Institutional development, divergence and change in the discipline of project management

Inspired by Peter Morris's major contribution to the field of project management, this paper takes up some of the challenges facing the development of the discipline of project management which are so eloquently articulated in Reconstructing Project Management (2013). Drawing upon insights from theory and research on communities of practice, forms of knowledge production, processes of structuration and institutionalisation, it highlights the diversity and complexity in the field of project management practice, theory and research and harnesses these ideas to highlight the opportunities and tensions this diversity creates. In considering the implications for the institutionalisation of project management as a professional body of knowledge and academic discipline, the argument is developed that there is not only great value to be gained by pursuing these lines of enquiry further, but also that there it is important to acknowledge diversity within the field and encourage criticality in perspective.