Project Management

[ Project Management Topics ]

Human Resource Management

Many managers and organizations recognize that a critical source of competitive advantage often comes not from having the most ingenious product design, the best marketing strategy, or the most state of the art production technology, but rather from having an effective system for obtaining, mobilizing, and managing the organization's human assets. A number of recent developments, including demographic changes in the labor force, the rapid pace of technological change, increased global competition, experiments with new organizational arrangements, and public policy attention to work force issues, are making human resource management topics increasingly important for all managers in organizations. Although many organizations recognize the importance of managing the work force effectively and even "know" what approaches are effective, it is remarkable how often firms and managers fail to implement these approaches.

Project Human Resource Managment

• Organizational planning (roles, responsibilites, reporting relationships)
• Staff acquisition
• Team development

Things we can do for organizational planning

• Responsiblity assignment matrix
  http://www.answers.com/topic/responsibility-assignment-matrix?cat=technology
• Organizational charts
  http://rff.com/orgcharts.htm
  
• Resource Histograms
  http://www.decisionedge.com/images/DCforMSP/ResourceHistogram-Stacked5.JPG]
• Watch for overallocation (resource leveling)
• Team development
• Reward and recognition systems
  

Theories to Consider

• Herzberg's Motivation-Hygene Theory (aka, the two factor theory)
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_factor_theory
• McClelland's Acquired-Needs Theory
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_McClelland#McClelland.27s_Theory_of_Needs

Thamhain and Wilemon's nine ways we can influences as project managers

1. Authority
2. Assignment (perceived ability to influence a worker's later assignments)
3. Budget
4. Promotion
5. Money (worker pay)
6. Work challenge (give work that is intrinsically motivating)
7. Expertise (PM's perceived special knowledge)
8. Friendship

Stephen Covey's Seven Habits

1. Be proactive
2. Begin with the end in mind
3. Put first things first (more time on what is important, not just what is urgent)
4. Thing win/win
5. Seek first to udnerstand, then to be understood (empathetic listening)
6. Synergize (value differences)
7. Sharpening the saw (self renewal)

Affects of Human Resource Management

Prominent HR Issues in the 21st Century United States

• Widespread corporate restructuring
• Increases in contingent work
• New work organizations
• Growing diversity

Behaviors Driven by HR

• Recruitment and Turnover
• Commitment to Organization
• Loyalty
• Effort
• Innovation
• Attitude towards customers
• Ability to do the job (skills)

INTELLECTUAL BASIS FOR HR

• ECONOMICS: compensation/incentives
• SOCIOLOGY: group norms
• PSYCHOLOGY: motivation
• POLITICAL SCIENCE: the environment

HR CHOICES: FUNCTIONAL

• Individual work v. team work
• Pay for job v. pay for individual v. pay for group v. pay for need
• Make or buy skills
• Promote form within v. recruit at all levels
• Job security v. no commitments

HR CHOICES: PHILOSOPHY

• Motivate by money v. peers v. the work
• Egalitarianism v. meritocracy
• Assume shirking v. assume inherent desire to do good work
• Centralized v. decentralized control

Types of Organizations

Assessment for members of project team

If you are in a situation where you are not the regular direct supervisor of members of your team and yet would like their project performance to be a part of their assessment one thing you can do is meet with the individuals on the team and note their progress (in a notepad or something similar) throughout the project. At project completion let the individual review the notes and make comments where they feel it is necessary. The whole package (your notes and their comments) are then sent to their diect supervisor (functional manager) upon project completion.

Conflict Resolution

There is said to be five ways of resolving conflict:

1. forcing
2. smoothing
3. compromise
4. problem solving
5. withdrawal

According to Newell (p. 125) here are the effects:

Effects of conflict resolution styles
	Good for personal goals	Good for relationships
Forcing	High	Low
Smoothing	Low	High
Compromising	Medium	Medium
Problem Solving	High	High
Withdrawal	Low	Low

Some potentially interesting resources

• http://www.hrmanagementtoday.com/
  Capella University - Human Resource Management in the 21st Century
• http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/library/research/subjectGuides/hrInternet.html
  Cornell University - Human Resources and the Internet
• http://www.projectconnections.com/knowhow/bq_subject_pages/conflict_issue_mgmt.html
  Project Connections Conflict Management

References

Newell, M. W. (2002). Preparing for the Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification Exam. New York, NY: American Management Association.