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Virtual global project management in eighteenth-century astronomy

Klaus Brockhoff (WHU Foundation, Vallendar, Germany)

Journal of Management History

ISSN: 1751-1348

Article publication date: 30 March 2020

Issue publication date: 21 August 2020

440

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to demonstrate that virtual project management can be based on a common spirit and mutual trust to achieve project objectives, rather than the use of modern electronic devices to lower communication costs.

Design/methodology/approach

Evidence from the eighteenth-century files of Academies of Science and from astronomical literature is used to characterize the projects and to show how major elements of project management (such as identification of benefits to stakeholders, management of uncertainties, communication and data aggregation across related projects) were applied.

Findings

The analysis shows how the initiative to better measure the Astronomical Unit defined a megaproject, and how this was broken down at local Academies of Science into major projects or programs. This, in turn, resulted in individual expeditions. It demonstrates that innovations arose from the projects, and that learning from earlier expeditions resulted in the final success of the megaproject.

Research limitations/implications

The literature used was not written to demonstrate project management. In this respect, both the original sources and the later reports may lack information with respect to the present topic. Today’s project management might learn from the study that coordination and communication can greatly benefit from a joint vision of the project if based on a common spirit and mutual trust.

Practical implications

Present day project management might benefit from the finding that common values reduce communication costs in a similar way as recent electronic communication devices.

Originality/value

The author believes that this is the first paper to analyze the Venus transit projects from the project management perspective. This was a complex and global megaproject. The approaches taken to achieve the objectives relevant to different stakeholders provide lessons for today’s management of megaprojects.

Keywords

Citation

Brockhoff, K. (2020), "Virtual global project management in eighteenth-century astronomy", Journal of Management History, Vol. 26 No. 4, pp. 535-555. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMH-11-2019-0070

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

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