How Does Project Termination Impact Project Team Members? Rapid Termination, “Creeping Death,” and Learning From Failure

Keywords

entrepreneurship, failure, innovation, learning, project, termination

Abstract

Although extant studies have increased our understanding of the decision of when
to terminate a project and its organizational implications, they do not explore the contextual mechanisms underlying the link between the speed at which a project is terminated and the learning of those directly working on the project. This is surprising because perceptions of project failure likely differ between those who own the option (i.e., the decision maker) and those who are the option (i.e., project team members). In this multiple case study, we explored research and development (R&D) subsidiaries within a large multinational parent organization and generated several new insights: (1) rather than alleviate negative emotions, delayed termination was perceived as creeping death, thwarting new career opportunities and generating negative emotions; (2) rather than obstructing learning from project experience, negative emotions motivated sensemaking efforts; and (3) rather than emphasizing learning after project termination, in the context of rapid redeployment of team members after project termination, delayed termination provided employees the time to reflect on, articulate, and codify lessons learned. We discuss the implications of these findings.

Original Publication Citation

"Shepherd, D.A., Patzelt, H., Williams, T.A., & Warnecke, D. (2013) “How does the speed of project termination impact project team members? Rapid termination, “creeping death,” and learning from failure.” The Annual Meetings of the Academy Management, Orlando, Florida, United States."

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2013

Publisher

The Annual Meetings of the Academy Management

Language

English

College

Marriott School of Business

Department

Marketing

University Standing at Time of Publication

Associate Professor

Link to Full Text

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