Projectification of the public human services — identifying four ideal types of project organizations based on relationship challenges

During the last decades it has become increasingly common to use the project as a form of organization when implementing new public policies and innovations in public human services. The European Union with its structural... [ view full abstract ]

During the last decades it has become increasingly common to use the project as a form of organization when implementing new public policies and innovations in public human services. The European Union with its structural funds that provide billions of euros for temporary projects is a key player behind this development in Europe, but the same trend can also be found at national, regional, and local levels in other countries.

Projects in the human services (health care, social services, education, etc) are embedded in networks of relationships with other organizations - especially with those organizations that own the projects or/and have funded the projects. We claim that these relationships strongly influence the circumstances for the management and outcomes of the projects. A basic prerequisite for this relationship is that the two forms of organization operates under two completely different logics. The permanent human service organization is often based on a routine-based logic where the activities are production-oriented and coordinated through standardized work processes or standardized skills. The environment is fairly predictable, and it is therefore possible to create a uniform workload. The temporary human service project organization, on the other hand, is primarily organized on a task-based and time-based logic, which often are coordinated by mutual adjustment. The projects are often operated in environments that are uncertain and the workload is often unpredictable. We claim that these relationships strongly influence the circumstances for the management and outcomes of such projects in the human services.

The purpose of this paper is to identify problems and challenges that project managers and public administrations face when handling relationships between the time-based logic of project organizations and the routine-based logic of public organizations.

Our analysis shows that the relational challenges differ partly depending on whether the project task is about creating new operations or changing the current operations (degree of innovation), partly on the number of permanent organizations/institutional logics that are involved (degree of complexity). In our analysis of crucial relationships, we have consequently identified four ideal-typical project organization models (which resemble four common type of project in the public sector: the pilot project, the change project, the collaboration project and the assignment project). Our analysis also shows that if these relational challenges are not taken into account there is a risk that urgent change and improvements in the public sector will be buried in isolated projects and will not be implemented in permanent structures of the public organizations.