Internal and External Forces of Organizational Change in Project Management : A case study on a collaborative project

Abstract: The purpose of this research is to find evidence on how temporary projects change in connection to both internal organizational changes, in terms of change in management, as well as the external force of change of COVID-19. In addition, the thesis will also go into depth on how these changes have affected collaboration and work-satisfaction. The research is a case study of qualitative nature and ten semi-structured interviews, with five project leaders and five employees in a collaborative project, were conducted to enable interactions between theories and empirical findings. It was decided to obtain a case project in order to investigate how the external force of COVID-19 and the internal force of change in head management has affected the project's work settings, collaboration and the well-being/work satisfaction of the employees. Along with the interviews, the theoretical structure made it possible to perform a thematic analysis. The changes connected to the working processes and the structure given the forces of internal and external change have altered the way the employees perform and operate in the project. It is concluded that collaboration is of utmost importance and that building trust and relationships have clearly become harder in a virtual work setting, it has affected how the project participants work together towards common objectives. These major changes have also affected the work satisfaction of the project members to different extents.