The Differential Roles of Multilevel Change Capabilities in Project-Based Organizations

In this paper we introduce project-based organizations as multilevel entities that possess multiple operational and dynamic capabilities to manage organizational change and more precisely the stability- change paradox. In this study we focus particularly on two distinct, yet compatible and complementary dynamic project capabilities that facilitate change in project-based organizations. Our cases indicate the existence and application of different change capabilities in practice that enable project-based organizations to deal with the paradox. These different dynamic capabilities coexist across the different organizational levels. More precisely, we offer evidence for formal change routines, characterised by ostensive dynamic capabilities, while we also provide support for our theoretical argument that project-based organizations use less formal routines in the form of performative dynamic capabilities to initiate and manipulate change.