Call for Papers – Special issue of Organisational Project Management (OPM)

© 2015 John Lannon and John Walsh. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license.

Citation: Organisational Project Management 2015, 2(1): 1-2,- http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/opm.v2i1.4402

Project Management in the Non-Profit Sector

Organisational Project Management aims to cover all aspects of organisational project management including (but not limited to) linking strategy to projects, change management, governance, leadership, innovation, project marketing, maturity models, and also how projects are managed in different types of organizations such as private, public and community organizations.

Why is this topic important to the project management community?

While the management of projects in the non-profit sector shares many similarities with the practice in other areas it also posesses peculiarities that present unique challenges. For example, stakeholder perspectives may be more diverse as projects frequently involve government and private agencies as well as communities, or identifying measureable criteria for success may be challenging as projects are often undertaken to achieve long-term social objectives.

There is much to be gained by the project management community through an exploration of projects in contexts in which relations amongst stakeholders may be asymmetric in terms of power relations, and in which the objectives of project based activities may not be amenable to clear, agreed and quantitative definition. This special issue seeks to identify some of the key lessons to be learned in these environments, and to explore the implications for project management in general.

Scope

Areas covered will include but are not limited to international aid, disaster preparedness and recovery, development, poverty reduction, healthcare, education, environmental protection, human rights, community development, arts and culture. In each of these areas, non-profit organisations ranging from international non-governmental organisations, to nationally-focused advocacy and special interest groups, to community based organisations, are playing an increasingly important role in addressing societal needs, delivering services, and advocating or campaigning for change all around the world.

This journal special issue will explore these diverse stakeholder perspectives and share examples of project management practices in the non-profit sector. Key objectives are to develop understandings of project management practice in the sector, to examine how cross-sectoral collaboration and learning can help non-profit organisations achieve their project and programme objectives, and to explore ways in which the wider project management community can learn from experiences in the non-profit sector.

Themes

Potential authors are asked to submit proposals that focus on one (or more, if appropriate) of the following themes:

• Adapting existing methodologies or developing new methodologies for use in the non-profit sector;
• Stakeholder engagement;
• Governance and risk;
• Realising benefits and assessing project impacts;
• Defining and promoting sustainability in project and programme management;
• Leveraging corporate, governmental and inter-governmental expertise in the non-profit sector;
• The management of diversity;
• Knowledge transfer and retention in project environments;
• Leveraging local knowledge in projects.
• Reflecting and/or challenging the dominant project management paradigms in the non-profit sector

Case study examples of project management in the non-profit sector are also invited.

Timeline

1. The special issue is planned for publication in May 2016.

2. Abstract proposals for papers and case studies (500 words) should be submitted directly to PMNonProfit@ul.ie by 26 June 2015.

3. Authors of accepted papers and case studies will be notified by 17 July 2015.

4. Full papers should be submitted online by 25 September 2015 on line through the journal website http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/opm/author (after registering as an author to the journal) and will be blind peer reviewed.

5. Case studies should also be submitted online by 25 September 2015 online through the journal website for review by the designated editors.

6. Reviewed papers will be returned by 27 November 2015.

7. Final papers expected on or by 22 January 2016.

Editors

Dr. John Lannon works at the Centre for Project Management at the Kemmy Business School, University of Limerick. His research covers project management in non-profit organisations; knowledge management practices in non-profit organisations and networks; and information, communication and technologies usage in development and human rights work. He has worked in both the business and non-profit sector in roles ranging from software systems design and development to project management.

Dr. John Walsh is a Lecturer in Information Management at the Department of Management and Marketing, University of Limerick Ireland where he teaches both undergraduate and post-graduate courses on Knowledge Management. His research interests focus on the sociomaterial and organisational effects of knowledge intensive practices.