Anticipatory projectification: agency, identity and value before project-based work

Purpose Projectification has become a dominant mode of organising across organisations, sectors, and society. While recent scholarship increasingly calls for greater attention to people within projectification, empirical research has largely focused on institutional dynamics, professionalisation processes, and established project actors. As a result, limited attention has been paid to how individuals come to understand, anticipate, and position themselves in relation to projectified work before entering project-based careers. This study examines how students experience and make sense of project-based learning as an early encounter with projectified ways of organising. Design/methodology/approach The study draws on qualitative focus group data generated with students enrolled in an international MBA programme. An interpretive research approach was adopted to explore how participants articulate their experiences of project-based learning and how they interpret agency, emerging professional identity, and value in relation to preparation for projectified work environments. Findings The study highlights how projectified expectations are anticipated and normalised during education and shows how students begin to interpret responsibility, professional identity, and value through project-based educational practices as part of their preparation for future project-based work. Originality/value This study contributes to projectification research by shifting attention to an earlier and underexamined stage of engagement: how individuals begin to anticipate and make sense of projectified work before formal role entry. The study advances human-centred perspectives on projectification and extends existing research beyond organisational and institutional levels of analysis by positioning management education as a formative context of projectification.