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How do organisations learn lessons from projects – and do they?

How do organisations learn lessons from projects – and do they?
How do organisations learn lessons from projects – and do they?
The need to learn from one project to the next is clearly of vital importance, but is often neglected. Furthermore, there are fundamental issues within projects that inhibit such learning, such as the temporary nature of project organizations and the fundamental complexity of projects. This paper surveys the diverse literature that can help explain these factors and help projects to learn, and describes a large survey of project managers to look at what actual practice is and how successful it is perceived, as well as some empirical work. From this, a number of general conclusions are drawn as to how to create project organizations that are learning organizations.
communities of practice (cop), complexity, narratives, organizational learning, project learning, project management
0018-9391
248-266
Williams, Terence
5f501e37-0e96-4091-bd8a-67bb405dcc46
Williams, Terence
5f501e37-0e96-4091-bd8a-67bb405dcc46

Williams, Terence (2008) How do organisations learn lessons from projects – and do they? IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 55 (2), 248-266. (doi:10.1109/TEM.2007.912920).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The need to learn from one project to the next is clearly of vital importance, but is often neglected. Furthermore, there are fundamental issues within projects that inhibit such learning, such as the temporary nature of project organizations and the fundamental complexity of projects. This paper surveys the diverse literature that can help explain these factors and help projects to learn, and describes a large survey of project managers to look at what actual practice is and how successful it is perceived, as well as some empirical work. From this, a number of general conclusions are drawn as to how to create project organizations that are learning organizations.

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More information

Published date: May 2008
Keywords: communities of practice (cop), complexity, narratives, organizational learning, project learning, project management

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 148943
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/148943
ISSN: 0018-9391
PURE UUID: 16bed0e4-c681-4f5e-b62a-770e8f33017c

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Date deposited: 29 Apr 2010 11:34
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 01:04

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Author: Terence Williams

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