Doing Exemplary Research Projects

Edited by Stewart Clegg and Julien Pollack, School of Project Management, The University of Sydney

‘An impressive compendium encouraging the readers to engage with six excellent research projects. A must read for all academics and PhD students interested in background stories, theoretical reflections and the emotions involved to deliver excellence. I enjoyed the deep dive!’

• Contents1 Doing Exemplary Research Projects: A Guide to Practice –Introduction 1Stewart Clegg and Julien PollackPART I EXEMPLAR 12 Introductory remarks to exemplar 1 21Stewart Clegg and Julien Pollack3 A ten-year transition journey into project-oriented agency andregeneration 24Sylvain Lenfle and Jonas Söderlund4 Editing ‘exemplary research’ papers: on the exercise ofeditorial discretion 48Ben R. Martin5 Bridging paradigms? A historical organization studiesapproach to project-oriented agency and regeneration 57Mairi Maclean and Charles Harvey6 Project-oriented agency: a novel conceptual lens to advanceresearch on sustainability transitions 64Andrew Davies, Shah Abdul Saadi and Antonio DaoodPART II EXEMPLAR 27 Introductory remarks to exemplar 2 77Stewart Clegg and Julien Pollack8 Intuition in action research: investigating project-basedpractices for urban sustainability 80Hanna Lehtimäki and Ari Jokinen9 Managing sustainability projects in the City 94Lara K. Mottee10 Redefining project actions and impact through ground-breaking academic cooperation 101Tommi Halonen, Karoliina Tuukkanen and Erkki-Jussi Nylén11 Temporary initiatives drive lasting change: the ripple effectsof project based practices 111Luca SabiniPART III EXEMPLAR 312 Introductory remarks to exemplar 3 118Stewart Clegg and Julien Pollack13 Disappearance of organisations via temporary organising? 122Jörg Sydow and Arnold Windeler14 Multiple temporalities in project-based organisations andbeyond 132Kerstin Sahlin15 Permanent and temporary organising across time and space:do projects follow rules or create rules? 139Fredrik TellPART IV EXEMPLAR 416 Introductory remarks to exemplar 4 148Stewart Clegg and Julien Pollack17 Exploring ‘dark topics’ in organizational research: thechallenge of researching normalization of deviance 151Jeffrey Pinto and Kate Davis18 Doing the wrong things for all the right reasons: positivedeviances of project governance 174Sofia Pemsel19 ‘The corruption of project governance through normalizationof deviance’ by Davis and Pinto: a commentary 182Giorgio LocatelliPART V EXEMPLAR 520 Introductory remarks to exemplar 5 195Stewart Clegg andJulien Pollack21 Tons of data, but no theory. Ethnoventionist research in aninterorganisational strategic change project 198Alfons van Marrewijk and Leonore van den Ende22 The imperfection of projects and opportunities for learning 212Dicle Kortantamer23 The folly of artefactual representation in mediating powerrelations 218Simon AddymanPART VI EXEMPLAR 624 Introductory remarks to exemplar 6 227Stewart Clegg andJulien Pollack25 A story of an early academic researcher: from PhD researchto publishing on PPPs and institutional entrepreneurship 230Mhamed Biygautane26 Commentary note: institutional entrepreneurship andinfrastructure public−private partnership 248Cyrlene Claasen, Kweku Adams, Sa’ad Ali and David Weir27 How to make public−private partnerships work? 255Lucia Xiaoyan Liu and Tristano SainatiPART VII CONCLUSION28 Learning from exemplars 262Stewart Clegg and Julien PollackAppendix 1: List of nominators 289Appendix 2: list of nominated papers 290