Page 222 - Global Project Management Handbook

MANAGING HUMAN ENERGY IN THE PROJECT-ORIENTED COMPANY 10-11

Performance

Little Much
Pressure
FIGURE 10.1 Relation between pressure
and performance.

optimum. Therefore, they want to put a bit more pressure on the organization.
Parkinson’s law offers an explanation to what is going on in the minds of the top man-
agers. Parkinson (1957, p. 2), referred to in Andersen (2005, p. 168), says: “Work
expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” If top managers think that
Parkinson’s law is working, then employees always will feel that they have not got any
extra time for new tasks. Therefore, a certain pressure is the only way to make sure that
employees use their time efficiently.
Determination of when work pressure is too high and when it is appropriate, of
course, can only be done in the empirical setting. However, the concepts offered in this
section may give top managers and employees a tool to reflect on and discuss in relation
to their conception of pressure.

Conception of Importance
In the empirical study, many of the employees interviewed did point to the fact that a big
problem in the project-oriented company is that it is difficult to determine what is impor-
tant and what is not. The employees do not know which tasks they should focus on, and
top management does not know which projects and project proposals to pick from the
many possibilities.
Ambiguity and unclear expectations are mentioned as energy killers. Further, data
from the interviews show that many top managers prefer to delegate the project to the
project team. This is in line with McGregor’s (1966) Theory Y view of human behavior,
in which it is assumed that people seek responsibility and have the capacity to take care
of their own work if they just get the right opportunities. However, the extreme form of
delegation, such as, “I give this to you—and expect you to come back and present the
results when the project is finished!” does not function well. Even though it could be
expected that well-educated, experienced, and knowledgeable employees should be moti-
vated by intrinsic rewards such as the possibility for self-realization by accomplishing the
project, the empirical study shows that lack of sufficient attention from top management
through all project phases drains the energy.