Page 221 - Global Project Management Handbook

10-10 COMPETENCY FACTORS IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT

The mere idea of being confronted with several countdown clocks ticking at the same
time creates a large amount of pressure on the individual. (Conception of pressure will be
discussed in the next section.)
However, data from the interviews point to the fact that everyone is not affected in the
same way by being assigned to several projects simultaneously. Some people thrive on
the opportunity to shift from one task to the other. They become bored if they have to
work on only one project at a time. Others claim that sometimes they prefer to be absorped
in the same task for a longer time and at other times enjoy the speed and excitement of
rapid shifts.
An approach to discussing different reactions to a work situation that requires accom-
plishing several tasks simultaneously is presented by Hall (1977), who offers the con-
cepts “monochrone” and “polychrone” cultures. A “monochrone culture” (according to
Andersen, 2005) is characterized by valuing the members doing one task at a time, obser-
vance of the time schedule, strict prioritization of the degree of importance of the various
tasks, etc. Such cultures are dominant in northern Europe, England, the United States, and
Japan. A “polychrone culture,” on the other hand, is characterized by the fact that mem-
bers value doing more things at the same time and let the work take the time necessary to
be accomplished. These cultures are dominant in southern Europe, South America, the
Arabic countries, and Southeast Asia (Andersen, 2005). The interesting part is that the
concept also can be applied to individuals. Andersen (2005) points to two different meth-
ods to measure the “polychronicity” of an individual. One is called the “modified poly-
chronic attitude index” (Lindquist et al., 2001), and the other is called the “inventory of
polychronic values” (Bluedorn et al., 1992, 1999). Several research projects have been
carried out (Andersen, 2005) to determine who are the most “polychone” individuals. No
relations have been found to age and gender. However, it has been shown that a long for-
mal education is positively correlated with a higher degree of “polychronism” (Kaufmann
et al., 1991).
Related to the empirical data this chapter rests on, combined with the concepts of
“polychronic” and “monochromic” individuals, a conclusion is that top management may
benefit from trying to figure out how the individuals in the workforce of the company
cope with doing many tasks simultaneously.

Conception of Pressure

As presented previously, employees and top management do not agree when it comes to
assessing the right amount of pressure caused by project work. Many employees claim
that many deadlines and many projects running at the same time drain their energy
because they don’t get sufficient time for absorption in the work of a single project. Top
management, on the other hand, believes that high pressure leads to better performance
and more project work accomplished.
Research (Friend, 1982) has shown that a high number of stress-related stages (i.e.,
anxiety, arousal, and activation) impairs performance of the individual. An interesting
point is that even high motivation may impair performance. A commonly held assump-
tion is that the relation between stress or pressure and performance can be illustrated by
an inverse U (Fig. 10.1) (Archer, 1991; Bloisi et al., 2003; Andersen, 2005). This relation
is called the Yerkes-Dodsons law (Andersen, 2005).
This model can be used to understand the disagreement between employees and top
management. Employees feel that they are situated at the right side of the optimum. This
means that they are not able to perform at their highest level because the pressure resulting
from too many simultaneous projects makes them perform less than optimally. Top
managers, on the other hand, are afraid that employees are situated to the left side of the