Constructing new working practices through project narratives

In this article we focus on the (internal and external) dynamics of New Public Management (NPM) in the daily life of project management. We concentrate on the ways NPM concepts work out in the realities of project actors. Based on recent research within the Dutch infrastructure sector, we analyse alternative responses to perceived problems in the infrastructure sector by focusing on 'project narratives'. Next to compliance, these narratives feature deterrence (a strong resistance to the change concept), dilution (blurring of the initial ambitions) and dissociation (confusion over the societal value of the project). The article shows how project narratives provide organisational members with space to make sense of and contest the new managerial initiatives and value systems imposed upon them.