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Planning, therefore, should include
scenarios that permit change. In other
words, “application” should be tempered
by “judgement”. Lastly, definitions in the
physical sciences are generally more reliable than in the social sciences. I say
this because the former are formulated
in a general endeavour to encapsulate
universal laws. In the social sciences (e.g.
project management), they should be
approached with more caution.
Regeneration. For non-renewable
resources, there should be equivalent
development of renewable substitutes.
Waste generation also should not exceed the assimilative capacity of the
environment. Critical success factors
need to be determined on each project
that serves as both internal and external
measures to the project. Consultation
should be wide and governance transparent. (Daly, 1990)Social justice is
based on the concept of human rights
and equality, cultivating respect and
promoting the dignity of every human
being. We cannot here discuss the formal and informal structures required in
society, politics and economics to give
effect to these matters but I do believe
that projects, by their very nature, create
opportunities of their own that make
the objectives of social justice possible,
even if only in a small way. Projects undertake the spending of capital, using a
temporary organization, on a particular
technology platform, to achieve certain objectives. The opportunities for
the development of innovative project
structures and management process
to promote the principles of social
justice within this framework are relatively easy to accomplish, with even the
minimum amount of strategic planning.
Social justice too can be promoted as an
internal project measure and in terms
of its external impacts. Finally, the last
issue which is still going to impact
heavily on the profession is projects
undertaken in the Green Economy.
The Green Economy is premised on the
idea of replacing petroleum extraction
with the exploitation of biomass (e.g.
food and fibre crops, grasses, forest
residues, plant oils, algae, etc.) where
the industrial production of plastics,
chemicals, fuels, drugs and energy
depends, not on fossil fuels, but on biological feed stocks. The hope is that the
Green Economy will provide a Plan “B”
for planet earth. The current problem,
however, is the lack of an international
framework on food security, agriculture
and climate policy. The situation leads
immediately to a lack of governance
structure so necessary for the management of projects. Project Managers,
therefore, must permit their project
planning to be informed by strong social movements in the field as wellas by
formal and informal structures in civil
society. In closing, it should be said that
the purpose of our inquiry has been to
grow our understanding of the contextual issues that drive the evolution of
project management, and the manner
in which they affect the way in which
we practise our profession. We should
always be alive to the wider questions
of social, political and economic thinking that determine the choice of, and
possibly even the need for the development of, new and innovative, “tools and
techniques” that need to be applied in
a particular circumstance. Projects have
an internal dimension but they also
have an external aspect. The project
manager, therefore, should be penetrating in the evaluation of both before
making a decision on how to proceed.
Projects, however, are seldom delivered in a static environment. Planning,
therefore, should include scenarios
that permit change. In other words,
“application” should be tempered by
“judgement”. Lastly, definitions in the
physical sciences are generally more
reliable than in the social sciences. I say
this because the former are formulated
in a general endeavour to encapsulate
universal laws. In the social sciences
(e.g. project management), they should
be approached with more caution.
Peter E. Richards
september 2014 — PM Africa Magazine
29