John Grill Institute for Project Leadership John Grill Institute for Project Leadership John Grill Institute for Project Leadership

Project Leadership in a Changing World

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Research

Project leaders deliver projects in the context of a world that is changing, with new digital technologies, organizational dynamics and the need for sustainable, resilient and just futures. Project organizations need to be adaptability to change, especially as projects grow in complexity and as they are seen as interventions into wider systems. At our Institute, we bring together multidisciplinary teams to develop and progress leading research with an agenda in three inter-related areas that need to be addressed by project leadership.


Overarching Theme

Project Leadership

We are interested in how project leadership is distributed within and across organisations. A challenge for project sponsors, leaders and managers is how to empower others and provide leadership in their context to create value. The capable owner plays a significant role, with organisations making leadership, sponsorship and governance decisions across portfolios, programs and projects.

See also: Whyte, J., Naderpajouh, N., Clegg, S., Matous, P., Pollack, J., & Crawford, L. (2022). Project leadership: A research agenda for a changing world. Project Leadership and Society, 3, 100044. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plas.2022.100044



Sub-themes

Project Models and Digital Transformation

 We are interested in using data-driven approaches to support decision-makers in conceiving and setting-up complex projects.
By bringing together insights on project delivery models and methods with those on systems integration and the transformative nature of digital information we aim to provide rich information on the patterns of project outcomes.

Organisational Dynamics of Projects

Project leaders have significant responsibility as they grow teams, manage temporary and changing organisations, and hand over into operations. 
Researchers are examining projects as a form of large-scale organising, taking process perspectives to address questions of their temporality.


Projects for Sustainable, Resilient and Just Futures

How can we use projects to achieve a better future? We are interested in project leadership in emerging industries, questions of resilience and complexity, the role of projects as interventions and how they address uncertainty, emergence and stakeholders.
This interest includes work on net-zero and new forms of energy.