An extended literature review of organizational factors impacting project management complexity

Project complexity has been widely researched in the project management literature. However, little attention has been given to the complexity of the managerial task, including preparing the project manager to understand and respond to that complexity. With this paper, we aim to contribute to the literature of project management complexity. Following a systematic literature review, we provide insights into the concept of project management complexity, and identify a set of eight organizational factors that impact project management complexity. These factors are interconnected and dynamic due to relationships among stakeholders. Therefore, we have utilized a project network approach in order to provide a framework that facilitates the grouping and visualization of the organizational factors. Our findings show first, that the concept of project management complexity is equal to managerial complexity, and second, the possible complicated situations created by the interconnection of the factors, as well as their possible impact. Rather than providing a prescriptive list of factors, the contribution of this paper is to clarify the concept of project management complexity, to determine the potential impact of the organizational factors in the managerial task, and to gain better understanding on the situations created by the interconnectedness and dynamic of factors in relation to the project network actors. This work is aimed to help the project manager to reduce the managerial complexity by acquiring awareness and understanding of complicated situations.