ABSTRACT
It is hardly revolutionary to suggest that action is necessary to get something done. This means that intuitively there is an element of resoluteness in the concept. The action concept at the level of the individual is at times contrasted with the concept of behaviour (see, for example, Nor&r 1995: 142-3), and the difference is often described as the presence or absence of explicit purposiveness. We will very briefly touch upon this in the following, but ctherwise we will more or less leave the level of the individual and concentrate on organised action. Again, however, we focus on action as getting something done. In that particular respect there is also no difference between temporary and permanent organisations. The difference is to be found in the kinds of actions involved and in how these actions can be understood in their own contexts. The demand for focused action is certainly more prominent in temporary organisations in which time is limited and the task in general is defined in a specific and measurable way. If the label ‘project’ is used for the temporary organisation, the demand for focus is even more prevalent. In fact, focused action means that only actions specifically related to the particular task at hand are considered to be relevant or even permissible in a project (or a temporary organisation) context.
