Project Management

BSB20315-7

Lecture 11
Project Organisation: Structures &
Teams
 Learning Outcomes

• Teams
• Structures
• Managing people

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 Project Organisation: Structures
& Teams- An Introduction
• Gathering together individuals and making them a
cohesive whole is a fundamental role of the
project manager
– Possible problems….
• The mix of personalities that will ensure the group
dynamics are right is a project issue
• How this project team fits in with the structure of
the organisation is a strategic issue
• Forming the team across multiple organisations
(e.g. joint ventures) and/or multiple geographic
locations (virtual teams) are extra challenges
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 Teams

• Large organisations are traditionally structured in

functional disciplines or ‘silos’
– Grouping all specialisms together is efficient
– The function of the silos is focused and clear
– Career paths are defined
– Administration systems are geared to this way of working
– Can be detrimental
• To creativity of individuals
• To responsiveness to changing market needs
• Managers may build empires, creating work for themselves
regardless of adding value
• Departmental head count appears to be the measure of
status
• Large organisation traditionally ordered in a
hierarchical pyramid
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 Role of Teams (Teams)(Continued)

Figure 11.1 Management silos

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 Role of Teams (Teams)(Continued)

Figure 11.2 Hierarchical pyramid

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 Role of Teams (Teams)(Continued)

• De-layering attempts to minimise the number of

layers in an organisation
– Simplifies decision making and communication
– Removes a considerable overhead
• Alternative structures:
– Product group
– Customer type
– Geographical area
– Functions
– Mixture depending on nature of business and
integration of supply chain
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 Role of Teams (Teams)(Continued)

• One single function will rarely provide the customer’s

entire needs
– ‘Cross-functional’ activity is required
• Where a project involves more than one function, the
project manager should define organisational forms
• The nature of the work organisation is important
– Defines responsibility and authority
– Outlines reporting arrangements
– Determines the management overhead
– Sets the structure behind the organisational culture
– Determines one group of stakeholders in project activities

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 Teams (Continued)

• Many organisations use ‘dotted-line’ responsibility

– The individual has responsibility to one functional manager
with a dotted-line responsibility to a second, signalling a
link to their goals.
– It encourages/enforces communication and integration
between departments
– It allows specialists/specialist departments to be involved but
does not allow them to hold responsibility, have power or
empire-build
• To ensure integration
- Additional administrative procedures are needed
- There are often interminable meetings
- There are mountains of bureaucracy
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 Teamwork (Teams)(Continued)
• A group is simply a collection of individuals who have a
common theme
• A team is a collection of people with a common goal
– The output will be greater than the sum of the individual
outputs
– More ideas will be generated
– A greater range of options can be considered
– Decision-making is likely to be better
• Studying teamwork in a project environment will
– Help the project manager design and select the workgroup
– Enable the monitoring of effective team functioning
– Provide feedback to help improve effectiveness
– Raise awareness of what is possible
– Improve alertness to the symptoms and consequences of
poor teamwork management
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 Teamwork (Teams)(Continued)
Characteristics of effective teams
• More openness to taking risks
– The risk is shared rather than carried by one individual
• Higher overall level of motivation
– There is an inherent responsibility to others
– There is a desire not to let others down
• Better support for the individual
– More likely inclusion in a greater range of activities
– Not having to work alone
Typically, the size of a team is anything above two people
– Above 10 people, effectiveness likely to decrease
– Large teams effectively managed by
• Breaking down into smaller more manageable teams
• Need appropriate co-ordination mechanisms in place
• Organisational breakdown structure (OBS)
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 Lifecycles of Teams (Teams)(Continued)

Teams have various stages of development

• Collection
• Entrenchment
• Resolution
• Synergy
• Decline
• Break-up
• The PM can identify the stage at which the team is operating
• The PM can ensure the decline stage is held back for as long
as possible
– Take development backwards by changing team composition
– Add a new challenge by expanding the range or scope of
tasks
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 Lifecycles of Teams (Teams)(Continued)

Table 11.1 Team Lifecycle

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 Lifecycles of Teams (Teams)(Continued)

Figure 11.3 Effectiveness profile of team lifecycle

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 Lifecycles of Teams (Teams)(Continued)
Lifecycle of quality circles
• Quality circles are a management tool
– Encourage people from all parts of organisation to work
together to solve problems
– Encourages people to use creativity and be innovative
• Initial results usually excellent
– Biggest problems tackled first, savings are made
• But after a short period (+/− 12 months) tend to disband
– Teams meet less often as resources committed dwindle
– Appearance of social event, managers disdainful
– Resistance by those not involved to ideas generated
– Natural lifecycle of teams neglected
• Solutions
– Assemble a team to solve one single problem and then
disband
– Provide path for semi-autonomous workgroups
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 Effective Teamwork (Teams)(Continued)

Characteristics of effective teamwork that will make

a positive contribution to the success of the project:
1. Clear elevating goal; a sense of mission created
that is understood, important, worthwhile,
challenging.
2. The provisions of a results-driven structure;
structure and compositions commensurate with
task being undertaken.
3. Competent team members; a balance of
personal and technical competence.
4. An environment of unified commitment; ‘doing
what has to be done to succeed’.
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 Effective Teamwork (Teams)(Continued)
Characteristics of effective teamwork that will make
a positive contribution to the success of the project:
(Continued)
5. A climate of collaboration; encouraging reliance
on others in the team.
6. Standards of excellence; individual and team
pressures and a knowledge of the
consequence of failure.
7. External support and recognition; PMs
responsibility to recognise and reward this.
8. Institute principled leadership; ‘management is
doing things right, leadership is doing the right
things.’ (Peter Drucker)
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 Effective Teamwork (Teams)(Continued)

Table 11.2 Requirements of team structure

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 Effective Teamwork (Teams)(Continued)

Figure 11.4 Spectrum of team/group performance

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 Structures

Figure 11.5 Project organisation

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 The pure project organisation
(Structures)(Continued)

• The highest level – the project board (directors and

senior managers)
• 2nd level – the project managers (total control over
one or more projects)
• The constitution of the team depends on the stage in
the lifecycle
– Individuals/companies are contracted for specific
purposes
– Once the project is complete the team is disbanded

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 The pure project organisation
(Structures)(Continued)

• Advantages
– The labour force is highly flexible
– The main organisation only administers the employment
of its own staff
– Overheads are lowered
• Disadvantages
– The team is temporary and therefore has no commitment
to the project’s success, quality output or solving
problems ahead of time
– A boom in a particular sector means a shortage of labour
and increasing labour rates
– Passing on the ‘lessons learnt’ is hard, progress on
improving work methods is slow.
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 Matrix management
(Structures)(Continued)

• The benefits of the project organisation without the

disadvantages
• Matrix management is appropriate if
– Multiple customers or geographical differences
– Need to process simultaneously large amounts of information
– Need to share resources
• Four parts to a matrix organisation:
– The matrix structure – lightweight/balanced/heavyweight
– The matrix systems – planning, directing, controlling and
motivating
– The matrix culture – requires the acceptance of the system by
the people who work in it
– The matrix behaviour – the ability to understand and work with
overlapping boundaries

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 Matrix management
(Structures)(Continued)

• The lightweight (weakest) matrix

– The project manager acts as co-ordinator of the work of
the project
– Responsibility for success of the project is shared across
departments
– Little commitment to success
– PM relatively impotent compared to functional manager
• The balanced matrix
– Balance of power between line and project manager
attempted
– The project provides part of the income of the function

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 Matrix management
(Structures)(Continued)

– Two lines of command for each team member is a draw

back
– Individuals have project responsibility in addition to line
responsibilities
• The heavyweight (strongest) matrix
– Functional departments provide resources and second
people on full-time basis; on project completion, they
return to the department
– Project only shoulders costs of technical specialists
when being used
– Projects are generally vital to the organisation
– Draw back is discontinuity of tasks for the individual and
department
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 Matrix management
(Structures)(Continued)

Success of matrix management depends on

• Training
– Managers and team members
– Working in such environments
• Support systems
– Administrative
– Information
– Careers
• Nature of the individuals
– Particularly tolerance for role ambiguity
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 Matrix management
(Structures)(Continued)

Table 11.3 Relating project structures to project objectives

Source: Adapted from Ulrich, K.T. and Eppinger, S.D. (2000) Product Design and Development, 2nd edn, New York: McGraw-Hill, p. 29. Reproduced with permission from the
McGraw-Hill Companies
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 Selecting the best structure for a
project (Structures)(Continued)
The choice of project structure should not be
taken in isolation, it should be part of the
organisation’s aggregate plan
Selecting the best structure for a project – additional factors
• Predominant technology
• Potential resource conflicts
The two bosses problem:
• Power struggle between two managers
• Anarchy
• ‘Group-itis’
• Excessive overheads
• Decision strangling
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 Selecting the best structure for a
project (Structures)(Continued)
Observation of Japanese management practices
• Meeting customer needs involves many organisational
functions
• Teams must be cross functional, regardless of seniority
• Tasks are typically meeting customer quality requirements,
controlling costs, ensuring deadlines are met
• Information requirements are often met informally through
impromptu meetings
• Information systems (hardware and software) generally
remain incompatible
• Improved use of people rather than increased use of
technology
• Process mapping enables the management of cross-
functional teams
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 Selecting the best structure for a
project (Structures)(Continued)

Figure 11.6 Cross-function ‘process teams’

Source: Dimancescu, D. (1995) The Seamless Enterprise, Making Cross Functional Management Work, Wiley, New York. Copyright © 1992 by Dan Dimancescu. Reproduced with
permission

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 Mixed organisational structures
and coordination (Structures)(Continued)
• High degree of flexibility in outsourcing whilst
making good use of internal expertise
• Additional co-ordinating mechanisms may be
needed
• An ‘integrator’ is needed to ensure that areas of
overlap are addressed
• Staff may move (temporarily relocate) between
functions

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 Mixed organisational structures
and coordination (Structures)(Continued)

Figure 11.7 Mixed organisational structure

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 Managing people

Personality and roles

• The project manager can benefit from

understanding the ways in which Personality profiles
individuals behave in group situations
Psychometric tests
Curriculum Vitae
• Designing the team
Interviews
– Eligibility – qualifications and
experience
– Suitability – how the individuals in the
team fit together
– Balance – portfolio of characteristics
relative to the task to be undertaken
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 Personality and roles
(Managing people)(Continued)

Figure 11.8 The nine team roles

Source: Belbin, R.M. (1993) Team Roles at Work, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford. Reproduced with permission from Belbin Associates

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 Personality and roles
(Managing people)(Continued)

Figure 11.8 The nine team roles (Continued)

Source: Belbin, R.M. (1993) Team Roles at Work, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford. Reproduced with permission from Belbin Associates

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 Personality and roles
(Managing people)(Continued)

The effect individual personalities have on

behaviour:
• Personality
– usually determined through testing
• Mental ability
– e.g. critical reasoning
• Current values and motivation
– determined by personal factors
• Field constraints
– the rules and procedures that effect behaviour
– imposed by the environment in which the team is
working
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 Personality and roles
(Managing people)(Continued)

The effect individual personalities have on

behaviour: (Continues)

• Experience
– prior events that have had lasting impressions
• Role learning and versatility
– the ease with which an individual can take up a
new role that is not their ‘natural role’

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 Meetings (Managing people)(Continued)

Meetings:
• Running effective meetings that achieve progress
is a skill
• Confirm the purpose of the meeting and decide
who should attend
• Pre-meeting preparation:
– Arrange location, timing, agenda
– Circulate agenda, pre-reading

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 Meetings (Managing people)(Continued)

• Running the meeting:

– Provide a forum for constructive debate
– Limit discussions to purpose of the meeting
– Do not allow repetition or dominance
– Regularly summarise progress
– Limit length of the meeting
• attention spans are limited, lengthy meetings unlikely
to be constructive
– Obtain consensus,
• carrying out the decision will be easier without
dissenters

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 Meetings (Managing people)(Continued)

• Post-meeting follow up:

– Circulate copies of minutes with action points and
responsibilities
• on one sheet A4
– Action points form the part of the agenda for the
next meeting
• completion should be checked.

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 Geographically separated teams
(Managing people)(Continued)

• Outsourced and collaborative projects are on the

increase
• Working with people and organisations spread
geographically is required
• The challenges:
– Differing language, culture, ways of working
– Conflict of project priority and importance to each
organisation
– Differing time zones and times people are at work
– Differing standards causing technical conflict

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 Geographically separated teams
(Managing people)(Continued)

– Obtaining ‘buy-in’ from remote teams/individuals

– Poor development and communication of plans
– Lack of clarity of who is responsible for what
– Difficulty in sharing problems when they arise
– Delays from incompatibility of systems
– Feelings of isolation, contrary to expectations of
working in high-performing teams

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 Geographically separated teams
(Managing people)(Continued)

So what can the project manager do?

– Recognise such problems may arise
– Actively manage to avoid (or at least minimise) the
problems
• Devices that could help
– Formal project start-up meeting
– Regular face-to-face meetings (or regular video-
conferences)
– Judicious use of e-mail
– Working with remote senior managers to
encourage their support
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 Geographically separated teams
(Managing people)(Continued)

– Establish rules for dealing with particular scenarios

– Create highly visible progress measures, viewable
in real time
– Understand that productivity may be not 100
percent,
• schedules and resources may have to be increased.
– Use creativity to find other ways of working to fit
the context

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 Summary

• The silo/hierarchical organisation is not the most

appropriate for achieving project success
• The pure project organisation is the most flexible,
resources are contracted purely for the project
• Matrix management gives a degree of authority to the
project manager whilst retaining benefits of the functional
organisation
• Teamwork is beneficial in terms of productivity and
synergy
• Forming groups of people into teams is complex
• The natural lifecycle of teams, each phase has different
characteristics
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 Summary (Continued)

• The PM is key to forming and controlling the team

• Personalities can be matched to team roles [Belbin]
• A mix of team roles is necessary for an effective team
[Belbin]
• Effective teamwork needs
– A clear and elevating goal, the categorisation of the task
• Running meetings effectively is critical, skills can be learnt
• Geographically spread teams (virtual teams) pose different
issues
• Getting the most from a group of individuals requires that
they work in a structure appropriate to the task being
undertaken
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