Accelerating trends of globalization, outsourcing, downsizing, mergers, IT, and job specialization in today’s business environment have made it important for managers to effectively identify and manage organizational cultures. Project managers should be able to understand the culture of their organization. Furthermore, project managers need to interact with project team’s cultures, subcultures of organization departments, project’s clients, and the external resources. According to Schein (1997), cultures can work in support of management’s strategies if there is a certain level of consensus in the following five areas;
1. Primary tasks and core missions.
2. Goals.
3. The means to accomplish goals.
4. The means to measure progress.
5. Improvement strategies.
Project Leadership
Project management roles often challenge many of the traditional assumptions associated with power and leadership. Prime amongst project management roles is the likelihood that a manager may be leading projects across the company, impacting people and capabilities outside the manager’s traditional area of influence. Further, members of the project team may be from different disciplines with different ways of working, language and values. Traditional hierarchy and ranks may be side-stepped, resulting in senior line managers being accountable to managers they perceive to be more junior. Another possible project leadership challenge occurs when a manager has no direct authority over a team that he or she is accountable for. Similarly, the normal disciplinary sanctions for non-performance of individuals may not exit. In such situations, exercising persuasion or assertion may be ineffective. Persuasion is only useful if the issue is open to rational debate and the manager is perceived as being competent in the topic under discussion. Thus, persuasion and assertiveness can be notoriously poor if used in a highly charged emotional environment.
The list of accountabilities associated with a project manager’s role provides legitimacy but the manager needs to determine what incentives or sanctions he or she can use to generate agreement. Project leadership is about using influence, participative and interactive styles to manage projects. Further, project leadership fosters and generates a climate of trust, based on active listening, flexibility tolerance and hard work (Lara, 2007).
Involving and gaining the commitment of others can be a valuable tool if the project manager is seen as open to influence and appreciative of the opinions of others. The manager should determine who the key stakeholders are and the type of the existing relationships to determine if this form of influence is appropriate.
Project leadership is about envisioning and generating enthusiasm and excitement by taking people beyond their everyday performance to higher levels. Further, the leader must remain open to constructive criticism and be prepared to hear the truth and be asked and respond to awkward questions, rather than just listening to what he or she wants to hear.
To be successful, project leaders are advised to develop their relationships to other project members right at the outset of the project, before any support is required; project managers need to keep in mind that alliances are usually subject to reciprocity (Gray & Larson, 2006). Project leaders should create an atmosphere of change and excitement that stimulates and drives other people to be proactive, be effective time managers and work hard. Furthermore, project managers should lead by example encouraging high standards of performance, cooperation, team spirit and ethical behavior.
When a leader is brought into a project under conditions of crisis, the role of the leader may change depending on the circumstances. The project leader will need to work especially hard at motivating, reassuring and clarifying roles and responsibilities for project members to achieve the goals of the project. Project managers should keep constant face to face contact with project members, especially during times of uncertainty (Gray & Larson, 2006). Furthermore, the project manager will need use sources of influence such as reward power, which results from the leaders authority to reward others or coercive power which stems from the leaders authority to punish or recommend punishment. Further, the project leader will need to determine whether he or she needs to use an autocratic or a democratic leadership style to bring the project back on track.
Building and Managing Project Teams
Cleland and Ireland (2002) describe four major leading attitudes that are required for making and managing successful project teams:
- The project manager is a creator. Thus, the project manager needs to create a stimulating work environment. Such an environment is characterized by low conflict potential, high personal commitment, good communications skills, willingness to change and innovation. Values and appreciation is important to the leader and all team members. In the described scenario, the new leader must create such an environment to re-establish confidence, courage, and trust which are the foundations of successful teamwork.
- The project manager practices excellent leadership: He or she needs to recognize team and personal interests, anxieties, communication needs, and challenges of members, at all stages of the project. In crisis situations, the project manager needs to communicate with members to understand team and personal problems that affect the work performance. In addition, the project manager must ensure that all team members are aware of the importance of the project and their responsibilities.
- The project manager selects qualified personnel: The structure of the team is a key for success. The right mix of people is often underestimated. Sometimes teams have worked together before and members know each other well, including the individual weaknesses and strengths. Further, the project manager needs to determine the positive and negative relationships among team members. In difficult, irresolvable situations, he or she might have to exchange team members to bring the team back on track.
- The project manager ensures a stable work environment: When the project environment is weak or unstable, the team leader must undertake any action necessary to provide a good working atmosphere. Stable work conditions are imperative for every team to work effectively. For instance, a high member turnover or frequent changes in priorities and tasks, increase the risk of failure because people need time to accommodate to new conditions.
Project managers who are brought in to an existing team are always under pressure. The team is used to certain procedures and is likely to slowly adapt to the working style of new a manager. In such cases, especially when a crisis needs to be resolved, the project manager needs to communicate verbally and in writing as clear as possible to make sure every member understands his or her directions. Furthermore, control mechanisms are helpful to ensure that all members know their duties and the importance of their contributions towards the whole project. Sometimes conversations in private are necessary to get individual feedback and provide support.
Another factor is the size of the project team. Smaller teams can be managed solely with meetings and individual instructions. Larger teams need more structure and hierarchy levels. In such cases a new project manager must ensure that his instructions and ideas are disseminated. In this case, the leader needs to communicate clearly and honestly thoughout all hierarchy levels. Responsible leaders set realistic criteria and provide sufficient resources for successful team work. In other words, the leader needs to become responsible for setting budget objectives and team goals that are measurable.
Managing Relationships
Contemporary literature within the subject area of project management, as it relates specifically to relationships within the project team, highlights the importance of the Project Manager’s awareness of stakeholder relationship dynamics and the impact which dynamics can have upon the outcome of the project. In their article, Sutterfield, Friday-Shround and Shivers- Blackwell (2006), highlights the importance of understanding perceptions:
Within the project management process, various stakeholders have or perceive that they have various stakes in the project. Based on their perceived stakes in the project, stakeholders behave in ways in which they feel will help them accomplish their project objectives, which may be congruent or incongruent with the project manager’s project mission, vision, and /or objectives (p. 13).
Additionally, Sutterfield (2006) states the importance of understanding and building “consensus among the various stakeholders, starting with the highest levels of management down to the staff and briefing them on the results [of the requirements for the project analysis]”. (p. 5) This process, creates consensus related to the project’s mission, values, outcome, and subsequent success.
In the described scenario, the morale of the team is low and the project management plan’s structure is compromised. More over, it is incumbent upon the new project manager to consider the status of the project, stakeholder interests, the relationship dynamics and negative attitudes toward the project in order to begin a plan to rebuild the integrity of the project plan. Within the project management framework, the concept of uncertainty is described by Dvir, Sadeh and Malach-Pines (2006); “different projects…present different levels of uncertainty and project execution [which] can be seen as a process aimed at uncertainty reduction” (p. 15). The project manager must offer the stakeholders the opportunity to express his or her concerns with the project as it relates to the project mission and vision. This will enable the project manager to assess the status of the implementation process, perceived value of the project and satisfaction of the results. These characteristics, according to Dvir et al. (2006) are the classic model of organizational theory and viewed as “benchmarks for measuring the success or failure of a project.” (p. 36)
By reexamining the status of the project, the project manager, in a parallel process, will also incorporate leadership practices to ensure the successful outcomes of the compromised project. According to Summer, Bock, and Gimartino (2006), research toward understanding factors affecting the success of projects reveal leadership qualities specific to the project manager. The leadership qualities were examined within a research context using the Leadership Practices Inventory, as described by Summer et al. (2006). These qualities include modeling credibility which is “doing what you say you will do” (p. 44) Secondly, inspiring a shared vision “speaks to the importance of envisioning the future by imagining and ennobling possibilities” (p. 44) Next, challenging the process highlights project leaders in searching for opportunities for innovative ways to change, grow and improve. The project leader also enables others to act through “fostering collaboration by promoting cooperative goals and building trust. Finally, the project manager can manage relationships by encouraging the team regarding the need to recognize the individual contributions with the creation of a spirit of community. By incorporating characteristics such as those described in the practices inventory as well reestablishing the projects vision, mission, measures, outcomes and stakeholder satisfaction, the project manager will facilitate the rescue of the compromised project.
Conclusion
The project leader’s job comprises mainly of following high-quality management practices. The project manager, like any manager must be skilled at exercising leadership and getting tasks completed through people. The project manager must serve as the hub to vital relationships and communications networks connecting all parts of the project, including customers, subcontractors, government agencies and top management. Team members must be encouraged to identify with the team, to develop team spirit and to make what is necessary to enable the project to succeed. One problem is that team members frequently are on a loan to the project and have little stake in whether it succeeds or fails. Projects managers must be intimately aware of the organizational culture and create a sense of identity and cohesiveness in the team. Further, project leaders must encourage staff members to become stakeholders in the project by rewarding good behavior and displaying a caring personal touch in the leader’s dealings with team members.
References
Cleland, D.I, Ireland, L.R (2002). Project Management: Strategic Design and Implementation (4th Ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill.
Conyers, D., & Kaul, M. (1990). Strategic issues in development management: learning from successful experience.Part 1. Retrieved February 25,2007, from UOP library EBSCOhost database.
Dvir, D., Sadeh, A., & Malach-Pines, A. (2006). Projects and Project Managers: The Relationship Between Project Manager’s Personality, Project Types, and Project Success. Project management journal 37, pp. 36. Retrieved February 24, 2007, from EBSCO HOST database.
Gray, C. F., & Larson, E. W. (2006). Project management: the managerial process (3rd Ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Lara, G. (2007, January). From the top. PM Network, 21, pp. 18-19. Retrieved February 25, 2007, from EBSCO HOST database.
McShane, S. L. (1998). Canadian Organizational Behavior (5th ed.). Toronto, Canada: McGraw-Hill Ryerson.
Schein, E. H. (1997). Organizational Culture and Leadership (2nd ed.). San Francisco,CA: Jossey-Bass.
Sutterfield, S. J., Friday-Stroud, S.S., Shivers-Blackwell, S.L. (2006). A case study of project and stakeholder management failures: Lessons learned. Project management journal, 37, pp. 5. Retrieved February 24, 2007, from EBSCO HOST database.
Summer, M., Douglas , B., Giamartino, G, (2006, Fall). Exploring the Linkage between the Characteristics of IT Project Leaders and Project Success. Information Systems Management. Vol.23 (4).p. 43-49. Retrieved February 24, 2007 from EBSCOhost Database
