Management as system synchronization: The case of the Dutch A2 Passageway Maastricht project

On the one hand, the importance of flexibility and adaptiveness in the design and management of human activity systems to deal with complexity is stressed. On the other hand, existing frameworks of procedures, practices and rules often require strict planning, design and implementation. This raises the question how flexibility and adaptiveness comply with these existing frameworks to arrive at effective and efficient project realization. A grounded analysis of the Dutch infrastructure project A2 Passageway Maastricht, instigated by the question how the influence of the management system on the provisional outcomes of the project can be explained, found that it involves system synchronization: combined system fragmentation and integration.