A STUDY OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT: THE EXPLORATION

AND RECOGNITION OF A CULTURE WITHIN THE

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PROFESSION

BY

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ALLAN RICHARD LOUCKS

A dissertation submitted
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Psychology in Organization Development
Alliant International University
Marshall Goldsmith School of Management
Fresno Campus
2008

UMI Number: 3318597

Copyright 2008 by
Loucks, Allan Richard

All rights reserved.

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ii
MARSHALL GOLDSMITH SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
FRESNO CAMPUS
The dissertation of Allan Richard Loucks, "A Study of
Project Management:

The Exploration and Recognition of a

Culture Within the Profession," approved by his Committee,

has been accepted and approved by the Faculty of the

Marshall Goldsmith School of Management, Fresno Campus, in

partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

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Dissertation Committee:

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Doctor of Psychology in Organization Development.

&

v-^Xui*

Anders, PhD

Carl Mack, PhD

ft

a^z^yV^xoUy

'Camden-Anders, PhD
Commilftee Chairperson
April 28, 2008

Toni Knott, PhD, Director

Organizational Studies

iii
DEDICATION
My dear Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, I dedicate all
that is good in my life to you.
To Open Eagle, the greatest man I have personally
known:

You helped me to discover my heart and to critically

and compassionately think, and I thank you.

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me with your presence in my life.

God has blessed

iv
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My dear wife, Dana, and my amazing children, Nicholas,
Jordan, and Jonathan, you are the light of my life, and I
love you.

In His love, may the success of this doctorate

bless us all in the many ways that God may have prepared.
When it

My dear mother, Mary, you are my blessing.

seemed like it was coming from all sides, you remained

God bless you, and I love you.

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strong.

My dear father, Charles, you will always be a great

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hero who sacrificed all for his country.

I know the depth

of your love, as it was always in your eyes.

see you in my dreams.

And, I still

I miss you so much, Dad, yet I know

you are in heaven looking over me.

My brother, Christopher, and my sister, Victoria, I am
so very proud of you both.

There are times when it was so

easy for each of us to give up, yet we trudged through the

thickets that were seemingly blocking our way.

We ran the

race, and we won.

And, my "second family," Dr.'s Larry Anders, Sherry
Camden-Anders, Toni Knott, Carl Mack, the great support
staff, and to my Cohort 4 buddies, I will miss each of you

greatly, and will miss our monthly retreats.

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all.

God bless you

vi
ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION
A Study of Project Management:

The Exploration

and Recognition of a Culture Within the

Profession
by
Allan Richard Loucks

Marshall Goldsmith School of Management, Fresno Campus

Sherry Camden-Anders, PhD

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Dissertation Committee Chairperson

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2008

According to organizational psychologist, Edgar Schein

(1992), any group, including a professional group, can form
a culture if its members deal with common problems and have
a sufficient history in solving problems.

Launching off

Schein's belief that every group develops an identity of

shared patterns of thoughts, beliefs, feelings, and values,
20 leading project managers throughout the United States
were chosen to participate in a survey focusing on project
management culture.

vii
The purpose of this initial study was to capture the
perceptions of project management culture from professional
project managers based in the United States, working in
different geographic locations.

The study focused on the

ability of members to deal with and solve common problems

among professional project management communities and sought

to answer the question, "Does the project management

profession recognize a common project management culture,
Twenty items in four

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despite geographical boundaries?"

cultural groupings and six contextual categories were

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provided to the project managers.

The data were

qualitatively analyzed, with the results indicating that the

project management professionals perceived certain
behaviors, beliefs, values, and norms as part of the project
management culture.

And, with a limited amount of current

research in project management culture, there is room for

greater study in this area of organization development.

viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
DEDICATION

iii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

iv

ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION

vi
X

LIST OF TABLES

Chapter

2.

INTRODUCTION

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1.

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LIST OF FIGURES

Nature of the Problem

Importance of Study

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Definition of a Project

3.

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9
9

Definition of Project Management

15

Definition of Organizational Culture

23

The Forces That Shape Organizational

Culture

32

The Forces That Shape Project Management

Culture

39

METHODOLOGY
Participants

50
51

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Chapter
Procedure for Pretest

52

Survey Questionnaire and Design

53

RESULTS

56

Preface

56

My Peers and 1

56

My Team

62

Experience

65

4.

Page

My Industry

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My Organization

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Assumptions at the Team Level

Assumptions at the Organizational Level

5.

DISCUSSION

67
72
77
81
86

Conclusion and Reflections

86

Limitations of the Study

93

Future Research

98

Summary

100

REFERENCES

104

APPENDICES

116

A.

CONSENT FORM

117

B.

DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE

120

C.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT CULTURE SURVEY

124

D.

PERMISSION CORRESPONDENCE

135

LIST OF TABLES
Table

Page
Schein-Wang Comparison-Contrast

48

2.

Contextual Structure of Questions

57

3.

Context:

My Peers and IAll Respondents

59

4.

Context:

My Peers and IMale Versus Female..

61

5 . Context:

My TeamAll Respondents

63

6.

Context:

My TeamMale Versus Female

64

7.

Context: My Team5 to 19 Years Project

Management Experience

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Context:

Management Experience

9.
10.
11.

Context:

66

My Team20 Plus Years Project

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8.

1.

My OrganizationAll Respondents....

Context: My Organization5 to 19 Years of

Project Management Experience
Context: My Organization20 Plus Years of
Project Management Experience

68
69

71
73

12.

Context:

My IndustryAll Respondents

74

13.

Context:

My IndustryConsulting Services....

76

14.

Context:

My IndustryConstruction

76

15.
16.

Context: My IndustryInformation Technology.

Context: My Assumptions at the Team Level
All Respondents

78
78

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Page

20.

21.

Context: My Assumptions at the Team Level

20 Plus Years of PM Experience

80

Context: Ideal Assumptions at the

Organizational LevelAll Respondents

82

Context: Ideal Assumptions at the

Organizational Level5 to 19 Years of PM
Experience

82

19.

80

Context: Ideal Assumptions at the

Organizational Level20 Plus Years of PM
Experience

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18.

Context: My Assumptions at the Team Level

5 to 19 Years of PM Experience

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17.

84

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure

Page
101

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1. Action research model

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Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
According to organizational psychologist Edgar Schein
(1992), any group, including a professional group, can form
a culture if its members deal with common problems and have

problems.

a sufficient history of shared experience in solving

Schein, well-known in the field of organization

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expressed that:

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development as an expert on the study of culture, further

Organizational culture is a pattern of shared basic

assumptions that the group learned as it solved its
problems of external adaptation and integration, that
has worked well enough to be considered valid and
therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct
way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those
problems, and a professional culture binds members of a
profession to form a professional community, ensures
the continuance of a profession as a group
collectivity, and guides the members to think and
behave as the profession requires. (p. 12)
Schein, in his description, alluded to a professional
culture that forms a professional community.

Project

management (PM) fits both the description of a professional

community and a profession.

The Organization Development

Institute (n.d.) stated that a profession

following:

must contain the

2
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

An international Code of Ethics

A unique body of knowledge and skill
Concern with something more than just making more
money for members
Some kind of minimum qualifications
Vehicles established that will allow sharing of
information with people and organizations
worldwide. (Organization Development Institute,

n.d. )
Project management, as a profession, also has a long

and rich history that can be traced back to Noah's ark and
the Great Pyramids, "which stand today because of thousands

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of projects and hundreds of project managers . . . (yet),

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Project Management was not recognized as a formal management

concept until the 1950's and 1960's" (Richman, 2002, p. 4).
Contemporary opinion is that modern project management came
about with the Air Force and Navy, both preparing to develop
the Apollo and Polaris Missile Systems projects (Prencipe,
Davies, & Hobday, 2003).

According to Stretton (2007),

however, Bechtel Corporation first used the term

project

manager in their international work beginning in the 1950s:

This use didn't entail a Project Manager operating in a
matrix organization as we know it today, but rather the
assignment of a great deal of responsibility to an
individual operating in a remote, strange and often
hostile environment, usually with a self-contained
autonomous team. (p. 3)
In Ancient Egypt, it was possible to take generations
to build the Great Pyramids.

Today, things have to happen a

3
great deal more rapidly.

In war and in business, it is

essential to be ahead of the opposition (Lake, 1999).

Today, project management has evolved to where project
managers link the corporate strategy to the realm of project
management "turning explicitly to the role strategic Project
Management can play in supporting breakthrough thinking and

advantage" (Grundy, 2001, p. 17). This notion forms a basis

for the relationship between the organization's strategic

of the organization.

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goals and the role of project management within the culture

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In high-performing organizations, strong cultures

endure and are a means by which organizations can strengthen
their performance, adapt to change and changing
environments, while increasing their chances of survival and
maintaining their competitive performance (Collins & Porras,
1998).

In project management, organizational structure is

about what is conveyed to the project team members and

stakeholders concerning the organization's commitment to the
project through the organization's belief systems.

Yet, it

is a mistake to regard project management culture as a piece

of the culture of an organization belying project management

4
culture its own status as a professional culture.

Project

management deserves to be recognized for its own culture.

Nature

of the

Problem

Authors of project management literature, Firth and

Krut (1991), Graham (1993), and Hobbs and Menard (1993),
described dimensions of project management culture. The

writings:

following is a combination and synopsis of the authors'

(a) Project management is preoccupied with the

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integration of various efforts and disciplines; (b) project

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management is horizontal management; (c) project management

is results oriented; (d) temporary relationships are normal;
(e) uncertainties and changes are taken as a way of life;
(f) people's status comes from what they do rather than who
they are; (g) speed, flexibility, and lateral communication
are emphasized; (h) teamwork is highly valued; (i) people
are task oriented rather than boss oriented; and
(j) indefinite and inadequate authority is not unusual.
These dimensions provided the understanding that there
are various fields of work requiring specific knowledge,
each with its own set of rules; a shared authority and
responsibility among partners, joint investment of resources
(such as time, funding, expertise), shared risks, and mutual

5
benefits and commitment to common results.

Outputs are tied

to the project management processes and activities to create

the unique deliverable
stakeholders.

for the customer and its

Relationships are temporary for the purpose

of the project, there is a time and a place and often, the

project sponsoran executiveis in a promotional track
Change

with little to no interest in the actual project.

also happens quickly.

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Many authors from several different discipline areas,

such as system theory, systems thinking, management theory,

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sociology, and project management, have highlighted the

criticality of culture.

However, in deference to the

previous authors, since 1933, project management authors

have not presented significant levels of information
concerning project management culture, specifically.

With a

few notable exceptions, the annual mean percentage of

project management books referencing project management
culture is 2.1% (Henrie & Sousa-Poza, 2005).
Importance

of

Study

Operating under the assumptions proposed by Schein

(1992), project management and the professionals involved
have their own culture comprised of values and beliefs and

6
ways of behaving and thinking.

This assumption was

supported by Firth and Krut (1991), Graham (1993), and Hobbs

and Menard (1993) in their attempt to define the culture of
project management.

However, it became apparent to this

writer that a current void continued to exist in the project

management field regarding its culture.

The applied project

developed as an initial study to ascertain if the project

management profession recognized a common project management
Greater

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culture, despite geographic boundaries.

understanding in this area would be helpful to (a) project

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managers as they entered different organizations with

differing cultures; (b) project managers who work in
international locations and thus have to consider national
culture as well as organizational culture; and
(c) organization development consultants whose field of
study has its own culture and who, increasingly, are being
asked to become part of projects led by professional project
managers and, in many instances, are actually professional
project managers themselves.
For those engaged in work on organizational projects,
knowing the culture of the project management profession
would be a helpful insight leading to increased

7
effectiveness.

This applied project focused on developing a

way to capture the perceptions of the PM culture from

professional project managers based in the United States,
working in different geographic locations.
The writer of this study is a professional project
manager and has been involved in varied government-oriented,
Interest in this topic

high-value projects for 22 years.

was the result of his career in project management and his

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use of organization development skills to enhance his work

in the field of project management.

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This study began with the research question:

Does the

project management profession recognize a common project

management culture, despite geographic boundaries?

Chapter

1 introduced the concept of culture, the history of project

management, and provided an overview of the nature of the
problem and the importance of study.

Chapter 2 is a review

of the literature that defines in detail a project, project

management, and organizational culture.

The chapter also

reviews forces that shape organizational and project

management culture.

Chapter 3 is the methodology utilized

to complete the study, and Chapter 4 provides the results.

In Chapter 5, the writer discusses conclusions and

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reflections, limitations of the applied project, future

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opportunities for research, and concludes with a summary.

9
Chapter 2
REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Definition

of a

Project

Project is a word frequently used in textbooks and

standards, yet one seldom finds a precise definition of the
A few international countries

concept (Munk-Madsen, 2005).

also find that there can be no specific definition of a

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project, and Laage-Hellman (1997) specifically pointed out

clear.

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that in Japan the definition of a project is normally not so

Nevertheless, many professional organizations have

attempted to define a project, with the Project Management

Institute (PMI) leading the initiating and structuring of
project processes, including defining every aspect of
project management.

Under the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK),

PMI defined a project as, "A temporary endeavor undertaken
to create a unique product, service or result" (p. 5).
Lewis (1998) extended the PMI definition of a project as
consisting of, "A one-time, multitask job that has clearly
defined starting and ending dates, a specific scope of work

10
to be performed, a budget, and a specified level of
performance to achieve" (p. 4).
DeCarlo (2004) advanced the definition into a living
organic and fluid realm by stating, "A project is a
localized energy field comprising a set of thoughts,
emotions, and interactions continually expressing themselves

in physical form" (p. 3), summarizing that, "A project, in

sum, is a process throughout which thoughts and emotions are

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interactions embodied in physical form" (p. 31).

PMI's definition is common in language and similar to

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that of Ekstedt, Lundin, Soderholm, and Wirdenius (1999),

who asserted that a project is a major and significant
undertaking or task to be fulfilled within a limited time
and with a given set of resources.

They more specifically

stated:

In the case of projects it is correct to say that the

notion of action is almost part of the very definition
of a project, consisting of project task, time
delimitation for the project, allocation of resources
(such as that of forming a team), and transition (in
terms of project progression). (p. 458)
in traditional financial concepts, the definition of a
project is an action or a set of actions that have financial
consequences (Kirkegaard, 1997), while Mirrlees (1974)
similarly agreed that a project is any scheme, or part of a

11
scheme, for investing resources that can reasonably be
analyzed and evaluated as an independent unit.
that the definition is arbitrary.

It is agreed

Almost any project could

be broken down into parts for separate consideration.

Each

of those parts would, and could, therefore, be by definition

a project.

normally use the term project

To paraphrase V. Martin (2002), project managers

in quite a precise way,

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although it can include many different types of activities.

It can encompass a small and personal project; for example,

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planning and holding a special celebration.

Or, it can also

refer to major construction; for example, a project to build

a new hospital, government building, water project, or more.
All projects are different, but they do have certain
features in common to become considered a project:
The project has a clear purpose that can be achieved in
a limited time; it has a clear end when the outcome has been
achieved; it is resourced to achieve specific outcomes; it
has someone acting as a sponsor or commissioner, who expects
the outcomes to be delivered on time, and; it is a one-time
activity and would not normally be repeated.
(2002) believed:

V. Martin