© The McGraw-Hill Companies, Software Project Management 4th Edition Managing people and organizing teams Chapter 11 (part one)

© The McGraw-Hill Companies, Main topics What is organizational behaviour? Models of motivation – focus on the individual Team building – focus on the team Leadership – focus on the relationship between the project leader and the team

© The McGraw-Hill Companies, Before organizational behaviour Frederick Taylor ( ) ‘the father of scientific management’ Focus: –To select the best people for the job; –To instruct them in the best methods; –To give financial incentives in the form of piece work One problem: ‘group norms’

© The McGraw-Hill Companies, Hawthorne effect 1920’s – series of experiments at the Hawthorne Plant of Western Electric, Chicago Found that simply showing an interest in a group increased productivity Theory X: there is a need for coercion, direction, and control of people at work Theory Y: work is as natural as rest or play

© The McGraw-Hill Companies, Assumptions of OB approach to management Are management skills based on innate skills and characteristics? E.g ‘the born leader’? If so, why do organizations spend so much time and money on leadership training e.g Sandhurst? OB tries to provide advice based on observations – ‘when X is the case Y is likely to happen’

© The McGraw-Hill Companies, Innate characteristics 1968 study – difference of 1:25 in time taken by different programmers to code program Other research found experience better than maths skills as a guide to software skills Some research suggested software developers less sociable than other workers Later surveys have found no significant social differences between ICT workers and others

© The McGraw-Hill Companies, Motivation Motivation and application can often make up for shortfalls in innate skills Taylor’s approach - financial incentives Abraham Maslow ( ) – motivations vary from individual to individual –hierarchy of needs – as lower ones fulfilled, higher ones emerge –Lowest level – food, shelter –Highest level – self-actualization

© The McGraw-Hill Companies, Herzberg Herzberg suggested two sets of factors affected job satisfaction 1.Hygiene or maintenance factors – make you dissatisfied if they are not right e.g. pay, working conditions 2.Motivators – make you feel the job is worthwhile e.g. a sense of achievement

© The McGraw-Hill Companies, Vroom Vroom and colleagues identified three influences on motivation 1.Expectancy – the belief that working harder leads to better performance 2.Instrumentality – the belief that better performance will be rewarded 3.Perceived value of the reward

© The McGraw-Hill Companies, Oldham-Hackman job characteristics Identified the following characteristics of a job which make it more ‘meaningful’ Skill variety Task identity Task significance Two other factors contributed to satisfaction: Autonomy Feedback

© The McGraw-Hill Companies, Methods to improve job satisfaction Set specific goals Provide feedback on the progress towards meeting those goals Consider job redesign –Job enlargement –Job enrichment

© The McGraw-Hill Companies, Becoming a team Five basic stages of development: 1.Forming 2.Storming 3.Norming 4.Peforming 5.Adjourning Classification associated with Tuckman and Jensen

© The McGraw-Hill Companies, Balanced teams Meredith Belbin studied the performance of top executives carrying out group work at the Hendon Management Centre Tried putting the ‘best’ people together in ‘Apollo’ teams – almost invariably did badly Identified the need for a balance of skills and management roles in a successful team

© The McGraw-Hill Companies, Management team roles The co-ordinator – good at chairing meetings The ‘plant’ – an idea generator The monitor-evaluator – good at evaluating ideas The shaper – helps direct team’s efforts The team worker – skilled at creating a good working environment

© The McGraw-Hill Companies, Belbin management roles - continued The resource investigator – adept at finding resources, including information The completer-finisher – concerned with getting tasks completed The implementer – a good team player who is willing to undertake less attractive tasks if they are needed for team success The specialist – the ‘techie’ who likes to acquire knowledge for its own sake

© The McGraw-Hill Companies, Influence of task type 1 Some tasks are better carried out collectively while other tasks are better delegated to individuals Additive tasks – the effort of each participant is summed Compensatory tasks – the judgements of individual group members are summed – errors of some compensated for by judgements of others

© The McGraw-Hill Companies, Influence of task type 2 Disjunctive tasks – there is only one correct answer – someone must: –Come up with right answer –Persuade the other that they are right Conjunctive – the task is only finished when all components have been completed

© The McGraw-Hill Companies, ‘Social loafing’ Tendency for some team participants to ‘coast’ and let others do the work Also tendency not to assist other team members who have problems Suggested counter-measures: –Make individual contributions identifiable –Consciously involve group members ( ‘loafer’ could in fact just be shy!) –Reward ‘team players’

© The McGraw-Hill Companies, Barriers to good team decisions Inter-personal conflicts – see earlier section on team formation Conflicts tend to be a dampened by emergence of group norms – shared group opinions and attitudes Risky shift – people in groups are more likely to make risky decisions than they would as individuals

© The McGraw-Hill Companies, Delphi approach To avoid dominant personalities intruding the following approach is adopted 1.Enlist co-operation of experts 2.Moderator presents experts with problem 3.Experts send in their recommendations to the moderator 4.Recommendations are collated and circulated to all experts 5. Experts comment on ideas of others and modify their own recommendation if so moved 6.If moderator detects a consensus, stop; else back to 4

© The McGraw-Hill Companies, Leadership: types of authority Position power Coercive power – able to threaten punishment Connection power – have access to those who do have power Legitimate power – based on a person’s title conferring a special status Reward power – able to reward those who comply

© The McGraw-Hill Companies, Leadership: types of power Personal power Expert power: holder can carry out specialist tasks that are in demand Information power: holder has access to needed information Referent power: based on personal attractiveness or charisma

© The McGraw-Hill Companies, Leadership styles decision-making autocrat democrat implementation directive permissive

© The McGraw-Hill Companies, Leadership styles Task orientation – focus on the work in hand People orientation – focus on relationships Where there is uncertainty about the way job is to be done or staff are inexperienced they welcome task oriented supervision Uncertainty is reduced – people orientation more important Risk that with reduction of uncertainty, managers have time on their hands and become more task oriented (interfering)