Page 215 - Global Project Management Handbook

10-4 COMPETENCY FACTORS IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT

including, for example, renewal projects, strategic projects, information technology (IT)
projects, department-specific projects, and production-based projects.
The primary source of evidence employed by the group of researchers was interviews.
In total, the research project draws on 128 interviews. However, quantitative data were
obtained from additional sources, including project handbooks, project lists, computer
systems and databases, and other company-specific documents. Furthermore, additional
data were obtained as the group of researchers engaged in a series of workshops with the
companies—workshops at which the researchers’ preliminary interpretations, findings,
and conclusions were discussed with the group of participants upon which the empirical
study draws.

Findings
Findings presented in this chapter represent only a small fraction of all the findings gen-
erated in the research project. However, statements and discussions about (the lack of)
human energy took up a big portion of the time in the interviews, especially in the inter-
views with team members and project managers, because the energy theme was especially
prominent in the minds of these groups. Therefore, the issues are mainly derived from the
discussions with team members and project managers and are as seen from the perspec-
tive of the employees. However, the issues were brought to top management by the
research team, and therefore, their comments are also included in the following presenta-
tion of the energy killers and energy creators.

Energy Killers. The following issues were identified as reasons for a decrease in the
feeling of being enthusiastic, motivated, and committed to the project work:
● High pressure because of many simultaneous projects
● Lack of attention from top management
● Incomprehensible interventions in the projects
● Unclear roles
● Too little pressure owing to a long project course and/or a slow startup
● Lack of sufficient follow-up

High Pressure Because of Many Simultaneous Projects. Many of the employees
interviewed found that the number of projects was too high in relation to the number of
people involved. Many employees are engaged in several projects simultaneously, and
they have to split their work on the projects and shift quite often. The employees claim
that they loose a lot of energy from changing from one project to the other. At the same
time, they feel that they never accomplish anything. Even though they work very hard
every day, only a small fraction of the work gets finished. This feels like an extra burden/
2
pressure and drains the energy level. One employee described it this way:
. . . You run around from one project to another in the organization, and you don’t get
into the depth, because you are happy just to get through with your current meeting and
be able to head on to the next.

2
The interviews were carried out in Danish. Statements from the interviews offered in this chapter are translated
by the author.