Projects,people, professions: Trajectories of learning through a mega-event (the London 2012 case) |
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| Institution: | 1. Decision and Information Sciences Department, Charlton College of Business, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, United States;2. Department of Economics, Finance, Marketing and Decision Sciences, School of Business, University of Houston-Clear Lake, United States;3. Management, Marketing, and Business Administration Department, College of Business, University of Houston-Downtown, United States;4. Department of Information Systems and Quantitative Sciences, Rawls College of Business Administration, Texas Tech University, United States;1. Black School of Business, Pennsylvania State University, Erie, PA 16563, USA;2. Department of Decision Sciences, School of Business, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA;3. Research School of Management, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia;4. Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA;1. Netherlands Defence Academy, The Netherlands;2. University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands |
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| Abstract: | Planning and organization of large-scale events such as Olympic Games are accomplished by several specialized project organizations, in charge of securing finances, completing the infrastructures, negotiating with multiple stake-holders and the day-to-day management of the actual event. These organizations have to cope with a key challenge. Due to their inherently temporary nature they cannot provide the specialized knowledge and specific “project capabilities” (Davies and Brady) on their own, but have to mobilize them from the past and from outside their boundaries, e.g. from previous events or other mega-projects in the host city. Rather than in permanent organizations, then, the knowledge on preparing and performing mega-events is primarily sedimented and embodied in professionals.Drawing on the planning and organization of the London Olympics 2012 as empirical case, the paper addresses, on the one hand, this particular mobilization process. On the other, it looks at how this process is intertwined with three different trajectories that both affect and are affected by the mega-event: the trajectory of the project that aims to recruit necessary skills; the trajectory of individual persons who perceive working for the Olympics as a rewarding episode in their careers; the trajectory of professional communities that expect learning benefits for the construction and project management industry in the UK. |
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| Keywords: | Project-based organizations Large-scale events Olympic Games Careers Organizational geographies Learning trajectories |
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