Managerial Complexity in Project-Based Operations: A Grounded Model and Its Implications for Practice

TLDR

There is an opportunity to actively manage managerial complexity in project-based operations. The study investigates project managers' perceptions of managerial complexity and proposes a framework to describe its level, enabling assessment of individual and organizational responses. The empirical study identified and classified elements of managerial complexity into the MODeST model, showing they are structurally and dynamically interdependent, that managers are embedded in this complexity, and that the model enables realistic description of complexity for practical use.

Abstract

This article reports an investigation into project managers' perceptions of managerial complexity. Based on a multistage empirical study, elements of "what makes a project complex to manage" were identified and classified under the dimensions of mission, organization, delivery, stakeholder, or team—the MODeST model. Further, the data showed that these elements had both structural and dynamic qualities and that the elements are interdependent. Project managers are shown to be embedded in this complexity. The practical implications of the research include the ability to describe managerial complexity in a manner consistent with the actuality of the lived project environment. This provides a framework for the description of the level of managerial challenge or difficulty, which will allow the assessment of individual and organizational responses to it in the future. Further, the opportunity exists for active management of complexity.