Page 214 - Global Project Management Handbook

MANAGING HUMAN ENERGY IN THE PROJECT-ORIENTED COMPANY 10-3

concepts, “energy killers” and “energy creators,” are offered to describe the impact of
various actions or lack thereof on human energy. The energy killers and energy creators
identified in the organizations involved are presented. In the third section, the empirical
findings are related to theoretical concepts, and three themes especially valuable for inter-
preting the data are offered. These themes are conception of time, conception of pressure,
and conception of importance. In the fourth section, concluding remarks are made.

THE RESEARCH PROJECT

To be able to understand how the energy possessed by employees is influenced by the
way projects and project portfolios are managed, it is important to notice that the project
is not the proper unit of analysis. Even though the single project manager is assumed to
have a significant potential influence on the motivation and commitment of individual
team members, focus in this chapter is broader owing to the fact that the person in ques-
tion (whether this person is a team member or a project manager) is affected by all the
projects and tasks he or she is engaged in. Therefore, the single person is chosen as the
unit of analysis, and human energy is studied from the perspective of the individual and
his or her whole situation at work. (Of course, human energy may be affected a lot of
things besides work-related issues, for example, health, family situation, leisure activities,
age, etc. However, discussing these issues is beyond the scope of this chapter.)
I have undertaken a number of empirical studies to investigate the effects on the indi-
vidual of being in a multiproject environment [studies and findings are presented in
Eskerod and Darmer (1994); Eskerod (1995, 1996, 1997, 1998); Eskerod et al. (2004);
Blichfeldt and Eskerod (2005); and Eskerod and Jepsen (2005); Eskerod et al. (2005)].
However, one of the empirical studies seems to qualify as especially valuable when it comes
to discussing issues that may promote or impede energy of the employees. This study is pre-
sented in the following section.

Research Method

In order to investigate how project portfolios are managed in companies, I was involved

in a research project, “The Project Effective Company”. Over a period of two years
1
(2002–2004), a multimember researcher team worked with 30 Danish companies while
applying a qualitative research strategy. The primary goal of the research project was to
get a deeper understanding of how top management, middle management, and project
team members in the companies perceived how the “sum” of projects is managed. What
are the challenges related to managing and coordinating the activities/projects? Which
decisions, dilemmas, and possibilities does the portfolio of projects impose on the compa-
nies? It should be noticed that the portfolio of projects on which the project focuses was
not solely composed of product-development projects, which are the most common proj-
ect type in the project portfolio management literature. On the contrary, the project focused
on the entire spectrum of projects and project-like tasks in the individual companies,

1 The research team was composed of four senior researchers and five research assistants. The institutions
involved were the Centre for Industrial Production, Aalborg University; the Department of Environmental and
Business Economics, University of Southern Denmark; and the Department of Operations Management,
Copenhagen Business School.