An empirical illumination of how a project worked with relations

摘要

This paper elaborates on relational facets of projects. It describes a project that, as it was established, was deeply embedded in a managerial discourse and assumed to be a highly technical project. Over time the project also appeared as highly relational in nature. Based on an ethnographic study this paper explores how the relations of a project were emergent in nature, in the sense that with whom the project related and how it related changed over time as the project task developed in different directions. More specifically, this paper shows how the forming and maintenance of relations in this case seemed to require that the project team acted continuously in variable manners in the selfsame relation but also differentiated amongst various stakeholders. Over time, the project team learnt who the stakeholders were and what they expected and how it could act to meet these expectations. The attempts of meeting the expectations were displayed as differentiated yet carefully balanced presentations of the project and the project matters. At last, this paper describes and reflects on how the effects of the project teams' work with alliances seemed to be that the team project team gradually developed in to an influential actor.