MINTZBERG’S PENTAGON REVISITED IN PROJECTS

• Main Authors: Moura, R. L., Carneiro, T. C. J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata 2018-12-01
• Series: Iberoamerican Journal of Project Management
• Subjects: Organizational Design Theory; Projects; Temporary Organizations
• Online Access: http://www.ijopm.org/index.php/IJOPM/article/view/372

This study aimed to revisit the research conducted by Drago (1) in organizations, in another object of study: temporary organizations (TO). Projects, treated in this study as temporary organizations, are organizations that have several characteristics similar to the traditional organizations here treated as permanent (PO), but with temporality aspects and different objectives. An empirical research was carried out with 208 professionals who worked in temporary organizations on Mintzberg's Organizational Design Theory lens and the five ideal structures called the Mintzberg’s pentagon. The results showed that TOs show different structural aspects, comparing with POs, and that when presented in a "pure" way, they are mostly bureaucratic and non-adhocratic, contrasting with what the related theories usually endorse. When they are organized in a hybrid way, TOs assume many of the characteristics of the simple structure, with direct, non-autonomous and organic mechanisms of coordination as expected.