Verktækni - 2019, Page 64

64

occupation is problematic, as it is seen by many as an aspect of general management. Zwerman &
Thomas (2001) concluded that for project management to become a “profession”, it requires a
concerted effort by its practitioners and professional associations in pursuing this objective. An action
list is given in order to reach this status, e.g. to elaborate significant, independent, academic educational
programs with an associated set of research programs, and to create and enforce a code of ethics for all
practitioners using the title Project Manager, and last but not least, to win political, social, and legal
recognition of the value of regulating project management for the good of society.

The development of public governance in the context of projects is important. A political and economic
dogma called New Public Management (NPM) surfaced in the late eighties which assumed that
politicians are inherently venal and likely to abuse their authority to enrich themselves and their friends,
leading to high-cost, low-quality products (Hood, 1995).

One of the doctrines for ensuring public interest via NPM is the use of an elaborate structure of
procedural rules designed to guarantee integrity, transparency and professional service to the public.
This makes sense, as it is impossible to manage without reference to a conceptual set of rules for
forming a governance framework. Only what we know can be managed and controlled. Over the last
two decades, a change can be seen in the received principles of public accountability and administration
(Winch, 2010). The rise of governance and NPM has also influenced project management as a discipline.
Some notable signs of this advancement are the dramatic, manifold increase in the number of
accredited project managers, the establishment of international institutions serving project
management, and the creation of bodies of knowledge describing in detail the project management
theoretical framework (Hodgson and Muzion, 2012:113).

A different and somewhat provocative perspective regarding the professional associations and their
bodies of knowledge is put forward by Whitty and Schulz (2007), who wrote about the impact of puritan
ideology on aspects of project management. They argue that project management behaviors are driven
by significant memes that originate from various project management bodies of knowledge, especially
the PMBok by PMI. They conclude by stating that scholars and practitioners should break free from the
tyranny of these puritan memes that hinder them from evolving in the discipline in a free and
unconstrained manner. A similar warning was in fact offered by Morris et al (2006), who concluded that
there may be a danger of getting into self-fulfilling prophecies if the field relies on the project
management associations to tell the academics what to think and teach.

Gaining recognition and acceptance of the changes required of both professional associations and
practitioners seems to be a crucial challenge facing the professionalization effort for project
management. Research has a significant role in this context, and the general perception is that there is a
considerable gap between theory and practice in project management. Peter Morris (2014) wrote about
project management as "a profession with a hole in its head." According to him, as project management
is practice-oriented discipline, academics do have difficulties in presenting it as a whole, and therefore
he proposes that the academics become more involved in the actual practice. The International Project
Management Association IPMA has shown initiative here with its annual research conferences, where
the objective from the beginning has been to encourage a discussion between practitioners and