Project tragedies
Journal article, 2022

Serious project failures can be tragedies. Borrowing the term from Aristotle, project management researchers sometimes refer to a peripety when a chaotic project suddenly finds a successful path towards completion. But Aristotle requires tragedies to have a sad ending, and in his Poetics, reversal (peripeteia) is paired with recognition (anagnorisis), which might be closer to the transitory event in chaotic projects. In late antiquity, we find a voyage described as a tragicomedy, when Synesius recounts his experiences of sailing from Alexandria. The narrative of his stormy voyage includes a turning point resembling what modern project researchers have understood as peripety.

Aristotle

Drama

Project studies

Project managers

Author

Jan Bröchner

Chalmers, Technology Management and Economics, Service Management and Logistics

International Journal of Project Management

0263-7863 (ISSN)

Vol. 40 5 467-470

Subject Categories

History of Ideas

Specific Literatures

General Literature Studies

DOI

10.1016/j.ijproman.2022.04.001

More information

Latest update

3/7/2024 9