Mapping the technical and social dynamics in project management: a test of the Badiouan model

This study analyses the dynamics of a project management process and its outcomes by developing a framework that integrates Badiouan dialectical materialism to operationalise a Luhmannian systems theoretic conceptualisation of the phenomenon. By considering the dynamics associated with processes of project manager “(self-) identity work” (Alvesson and Willmott, 2002, p. 625), project manager psychic system autopoiesis, or “the self-reproduction of [consciousness] by [the thoughts] that have in turn been produced in and by the [psychic] system” (Luhmann 2013a, p.43), and Badiouan intensive variation in a coappearing that is “a dimension of [project manager] multiples which is not that of their being qua being (covered by ontology), but that of their appearances in worlds, or their localization (or beingthere)” (Badiou, 2013, p. 579), the study discovered an isomorphic relationship linking these concepts that enabled a rich multi-perspectival interpretation of project management dynamics and confirmed the utility of the Badiouan model. Dynamics of self-identity work ↔ Dynamics of autopoiesis ↔ Dynamics of intensive variation Figure 1: Project management dynamics and isomorphic inquiry Extensive interview results support the framework’s contention that project manager coappearing in a project world may be conceptualised as a topological, tri-modal system comprised of social coexistence, technical coalignment and outcome-oriented coachievement. The results suggest that the dynamics of intensive variation may be modelled as the transitioning of this system in response to factors that are functions of project manager attributes, project management functions and project management constructs, changes in the real-world state of affairs and identifiability of the project name. The study concludes that modal intensities, inter-modal relations and levels of prevailing contingency in coappearing all contribute to determining the type of dynamics that can be observed in a particular project world. Optimal dynamics are manifested in resonant, self-referential, system autopoiesis whilst weak and dysfunctional dynamics reflect instances of unresolved contingency, varying levels of suboptimal modal intensities and inter-modal relations are either indirect or broken. By providing an evidentially supported account of project management dynamics, this study contributes new knowledge that is relevant for both practitioner and research communities and demonstrates the value of such a novel and richly promising Luhmannian/Badiouan approach to future project and general management inquiry.