Project management Working in teams

Organizational Behaviour Staff Selection Staff Development Staff Motivation

Problems: A single-minded approach to getting the job done Three men: a project manager, a software engineer, and a hardware engineer are in Ft. Lauderdale for a two-week period helping out on a project. About midweek they decide to walk up and down the beach during their lunch hour. Halfway up the beach, they stumbled upon a lamp. As they rub the lamp a genie appears and says "Normally I would grant you 3 wishes, but since there are 3 of you, I will grant you each one wish." The hardware engineer went first. "I would like to spend the rest of my life living in a huge house in St. Thomas, with no money worries and surrounded by beautiful women who worship me." The genie granted him his wish and sent him on off to St. Thomas. The software engineer went next. "I would like to spend the rest of my life living on a huge yacht cruising the Mediterranean, with no money worries and surrounded by beautiful women who worship me." The genie granted him his wish and sent him off to the Mediterranean. Last, but not least, it was the project manager's turn. "And what would your wish be?" asked the genie. "I want them both back after lunch" replied the project manager. (Bruce Guthrie)

Theory X and Theory Y Theory X: Average person has an inherent dislike of work People must be coerced, controlled, directed, threatened with punishment Average person prefers to be directed, and wishes to avoid responsibility By Donald McGregor

Theory X and Theory Y (2) Theory Y Physical and mental effort is as natural as play or rest Man will exercise self-direction for objectives to which he is committed Commitment to objectives is a function of reward Average person learns to accept and seek responsibility Imagination and creativity is widely distributed People's potentials are only partially utilised

Selecting the right person Recruitment process: Create a job specification Create a job holder profile Obtain applicants Examine CVs Interviews, aptitude tests, personality tests, etc. Other procedure – eg. References, medical examination Eligible vs suitable candidates

Developing staffs Induction for the new recruited member Assessment of the training needs

Motivation Taylorist Model The use of piece-rates Workers are paid a fixed sum of each item they produce Often cause difficulties if there is change of work practices Excessive distinction between co-workers may damage morale of the team

Motivation (2) Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: Basic need: food, shelter Highest level: self-actualization The feeling that you are completely fulfilling your potential People are likely to be motivated by different things at different stages of their life

Motivation (3) Herzberg’s two factor theory: Hygiene or maintenance factor: Which make you dissatisfied if they are not right Eg, the level of pay or the working conditions Motivators Which make you feel that the job is worthwhile

Motivation (4) The expectancy theory of motivation – by Vroom and colleagues Three influences of motivation: Expectancy Working harder will lead to a better performance Instrumentality Better performance will be rewarded Perceived value The resulting reward

Motivation (5) Oldham-Hackman job characteristics model Skill variety The number of skill that can be exercised Task identity The degree at which the work is identifiable as belonging to the staff Task significance Autonomy Feedback

Motivation (6) Methods of improving motivations Setting specific goals Providing feedback Job design To enhance job design: Job enlargement Job enrichment

teams and IT development staff in an organization will often belong to a department depending on their technical expertise staff from different technical areas could then be brought together to work on a project once project is completed, team may be disbanded

stages in becoming a team forming storming norming performing team-building exercises can help the process of becoming a team adjourning

getting the right mix Meredith Belbin studied teams working together on management games found that the academically brightest teams often did badly e.g. arguments implementation of plans neglected etc. gave psychometric tests to participants to identify best mix of team members

Belbin’s management team types The chair/co-ordinator not necessarily a strong leader but must be good at controlling meetings: calm, strong, but tolerant The plant good at generating ideas The monitor-evaluator good at evaluating ideas and helping to select the best one

Belbin’s management team types - continued The shaper rather a worrier, helps direct the team’s attention to important issues; a driver The team worker/implementer good at creating a good team environment and getting people to do things The resource investigator good at finding resources and information

Belbin’s management team types - continued The completer-finisher focussed in getting task completed The company worker a good team player who is willing to undertake less attractive tasks if they are needed for team success The specialist the ‘techie’ interested in knowledge for its own sake

typical problems more than one shaper and no strong chair - arguments over direction several plants and specialists, but no shapers or completer-finishers - interesting discussions but nothing gets implemented

general advice Time your interventions, don’t overwhelm the others in the team Be flexible Be restrained Keep the common goals of the team in mind all the time

types of group work Should you divide work up between you or should you do it as a group? It depends partly on the type of work additive tasks compensatory tasks disjunctive tasks conjunctive tasks

types of task Additive Compensatory effort of individuals added together to get end result people are interchangeable e.g. shovelling snow, interviewing people in the street Compensatory judgements of individuals are pooled errors by some can be corrected by others e.g. estimating costs, effort

types of activity disjunctive conjunctive only one correct answer getting answer depends on: someone getting the right answer others recognizing it as being correct! conjunctive progress depends on the progress of the slowest performer software projects often like this

‘social loafing’ team members who are parasites particular problem with student groups, but also in work environments can be alleviated by: making work of individuals identifiable consciously involving group member in the project outcomes rewarding individuals for team contribution cf. ‘club player of the year’ in sports teams

Decision Making Structured Unstructured

Leadership: types of power position power coercive power - threatening punishment connection power legitimate power reward power

Types of power: personal power expert power information power referent power (based on personal attractiveness/ charisma)

Leadership styles decision-making directive permissive implementation Close supervision Gives autonomy in implementation autocrat implementation Making decision alone democrat Making decision participatively