Shadow Working in Project Management: Understanding and Addressing the Irrational and Unconscious in Groups

Shadow Working in Project Management aims at contributing to our knowledge of all things unconscious and irrational in our behaviour. It takes the form of an empirical research, and therefore addresses mostly the tools and techniques available to get in touch with Shadow aspects of self and collective, to recognize how it manifests, how it can lead to conflict, and ways to address it.

From that perspective, it advances on to question the underlying beliefs of current management practices. It explores as well the inherent need for control in projects, being those of a professional nature, or other ventures. It challenges the strength of the concept of the "rational man" and its protagonism.

Joana Bértholo’s work explores the role and nature of the Shadow in the context of projects and their management, with an emphasis on techniques to address it. Despite being directed to managers and dedicated to the analyses of the managerial discourse, the tools and processes it proposes have universal relevance, based on the fact that the Shadow is everywhere, within everyone, from the individual to the global scale.

Joana Bértholo is a researcher, novelist and playwright. She first attended the Fine-Arts and later a PhD in Cultural Studies. Art processes are her preferred mode of research, using writing as a platform to investigate on a wide scope of interests, such as technology, sustainability, and the darker aspects of groups and community.