Project Leadership and Society

The Journal of the International Project Management Association (IPMA)



Project Leadership and Society (PLAS) is an academic and gold open access journal. As a sister open access journal of the International Journal of Project Management, the leading journal in the field of Project Management. PLAS opens up for novel approaches that study projects and relate them to society. Society is considered in a broad sense, including policy, leadership and managerial practice.

PLAS articles study the interaction between projects, project leadership, project management on the one hand, and economic, social, political and organizational processes, on the other. Project leadership and management are seen in a broad sense including project based management, project-oriented management and Project Management Office (PMO) Management. All papers are expected to yield findings that have implications for policy or practice. We are especially interested in leadership in a project society that includes all types of projects, programs, project portfolios, project-oriented organizations, project networks, project industries. Interesting topics to study projects from a broader perspective include; vertical leadership, shared leadership, change, projectification, resilience, sustainable development, responsibility, career, stakeholder engagement, novel perceptions on value creation and project success. Project leadership and project leaders, teams and individuals in specific situations like crisis, extreme situations, disaster are of interest to the journal. PLAS welcomes papers that enhance our understanding of theory and practice of Project Leadership, but also papers on education and novel research practices are welcome to disrupt the development of future project leaders and the way research is organized in a project society. PLAS article formats include

Empirical research: A PLAS empirical research article identifies a research gap in literature, takes a clear theoretical stance, follows a transparent and rigorous (qualitative and quantitative) methodology, makes a clear contribution to the field of project studies and provides practice or policy implications for a project society.

Discoveries: A PLAS discovery starts with rich descriptions of a phenomenon observed in practice, uses theory for explanation, identifies gaps in theory, contributes to theory development and provides practice or policy implications for a project society.

Reviews: A PLAS review article is based on a transparent methodology, goes beyond describing the review findings, but brings forward a conceptual theoretical contribution and provides practice or policy implications for a project society.

Next Practices: A PLAS next practice article discusses the development of a next practice, including case studies that applied a novel method or approach. The article needs to be linked to theory and needs to make clear what the practice innovation is. Practices should be novel and disruptive, question our existing knowledge of leading or managing projects. The article provides practice or policy implications for a project society.

Theoretical Insights: A PLAS theoretical insight article is a theory piece, that brings forward new thoughts and ideas based on theory. It should open up a new research stream or bring a disruption to a current debate relevant to actors in a project society.

Enable: A PLAS enable article discusses the development of education and learning for project leadership and their application in a project society to enable future project leaders. The article needs to be linked to theory and needs to make clear what the innovation in education is. Approaches and practices should be novel and disruptive, question our existing knowledge on developing project leaders. The article provides practice or policy implications for a project society.

Novel Research Practices: A PLAS novel research practice article discusses the development of and application of a novel research practice in the field of project leadership and project management. The article needs to be linked to theory and needs to make clear what the research practice innovation is. Practices should be novel and disruptive, question our existing knowledge and provide practice or policy implications for research in a project society.