Project management Yinyang: coupling project success and client satisfaction

Article

Usher, Greg and Whitty, Stephen Jon. 2017. "Project management Yinyang: coupling project success and client satisfaction." Project Management Research and Practice. 4 (January-June). https://doi.org/10.5130/pmrp.v4i0.5523
Article Title

Project management Yinyang: coupling project success and client satisfaction

ERA Journal ID123145
Article CategoryArticle
AuthorsUsher, Greg (Author) and Whitty, Stephen Jon (Author)
Journal TitleProject Management Research and Practice
Journal Citation4 (January-June)
Number of Pages27
Year2017
ISSN1838-7845
2203-6156
2207-1415
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.5130/pmrp.v4i0.5523
Web Address (URL)https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/PMRP/article/view/5523
Abstract

Our research applies paradox theory to a project management construct to help project management researchers and practitioners understand the tensions that can exist between project success and client satisfaction. Our research highlights that although project success and client satisfaction are both present within a project management construct, they also belong to different functional systems. Project success and client satisfaction have different systemic-discourses and use different language games to convey information. These distinctions can create latent and sometimes salient tensions within the project management construct that project managers must understand, embrace, and work with. We have used a Grounded Theory (GT) methodology to explore the lived experience of project managers, and from this have identified a phenomenon which we have termed project management yinyang. Project management yinyang is the state that exists when both project success and Client satisfaction are tightly coupled within the project management construct. Project management yinyang highlights that these two phenomena cannot be viewed as separate elements because the ‘seed’ of each exists within the other. And to truly achieve one, you must also achieve the other. Our findings indicate that in order to create project management yinyang the project manager must embrace a paradoxical yet holistic philosophy. They must understand the complementarity, interdependency, and structural coupling that exists between the positivist and interpretivist paradigms within the project management construct. They must understand how satisfaction (Yin) and success (Yang) are created through focus. Furthermore, they must understand how project management yinyang is separate from, but borne from, the convergence of the other two elements.

Keywordsproject success; client satisfaction; paradox theory; structural coupling; project management Yinyang
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020350711. Organisational planning and management
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Byline AffiliationsSchool of Management and Enterprise
Institution of OriginUniversity of Southern Queensland
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