Reconciling order and chaos in multi-project firms

Successful project managers are those able to act as managers of uncertainty and atthe same time as managers of a complex network of people and organisations. However, pressures to cope with the environment bureaucratise project work, and theproject manager becomes a manager of papers and forms. This book shows the results of four year research programme in multi-project compa-nies aimed at understanding how companies are able to balance the forces leadingtowards ‘bureaucratisation’ and towards ‘chaotification’ of their organisational struc-tures. Some of the key findings are:• ‘Bureaucratisation’tends to be more harmful than ‘chaotification’• Companies need flexible structures in order to adapt to the inflexible wishes of thestakeholders• Companies build internal inflexibilities to compensate for external‘chaos’