Page 117 - Global Project Management Handbook

5-6 STATE OF THE ART OF GLOBAL PROJECT MANAGEMENT

result, traditional project management tools, designed for managing teams in one location
via a conventional matrix or projectized organization with clearly defined horizontal and
vertical lines of communication and control and centralized “command system,” are no
longer effective in these contemporary situations and are being replaced by more team-
based management processes. New organizational models and management methods such
as stage-gate, concurrent engineering, and design-build processes evolved together with
refinements of long-time conventional concepts such as the matrix, project, and product
management. All these work processes also affect the behavior of the people, manage-
ment style, and organizational culture.

Managerial Tools and Techniques
While many of the managerial tools and techniques form a common operational plat-
form throughout the global team, many local subteams have their own unique tools and
application or deploy conventional tools in a unique way. Spiral planning, stakeholder
mapping, concurrent engineering, and integrated product developments are just a few
examples of the specialized, diversified nature of tools used in the global project environ-
ment. Matching organizational culture with any of these tools is a great challenge for the
overall management of a project and its integration. Stakeholder involvement during the
tool platform selection, development, and implementation, as well as tradeoffs among
efficiency, speed, control, flexibility, creativity, and risk, is critical to the effective use of
these tools and techniques throughout the global project team organization.

Emotional Intelligence Defined:
“An array of non-cognitive personal, emotional, and
social capabilities, competencies and skills that
influence one’s ability to succeed in coping with
environmental demands and pressures. (Ref: Bar-
On, 1997)

A MODEL FOR TEAM BUILDING

Team characteristics drive project performance. However, this relationship is frequently
lost in practice. Companies trying to enhance their project performance often focus on
the individual or a subgroup of the whole team. This is reflected in hiring practices, per-
formance incentives, outsourcing, and joint ventures, just to name a view. Moreover,
project performance is not “linear” and is influenced by many “external” factors such as
technology, socioeconomic factors, and market behavior, making it difficult to deter-
mine exactly how much each individual or task group contributes to project perfor-
mance. However, many of these relationships are known. Lessons from field research 62
strongly suggest that specific factors such as (1) work and its structure, (2) business
processes, (3) managerial tools and techniques, and (4) the “emotional intelligence” of
team leaders and members significantly influence individual behavior, including atti-
tudes and values. Ultimately, these factors contribute to the overall team culture and
project team performance, which is a derivative of many factors, as shown graphically
in Fig. 5.3. The broad set of performance influences and their linkages is listed below: