Boundary activities and readiness for ... - Projekti-Instituutti

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program in implementing those goals remained unclear, and some found
the program management approach unclear, strange, and very different
from what they called “normal work”. The following quote from a
peripheral program participant illustrates this confusion:
Q1 (Center, peripheral program participant): “This is a program, this is not a
project but a program, so it is a novel approach … It might be just me, but it
does make one wonder what on earth this is about. Who has come up with this,
and do [the top managers] on the top floor even themselves know what they are
thinking about?”
While the program management approach was considered novel, the case
program focused on developing the same issues that people dealt with in
their daily work. Thus, the task boundary was not very high in terms of the
content of the work. Correspondingly, some experts in Center reported that
the boundary between the program work and the line work was so fuzzy
that it was sometimes hard for them to distinguish between program work
and other work.
The authority boundary in Center was quite evident. Center’s change
program did not seem to have a clear position in the management system,
and the program’s authority seemed very limited, whereas the parent
organization had strong authority structures. The following quote describes
how the division of authority between the program and the line
organization was still unclear during the second round of the interviews:
Q2 (Center, steering group member): “One thing that we need to do fast is to
define the authority [of the program]… After that we would be able to further
clarify the reporting practices and the rules of the game in relation to the line
organization.”
When compared to Center’s strong units, the change program seemed to
lack authority, and the internal work of the units was prioritized over crossfunctional
program work. Additionally, some top managers in Center
viewed the program as a threat towards the existing power structure and it
seemed that they tried to understate the program’s significance and the
related authority. The program manager described the situation in the
following way:
Q3 (Center, program manager): ”There have been political interests or fears that
this kind of a larger program would aim at altering the power relations among
the top managers. It is quite a mess.”
Also related to the authority boundary, Center’s program manager felt that
he did not possess the required authority to conduct large-scale changes.
The program manager described how his position was still unclear during
the second round of the interviews:
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