Gasps in amazement

Work Study

ISSN: 0043-8022

Article publication date: 1 December 1999

444

Citation

(1999), "Gasps in amazement", Work Study, Vol. 48 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/ws.1999.07948gaa.005

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 1999, MCB UP Limited


Gasps in amazement

Outside of my office window, a new building is being erected. This is a massive project (£14 million) and involves untold numbers of men and vast quantities of materials. Now, in my younger days I remember learning about project management and critical paths and resource levelling. However, I still find it amazing that such vast projects actually work - that everything (more or less) turns up at the right time, that building levels started in different places actually meet when they join up. It shouldn't amaze me - but it does! I think its because my own management experience compared to my management education has taught me that a small number of people can screw up large projects - and management education never teaches you how to deal with the oddballs, the dissidents, the misfits that are in all large organisations.

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