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

Theoretical background
managed. With the rise of the contextual view of projects and programs,
there is a need for research evidence on boundary activities in the
temporary organization context. In particular, further empirical research
has been called for to study boundaries beyond product development
contexts (Choi, 2002) and to distinguish between the different types of
boundary activities in the varying contexts (Drach-Zahavy & Somech,
2010). Existing studies do not explain how a boundary emerges between a
temporary program and its parent organization, or how this boundary is
managed during the early program stage through different types of
boundary activities. The current study aims to address these gaps in the
extant literature.
2.5 Synthesis of the literature review: Research framework
This section summarizes the literature review. From the perspective of the
current study, the examined streams of literature are compared and the
main points are summarized. The initial framework guiding the research is
constructed and detailed research questions are presented.
2.5.1 Summary of the literature review
This dissertation focuses on change programs, defined as temporary
organizations in which multiple projects are managed together to deliver a
change in the parent organization. The temporary organization perspective
advocated by the contemporary Scandinavian school of project
management provides a basis for the study. Change programs are analyzed
as temporary organizations that operate within permanent parent
organizations. This perspective directs attention to the temporary
organization’s relations with its organizational environment, which have
largely been neglected within the traditional, task or vehicle-oriented
project management research.
As the study focuses on change programs, the research is also informed of
the literature on large-scale organizational change. Although research on
organizational change has brought forward models, guidelines, and best
practices for managing large-scale change in organizations, it has not given
much attention to the program nature of change and to the program team, a
temporary organization that is put in charge of managing change. On the
other hand, traditional project management wisdom has not sufficiently
taken into account the special nature of organizational change. Compared
to the conventional project management principles, program management
literature aims to address many of the acclaimed shortcomings of the
project management approach, providing an alternative to the traditional
closed-system, tool-based project management. Program management
provides structure and control for managing change, simultaneously
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