Unlock document.
This document is partially blurred.
Unlock all pages and 1 million more documents.
Get Access
Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Behavioral Aspects of Project Management
MGT573--Project Management in the Business Environment
May 8, 2006
Introduction
The people process part of project management is one of the most difficult facets yet key
contributors to failure related to a project. The process for selecting the project manager
and team members is critical. They need to be able to facilitate meetings, track tasks versus
issues, establish the primary issue related to a conflict, the ability to empower team
members and avoid scope creep (HIMSS 2000). These people need to have excellent
communication skills that will facilitate the relationship among the various team members
to achieve the goals of the project. The focus with project management tends to be
tentative to tasks, critical paths, and the connection to those functions and ignore the
people factor that is critical for success, not enough time is spent (HIMSS 2000). To be
successful at project management it is vital to have a strong skill set for both task and
people supervisory skills. A wide variety of meetings are held that pay attention to the
tasks and the budget management related to the project (Michael Schmidt, 2003). The
human factor can at times be ignored, while it requires special attention and strategies to
be successful in implementing a new project. The primary plans that have a successful
track record have been founded on a quality improvement process. For a project to be
successful they must be able to effectively manage the tasks, budget, and people related to
the project (Michael Schmidt, 2003). The purpose of this paper is to explore how
organizational culture and human behavior influence the success of projects. Specifically,
it looks at the culture, project leadership, creation and management of teams, and
strategies.
Organizational Culture
The first point to consider is, what Organizational Culture actually means and how it
influences selection (e.g., matching skills and abilities with project tasks, etc.),
prioritization (e.g., clear objectives and the team approach to have input from all team
players, etc.), and the ultimate success of the project? Where does it come from? Does the
leader make the culture or the employees? Essentially the culture is the personality of that
business. The society or culture of an organization is made up of the assumptions, values,
norms and tangible signs (artifacts) of organization members and their behaviors
(managementhelp). The staff can develop a feeling for the culture behind their organization
relatively early in their employment. The actual culture of an organization can be
