Actantial model; Flexible work; Greimas; Narratives; Project management; Case-studies; Narrative; Organisational; Organizational actors; Project managers; Secondary datum; Business and International Management; Management of Technology and Innovation
Abstract :
[en] The purpose of this paper is to investigate legitimacy building narratives of project managers in flexible work projects and their articulation with institutional, organizational, and individual narratives. We use Greimas actantial model to analyze four case studies, collecting data from 27 interviews of project managers, employees and line managers as well as extensive secondary data. This study contributes to project management literature by identifying legitimacy building mechanisms that project managers use in their narratives: on one hand, they build on institutional and organizational narrative components to produce their own project narratives; on the other hand, they perform identity work through heroification to build their own legitimacy as project managers. We also show how some of these narratological components are challenged by other organizational actors (employees and line managers). On a methodological level, we also reflect on Greimas’ actantial model as a tool to analyze and compare project narratives at different levels and from different groups of actors.
Disciplines :
General management, entrepreneurship & organizational theory
Author, co-author :
Audrin, Bertrand ; EHL Hospitality Business School, HES-SO, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, Switzerland
Davoine, Eric; Chair HRM and Organization, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Pichault, François ; Université de Liège - ULiège > HEC Liège : Centres attachés > LENTIC
Language :
English
Title :
Building legitimacy in flexible work projects: A study on institutional, organizational, and individual narratives
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