TY  - JOUR
TI  - Extending the Theory of Production Competence to Organisational Project Competence
AB  - The Theory of Production Competence (TPC) established the link between operational competence and organizational performance for repetitive operations; however, this link has never been established for projects and project-based operations (PBOs) despite their importance and ubiquity. This paper uses established theory on production competence in PBOs to explore whether and under what conditions it holds in PBOs. ‘Organizational project competence’ (OPC) describes the fit between organizational requirements for project delivery, and its capabilities to deliver projects.We identify four dimensions of competence: transformational, commercial, technical and network competence. It has specificity along four non-exclusive dimensions of competence: delivering technical projects, competence to deliver projects as a business and through networks, and to achieve transformation through projects. We report on four organizations who, over time, both gained and lost OPC. Operations choice of human resources, infrastructure and processes were associated with changes in competence. Competence gains required considerable effort and occurred over extended time periods, but losses were achieved with relative ease and quickly. We develop a framework for aligning project resources with strategic requirements and suggest not just that such an approach is effective for project-based operations, but under what conditions.
DO  - http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/ambpp.2016.14379abstract
PY  - 2016-01-01
JO  - Academy of Management Proceedings
AU  - Maylor, Harvey 
AU  - Huemann, Martina 
AU  - Blackmon, Kathryn Lee 
ER -