What do we want from a theory of project management? A response to Rodney Turner

摘要

Turner's recent series of articles articulating the fundamentals of a theory of project management addresses a hugely important challenge for the research community Turner. Turner rightly reminds us that assertions that the study of project management is a-theoretic are unhelpful in the politics of research, particularly in relation to research funding. But there is some basis to the charge that, with honourable exceptions, the design and reporting of much project management research lacks explicit statement of its theoretical underpinning. Since theory helps to direct researchers into productive lines of inquiry, the absence of explicit theory hampers the pursuit of programmatic research and the development of a cumulative tradition in the advancement of knowledge. So there are substantive as well as political reasons for welcoming debate around theory in project management.