van Donk, Dirk Pieter; Molloy, Eamonn: From organising as projects to projects as organisations; in: International Journal of Project Management, Vol. 26 (2008), No. 2, pp. 129-137.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.05.006
van Donk & Molloy use two case studies to analyse the antecedents of a chosen project structure. Based on the work of Minzberg (1979) the authors identify five different forms of projects which can be mainly distinguished by their coordination mechanism
- Simple structure → direct supervision
- Machine bureaucracy → standardisation of processes
- Professional bureaucracy → standardisation of skills
- Divisionalised form → standardisation of outputs
- Adhocracy → mutual adjustment
The authors identify which antecendents impact the choosen project structure
- Age and size
- Regulation and sophistication of the technical system
- Environmental stability, complexity, market diversity, hostility
- External control
- Internal power
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