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

Theoretical background
allowing flexibility and reflection. In all, the emerging field of program
management research can be viewed as an attempt to integrate project
management knowledge with the special features of strategic, large-scale
organizational change.
Previous research has shown how programs differ from projects in many
respects, and thus require different management approaches. This study
focuses on the early program stage where these differences are especially
visible. Due to the high levels of uncertainty and complexity the content of
the program may not be planned in detail, but the content will evolve
during the program lifecycle. Program initiation is likely to differ from
traditional projects in the sense that the focus is not on developing detailed
action plans. Instead, other kinds of activities are likely to be emphasized.
The role, goals and scope of a change program need to be clarified and
communicated and resources must be acquired. Also, the parent
organization as a target and a client of the resulting change must be
prepared for change, and thus actively involved in change initiation and
planning. The aim of the early program activities is defined in this
dissertation as creating readiness for change implementation.
Research fields of temporary organizations, program management and
organizational change all highlight the contextual nature of change efforts
and advocate careful management of a change effort’s (a program’s)
external relations. All these streams of literature have mobilized calls for
more empirical research on these processes. One perspective to these
interactions is offered by the research on organizational boundaries and
boundary activities. Boundary activities are performed to build, shape,
cross, and guard the boundaries between organizational units. A change
program’s boundary is presumably permeable and dynamic and requires
active management. Although the importance of boundary activities in
temporary organization contexts has been acknowledged, previous research
has not explicitly examined boundary activities in the context of large-scale
change programs. The current study attempts to link these boundary
activities of change program initiation with the conception of readiness for
change, thus integrating research streams on temporary organizations,
program management, organizational change, and boundary activities.
2.5.2 Research framework and research questions
This dissertation examines the management of the early stage of a change
program and focuses on the interplay between the program, viewed as a
temporary organization, and its parent organization, viewed as the client
and the environment of the program. More specifically, the study examines
the boundary that emerges between a change program and its parent
organization, and identifies different kinds of boundary activities that the
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