrive at themes. Thematic analysis was used to gain knowledge about the split of leadership and decision-making authority between the horizontal and vertical leader(s). Findings The results show that for Canadian and Australian projects, a combination of autocratic and democratic leadership styles were used by vertical leaders. In the case of Scandinavian projects, a democratic leadership style has been observed. Linked to these leadership styles, the horizontal decision making is predominantly focused on technical decisions and to daily task decisions to deliver the project. Delegation occurs most of the time to one specific team member, but occasionally to several team members simultaneously, for them to work collaboratively on a given issue. Research limitations/implications The paper supports a deeper investigation into a leadership theory, by validating one particular event of the balanced leadership theory, which is based on Archer’s (1995) realist social theory. The findings from this paper will guide organizations to facilitate an effective approach to balancing the leadership roles between vertical and horizontal leaders in their projects. The findings can also be used to develop horizontal leaders to take up more responsibilities in projects. Originality/value The originality lies in the new leadership theory called balanced leadership, and its empirical validation. It is the first study on the leadership task distribution between vertical and horizontal leadership in projects. Its value is new insights, which allow practitioners to develop practices to find and empower the best possible leader at any given time in the project and academics to develop a more dynamic and, therefore, more realistic theory on leadership as it unfolds in projects.
Pilkienė, Margarita; Alonderienė, Raimonda, Chmieliauskas, Alfredas, Šimkonis, Saulius & Müller, Ralf Josef (2018)
The governance of horizontal leadership in projects
Using the framework of balanced leadership in projects, we explore how horizontal leadership is governed. Previous research in project governance has focused on control and trust as the main mechanisms of governance. We apply this approach to the leadership field and investigate the nature of governance of temporary horizontal leaders in projects through contextual enablers, mechanisms, structures, practices and process. We argue that control and trust unfolds in particular combinations of the above items. Based on a study of different projects in Lithuania, we provide insights and discuss characteristics of trust and control, as exercised in the governance of horizontal leadership.
Balanced leadership in projects describes the dynamic transition of leadership authority between the project manager and one or more team members. Within this concept, the present study investigates the context, criteria, and processes for identifying project team members as candidates for the role of horizontal leader. Five case studies, followed by validation interviews were conducted in China. Results show that structure and agency by the project manager set the context, wherein professionality, personality and attitudinal characteristics of team members are evaluated for identification. This is executed in two parallel processes, where the project manager evaluates, develops and assesses candidates, and the team members evaluate their situation, compete with others, develop their skills, and look for guidance from the project manager. Managerial and theoretical implications are discussed.
Work Motivation in Temporary Organizations: A Review of Literature Grounded in Job Design Perspective
Benlamri, Rachid & Sparer, Michael (red.). Leadership, Innovation and Entrepreneurship as Driving Forces of the Global Economy - Proceedings of the 2016 International Conference on Leadership, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (ICLIE)
A Model for Organizational Project Management (OPM)
[Academic lecture]. IRNOP XIV.
Müller, Ralf Josef & Gemünden, Hans Georg (2018)
Governance und Governmentality: Das Yin und Yang der Steuerung in projektbasierten Organisationen
[Article in business/trade/industry journal]. Zeitschrift für Führung und Organisation, 87(5), s. 309- 313.
Governance ist zu einem beliebten Thema in projektbasierten Organisationen geworden. Als eigenständiges Strukturkonzept konzeptualisiert es jedoch die Lenkung von Organisationen nur unzureichend, weil eine ausgleichende menschliche Dimension benötigt wird, damit der Wert dieses Konzepts erzielt werden kann.
The impact of sociological context on the early phases and the role of the PMO as a coordination mechanism: learning from construction megaprojects in China
[Academic lecture]. IRNOP Conference (International Research Network for Organizing by Projects).
Haghshenas, Anoosheh & Müller, Ralf (2015)
Emotional Intelligence and Organizational Resilience
[Academic lecture]. European Academy of Management (EURAM) Conference.
Joslin, Robert & Müller, Ralf (2015)
Using philosophical and methodological triangulation to identify interesting phenomena
[Academic lecture]. European Academy of Management (EURAM) Conference.
The Relation between Work Motivation and Project Management Success in case of Temporary Organizations: Theoretical Perspectives and Empirical Findings
[Academic lecture]. Academy of Business Research Conference.
Aubry, Monique; Hobbs, Brian, Müller, Ralf & Blomquist, Tomas (2011)
Project Management Offices in Transition
[Popular scientific article]. Project Management, s. 48- 53.
Müller, Ralf (2011)
Project Governance
[Popular scientific article]. UPGRADE : The European Journal for the Informatics Professional, 12(5), s. 87- 90.
Müller, Ralf; Turner, J. R. & Dulewicz, Vic (2009)
Leadership Styles of Functional and Project Managers Compared
[Academic lecture]. International Expert Seminar of the International Project Management Association.
Müller, Ralf; Aubry, M., Hobbs, Brian & Blomquist, T (2009)
PMOs in Transition
[Academic lecture]. IRNOP IX Conference.
Müller, Ralf & Biedenbach, Thomas (2009)
Paradigms in Project Management Research: Examples from 15 Years of IRNOP Conferences
[Academic lecture]. IRNOP IX Conference.
Müller, Ralf; Gyawali, P & Tao, Yang (2009)
Project Control Mechanisms in Non-Project-Based Organizations in Asia
[Academic lecture]. IRNOP IX conference.
Müller, Ralf; Shao, J. & Turner, JR (2009)
The Program Manager's Leadership Style and Program Success: A Literature Review and Research Outline
[Academic lecture]. IRNOP IX Conference.
Akademisk grad
År
Akademisk institusjon
Grad
2003
Brunel University
Ph.D.
1999
Heriot-Watt University
M.B.A.
Arbeidserfaring
År
Arbeidsgiver
Tittel
2018 - Present
University of Technology Sydney
Adjunct Professor
2018 - Present
Project Management Journal
Professor
2018 - Present
European School of Governance
Director Research Lab
2015 - Present
Dalian University of Technology
Visiting Professor
2011 - Present
BI Norwegian Business School
Professor
2002 - Present
PM Concepts AB
Managing Director
2018 - 2018
Swinburne University
Visiting Professor
2006 - 2017
SKEMA Business School
Visiting faculty
2003 - 2017
Tias Business School
Visiting faculty
2011 - 2012
Umeå University
Professor
2008 - 2011
BI Norwegian Business School
Professor II
2007 - 2010
Umeå University
Associate Professor
2005 - 2007
Henley Management College
Tutor
2003 - 2007
Umeå University
Assistant Professor
1996 - 2002
NCR Corporation
Worldwide Director of Project Management
1993 - 1995
NCR Corporation
Deputy Director European Professional Services Center of Expertise