A good man is hard to find: project management, entrepreneurship and serendipity
International Journal of Managing Projects in Business
ISSN: 1753-8378
Article publication date: 20 November 2018
Issue publication date: 24 May 2019
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper commentary is to explore the intersection of project management and entrepreneurship through a poetic exploration of Flannery O’Connor’s short story: “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” Through the use of the Japanese Haiku format, this commentary probes the nature and meaning of “projects,” the importance of goals and their limitations, the influence of context across time, and the role of agency and circumstance in entrepreneurship as denoted by the idea of serendipity.
Design/methodology/approach
Poesis.
Findings
Imagination steers the course. Vision sees the possibility; But the mind’s eye sees through a distorted lens that is always misfit. So the unplanned path becomes the project. Always; Accidents happen.
Originality/value
Project Management: Goals with temporary; Collective action; Entrepreneurship: “Organizing collective Action.” Compromise?
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This article forms part of a special section “Exploring processual and critical avenues at the crossroad of entrepreneurship and project management”, guest edited by Olivier Germain and Monique Aubry.
Citation
Gartner, W.B. (2019), "A good man is hard to find: project management, entrepreneurship and serendipity", International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, Vol. 12 No. 1, pp. 114-119. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMPB-10-2018-0213
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited