Editorial

Abstract

Welcome to the first issue of Volume 5 of the Engineering Project Organization Journal. It is interesting to note that it was only a few years ago that the thought of creating a line of inquiry around engineering project organizations raised concerns around whether this area was deep enough to demand individual attention. At that time, defining the field of engineering project organizations required significant discussion and self-reflection by many of the scholars in the field. Was the field based on organizational theory or was it focused on public policy, or perhaps it was the study of how institutions worked to fund public infrastructure. Or perhaps it was all of these together. In the end, the consensus was that it was all of these and none of these. In fact, the field is bound by the interest in how organizations, public and private, formal and informal and projectbased and institution-based, function at the project, portfolio and institutional levels. The outcome of this functionality is varied across both tangible and intangible results; infrastructure project funding, project team effectiveness, cultural impacts and organization success to name only a few. Hence, determining the focus of the project organization community can often be confusing as individuals understand the underlying ties between the communities, but often are challenged to bridge the gap between specific focal points of research.
Today, as we enter the fifth volume of this journal I will take a few moments to expand upon this topic of challenges and join it with the topic of changes. Changes and challenges are often two sides of the same coin, separated by perspective. However, perspectives may be harder to bridge than reality in many cases. In an effort to bridge this potential gap, I will address some of the changes and challenges that face scholars in this community as we enter a new year and a new volume.