Managing quality in project‐based emerging network organisations

Companies are responding to the deeper structural changes taking place in the underlying system of commercial competition by becoming agile. Companies are fragmenting into key specialised business units that not only specialise in providing core functions, but have the expertise and skill to exploit other market opportunities thus enhancing the underlying profit of the larger organisation. In the emergence of such network organisational structures, it must be clear who is responsible for quality and how it is managed in the project environment within these fragmented business units. Attempts to address this question by examining the approach adopted by an electrical utility case study organisation. Highlights the strengths and deficiencies of the methodology adopted and establishes some key underlying criteria for the management of quality in projects within network organisations.