Enhancing
human
resource
management
in
process
improvement
projects
Lila
Carden,
Jamison
V.
Kovach,
Manuel
Flores
INTRODUCTION
People
are
often
cited
as
the
most
valuable
resource
within
an
organization,
especially
when
undertaking
a
project
that
requires
some
type
of
change.
For
projects
to
be
successful,
they
should
be
completed
on
time,
within
budget,
and
produce
deliverables
that
fulfill
customer
requirements.
Classifying
human
resources
into
appropriate
roles
within
a
project
is
an
essential
precursor
for
identifying
the
neces-
sary
activities
required
to
effectively
manage
these
resources
to
achieve
a
project’s
goals.
Within
the
project
life
cycle,
the
classification
of
human
resources
usually
occurs
during
the
initiating
phase.
Beyond
this
phase
of
a
project,
however,
current
project
management
processes
pay
little
attention
to
the
inclusion
and/or
classification
of
human
resources.
In
theory,
at
the
beginning
of
a
project,
the
project
manager
is
expected
to
be
able
to
identify
everyone
who
should
to
be
involved
in
the
project
and
identify
their
roles
within
the
project
clearly.
In
practice,
unfortunately,
iden-
tifying
and
appropriately
classifying
human
resources
as
project
team
members
or
project
stakeholders
can
be
chal-
lenging
given
the
large
quantity
of
unknows
faced
at
the
beginning
of
a
project.
Hence,
this
research
investigates
the
question:
How
can
project
teams
leverage
the
knowledge
developed
in
the
early
stages
of
a
project
to
reduce/elim-
inate
the
omission
and/or
misclassification
of
human
resources?
To
answer
this
question,
we
propose
a
modified
approach
for
managing
project
human
resources.
This
approach
focuses
on
identifying
what
is
learned
throughout
a
project
and
integrates
that
knowledge
within
the
project
through
an
augmented
change
request
process.
While
change
requests
are
a
well-known
project
management
process,
our
pro-
posed
approach
includes
a
specific
method
for
requesting
changes
to
improve
the
inclusion
and/or
classification
of
project
human
resources.
The
next
section
provides
a
brief
discussion
regarding
managing
human
resources
within
projects.
To
further
moti-
vate
the
need
for
our
proposed
approach,
a
case
example
of
a
process
improvement
project
is
then
discussed.
This
exam-
ple
illustrates
how
the
traditional
use
of
project
manage-
ment
tools
and
process
improvement
methods
in
one
organization
led
to
the
misclassification
of
project
human
resources
in
a
project
to
reduce
product
lead
time
variation.
Ultimately,
project
success
was
jeopardized
by
not
recog-
nizing
in
the
early
stages
of
the
project
that
a
project
stakeholder
should
have
been
included
as
part
of
the
project
team.
Following
this
case
example,
we
describe
our
pro-
posed
approach
in
detail,
including
a
method
for
requesting
project
human
resource
changes.
We
also
provide
recom-
mendations
for
implementing
the
proposed
approach.
Finally,
we
offer
some
concluding
remarks
and
ideas
for
future
research.
MANAGING
PROJECT
HUMAN
RESOURCES
Project
managers
are
typically
assigned
to
lead
and
manage
all
resources
engaged
in
a
project,
e.g.,
time,
budget,
materials,
information,
and
people.
The
human
resources
involved
in
a
project
often
include
project
team
members
and
project
stakeholders.
Project
team
members
work
col-
laboratively
with
project
managers
to
execute
the
activities
specified
in
the
project
plan,
and
they
make
decisions
that
directly
impact
project
activities.
The
project
manager,
in
consultation
with
management,
selects
project
team
mem-
bers
that
have
knowledge
and
experience
relative
to
the
project
being
conducted.
If
the
people
selected
for
the
project
team
do
not
have
the
required
knowledge
and/or
experience,
the
project
faces
a
greater
chance
of
failure.
Organizational
Dynamics
(2021)
50,
100776
Available
online
at
www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect
jo
u
rn
al
h
om
ep
ag
e:
ww
w.els
evier.c
o
m/lo
c
ate/o
rg
d
yn
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2020.100776
0090-2616/©
2020
Elsevier
Inc.
All
rights
reserved.
Project
stakeholders
are
individuals
or
groups
who
may
be
impacted
by
or
may
impact
the
project’s
decisions
and/or
activities.
Like
selecting
project
team
members,
there
are
no
specific
methods
for
identifying
project
stakeholders.
Thus,
sometimes
in
projects
there
are
decisions
regarding
human
resource
roles
as
either
project
team
members
or
project
stakeholders.
One
proactive
approach
that
can
be
used
to
help
with
the
identification
of
project
roles
is
risk
management.
Risk
management
and
risk
response
plans
may
be
hepful
in
identifying
potential
human
resource
needs.
For
example,
if
data
issues
are
identified
as
risks
while
creating
the
project
charter,
an
IT
representative
needs
to
be
assigned
to
the
project
as
a
project
team
member
and
not
a
project
stakeholder.
On
the
other
hand,
if
the
human
resource
is
impacted
by
the
project
or
impacts
the
project
decisions,
there
are
many
approaches
discussed
in
the
lit-
erature
for
conducting
a
stakeholder
analysis.
This
analysis
often
involves
analyzing
each
stakeholder’s
relationship
to
the
project
and/or
developing
strategies
for
communicating
with
each
stakeholder
throughout
the
project
life
cycle.
MOTIVATIONAL
EXAMPLE
This
case
example
involved
a
multi-national
chemical
man-
ufacturer
who
sought
to
reduce
the
variation
in
their
export
lead
time
(i.e.,
the
time
to
deliver
finished
product
produced
in
the
U.S.
to
their
customers
overseas).
While
transit
time
for
product
shipments
from
the
departure
to
the
arrival
port
via
ocean
vessel
was
fairly
predictable,
there
was
an
exces-
sive
amount
of
variation
(approximately
14
days)
in
the
process
of
moving
finished
product
from
inventory
at
the
production
facility
to
loading
it
onboard
a
container
vessel
at
the
departing
port.
Due
to
the
variability
in
the
overall
lead
time
to
receive
product
shipments,
customers
incurred
included
human
resources,
data
resolution,
and
IT.
Subse-
quently,
a
risk
management
plan
was
developed
to
identify
a
response
strategy
for
each
risk.
As
is
typical
in
many
process
improvement
projects,
the
process,
in
this
case
the
steps
that
finished
products
follow
from
inventory
creation
to
onboarding
at
the
departing
port,
was
mapped,
first
at
a
high-level
in
the
form
of
a
supplier,
input,
process,
output,
and
customer
(SIPOC)
diagram,
and
then
in
detail
using
a
swim-lane
diagram/cross-functional
flowchart.
Next,
the
measurement
system
was
analyzed
through
an
audit
process,
and
the
data
measuring
process
lead
time
were
found
to
be
valid
and
reliable.
Following
the
establishment
of
baseline
measures
for
lead
time
variation
and
average
performance,
further
data
analyses
were
per-
formed
to
identify
the
causes
of
lead
time
variation.
Exam-
ining
data
from
the
last
quarter
indicated
that
50
%
of
orders
had
at
least
one
error
that
required
rework
and
delayed
the
process
between
inventory
creation
to
onboarding
by
approximately
2—6
d.
When
examined
further,
it
was
found
that
only
10
%
of
these
errors
were
caused
by
human
error.
The
other
90
%
were
caused
by
errors
in
the
electronic
data
interchange
(EDI)
system
used
to
communicate
with
the
third-party
vendors
responsible
for
moving
finished
product
from
the
production
facility
to
the
departing
port.
Thus,
it
was
now
clear
that
representatives
from
IT
needed
to
be
more
closely
involved
in
this
project
to
further
investigate
and
resolve
the
EDI
errors.
Unfortunately,
at
this
point
in
the
project,
the
investiga-
tion
of
the
problem
was
well
underway,
and
IT
had
not
previously
been
included
in
any
project
related
meetings
as
they
were
formerly
identified
as
project
stakeholders,
not
project
team
members.
It
was
not
entirely
surprising,
there-
fore,
that
once
contacted
about
this
issue,
IT
expressed
much
resistance
regarding
getting
involved
with
the
project
2
L.
Carden
et
al.
