Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Project Managers (project + managers)
Selected AbstractsManagerial complexity in project-based operations: A grounded model and its implications for practicePROJECT MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, Issue S1 2008Harvey Maylor Abstract This article reports an investigation into project managers' perceptions of managerial complexity. Based on a multistage empirical study, elements of "what makes a project complex to manage" were identified and classified under the dimensions of mission, organization, delivery, stakeholder, or team,the MODeST model. Further, the data showed that these elements had both structural and dynamic qualities and that the elements are interdependent. Project managers are shown to be embedded in this complexity. The practical implications of the research include the ability to describe managerial complexity in a manner consistent with the actuality of the lived project environment. This provides a framework for the description of the level of managerial challenge or difficulty, which will allow the assessment of individual and organizational responses to it in the future. Further, the opportunity exists for active management of complexity. [source] Rule Breaking in New Product Development , Crime or Necessity?CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2001Tommy Olin The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of applying general rules in organizations to govern multiple new product development projects. Data were collected in structured interviews with project managers and project members from seven successful projects within Swedish companies. Results show that projects either broke rules or that organizations had developed strategies to cope with the risk of rules preventing the progress of the projects. The project managers of the rule following projects reported lack of rule breaking to be the result of the rule design at each company, intending to minimize the risk of rules preventing the progress of projects. With the exception of the manager of the rule changing/removing project, project managers show a relaxed attitude to breaking general rules that hinder project progress. The study indicates that frameworks of common project management rules increase the risk of delay in new product development projects, unless strategies of rule breaking or dynamic rule modification are applied. Applications of emergent standard management philosophies and practices to innovation are discussed. [source] International creative tension study of university students in South Korea and FinlandHUMAN FACTORS AND ERGONOMICS IN MANUFACTURING & SERVICE INDUSTRIES, Issue 6 2009Yoon Chang The goal of this research was to compare the creative tension of university students in South Korea and Finland at three different universities. The creative tension, or the gap between a personal vision and the current reality, was analyzed according to relevant competences in a project manager's work role. In this case, students acted as the project managers in their role of completing all the requirements of their degree. The application used for collecting and analyzing the data was Cycloid, a project manager's work role,based competence application and a model in the generic Evolute system supporting fuzzy logic applications. Data for 108 university students were collected online through self-evaluations. The application was able to identify the creative tension in each group of university students, and the results show major differences in creative tension across the universities (and also between countries). This type of in-depth analysis into the cultural perceptions of attributes offers valuable new information for academia and businesses in the assessment and improvement of multicultural understanding and cooperation in areas of mutual interest and business. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] What makes a good project manager?HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, Issue 1 2005Mei-I Cheng There is a growing awareness within project-based sectors of the relationship between performance and managers' competencies. This article reports on research that investigated the competency profile of ,superior' project managers working within the construction industry, one of the most complex and dynamic project-based industrial sectors. The study combined an assessment of both their behavioural competencies and job-task competencies. The results reveal that while their job-task competencies are highly specific to the industry in which they work, the behavioural competencies of superior project managers are mostly generic in nature and apply to a range of other management positions. This research shows how it is practically possible to identify the competency profile of superior managers and utilise this framework for managing the performance of this key management group. [source] Comparing senior executive and project manager perceptions of IT project risk: a Chinese Delphi studyINFORMATION SYSTEMS JOURNAL, Issue 4 2010Shan Liu Abstract The success rate for information technology (IT) projects continues to be low. With an increasing number of IT projects in developing countries such as China, it is important to understand the risks they are experiencing on IT projects. To date, there has been little research documenting Asian perceptions of IT project risk. In this research, we examine the risks identified by Chinese senior executives (SEs) and project managers (PMs), and compare these two groups. The importance of top management support in IT projects is well documented. Prior research has shown that from the perspective of IT PMs, lack of support from SEs is the number one risk in IT projects. Surprisingly, senior executives' perceptions towards IT project risk have never been systematically examined. One reason why lack of support from senior executives continues to represent a major risk may be that senior executives themselves do not realize the critical role that they can play in helping to deliver successful projects. In this study, we use the Delphi method to compare the risk perceptions of senior executives and project managers. By comparing risk factors selected by each group, zones of concordance and discordance are identified. In terms of perceived importance ascribed to risk factors, PMs tend to focus on lower-level risks with particular emphasis on risks associated with requirements and user involvement, whereas SEs tend to focus on higher-level risks such as those risks involving politics, organization structure, process, and culture. Finally, approaches for dealing with risk factors that are seen as important by both SEs and PMs are provided. [source] IT project managers' construction of successful project management practice: a repertory grid investigationINFORMATION SYSTEMS JOURNAL, Issue 3 2009Nannette P. Napier Abstract Although effective project management is critical to the success of information technology (IT) projects, little empirical research has investigated skill requirements for IT project managers (PMs). This study addressed this gap by asking 19 practicing IT PMs to describe the skills that successful IT PMs exhibit. A semi-structured interview method known as the repertory grid (RepGrid) technique was used to elicit these skills. Nine skill categories emerged: client management, communication, general management, leadership, personal integrity, planning and control, problem solving, systems development and team development. Our study complements existing research by providing a richer understanding of several skills that were narrowly defined (client management, planning and control, and problem solving) and by introducing two new skill categories that had not been previously discussed (personal integrity and team development). Analysis of the individual RepGrids revealed four distinct ways in which study participants combined skill categories to form archetypes of effective IT PMs. We describe these four IT PM archetypes , General Manager, Problem Solver, Client Representative and Balanced Manager , and discuss how this knowledge can be useful for practitioners, researchers and educators. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research. [source] Reconciling user and project manager perceptions of IT project risk: a Delphi study,INFORMATION SYSTEMS JOURNAL, Issue 2 2002Mark Keil Abstract. In an increasingly dynamic business environment characterized by fast cycle times, shifting markets and unstable technology, a business organization's survival hinges on its ability to align IT capabilities with business goals. To facilitate the successful introduction of new IT applications, issues of project risk must be addressed, and the expectations of multiple stakeholders must be managed appropriately. To the extent that users and developers may harbour different perceptions regarding project risk, areas of conflict may arise. By understanding the differences in how users and project managers perceive the risks, insights can be gained that may help to ensure the successful delivery of systems. Prior research has focused on the project manager's perspective of IT project risk. This paper explores the issue of IT project risk from the user perspective and compares it with risk perceptions of project managers. A Delphi study reveals that these two stakeholder groups have different perceptions of risk factors. Through comparison with a previous study on project manager risk perceptions, zones of concordance and discordance that must be reconciled are identified. [source] Qualitative research to make practical sense of sustainability in primary health care projects implemented by non-governmental organizationsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HEALTH PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2004Eric G. Sarriot Abstract Sustainability continues to be a serious concern for Primary Health Care (PHC) interventions targeting the death of millions of children in developing countries each year. Our work with over 30 Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) implementing USAID's Child Survival and Health Grants Program (CSHGP)-funded projects revealed the need for a study to develop a framework for sustainability assessment in these projects. We surveyed NGO informants and project managers through semi-structured interviews and questionnaires. This paper summarizes our study findings. The NGOs share key values about sustainability, but are skeptical about approaches perceived as disconnected from field reality. In their experience, sustainable achievements occur through the interaction of capable local stakeholders and communities. This depends strongly on enabling conditions, which NGO projects should advance. Sustainability assessment is multidimensional, value-based and embeds health within a larger sustainable development perspective. It reduces, but does not eliminate, the unpredictability of long-term outcomes. It should start with the consideration of the ,local systems' which need to develop a common purpose. Our ability to address the complexity inherent to sustainability thinking rests with the validity of the models used to design interventions. A participant, qualitative research approach helped us make sense of sustainability in NGO field practice. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The possible negative impacts of volunteer tourismINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCH, Issue 6 2009Daniel A. Guttentag Abstract Volunteer tourism is an increasingly popular form of travel that is attracting growing research attention. Nevertheless, existing research has focused primarily on the benefits of volunteer tourism, and many studies have simply involved profiling volunteers or investigating their motivations. However, there are numerous possible negative impacts of volunteer tourism that deserve increased attention from both researchers and project managers: a neglect of locals' desires, a hindering of work progress and completion of unsatisfactory work, a disruption of local economies, a reinforcement of conceptualisations of the ,other' and rationalisations of poverty, and an instigation of cultural changes. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Interrupting the Cycle of Moral Exclusion: A Communication Contribution to Social Justice Research,JOURNAL OF APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 9 2001Laura Leets This research broadly maps the territory of moral exclusion to include communication within its boundaries. Communicative strategies may provide the means for the interruption or even the reversal of the moral-exclusion cycle. While the current studies do not provide empirical verification of the reversal mechanism, they do prepare the theoretical groundwork through the use of a contemporary example: Romanian orphans. The first study is a survey of 225 Romanian students designed to reveal how they analyze the social issue of orphans and whether it is possible to differentiate between those who have and those who have not excluded orphans from their scope of justice. The second study consists of 2 focus-group discussions conducted in Bucharest: one with project managers from nongovernment organizations working with children in crisis, and the other with ordinary citizens. The results and discussion concentrate on the implications and practical applications for potentially countering moral exclusion. [source] An expanded role for dietitians in maximising retention in nutrition and lifestyle intervention trials: implications for clinical practiceJOURNAL OF HUMAN NUTRITION & DIETETICS, Issue 4 2010L. M. Delahanty Abstract The demand for clinical trials targeting lifestyle intervention has increased as a result of the escalation in obesity, diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease. Little is published about the strategies that dietitians have used to successfully screen potential study volunteers, implement interventions and maximise adherence and retention in large multicentre National Institutes of Health funded nutrition and lifestyle intervention clinical trials. This paper discusses an expanded role for the contributions of dietitians as members of an interdisciplinary team based on research experiences in the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial, Diabetes Prevention Program and Look AHEAD (Action for Health in Diabetes). Many of the strategies and insights discussed are also relevant to effective clinical practice. Dietitians need to broaden their scope of practice so that they are integrated proactively into the screening and intervention phases of large clinical trials to maximise retention and adherence to assigned nutrition, lifestyle and behavioural interventions. The skills of dietitians are a unique fit for this work and it is important that investigators and project managers consider including them in both the screening and intervention phases of such clinical trials to maximise retention results. [source] Explaining organizational change in international development: the role of complexity in anti-corruption workJOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Issue 8 2004Bryane Michael What explains the rapid expansion of programmes undertaken by donor agencies which may be labelled as ,anti-corruption programmes' in the 1990s? There are four schools of anti-corruption project practice: universalistic, state-centric, society-centric, and critical schools of practice. Yet, none can explain the expansion of anti-corruption projects. A ,complexity perspective' offers a new framework for looking at such growth. Such a complexity perspective addresses how project managers, by strategically interacting, can create emergent and evolutionary expansionary self-organisation. Throughout the ,first wave' of anti-corruption activity in the 1990s, such self-organization was largely due to World Bank sponsored national anti-corruption programmes. More broadly, the experience of the first wave of anti-corruption practice sheds light on development theory and practice,helping to explain new development practice with its stress on multi-layeredness, participation, and indigenous knowledge. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] An analysis of trust among globally distributed work teams in an organizational settingKNOWLEDGE AND PROCESS MANAGEMENT: THE JOURNAL OF CORPORATE TRANSFORMATION, Issue 3 2007Sue Newell Regardless of whether a project team is located in the same workplace or distributed around the world, trust remains an important element deemed necessary to facilitate knowledge sharing and collaborative work. At the same time, distribution across sites presents challenges to trust building that are not present among co-located teams. A further complicating factor in trust building among distributed teams is national culture. As we demonstrate, the impact of nationality can be increased when organizations put the distributed sites in a competitive frame. Using the Newell and Swan threefold typology of trust, this paper analyzes trust among IT work teams whose members are located at sites that are distributed in the United States, Ireland, and India. Our case analysis confirms the problematic nature of trust building among globally distributed teams. Specifically, we found that due to situational factors and socio-psychological dynamics an ,Us versus Them' attitude prevails among the distributed sites. This paper concludes that the traditional approaches used by organizations to address the challenges of global collaboration are insufficient and that trust building in an organizational setting requires project managers to actively work on relationship management to minimize the impact of an inter-group perspective. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Emotional intelligence and its relationship to transformational leadership and key project manager competencesPROJECT MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, Issue 2 2010Nicholas Clarke Abstract Key dimensions of project manager behaviors considered to be associated with successful project outcomes have included both appropriate collaborative behaviors and transformational leadership. More recently, emotional intelligence has been suggested as a unique area of individual differences that is likely to underpin sets of behaviors in this area. Based on a sample of 67 UK project managers, it was found that emotional intelligence ability measures and empathy explained additional variance in the project manager competences of teamwork, attentiveness, and managing conflict, and the transformational leadership behaviors of idealized influence and individualized consideration, after controlling for cognitive ability and personality. [source] Information systems project management in PMJ: A brief historyPROJECT MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, Issue 4 2009Suzanne Rivard Abstract The Project Management Institute (PMI) plays an important role in the training, career development, and recognition of information systems (IS) project managers. Indeed, not only do IS professionals account for a large proportion of the PMI constituency, but PMI is also influential in the training of IS project managers. This study explores further the contribution of PMI to IS project management by means of its main publication outlet, the Project Management Journal (PMJ). To do so, the contents of the 39 IS project management articles published in PMJ during 1988,2005 were analyzed. The article focuses on the following dimensions: the relative importance of IS project management articles published by PMJ; the profile of the authors of IS project management articles in PMJ; the main issues, in terms of IS project management, covered by PMJ; and the major gaps, in terms of IS project management, in the coverage of this domain by PMJ. [source] Finding energy in strategic project management: an essay in honour of Dean FangPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION & DEVELOPMENT, Issue 4 2001Donald CurtisArticle first published online: 16 OCT 200 A development project is an intervention that is designed to makes things better in a particular context or situation. It is always a problem to know what to do for the best. The Logical Framework, evaluated in this journal last year (Gasper, 2000), is a project-planning and management technique widely applied by multilateral as well as bilateral donor agencies in international development work. It was designed to prevent project managers from simply offering to do what they had always done before and instead to think strategically about cause and effect in context. The present article respects this logical approach but focuses attention upon context. Context is considered in the right-hand column of a Log Frame. The article seeks inspiration in ancient Chinese concepts of energy: Yin,Yang and Wu,Wei. The search is for a form of project management that minimizes energy consumption in its own internal processes and maximizes energy release in the context that the project seeks to transform. Context has to be examined for opportunities rather than constraints. The article advocates management by being a still presence, as against management by rushing about. It borrows the old-fashioned idea about being a catalyst and validates the now fashionable concepts of enabling and empowering. It also rediscovers at least some virtue in the Blueprint Project. The article seeks to be practical. A management development project in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa provides some illustrations and an incomplete example of what might be entailed if energy is brought into the equations of project management. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Perimeter air monitoring for soil remediationREMEDIATION, Issue 4 2007Guy J. Graening Most environmental project managers are well versed in characterizing and remediating contaminants in soil and water media. When soil remediation activities are conducted at an environmental site, however, some project managers are faced with monitoring contaminants in the air medium for the first time. Remediation activities can disturb contaminants that are normally immobile in soil and transfer them to air. The resulting increase in airborne concentrations of contaminants, even if temporary, may be a health concern for individuals in neighboring residences or businesses. Perimeter air monitoring may be required by a regulatory agency to determine if unhealthy conditions are created and if work practices should be limited or modified. This article serves as a resource for project managers involved in perimeter air monitoring for soil remediation and provides a general summary of candidate sites, remediation activities that release contaminants, regulatory requirements, equipment and target contaminants, monitoring locations and schedule, analytical methods, and data interpretation. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Systematic planning for Triad projectsREMEDIATION, Issue 1 2004Robert Howe This article examines specific systematic planning steps that can be used for designing and controlling Triad projects. Triad work strategies act to limit decision uncertainty, expedite schedules to meet project milestones, and reduce costs associated with cleanup activities. As a result, the Triad approach is rapidly increasing in popularity. Good project planning has always been seen as the cornerstone of successful Triad projects. However, the specific steps in the systematic planning process have not been extensively published. Demands of Triad projects, which attempt to make maximum use of innovative technologies and sequencing of activities in a learn- as-you-go framework, put new demands on regulators and project managers alike. Specific activities and relationships are identified to assist project managers with dynamic work strategies and real-time measurements to support improved decision making. These include: assembly of stakeholders, a core technical team, and key decisions; development and refinement of a site model; use of demonstrations of methods applicability; development of dynamic work strategies and project sequencing; real-time data management assessment and presentation; and unitized procurement of technologies and services. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Impact of organizational and project factors on acceptance and usage of project management software and perceived project successPROJECT MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, Issue 2 2008Abdullah Saeed Bani Ali Abstract This study surveyed 497 participants to determine the factors that affect project professionals' acceptance of project management software and the perceived impact of software usage on their performance. The study finds that greater information quality and higher project complexity are the dominant factors explaining higher levels of system utilization, that greater system functionality and ease of use have a significant positive relationship with increased software usage, and that a strong positive relationship exists between higher usage of project management software and perceived project managers' improved performance. Inconsistent with prior research, more training was not found to be associated with project management software usage. The study explains more than 40% of the variation in project management software acceptance and adds project management software usage to project success factors by empirically confirming for the first time that project management software enhances project professionals' perceived performance and provides a positive impact on the results of their projects. The study provides practical implications for project professionals, their organizations, senior management, decision makers, software developers, and vendors. These findings support the call for further research that investigates the diffusion of information technologies in the project management field and their impact on project success and competitive position. [source] | ||||||||||||||||