The Dark Side of Projects: Dimensionality, Research Methods, and Agenda

This article presents the dark side of projects, engaging project scholars and practitioners in discussions about sensitive, confusing, uncomfortable, challenging, and questionable phenomena, such as corruption, sexism, money laundering, modern slavery, waste of resources, and organizational politics. The dark side impacts people’s lives, questioning the legitimacy of projects as forms of work organization and the political and ideological systems shaping the projects’ context. Project scholars and practitioners need to be aware of the harm the dark side of projects may promote. Ultimately, we aim to build awareness, promote research, and help sensitize our community to the dark side of projects.