The Rational and Behavioral View in Project Management

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to critically analyze the application of rational and behavioral views in project management. The result of this case study illustrates an optimized combination of rational and behavioral standpoints serves best in project management in response to complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity of project environment. The analysis demonstrates that rational view based on knowledge provides a quantitative method to improve the successful rate of project but has limitations in the complex context where are unable to adapt to and not consider people issue, whiles the behavioral view such as biases underlying belief and values, emotional intelligence and motivation mainly focuses on unforeseen risks that people results in, which is easier to be in response to uncertain situations but lack measurability, objectivity and logic. Through comprehensive and systematical analysis, the optimized combination of rational and behavioral views that puts the technical issue and people issue together into project management might be more effective.