SECTION 8
THE PROJECT CULTURE
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8.1 Understanding the Team Culture
8.2 Positive and Negative Aspects of Teams
8.3 Project Team Building and Development
8.4 Role and Responsibilities of the Project Team
8.5 Project Manager Competence
8.6 The Political Process in Project Management
8.1 UNDERSTANDING THE TEAM CULTURE
8.1.1 Introduction
The project culture is also discussed in a different context in Sec. 2.8.
Culture is the set of refined behaviors that people have and strive toward in their society. In this section, culture is defined as the synergistic set of shared ideas and beliefs that is associated with a way of life in the team-driven enterprise. Some of the likely key cultural features to be found in an organization that uses teams come from:
• The management leadership-and-follower style practiced by key managers and professionals
• The example set by leaders of the organization
• The attitudes displayed and communicated by key managers in their leadership and management of the organization
• The assumptions held and communicated by key managers and professionals
• The organizational plans, policies, procedures, rules, and strategies
• The political, legal, social, technological, and economic systems with which the members of an organization interface
• The perceived and/or actual performance characteristics of the organization
• The quality and quantity of the resources (human and nonhuman) consumed in the pursuit of the organization’s mission, objectives, goals, and strategies
• The knowledge, skills, and experiences of members of the organization
• Communication patterns
• Formal and informal roles (Paraphrased from David I. Cleland, Strategic Management of Teams, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1996, p. 100.)
The project culture is essentially a way of life in the project environment. |
8.1.2 Cultural Strength
A strong working culture is like magic. The organization believes and practices a philosophy of creativity and innovation, facilitated by a participative leader and follower style. In addition, the following characteristics tend to exist:
• As employees serve on teams, they welcome the opportunity to participate in influencing the organization’s purposes.
• Employees find that their opinions are valued and they feel as if they are being treated as thinking adults and key organizational members.
• A strong feeling of interdependent relationships emerges among people from different functional entities and organizational levels.
• An enlightened feeling of the acceptance of change in the organization develops. Several strategies are required to enhance the team focus in the management of change in the organization. These strategies include:
• Enhancement of the organizational culture so that people at all levels, and in all specialties are encouraged to bring forth ideas for improvement in their areas of responsibilities.
• Development of an organizational culture that seeks to abandon that which has been successful through the continuous improvement of existing products, services, and processes.
• Become a learning organization through explicit recognition that all organizational members will have to retrain and relearn new technologies and professional strategies to escape obsolescence.
• Organizing the organization’s resources so that explicit opportunity is available to bring a team’s organizational focus to the development and implementation of new organizational initiatives, that will bring forth new products, services, and processes.
• Providing a strategic management capability by which organizational leadership is proactive in providing the resources, vision, and disciplines to manage the future through the use of product and process projects. (Paraphrased from David I. Cleland, Strategic Management of Teams, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1996, p. 102.)
When the managers of an organization elect to use alternative teams in its operational and strategic strategy, significant cultural changes will ultimately come about. Empirical, practical, experience-based evidence suggests that when alternative project teams are used, the before-teams and after-teams cultural characteristics look like those described in Tables 8.1 and 8.2, respectively. There are more characteristics described in Table 8.2 than in Table 8.1. The current fascination of using teams described in the literature probably accounts for this.
8.1.3 Maintenance of a Team-Driven Culture
Certain actions can help develop and maintain such a culture.
• Managers and team leaders must design and implement an ongoing, disciplined approach in planning, organizing, and controlling the team management system for the enterprise. The project management system described in Sec. 7.10 is an excellent model to use in this respect.
• Teams should be regularly reviewed to determine their progress, the effectiveness of the team as a contributing organizational unit, and how the cultural ambience of the team is developing and melded with the culture of the enterprise.
• Adequate descriptions of authority and responsibility should be developed and maintained so that team members understand their individual and collective roles.
• Team members should be given ownership in the decisions affecting their team.
• Team leaders should use as many strategies as possible such as brainstorming and other participatory means to get the members involved.
• Feedback must be provided on a regular basis to the team members.
• Team leaders must ensure that adequate resources are provided to the team so they can get their job done.
TABLE 8.1 Cultural Characteristics before Teams
• There are formal rules and procedures to govern individual behavior. |
• There is hierarchical managerial authority. |
• There are narrow definitions of work responsibility. |
• There is a bureaucratic culture. |
• Change comes about through top-level-directed programs. |
• There are more organizational levels. |
• Leadership comes out of the organizational hierarchy. |
• Reorganizations come from the top. |
• Individual efficiency and effectiveness are paramount. |
• Authority and responsibility flow within the hierarchy. |
• There is a command-and-control mentality. |
• There is considerable risk of overmanaging. |
• Organizational and system boundaries are preserved. |
• There is individual responsibility for decisions. |
• The organization is nonteam oriented. |
• There is individual thinking. |
• There is blurred organizational identification. |
• Individuals are reluctant to assume additional responsibility. |
• Individuals identify primarily with individual goals. |
• People follow their leader. |
• People feel a limited degree of involvement. |
• People are given responsibility. |
• People are managed. |
• Managers assume responsibility for execution of the management functions (planning, organizing, motivation, leadership, and control). |
• Managers assume responsibility for quality. |
• Managers are responsible for the performance of their subordinates. |
• Managers make the decisions. |
• People are reluctant to seek additional responsibility. |
• Managers supervise. |
• There is limited participation by people in the affairs of the organization that affect them. |
• The titles of superiors and subordinates reflect the culture. |
• There is limited sharing of organizational results. |
• Rewards are based on individual performance. |
• Problems are owned primarily by the managers. |
• People tend to withhold their opinions until the manager gives his/her opinion. |
• Responsibility for strategic decisions rests primarily with the managers. |
• Project management is viewed as a special case of management. |
• People are reluctant to change because they usually have little participation in the development of the rationale for the change, the selection of the strategies to bring about the change, or in the execution of change strategies. |
Source: David I. Cleland, Strategic Management of Teams, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1996, p. 106. |
TABLE 8.2 Cultural Characteristics after Teams
• Managers and team leaders must recognize the key people-related cultural factors and utilize them. These factors include:
• Rewarding useful ideas
• Encouraging candid expression of ideas
• Promptly following up on team and member concerns
• Assisting in idea development
• Accepting different ideas—listening to that team member who is marching to a different drummer
• Encouraging risk taking
• Providing opportunities for professional growth and broadening experiences on the project
• Encouraging interaction with the project stakeholders so that there is an appreciation by the team members of the project’s breadth and depth. (Paraphrased from David I. Cleland, Strategic Management of Teams, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1996, p. 114.)
8.1.4 Summary
In this section, a culture was defined as the set of refined behaviors that people have in the society to which they belong, be it a nation, a family, an organization, or a team. More specifically, a team culture is the environment of beliefs, customs, knowledge, protocols, and behavior patterns in a team. It was suggested in the section that the culture of the organization and of the teams should be mutually supportive.
8.2 POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE ASPECTS OF TEAMS
8.2.1 Introduction
In this section, both the positive and negative results of using teams will be presented. In Table 8.3 the positive results are shown.
The positive results are basically of two types: (1) specific and measurable direct accomplishments such as improvements in productivity, quality, reduction in cost, and so forth; and (2) indirect results such as increased employee satisfaction, enhanced culture, and emergence of innovation and creative behavior. Overall, the positive results of using teams provide clear evidence of the wisdom of using teams as a primary organizational design alternative to support operational and strategic purposes in the enterprise. However, teams can have their problems.
Both positive and negative results arise from the use of teams. |
TABLE 8.3 Team Positive Results
• Productivity increases |
• Quality improvements |
• Cost reductions |
• Earlier commercialization |
• Improved supplier relationships |
• Enhanced customer satisfaction |
• Employee satisfaction |
• Greater creativity and innovation |
• Improved stakeholder image |
• After-sales service improvements |
• Development of leadership/management potential |
• Improved product, service, and process development |
• Ability of teams to make and execute management decisions |
Source: Paraphrased from David I. Cleland, Strategic Management of Teams, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1996, pp. 273–274. |
8.2.2 The Negative Side of Teams
Project teams and alternative teams are not a panacea. There is no question that teams can produce positive and beneficial results for the organization, but there is a cost associated with the use of teams. Most of the negatives that are associated with teams can be identified and credited to “failures” on the part of responsible people in the organization, such as:
• Inadequate delegation of authority and responsibility compounded by the ambiguities that people sense in their individual roles in the organization.
• Changed relationships with “subordinates” and with peers because of the lack of clarification of what the new authority and responsibilities will be in the organization.
• Acceptance of the concept of teams but becoming disenchanted when the teams are appointed and begin working.
• In the case of a unionized company, teams are usually perceived as negative because the risk arises of the members having more fidelity to the team with less fidelity to the union.
• Belief that teams undercut the traditional manager’s roles in the sense that such managers no longer have “command and control” management authority.
• A general devaluation of the role played by managers and supervisors and the sense that their status has been reduced in the organization.
• More emphasis on interpersonal skills, which can be threatening to a manager who has limited skills.
• A failure to understand the need for empathy among the managers of the organization.
• Concern over how the merit evaluation and pay matters will be resolved by members of the teams.
If the following planning failures are audited, more positive results from the teams can be expected.
8.2.3 Planning Failures
• Managers take a hands-off approach, “order” the use of teams, and then leave the teams to their own destinies. This will result in a waste of everyone’s time.
• Managers do not hold the teams responsible and accountable, and they avoid regular reviews of the team’s progress. If team deadlines are missed, or if their work is not of high quality, managers do nothing.
• Management fails to devise a strategy for handling conflicts among team members.
• Management tells the teams that they have all of the authority needed to do their job, but fail to designate the specificity of that authority through appropriate documentation.
• Management fails to make the objectives and goals of the team clear, or fails to instruct the team to study probable and possible objectives and goals, clarify them, and seek management review of these.
• Management withholds or provides resources as a means of rewarding or punishing the team.
8.2.4 The Costs of Teams
Using teams is not without its cost. Some of the costs that are incurred include the following:
• Maintenance costs for keeping the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of the team members current.
• Training and education costs for the team members’ attendance at training and education sessions. When a team member is out for training, someone on the team has to pick up the absent member’s duties.
• Costs of potential interference with the creative and innovative skills of the loner.
• Costs of management’s role, which is not diminished, but rather is changed as the responsibilities of facilitator, counselor, teacher, coach, and strategist take on new meaning and duties in working with teams.
• Costs of going from negative to positive attitudes about teams.
• Costs of properly training people to work in teams.
• Managerial costs to develop an understanding of how managerial roles have changed vis-a-vis teams.
• Costs of changing reporting authority-responsibility relationships. A manager may no longer have approval authority held previously under a command-and-control culture. For example, a concurrent engineering team will conduct an ongoing design review through the workings of the team. Having an engineering manager “sign off” on the design becomes superfluous considering that an ongoing design review has been carried out by the team.
• Costs of making decisions using teams. However, even though team decision making is costlier, the decisions that are made are more thoroughly analyzed and evaluated. More people are involved in the decision process, and there are opportunities for more in-depth evaluation.
• Costs of nonsupport. Any organization tends to have a base of institutional knowledge and memory. If the teams are not able to access this institutional know-how, their ability to produce meaningful results can be hampered.
8.2.5 Key Ingredients of Teams
The conditions cited in Table 8.4 must exist in teams.
8.2.6 Summary
In considering the use of teams, managers should remember that the following considerations and conditions are known. First, each organization is different, as is each organization’s culture. Careful analysis of the culture of the organization can provide insight into some of the likely negatives and the problems to be encountered in the use of teams. Second, teams are not the end; rather, they are a means for focusing the use of resources to deliver value to the oganization and its stakeholders. There are obvious as well as subtle costs to using teams. Appreciating these costs can be useful in developing and executing a meaningful and successful strategy for the use of teams.
TABLE 8.4 Key Ingredients of Teams
• An atmosphere where trust is given. |
• Team members are devoted and support each other on the team. |
• There is a strong conviction that teams are the way to go. |
• People are committed to the team’s work and the people in the team. |
8.3 PROJECT TEAM BUILDING AND DEVELOPMENT
8.3.1 Introduction
Team building and development are the act and process of forming, growing, and improving the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of individuals from different needs, organizational units, and professional backgrounds, into a cohesive, motivated, dedicated high-performance team. Team building should be an ongoing “way of life” in the leadership/management of a team. If a team is well managed, an effective project team building and development (PTBD) is likely underway on a continuing basis. Basic assumptions about the typical behavior of people which facilitate their becoming a contributing team member include:
• Individuals closest to the work being done in an organization know the most about how that work should be done.
• Participating as a contributing member of a team increases an individual’s commitment and loyalty, resulting in potentially high morale, work satisfaction, and quality work performance.
• Meaningful work can be a source of personal satisfaction and, given the right conditions, people will seek responsibility and accountability.
• An individual’s fullest potential is best realized in work that encourages freedom of thought and action, initiative, and creativity.
• People are inherently creative and can be developed to improve continuously their technical and leadership capabilities.
• The more people are kept informed about their work and the performance of the organization to which they belong, the more dedicated and capable they will be to make and implement decisions in their work responsibilities. (Paraphrased from David I. Cleland, Strategic Management of Teams, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1996, p. 79.)
Team building can enhance project team competence. |
TABLE 8.5 Characteristics of a Fully Integrated Team
• Members of the team feel that their needs for participating in meaningful activities in the organization have been satisfied through active membership on a team. |
• Team members contribute to the team’s culture of shared work, interests, results, and rewards. |
• People on the team feel a strong sense of belonging to a worthwhile activity, take pride in the team activity, and enjoy it. |
• Team members are committed to the team, its activities, and achievement of its objectives and goals. |
• People trust each other, are loyal to the team’s purposes, enjoy the controversy and disagreements that come out of the team’s operation, and are comfortable with the interdependence of working on the team. |
• There is a high degree of interaction and synergy in the team’s work. |
• The team’s culture is result oriented and expects high individual and team performance. |
Source: Paraphrased from David I. Cleland, Strategic Management of Teams, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1996, p. 80. |
8.3.2 Features of an Effective Team
A key objective of a PTBD strategy is to provide a fully integrated team that has the characteristics of a fully integrated team as noted in Table 8.5.
PTBD requires that the project leader and the members of the team work on a continuing basis to assess their effectiveness.
8.3.3 Continuous Team Development
As the team works at its responsibilities, periodic self-examination is required. This self-examination can be facilitated by asking, and discussing feedback, from questions that are shown in Table 8.6.
PTBD begins during the early forming of the team. The culture of a team when it is being formed includes:
• There is concern about individual and collective roles.
• There is uncertainty how the work is to be designed and carried out.
• Objectives, goals, and strategies for the team are preliminary and may be unclear.
• Insufficient time working together as a team raises questions of trust, respect, commitment and other supportive factors.
TABLE 8.6 Team Performance—Self Assessment
• Are we effective in achieving our purposes? If not, why? |
• What is going right on our team? What might be going astray in our team’s work and in the way the team is being led and managed? |
• What are the strengths of our team? What are its weaknesses? |
• How well are we doing in settling controversies and disagreements? |
• Are we developing a distinct and supportive culture for the team? If not, why? |
• Do we help each other in making our team an effective entity? |
• Are there any nonparticipants on the team? If so, what are we going to do about these individuals? |
• Are the team leader and the team facilitator fulfilling their roles? |
• Is working on this team enjoyable, and do the team members feel that membership on this team is beneficial to their career objectives? |
• Is there anything that we would do differently on this team if we were given the opportunity? |
• There may be difficulties relating personal objectives to team objectives.
• Individual performance standards have not been established.
• Team members probably do not understand how the technical and managerial aspects of the project will be handled.
• Likely limited team spirit.
• Team leadership and direction are unclear.
• There are opportunities for power struggles and conflict.
A frank discussion of the answers to the following questions can help:
• What questions do the team members have about the team, its purpose, and how it will operate?
• What questions do the team members have about their individual and collective roles on the team?
• What are the likely objectives and goals of the team and the expectations of team members for their role in meeting those objectives?
• What do team members expect of each other?
• How will a team member’s shortcomings or nonparticipation be handled? What do team members expect of the team leader?
• How will decisions be made on the team? How will checks for consent and consensus be carried out?
• What can the team, its leader, and its members do to build and maintain a cultural ambience of trust, loyalty, respect, candor, and commitment?
• How will conflict be handled in the team?
8.3.4 Managing Team Conflict
Project managers devote a lot of psychological and social energy in dealing with conflict. Conflict can arise over ideas, technical approaches, or processes. Conflict can arise from personal behavior. In dealing with personal behavior, a few guidelines are in order:
• Some controversy is to be expected when people of different experiences, qualifications, and values work together.
• Petty or personal behavior has no place in any team. If the project leader is unable to resolve such behavior, then a counseling specialist from the Human Resources department should become involved.
• Disagreement over substantive issues should be distinguished from personal behavioral issues. Open and thoughtful discussion of the former can contribute to effective conflict resolution. There are many ways to resolve conflict on a project team. The following quote below says so much about the importance of resolving conflict:
We increasingly understand that psychological and social energy is tied up in suppressing conflict, that conflicts not confronted may be played out in indirect and destructive ways, and that the differences that underlie interpersonal conflict often represent diversity or complementary of significant potential value to the organization. An interpersonal or organizational system that can acknowledge and effectively confront its internal conflicts has a greater capacity to innovate and adapt.
R. Walton, 1969 Interpersonal Peacemaking: Confrontations and Third Party Consultation, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass., 1969.
8.3.5 Conflict Resolution
A process that can help to resolve conflict on a project team includes the following:
• Gather and have a full understanding of the facts around which the conflict has occurred.
• Effort should be made to reach an agreement on what the real issue(s) are at the base of the conflict.
• Potential impact on the project’s work or the project team members should be determined.
• Careful identification of the alternatives, and their relative costs and benefits, should be considered.
• The team should come up with appropriate recommendations, identifying majority and minority opinions if required.
If the team is unavailable to resolve the conflict on its own, then a resolution should be sought from higher level managers. If the above protocol is followed, the chances are increased that the conflict resolution can be realized without appeal to higher level managers for resolution.
8.3.6 Ongoing Discussions
By having ongoing discussions along the following points regarding what it takes to achieve a participatory culture for the team, a subtle form of team building and development can result:
• Are team members truly comfortable serving on a team in which the members are expert in diverse fields and will show independence of thought and action?
• Do team members truly value the ideas and opinions of other members?
• Can individual team members accept disagreement and controversy?
• Do team members really want to know what is going on with the rest of the team members, or do they think that what they do is the most important and that things, if let alone, will fall naturally into place?
• Do team members really enjoy working on a team?
• Would some of the team members rather be working alone? If so, they can still make contributions to the organization’s purpose and would be better off working by themselves. There are some people who are not team players unless they are in charge of the team.
• Do team members enjoy and value contributing to the growth of fellow team members? Are team members pleased to see a member of the team receiving special recognition for doing something well, or is there likely to be jealousy when a team member is given individual recognition?
• Do team members show true and dedicated interest in making and implementing the best possible decisions to support the team’s work?
• The final decision regarding who will perform which work assignments on the team, including deadlines and performance standards. |
• The final decision regarding who serves on the team, and the right to request reassignment of a team member who is not performing adequately in spite of continuing counseling. |
• The right to comment in writing to the team members’ immediate supervisors about performance evaluations of team members. This right should include recommending people for special recognition, bonuses, or exceptional merit increases. |
• The right to set the tone for reviewing individuals’ and the team’s ability to produce results. Schedules, deadlines, reporting protocol, finances, and daily oversight of the team’s operation are key responsibilities of the team leader. |
8.3.7 Team Leader Actions
If the team leader is able to assume effective responsibility for the matters listed in Table 8.7, the cohesiveness of the team will be enhanced.
8.3.8 Some Further Key Ideas
In addition to what has been presented, a few additional ideas that can help the team leader.
• Seek the recommendations of team members on as many of the team strategies as possible.
• The team leader’s role is to facilitate.
• Encourage maximum participation of all team members.
• Be sure to clearly identify individual and collective roles on the team.
• Try to facilitate a relaxed cultural ambience on the team.
• Always encourage listening by all team members and set the example in doing this!
• Be receptive to all ideas, and seek maximum involvement in selecting ideas for further development.
• Adverse criticism and ridicule should be avoided at all costs.
• Provide feedback to the team—both good and bad news.
• Require team members to report on their work on a regular basis.
• Encourage team members to disclose both bad and good news, and to point out areas where conflict may happen.
• Finally, set a professional standard for the practice of strong interpersonal skills on the team.
8.3.9 Summary
PTBD is an important process to be carried out in leading a project team. While both formal and informal means can be used to help a team out in this regard, much can be done through informal means and working with the team during its life cycle along the lines recommended in this section. Indeed some PTBD will happen, although it might be negative in a team that is poorly managed.
Any team will have conflict. Such conflict over substantive issues involving the team’s work can be expected. Conflict that arises through the behavior of the members can weaken the team’s competence if not resolved early and effectively. There should be a protocol on how conflict should be handled.
8.4 ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE PROJECT TEAM
8.4.1 Introduction
Defining the roles and responsibilities of the project team is critical to each person understanding their duties and obligations for performance. These roles and responsibilities may also include the obligations to other teammates as well as stakeholders. Defining the duties and obligations also provides a means for selecting resources for the project work.
Undefined roles and responsibilities lead to possible gaps in coverage of vital project elements and possible overlap. Identifying roles and responsibilities for each individual in the project team provides assurance that all areas are covered. It also saves time and effort in recovery of various missed functions.
Roles and responsibilities addressed here focus on the business aspects of project management. Technical aspects, such as engineering or physics are specific to projects and roles and responsibilities are defined at the onset of the project. Further, project team member roles that relate to the discipline or technology are also omitted. There may be a need to identify the roles and responsibilities of these individuals in the project plan.
For this section, only the roles and responsibilities of the project team will be addressed. Senior management, project sponsors, customers, and other project stakeholders typically do not have defined and documented roles. However, their roles and responsibilities for a specific project may be defined in the project charter. Stakeholders external to the project should be included in the project charter and specifically defined for each project.
The effective team understands its individual and collective roles. |
8.4.2 Key Business Titles and Functions in Projects
Because different projects use titles that equate to the industry being served, all project titles are not appropriate here. There are common positions within projects that can be described and roles identified. These roles and responsibilities for the business areas are addressed here.
Titles of project team members may include the following: project manager or leader, project planner, and project controller. These titles vary among industries, but they include only the business functions of a project. The technical functions may be accomplished by a project engineer or technical specialist for the industry being served.
The expertise employed in each position is bounded by the skill, knowledge, and ability of the person performing the work. Generally, the positions require the items displayed in Table 8.8.
The project manager or leader is the single point of authority to direct the project’s work to a point of technical convergence and delivery of the products or services. This person is appointed to plan, organize, direct, and control the efforts of all persons working on the project, as well as overall responsibility for the internal project work, coordination of interfaces with own organization’s entities, and customer interface.
A project manager or leader would typically have the roles and responsibilities detailed in Table 8.9.
The project controller is the one who maintains the status and progress of the work through tracking and collecting information. This position is critical to the completion of the project on time and reporting the progress to senior management and the customer. Typically, this person assembles the information for the project manager or leader.
The project controller must collect the information, conduct some analysis to determine the validity of information, and format information into a report. The assembled and formatted information becomes the project’s documentation for progress. Accuracy and validity of collected information are typically checked by the project controller.
TABLE 8.8 Position and Expertise Requirements
TABLE 8.9 Project Manager/Leader Duties
The project planner position requires a person who has planning knowledge and skills that provide the expertise to develop and publish a coherent project plan. This person must have in-depth knowledge of planning concepts and principles as well as possess communication skills to ensure the plan conveys the proper information to others.
Some organizations consider the project planner primarily a schedule developer. The fully qualified project planner is one who can collect information and place it in a format that describes the work to be done and how it will be done. This includes all components of the project plan such as the scope statement, risk plan, quality plan, and procurement plan.
8.4.3 Skill and Knowledge Requirements
Key positions within the project require specific skills and knowledge, which impact the project success when they are not fully developed. Any weakness in these areas will negatively impact the project and reduce the effectiveness of the project team in getting its work done.
Table 8.10 includes the basic requirements for each position and identifies areas for training or other methods of raising the proficiency of individuals selected for these project positions. The “X” indicates some degree of proficiency is required without specifying the scope of knowledge or skill.
Different organizations will have unique requirements for the level of skills and knowledge in each item. For example, the project leader is not identified as having skills in the use of project scheduling software. It is the planner’s job to develop the schedule and the controller’s job to maintain and update the schedule. Training the project leader in scheduling software diverts his or her attention away from the primary role.
Communication skills are essential if the project is to succeed. First, project team members must develop a plan that requires writing skills and then brief the plan to others through oral presentation skills. Weak communication skills are easily identifiable and are reflected in project planning and execution.
8.4.4 Summary
Selected project team members require knowledge, skills, and abilities that are supportive of the planning and execution processes of the project. These critical areas will be reflected in the project’s documentation, communication of requirements, and progress assessments. Weak knowledge and skills will result in weak plans; strong knowledge and skills will result in solid plans.
TABLE 8.10 General Knowledge, Skill, Ability Requirements
The identification of roles and responsibilities for key members of the project team establishes boundaries for work and communication without overlap or gaps in the work. Defining roles and responsibilities provides a means for rapid start-up of projects and consistent application of the resources on the right functions within the project. Weak or nonexistent roles and responsibilities allow selection of work that is pleasing and avoiding work that is onerous.
The nontechnical members of the project team, such as the project leader, project controller, and project planner, must possess the critical skills for the business area of the project. These critical skills should be the criteria for selecting and appointing people to these positions. Other skills may be desirable, but these knowledge and skill areas will enhance the team’s capability.
8.5 PROJECT MANAGER COMPETENCE
8.5.1 Introduction
A competent project manager has certain key attributes, which provide both a conceptual and practical framework to guide his or her behavior in the management of a project. Capable and successful project managers possess the following competences:
• The possession of certain knowledge (K)—the fact or condition of knowing something with a familiarity gained through learning and experience.
• The possession and demonstration of skills (S)—the ability to use one’s knowledge effectively and efficiently in execution or performance as a project manager.
• The possession of proper attitudes (A)—positive feelings and an open mind regarding a fact or state. A simple expression captures the desired balance of personal competence:
K + S + A = competence
A balance in all of these competences is essential to being able to successfully manage a project. A shortcoming in any of these competences can limit the project manager’s ability to manage the project. For example:
• An adequate knowledge of project management theory and practice but a lack of skill in applying that knowledge
• Possession of skills in general management but an inability to exercise those skills in the matrix organizational culture
• An inadequate knowledge of the theory and practice of management due to lack of training or experience in the discipline
• A negative attitude toward people—such as that described as “Theory X” by Douglas McGregor in Sec. 8.3 of this Handbook
• Lack of the strong interpersonal skills required of a project manager in deliberations and interfaces with project stakeholders
Competence is the ability to perform well. |
8.5.2 An Adequate Knowledge Base
The key knowledge bases required of a successful project manager include an overall understanding of the theory and practice of general management to include the fundamentals involved in:
• An appreciation of the strategic management of an organization
• A working knowledge of project management theory and practice
• Execution of the management functions of planning, organizing, motivation, direction, monitoring, evaluation, and control
• The making and execution of decisions
• The management of diverse organization stakeholders
The skills of a project manager include:
• Ability to apply management concepts, processes, and techniques in a matrix organizational paradigm
• Ability to respect and treat with dignity project stakeholders in the deliberations of the project
• Ability to coach, facilitate, mentor, and counsel project team members as they work in the matrix context
• The ability to build and maintain alliances with project stakeholders in their support of the project
• The ability to communicate effectively with all project stakeholders
• The interpersonal skills that enable the project manager to work through and with diverse people and personalities involved on the project, such that the respect of these people is gained, and they are responsive to the project manager’s guidance and support
The attitudes that the project manager has should include:
• Respect for all of the project stakeholders who are involved on the project
• A perception of people as suggested in McGregor’s “Theory Y” described in Sec. 8.3
• The need to provide the intellectual and emotional criteria that project stakeholders will accept and emulate
• Being responsible to the professional and personal needs of the project stakeholders as they support the project team members
• Recognition that the use of a “matrix” organizational design is simply “the way that we do things around here”
Taking the above brief explanation of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are found in competent project managers, the project manager’s success is dependent on a combined set of demonstrated personal capabilities. Figure 8.1 depicts these capabilities.
FIGURE 8.1 Project manager demonstrated personal capabilities.
A presentation and discussion of these capabilities follows:
• Understand the technology. The ability to understand the “technology” involved in the project. The word “technology” is used in the sense of a method followed to achieve the project purposes, and deals with the total technological purpose that the project provides, such as a bridge, highway, aircraft, an information system, an order entry system, in providing value to the users. The project manager does not need to have an in-depth understanding of the technology, as members of the project team will provide that, but he or she should have sufficient knowledge to ask the right questions and know if the right answers are being provided.
• Interpersonal skills. Having that blend of interpersonal skills to build the project team, work with the team members and other stakeholders so that there is a cultural ambience of loyalty, commitment, respect, trust, and dedication to the team, the stakeholders, and the project. A project manager should be aware that the single greatest cause of failure in managers is their lack of interpersonal skills. Emotional intelligence is missing where a manager is aware of and responds to control of one’s self in a positive manner.
• Understand the management process. Being able to understand the management process through an appreciation of the basic functions of planning, organizing, motivation, direction, and control. This includes setting up the management systems that support these basic functions within the context of the project—particularly in the manner in which the use of resources required to fulfill the work package requirements.
• Appreciate the systems viewpoint. The ability to see the systems context of the project. This means that the project is viewed as a set of subsystems, the project management system, and is a subsystem of a larger system of the organization, the strategic management system.
• Decision context. Knowing how to make and implement decisions within the systems context of the project. The making and implementing of decisions requires a consideration of such fundamentals as:
• Defining the decision problem or opportunity
• Developing the databases required to evaluate the decision
• Considering the alternative ways of using the resources to accomplish the project purposes
• Undertaking an explicit assessment of the risk and cost factors to be considered
• Selecting the appropriate alternative
• Developing an implementation strategy for the selected alternative
• Implementing the decision
• Produce results. Of course the key characteristic of a successful project manager is the ability to produce results in the management of the project.
8.5.3 Summary
A summary description of the key elements that enhance a project manager’s capability was presented in this section. It was noted that a project manager’s competences center around the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that the individual has, and is able to use to influence the project environment. The section closed with the idea that a project manager’s success is dependent on a combined set of personal capabilities, which inherently contain the key elements of knowledge, skills, and attitudes.
8.6 THE POLITICAL PROCESS IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT
8.6.1 Introduction
Politics play an important role in projects because of the meaning of politics: “serving self-interest.” Self-interest is not in itself a pejorative term, but it can be used to the detriment of the interests which we are obligated to serve. Self-interest can also confuse those who have only the interest of the organization in mind when performing on the project.
Politics can mean several things. It can mean that we support some projects and not others. We may put more emphasis and energy to supporting the projects of our personal choice and little effort into projects that we do not believe are worthwhile. It can also mean that we withhold support from projects that do not serve our personal interests.
Politics also plays an important role in interpersonal relationships. This may include whether or not a person is liked or respected. Differences among people and how they respond to different situations can create perceived likes or dislikes.
Individuals sometime fail in projects because they do not understand the politics and who has the most influence. Influence does not necessarily come from a position, but it may be derived more from the relationships between individuals. It is obvious that all managers in an organization do not have equal influence.
Politics absorb much of the time of the project stakeholders. |
8.6.2 Project Selection and Sponsorship
Projects are often started based on subjective criteria, i.e., whether senior management likes or dislikes the person championing the project. The likes or dislikes of the champion may be for any number of reasons. Typically, senior management will believe and trust a person who has similar traits and style as they. Figure 8.2 summarizes the selection of projects because of political reasons.
Senior management does not have a lot of time to select projects and personally perform all the checks to determine the feasibility of the projects. Therefore, they place their trust in the project champion and follow that person’s recommendations. This interpersonal relationship is the driver for many solutions.
FIGURE 8.2 Project selection and sponsorship.
Senior management sponsorship of an individual will cause the sponsored person to be given more latitude than an unknown individual. Sponsorship is not a bad concept; it is used to nurture a junior into a position that will benefit the organization. The sponsored individual is known for what he/she can do and also known for who is the sponsor.
Take, for example, the senior manager who has a staff member that has been serving him/her for several years. The staff member has the trust and confidence of the senior manager. This same concept is extended to project managers who have worked with the senior manager over several years to build trust and confidence in his/her ability.
8.6.3 Personal Sponsorship
Often individuals are selected by a senior manager for sponsorship because of their potential for promotion. The sponsored individual has access to the sponsor and can often ask for and receive advice on critical career issues. Why an individual is selected for sponsorship is a personal choice of the senior manager.
Sponsorship has many benefits for the sponsored individual and for the organization. Senior managers want to do well for the organization in both the near and far term. By selecting and mentoring a promising person, the organization can tap the potential of the best and brightest. The promotion system most often does not select the long-term potential, but is focused on the current performance at a given level.
8.6.4 Project Impacts
Projects may be allocated resources based on personality rather than priority or urgency of need for the project. Allocation may be made based on confidence in the requester more than objective criteria. This is a human trait and will typically occur when there is no priority system in an organization.
Sponsored individuals will receive preferential treatment at project reviews and may have access to information that is not given to others. The sponsor has a vested interest in making “his person” look good. This may be obvious to the person on the outside, but perhaps not as obvious to the sponsor or the sponsored person.
8.6.5 Examples of Politics in Projects
Some examples of projects affected by politics can bring the situation to light. These examples identify the situation without getting into the specific details of who and where. Examples are provided for learning without criticism:
• A major project was considered the best managed project in the nearly 50 projects in the organization. Everyone in the organization knew the project manager and senior managers had openly identified this individual as one of the organization’s promising leaders. It was clear that this individual could do no wrong and that all measures of his success followed the words of his sponsorship.
After 12 months, a new project manager was appointed. Six weeks after the new project manager assumed the job, a review of the project indicated that it was the worst of the nearly 50 projects. The best project became the worst project with the same people except for the project manager. New measures of success were applied to the new project manager.
An interview with the original project manager’s college roommate gave some insight. This person’s personality and interpersonal skills were very high, and the college roommate stated that everyone liked the project manager. In the 15 years since college, the project manager had earned the trust of senior managers and had been able to please them with his performance.
The new project manager did not have the confidence of senior managers and was not well known in the organization. The major difference between the two was how they were perceived. The new project manager was every bit as competent as the first project manager, but didn’t have the sponsorship.
• In 1989, a project manager was friendly with the president of the company. This relationship gave the president confidence in the project manager’s capability. Accidentally, this project manager was found to be manipulating project funds, i.e., taking funds from another project. When reported, the president refused to believe the manipulation of funds although the situation was documented.
The project manager whose funds were short, reported the matter and was criticized for being distrustful of the president’s friend. This project manager resigned to take another position because of the conflict caused by reporting the manipulation of funds.
Subsequently, the president’s friend was promoted to vice president. However, his employment was terminated within a month. He was found to be using company information to build a business for himself. This did not correct the incident that occurred several months prior, but did work to the detriment of the organization.
• In 1998, two project managers were working in an organization on similar projects. One project manager was an employee and the other was a contract consultant. Both were equally competent and effective. However, when resources were assigned under a matrix organization, the employee received priority.
The consultant project manager did not know the resource allocator well and was not familiar with the procedures for requesting resources. The second project suffered when the employee project manager would receive adequate resources and the consultant would always be short of resources.
Known people in an organization will typically receive preferential treatment in the allocation of resources or other considerations. It is important for outside personnel to become known and for them to understand the organization’s procedures and practices.
8.6.6 Working in a Political Environment
There is an old saying that refers to the “three ships to success.” The best ship is kinship. With kinship, such as a father-in-law owning the business, one just needs to nurture that family relationship. The second ship is sponsorship. Sponsorship is having a senior manager take a personal interest in your career and spreading the word that you are being mentored for high positions. The third ship is showmanship. Showmanship is the ability to dazzle superiors, peers, and subordinates with your presence.
The story continues that it is better to have kinship and then sponsorship. If you have neither of these, you need to have showmanship. It is true that one must be known for his/her abilities and competences. Spreading the word may be by others or through demonstrated performance.
By recognizing that there may be kinship and sponsorship, one can excel in an organization by being viewed as more competent and possessing more ability that the sponsored person. This places the burden on the individual to first recognize the situation and to be better than the sponsored person without commenting on any weaknesses of that person.
Some guides to working in a highly political environment are as follows:
• Focus on your efforts and not the efforts of the sponsored person.
• Always present yourself in the best light without comparison to the sponsored person.
• Do not use perceived difference in treatment as an excuse.
• Do not look upon the sponsored person or the sponsor as an enemy.
• Never criticize the sponsored person or the sponsor.
• Use facts and figures when requesting support, and never exaggerate the requirement or need.
• Remember that the sponsored person’s weakness is not necessarily your strength.
• Treat others with respect and understand the political process.
• If new to the organization, learn the practices and procedures rapidly. Understand that all the rules will not be enforced or used.
• If an outsider, such as a consultant, demonstrate your unique knowledge and skills through work. Don’t try to sell yourself with words or references to past accomplishments.
• Be responsible, be respectful, and be reasonable.
Other rules may be appropriate to supplement this list based on experiences in organizations. Each organization will have its unique environment that can be defined by such areas as:
• Publicly owned corporation with stockholders
• Privately owned by a few major shareholders
• Family owned and managed by a few individuals
• Private not-for-profit organization managed by an executive director under the guidance of a board of governors
• Professional association managed by an executive director under a board of directors, which changes each year
Each of these organizations has their sources of power and tenure for management. The constituency served by each is different and the atmosphere can differ greatly depending upon the management styles and interests being served.
8.6.7 Summary
Politics in organizations occur and different relationships develop based on sponsorship or kinship. The self-interests of politics may be detrimental to the organization and can create conflict. A person working in an organization must recognize and understand either wittingly or unwittingly, that politics will always be present.
Relationships based on personal preference and personal style similarities create the political environment. The person being sponsored will most often be relied upon to have the best and most accurate information. While this is not true, an unsponsored person must work to thrive in the environment.
Following the basic precept that good work will be recognized, one must always excel and have a presence that is acknowledged by senior management. This requires setting a few personal rules of not degrading the sponsoring person or attempting to gain sponsorship. It requires doing the best for the organization with the full expectation that this contribution will make a difference.
Different organizational structures have different political environments because of the perceived and projected values of the organization. Management serves different interests and, therefore, will have different styles to meet their obligations. Recognizing the interests served by management will help a person with the political situations.