project-based management as a strategic response
FEATURED PAPER
By Oumaima OMARI HARAKÉ
PhD candidate and researcher
Laboratoire CEREGE, Université de Poitiers
Poitiers, France
Abstract
The Covid-19 pandemic generated a major health crisis, exposing French hospitals to unprecedented organizational and managerial challenges. Against this backdrop of extreme uncertainty, hospitals massively adopted project-based management as their management method. This model, based on flexibility, adaptability and a temporary organization focused on achieving specific objectives, has enabled hospitals to respond rapidly to health emergencies. The aim of this article is to analyze this in-depth transformation, identifying its operational advantages, practical limitations and long-term strategic implications.
Key words: Project-based management, hospital management, Covid-19, organizational adaptation.
Introduction and issues
The Covid-19 pandemic, declared by the World Health Organization in March 2020, represented an unprecedented health shock for healthcare systems worldwide. In France, hospitals, long structured around a traditional bureaucratic and hierarchical organization, were faced with a massive and rapid rise in patient load, a shortage of resources (medical, logistical and human) and the imperative to rethink their operating modes to respond to the emergency (Moisdon, 2020). This exceptional situation has highlighted the limits of the traditional managerial model: lengthy procedures, cumbersome decision-making circuits and disciplinary silos have sometimes slowed down the necessary responsiveness to rapidly evolving crises.
It is in this context of extreme tension that project-based management has emerged as a promising alternative. Heir to methodologies initially developed in industry and the technology sector (Midler, 2019), this managerial paradigm is based on the creation of cross-functional teams, the establishment of clear, measurable objectives, and the setting of a timeframe and resources dedicated to a precise objective (Kerzner, 2017). Its “temporary” dimension and flexibility enable us to free ourselves from bureaucratic rigidities, promoting decentralized decision-making and rapid adaptation to changes in the environment.
And yet, while the use of projected logics increased during the crisis – with the implementation of crisis cells, dedicated Covid units or ad hoc coordination mechanisms – few studies to date have systematically and thoroughly analyzed the appropriation of these practices by French hospitals, and their potential to become sustainable management tools. Understanding how these new governance methods have become established, what effects they have had on operational performance, and what conditions are necessary for them to endure, is a major challenge for public decision-makers and hospital managers.
Study objectives:
- Documenting the genesis and implementation of project-based management in French hospitals during and after the Covid-19 crisis.
- Assess the concrete operational impact of this model on responsiveness, team coordination and quality of care.
- Identify the obstacles and levers for sustaining these practices, particularly in terms of training, institutional support and the risk of reverting to previous management methods.
Following on from this introduction, the article is structured around four main sections: the theoretical framework (revisiting the foundations of project-based management and its applications in healthcare), the methodology (describing the qualitative approach and documentary analysis), the results (presenting the main lessons drawn from the interviews and internal reports), and finally the discussion and recommendations (focusing on the strategies to be put in place to consolidate these managerial innovations). This structure is designed to guide the reader from contextualization to the development of concrete courses of action, while ensuring academic rigor and operational relevance for hospital players.
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How to cite this paper: Omari Haraké, O. (2025). Hospital management in post-Covid France: project-based management as a strategic response; PM World Journal, Vol. XIV, Issue VI, June. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/pmwj153-Jun2025-Omari-Harake-Hospital-management-in-post-Covid-France.pdf
About the Author
Oumaima OMARI HARAKÉ
France
Oumaima OMARI HARAKÉ is a PhD candidate in Management Sciences at the University of Poitiers, within the CEREGE research laboratory. Her doctoral research focuses on the appropriation of management tools in the French healthcare system during times of crisis, with a particular emphasis on the COVID-19 pandemic. Her research interests include public management, management control, and territorial resilience dynamics. With teaching experience both in France and internationally, she is also an active member of several academic networks (AIRMAP, EURAM, APMP, ARAMOS). Oumaima regularly participates in conferences and research projects related to public sector transformation and evaluation challenges.
She can be contacted at omarioumaima466@gmail.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/oumaima-omari-harak%C3%A9-56931a5b/
