Leadership within Project Management. John M. Peliska. Submitted to Dr. Hameed Nezhad in partial fulfillment of the requirements for

Transcription

1 Leadership within Project Management 1 Leadership within Project Management John M. Peliska Submitted to Dr. Hameed Nezhad in partial fulfillment of the requirements for DSCI 620 Project Management The Metropolitan State University March 18 th, 2011

2 Leadership within Project Management 2 Abstract Project management is an ever growing field in today s rapidly changing marketplace. As the marketplace changes and more people are asked to continue to expand their work loads and wear additional hats in the office, project managers have needed to adapt to an ever increasing leadership role. This paper will look at how management skills and leadership skills work together to help develop successful projects. It will also break down the evolution of the project manager and will also look at what type of leadership may be the most successful. It will also identify some key leadership characteristics by breaking down some of the research conducted by Linda Geoghegan and Victor Dulewicz from Henley Business School in the UK.

3 Leadership within Project Management 3 Leadership within Project Management Introduction As the career of the project manager has grown and evolved over the last few decades many have asked whether or not a project manager must also be a project leader. Management and leadership bring two very different skill sets to the table. Each has different functions and therefore, each has a very different philosophy and thus will develop different outcomes in similar situations. Project management is generally thought of as a leadership role; however as managers focus on tasks, timelines, goals, budgets and other such topics, the more strategic and human elements of leadership are sometimes shoved to the side. A project manager is defined as The individual who provides leadership to the project team to accomplish the project objective (Gido, 2009, p. 302). This definition uses the team leadership but it doesn t embellish on what kind of leadership the PM would provide. In The Guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), the Project Management Institute (PMI) explains that leadership is establishing direction, aligning people, motivating and inspiring people to overcome political, bureaucratic, and resource barriers. and Developing a vision and strategy, and motivating people to achieve that vision and strategy. (Project Management Institute (PMI), 2008). This explanation provides some additional insight into what a leadership role involves. Evolution of the Project Manager In the current business landscape, most project managers are ultimately put into a leadership position. Leadership has evolved with the underlying meanings of influence, persuasion, direction, and the ability to lead in a given context. These meanings reflect that a

4 Leadership within Project Management 4 leader influences others by his or her ability, persuasiveness, and vision. (Toor & Ofori, 2008). While the ideas of leadership evolved, so did the idea of management. In the same article, Toor and Ofori (2008) state that; management is about controlling, supervising, skills application, caretaking, and coping with prevailing circumstances. Today, project managers are viewed as the people who are going to be implementing corporate strategies and the multitude of different objectives. If a project manager is going to be successful at these tasks, they must be able to handle both leadership and management tasks. Project managers have a two-pronged responsibility in managing a project: the technical components of the project plans, schedules, budgets, statistical analysis, and monitoring and control involved in the various knowledge areas and processes and managing the people in such a way to motivate the team to successful completion of the project goals (Neuhauser, C. 2007). Managing people is becoming a much more difficult task as the marketplace develops into a global economy. As managers interact with more and more people, the chances of creating unfavorable situations become greater. Project managers must develop leadership skills that will encourage and guide their team. One very essential skill is problem solving. Every project conducted is different; therefore every project has the chance of different things going wrong and can present many different problems that need to be solved. More than likely, these issues will need to be addressed and fixed very quickly and with limited impact to budgets or resources. Personnel development is another skill that has come to the forefront lately. More companies are looking for their project managers to help develop employees. If a PM is indeed dedicated to his/her project, this is a task they should take on with pride. Gido and Clement state that The effective project manager has a commitment to the training and development of people working on the project. He or she uses the project as an opportunity to add value to each person s

5 Leadership within Project Management 5 experience base so that all members of the project team are more knowledgeable and competent at the end of the project than when they started it (Gido, 2009, p. 307). Leadership Effectiveness If a project manager has successfully merged management and leadership qualities, their chances of success will greatly improve. The success of projects relies critically on the effectiveness of their leadership (Thomas & Bendoly 2009). However, there are many different leadership styles. Does it matter what kind of leadership style a project manager leads with? Perhaps the best approach is to jump between different leadership styles depending on a given situation? Which style represents the best way to manage a successful project? Thomas and Bendoly (2009) developed a study to specifically consider the synergies and limitations of two factors concerning project leader action: breadth of leadership style, which encompasses both Theory X and Theory Y oriented leadership, and scope of leadership tactics, which relates to the general extent of intervention at a given point in a project. In their study, Thomas and Bendoly use terms derived by Douglas McGregor in his book The Human Side of Enterprise, where Theory X leaders represent those who assume their subordinates to be less-than-ideally self-motivated and in need of direct task assignment and Theory Y leaders who assume workers to be independently motivated and in need of general direction and encouragement (McGregor, 1960). Through their research Thomas and Bendoly determined that the best course of action is to maintain one leadership style. The desired style had less effect, but it was the ability to maintain one leadership style that had the most impact. This was actually somewhat of a revelation to them as there is a lot of literature supporting a mixed style of leadership. Leaders need to clearly demonstrate a dominant approach (Thomas & Bendoly 2009). This will allow

6 Leadership within Project Management 6 their team members to know what kind of leadership style they will continually be dealing with and will allow for a certain amount of consistency throughout the project process. Successful Leadership Traits Now that we know it s important to pick a leadership technique and stick with it, we will look at which specific traits in leadership and management will result in a project manager having the most success. In their article entitled Do Project Managers' Leadership Competencies Contribute to Project Success, Geoghegan and Dulewicz determine which leadership traits generally result in project success. Their research was centered on a leading financial services company in the United Kingdom. They do admit that their findings might not necessarily match the successful project parameters of all project based industries, but they do support the idea that these industries conduct their own similar study to determine which leadership traits are most important for their teams and clients. They surveyed both project managers and project sponsors within the company by administering the Leadership Dimensions Questionnaire (LDQ) and the Project Success Questionnaire (PSQ) 1 The LDQ is broken into 3 different dimensions of leadership including intellectual competencies, social/emotional competencies and managerial competencies. Intellectual competencies include critical analysis, vision/imagination and strategic perspective. Social and emotional competencies include self-awareness, emotional resilience, intuitiveness, sensitivity, influencing, motivating and conscientiousness. Managerial competencies include resource management, communication, empowering, developing and achieving. Each trait was rated on a 10 point scale. The PSQ was divided into 12 different factors that determine project success. These factors included schedule, on budget, deliverable works, solves problems, 1 Per Geoghegan and Dulewicz the LDQ and PSQ are proven questionnaires supported by previous research. LDQ was developed by Dulewicz & Higgs, PSQ was developed by Pinto & Slevin, 1986, 1988a, 1988b.

7 Leadership within Project Management 7 improves performance, used by client, important clients make use, readily accepted by users, good project process, benefits users, provides improvements and has a positive impact on the users. These factors were weighed against the overall usability (the project outcome was a workable and usable solution) of the project and how the project was delivered. They also developed a third factor (value of project outcome to users) but did not use it to determine the study results because that factor did not relate to the way the project was led or managed. Geoghegan and Dulewicz then correlated the results of the LDQ to the two factors determined to be most important in the PSQ (the usability and project delivery factor) to determine the most important dimensions of leadership. Using project success factors as a measure of success, these correlations begin to uncover the specific leadership dimensions that contribute to successful projects (Geoghegan & Dulewicz, 2008). Those leadership dimensions that had the highest impact on the two factors are displayed in Table 1. Table 1 Factor 1 (Usability) Highly Significant o Managing resources (MQ) o Empowering (MQ) o Developing (MQ) o Motivation (EQ) Significant o Critical analysis (IQ) o Influencing (EQ) o Self-awareness (EQ) o Sensitivity (EQ) Factor 2 (Project Delivery) Significant o Managing resources (MQ) o Empowering (MQ)

8 Leadership within Project Management 8 Geoghegan and Dulewicz explain that factor 1 shows the leadership dimensions managing resources, empowering, developing, and motivation as each having highly significant correlation with the solves problem success variable. In other words, respondents who are rated highly for solves problem are more likely to empower and develop their colleagues, manage resources efficiently and effectively, and be highly motivated. Factor 2 showed significant correlation between the leadership dimensions managing resources, empowering, and the on budget success variable. This is not surprising, considering the relationship between managing resources and managing the budget (Geoghegan & Dulewicz, 2008). Table 1 shows the majority of leadership qualities fall into both the MQ and EQ competencies categories. This shows us that management and social/emotional competencies have the greatest impact on successful projects. In conclusion of their research, Geoghegan & Dulewicz state that certain leadership dimensions demonstrate a positive relationship with certain project success variables. Identifying such relationships provides the company with a possible project improvement model where increased capability in a leadership dimension can lead to increased success in aspects of project implementation (Geoghegan & Dulewicz, 2008).

9 Leadership within Project Management 9 Conclusion As the world landscape continues to change and evolve, it will become increasingly important for project managers to continue to develop strong leadership skills. As fewer people are charged with more responsibilities, PMs must continue to find ways to lead and inspire their teams. If companies take a deep dive and develop research similar to that of Geoghegan and Dulewicz, they can identify which leadership characteristics are most important for success in their given business. With these characteristics identified, they can make smarter recruitment and staffing decisions as well as implement specific PM training sessions to expand needed leadership qualities and improve on some qualities that may be lacking. If the quality of the project manager can be improved through not only continuing technical training, but also through targeted and specific leadership training the rate of successful projects and smiling customers should also increase. If this is accomplished, stakeholders will certainly see good things on the bottom-line.

10 Leadership within Project Management 10 References Geoghegan, L., & Dulewicz, V. (2008). Do project managers' leadership competencies contribute to project success. Project Management Journal, 39(4), Gido, J., & Clements, J. P. (2009). Successful project management (4th ed.). Mason, OH: South- Western Cengage Learning. Neuhauser, C. (2007). Project manager leadership behaviors and frequency of use by female project managers. Project Management Journal, 38(1), Project Management Institute (PMI). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (4th ed.). (2008). Newtown Square, PA.: Project Management Institute Thomas, D., & Bendoly, E. (2009). Limits to effective leadership style and tactics in critical incident interventions. Project Management Journal, 40(2), Toor, S., & Ofori, G. (2008). Leadership versus management: how they are different, and why. Leadership & Management in Engineering, 8(2),