Research Critique: Integrating Project and Change Management

This report provides a critical analysis of the journal article by Hornstein (2015) which argues for the necessity of integrating project management and organizational change management. The report begins with an introduction and article summary, highlighting the core argument that project managers must be well-versed in organizational change to ensure project success. The analysis section delves into the evolution of project management, the roles of certifying agencies like PMI and IPMA, and the importance of employee involvement and adapting to change. The report references key figures like Kerzner, Kotter, and Belout, providing a comprehensive overview of the topic. The conclusion reinforces the need for project managers to understand organizational change and suggests that project management curricula should include organizational change management principles to improve project outcomes. The report emphasizes the importance of integrating project management with organizational change management for future project success.

Research Critique

Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Article Summary........................................................................................................................3
Analysis......................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................5
References..................................................................................................................................6

Introduction
The journal article which is being critiqued in this report is described below:
Hornstein, H.A., 2015. The integration of project management and organizational
change management is now a necessity. International Journal of Project
Management, 33(2), pp.291-298.
The main hypothesis of this research paper deals with the necessity for integrating project
management and organisational change management during implementation of modern day
projects. The central idea of this article revolves around building the case for modern day
project managers to be more familiar and conversant with organisational change management
process by evaluating the available supporting literature.
Article Summary
The article describes about the need for considering the impacts of organisational change
while determining the success and failures of future project implementations. The article tries
to justify the need for modern day project managers to be well conversant in dealing with the
organisational change management process. The researcher has tried to strengthen his case by
providing supporting academic evidences and literature that provides a justification for
merging both the project management and organisational change management functionalities.
Additionally, the researcher has strongly argued that global certification agencies like PMI
and IPMA must be continuously encouraged and supported to include educational curriculum
on organisational change management process in the certification process of new future
Project Managers.
Analysis
Kerzner, (2013) had defined project management to be the complete set of activities that are
essential for successful project implementation. In this regard, it has also been mentioned that
any project has certain innate characteristics such as a stipulated budget, a time frame (which
includes the starting and the ending date), the sources of project funding, project
specifications and guidelines and project resources. The term project management has
evolved with time and this is evident from the development and creation of the Planning and
Evaluation Review Techniques (PERT) and Critical Path Method (CPM). The term project

manager was first coined by Gaddis, (1959) wherein the functional role of the project
manager deals with the aspect of project integration and has been considered as a middle
management function. During the late 1960s and 1970s there were a lot of ongoing research
about the aspect of organisational integration and the entire focus of this research was based
on functional roles and responsibilities of the manager as a leader, planner, controller and
organiser of organisational activities (Nickels et al., 1997). With the creation of the American
Project management Institute (PMI) and the International Project Management Association
(IPMA) there was a hope that the project management functionality would gain in stature and
importance with organisations from a mere middle management functionality but sadly that
did not happen. The project management certifying associations mainly dealt with the
challenges encountered by the project managers in successfully realising the project goals
while at the same time emphasising on the tools and techniques that are available for
successful project implementation (Morris, 2011). With time, the importance of project
management has gained in magnitude and this led to the creation of the PMBOK which
provided a clear understanding and explanation about the five process groups and the nine
knowledge areas associated with modern day project management.
Belout, (1998) had stated that the aspect of managing people effectively during a project
plays a vital role in eventually determining the final project outcomes. This view has also
been seconded by Henrie and Sousa-Poza (2005) who were of the opinion that the most
important reason or factor for project success or failure was the amount of involvement of the
people in the project. Cook-Davies (2002) had described that there was a growing realisation
among the business establishments that the success of projects eventually depend on the
people that are responsible for executing them as opposed to processes or systems utilised in
project management. Cicmil et al., (2006) had opined about the modern day necessity for
project managers to engage in activities that not only encompasses the traditional control
agenda associated with project management activities but also considers the ability and skill
set of project managers to guide the organisational change management process.
This invariably brought forth a significant transition in the project management functionality
where greater organisational emphasis was being provided towards keeping the employees
engaged and motivated during the project management process. The success of projects was
invariably linked with the capacity of the project management team to deal with the
inevitable changes that are associated with a project. The more capable and competent the
project management team became in adapting to the changing project requirements the more

effectively they were able to implement the project in a timely manner with least disruptions
and constraints (Burnes and Cooke, 2012).
Kotter had presented an article in Harvard Business Review in 1995 wherein he has identified
the main reason for failure of all organisational efforts towards bringing forth a positive
transformation (Kotter, 1997). The cause of failure had been attributed to the lack of
organisational emphasis and attention towards social system issues as opposed to any
technical or procedural errors. The existence of a functional dependency between successful
project management and the amount of resistance the project management team have towards
the changes taking place in their workplace (Kloppenborg and Opfer, 2002). The overall
magnitude of employee resistance depends to the extent to which the employees are expected
to obey the decisions undertaken by the management and remain uninvolved in the project
implementation phase. This organisational resistance towards the change management
process could be tackled to a large extent by providing greater power to the employees by
involving them in the organisational decision making process (Kotter, 2008).
From the above discussion, adequate evidence could be obtained about compelling reasons
that aim to justify the greater need for integrating and combining the project management
functionality with organisational change management process. By implementing this, the
efficiency and reliability of project management teams could be radically improved.
Conclusion
The researcher in this article has succeeded to a large extent in demonstrating the arguments
made by various researchers in favour of integrating and combining the project management
functionality with that of the organisational change management process. The modern day
project managers have far too much responsibilities dealing with successful project
implementation which makes them totally incapable of devoting any further time and energy
in addressing the aspects of organisational change management process in an effective
manner (Hornstein, 2015). This invariably has a negative impact on the project management
which undermines the process of successful project execution. Only by including the
fundamental theories of organisational change management process as a part of the Project
Management curricula, the modern day project managers would be able to obtain better
knowledge and understanding about organisational change management and its importance
on ensuring successful project implementation (Kotter, 2008). In this regard, the project

manager certifying agencies such as PMI and IPMA have greater role to play in order to
accomplish this objective. This would eventually help in ensuring a successful integration of
project management functionality with organisational change management process which
would eventually help the future project managers to implement future organisational
projects successfully (Hornstein, 2015).
References
Belout, A., 1998. Effects of human resource management on project effectiveness and
success: toward a new conceptual framework. International journal of project
management, 16(1), pp.21-26.
Burnes, B. and Cooke, B., 2012. The past, present and future of organization development:
Taking the long view. Human relations, 65(11), pp.1395-1429.
Cicmil, S., Williams, T., Thomas, J. and Hodgson, D., 2006. Rethinking project management:
researching the actuality of projects. International journal of project management, 24(8),
pp.675-686.
Cooke-Davies, T., 2002. The “real” success factors on projects. International journal of
project management, 20(3), pp.185-190.
Gaddis, P.O., 1959. The project manager. Boston: Harvard University.
Henrie, M. and Sousa-Poza, A., 2005. Project management: A cultural literary
review. Project Management Journal, 36(2), pp.5-14.
Hornstein, H.A., 2015. The integration of project management and organizational change
management is now a necessity. International Journal of Project Management, 33(2),
pp.291-298.
Kerzner, H., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and
controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Kloppenborg, T.J. and Opfer, W.A., 2002. The current state of project management research:
trends, interpretations, and predictions. Project Management Journal, 33(2), pp.5-18.
Kotter, J.P., 1997. Leading change: A conversation with John P. Kotter. Strategy &
Leadership, 25(1), pp.18-23.

Kotter, J.P., 2008. A sense of urgency. Harvard Business Press.
Morris, P.W., 2011. A brief history of project management. In The Oxford handbook of
project management.
Nickels, W.G., McHugh, J.M., McHugh, S.M., Cossa, R. and Sproule, B.,
1997. Understanding Canadian Business. Irwin: distributed in Canada by McGraw-Hill
Ryerson.