Project Management in the Context of Public Welfare Practices—Identifying Critical Aspects in Cross-Boundary Relationships

The project is often used when implementing public policies. The problem is that the project organization itself often carries inherent challenges when the outcomes of these projects are to be implemented in permanent... [ view full abstract ]

The project is often used when implementing public policies. The problem is that the project organization itself often carries inherent challenges when the outcomes of these projects are to be implemented in permanent organizational structures. We claim that the cross-boundary relationships between the time-based logic of the project organization and the routine-based logic of most public bureaucracies are not sufficiently understood in project management literature.

The purpose of this paper is to identify problems and challenges that project managers face when handling cross-boundary relationships between the time-based logic of project organizations and the routine-based logic of public bureaucracies. The analysis shows that the challenges differ partly depending on whether the task is about creating new operations or changing the current operations, partly on the number of permanent organizations that are involved. If these challenges are not taken into account there is risk that urgent change will not be implemented in public administrations.