Governance performance in complex environment: The case of a major transformation in a university hospital

•This paper aims at enlighten the contribution to the organisational performance.•Competing values framework provides the conceptual foundation.•This research adopted a participatory action research.•Novel approach to the organisational performance as a dynamic process.

Project-based organisations have emerged as new forms of organisation in the last few decades. However, hierarchy persists. Both serve their own purpose, but entail different sets of values. This is particularly true in relation to the contribution of project management to organisational performance. The competing values framework has been used to highlight different sets of values and preferences underlying the evaluation of PMO performance and emphasizes the competing aspect. The research adopted a participatory action research approach in a university hospital where a major organisational transformation is taking place. Findings reveal the existence of paradoxes between the executives and the PMO regarding the PMO performance and show how these paradoxes evolved over time. This sheds light not only on the paradoxes, but also on the dynamic process related to performance evaluation within a transformation project.