How Power Influences Behavior in Projects: A Theory of Planned Behavior Perspective

While the effect of power on organizations has been well researched, how power influences behavior in projects is less well understood. Taking a case-study approach and using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), we traced the thoughts of project managers subject to power, particularly those who resisted. We discovered that power bore down on project managers through new injunctive norms, encouraging them either not to resist or eventually to compromise and yield to new norms that changed their experiential attitudes. The TPB brings a new perspective to project management research, illustrating how power affected project managers’ behavior and influenced project outcomes.

The Secretary Shall . . . : Implementing the Affordable Care Act's Private Insurance Expansions

The federal bureaucracy played a critical role in implementing most aspects of the Affordable Care Act's private insurance coverage expansion. Through brief case studies, the authors review three dimensions of this role: the development of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, rulemaking in the formulation of the essential health benefits package, and the implementation of the federal website. They relate these to themes in the public administration literature. Politics-both through state decisions and through continuing congressional action (and inaction)-pervaded the implementation process. The challenges of staffing and situating the new bureaucracy effectively changed vertical boundaries within the Department of Health and Human Services, with long-lasting consequences. Finally, the complex design of the policy itself made passage of the legislation easier but implementation much more difficult. Ultimately, however, implementation was remarkably successful, achieving improvements in coverage consistent with the Congressional Budget Office's projections.