Building bridges across borders: An integrative literature review of project work and careers

Project-based forms of work have been steadily increasing in all sorts of organizations,
which has led scholars to investigate their effects on career development
and career management practices. However, disciplinary and conceptual divides
have prevented comprehensive conceptualizations of project workers’ careers to
emerge to this day. Building on an integrative literature review, the paper underlines
the predominance of individual-centred research designs giving pride of place
to project managers, at the expense of organizational-centred studies accounting
for the multiple stakeholders involved in project workers’ careers. Five research
perspectives on project work and careers are highlighted: Project work may be
studied under the prism of career management, career transitions, career orientations,
career advantages, and role transitions. The review is concluded with a
comprehensive framework articulating project work and careers. The paper ultimately
pleads for further investigation of project work and careers from a multistakeholder
and organizational perspective.