Organisational climate and project success

Abstract

This paper establishes a clear association between project outcomes and the social and management climate in which those projects are implemented. Drawing on extensive field research involving project management professionals in major British organisations, project success is shown to decline as the level of personal and environmental threat perceived by project staff increases. Other organisational characteristics, such as free expression, questioning, participation in the definition of goals, innovation, and intrinsic satisfactions from the work itself, are all found to be positively associated with successful project outcomes, whilst organisational change and conflict are negatively associated with project success.