The aim of this paper is to map and scope the relationship between the literature on project management and public management to progress closer engagement between the two fields. The paper develops a framework outlining a set of conceptual linkages between the two literatures and outlines a research agenda to further the contribution of future scholarship.
A scoping literature review was conducted encompassing papers informing the interplay between project management and public management, identifying a set of connection points between shared thematic areas.
Our findings include the identification of conceptual connectors, defined as correspondences between thematic areas in the two fields of project management and public management, whereby theories and notions drawn from one can be adapted and applied to the other field. We have identified the following thematic areas in the respective fields as connectors: project stakeholder management AND partnership collaboration and multi-agency working; Project management levels (portfolio, programme and project) AND public policy implementation; Project innovation AND public innovation; Project leadership AND public leadership. We also examine how the ways in which the notion of time is conceptualized in project management can inform analyses in public management as another key connector point. The paper also provides an overview of the relationships between these two fields of scholarly inquiry; it is noticed that, while there is a longstanding relationship between them, recent critical approaches provide increased traction to integrate project management and public management scholarship.
The paper is theoretical-conceptual in nature, from which mainly derive its limitations and implications: the paper can guide, and it would benefit of, the development of empirical research on the use of project management logics and techniques in the field of public management.
The article can provide valuable guidance for public managers/managers of public services for deepening and bettering the awareness and use of project management logics and techniques for tackling complex public affairs problems.
The article aims at discussing and fostering awareness about a social-anthropological understanding of project management in the field of public sector and public services management, by developing a set of interconnections between the two fields.
This article makes three main contributions. First, it identifies conceptual connections between the fields of project management and public management, thereby further informing the literature in public management on change management and reform. Second, the study provides a valuable addition to public management scholarship by identifying the importance of the critical project management school for furthering public management theory and research. Finally, the study assists scholarship by identifying three phases between the project management and public management literature: a first phase characterized by mutual misunderstanding; a second phase in which the development of critical project management has enabled selective application of project management concepts to the field of public management; and a third and current phase which sees closer engagement between the two fields. The phases indicate project management is not a static technical discipline, but one increasingly informed by critical theories. The conceptual connections between the fields of project management and public management identified in this paper, and the research agenda whose contours are outlined, can enable progressing knowledge in a range of thematic areas in public management.
