102 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT, VOL. EM-24, NO. 3, AUGUST 1977

Leadership Effectiveness in Program Management HANS J. THAMHAIN, MEMBER, IEEE, AND DAVID L. WILEMON

Abstract-The paper reporte the results of an exploratory field study designed to investigate the effectiveness of leadership styles in various project-oriented work environments.

The study concludes that the effectiveness of project managers depends primarily on their leadership style and work environment. A leader-oriented management approach appears most effective in a poor work environment, while in a good organizational climate a team-oriented style seems to be most effective.

The findings presented should help the professional project manager to understand the complex interrelationships among position power, leadership style, and organizational variables. Through this understand­ing 2*2 may be able to identify the 2eadership style which optimizes project performance in his specific work.

INTRODUCTION

MANAGING projects is, without question, a difficult job. Not only does it require sophisticated tools and special

organizational design considerations, but also a different breed of manager. Five areas that require special managerial skills [1] are often cited by project leaders as necessary conditions for project success

coping with a multidisciplinary project environment; dealing with problems across functional lines; building effective teams at various organizational levels; handling conflicts effectively; managing change.

Specifically, the project manager must be able to integrate various supporting disciplines in a continuously changing work environment. In his search for multidisciplinary problem reso­lution, he must often cross functional lines to deal with per­sonnel over whom he has limited direct formal authority. Moreover, he has to build teams at various levels of the project organization. This requires an understanding of interpersonal dynamics to make sure that various specialists contribute to the end objective of the project. Thus the challenge is for the project manager to provide an environment conducive to the motivational needs of his team members. Equally important to successful project performance is the project manager's ability to deal effectively with the inevitable conflict situa­tions. Taken together, the role of the project manager is a difficult one. His project success often depends significantly on his ability to deal effectively with human behavior in a multidisciplinary environment [2].

Several research studies have investigated managerial leader-Manuscript received October 25, 1976; revised February 23, 1977.

This paper was presented in part at the Project Management Institute Seminar/Symposium in Montreal, Que., Canada, October 1976.

H. J. Thamhain is with GTE Sylvania, Needham, MA 02194. D. L. Wilemon is with the Marketing Management Department,

School of Management, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13210.

ship styles in general management situations. Conclusions stress the situational nature of leadership effectiveness [3]. That is, leadership effectiveness appears to be a function of at least three sets of variables: leadership style, the situation, characterized by the task and organizational environment, and the characteristics of the followers. This paper explores project manager leadership and its situational effectiveness.

THE STUDY

Approximately 125 managers from a variety of project-oriented companies were asked to participate in the research. A usable sample of 68 project managers and 33 of their supe­riors was eventually obtained. A questionnaire was used as the principal data collection instrument. In addition, reviews of the study were conducted with a number of project managers to assist in the interpretation of the data.

It was felt that within the changing work environment of the project manager, the interaction between the project manager, his team, and the environmental context of the project needs to be examined before any conclusions on the effectiveness of a particular leadership style can be drawn. Therefore, the investigation was designed to collect data on three sets of variables

1) characteristics of project work environment; 2) characteristics of leadership style of project managers; 3) effectiveness rating of project managers.

The Work Environment The study utilizes part of Rensis Likert's typology to

characterize the project-organized environment [5]. Three modified sets of variables were identified

1) organizational climate: quality of communication ; continuity of work; career growth;

2) task complexity: skill-level requirements; multidisciplinary nature; project size and duration;

3) position power of the project manager: degree of control over personnel; control over budgets, schedule, and performance; degree of P&L responsibility ; resource sharing with functional organization.

In addition, a fourth set of variables was collected on the type of organizational structure. Project managers were asked to select from a set of 5 organization charts the one which

THAMHAIN AND WILEMON: LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS

best represented their own organization, or to draw their own version. The charts represented: 1) matrix organization, 2) individual project organization, 3) internal functional project organization, 4) staff project organization, 5) projectized organization, and 6) own version drawn by project manager and later on classified during research evaluation.

The actual questions and scales used in the survey are described in the Methodological Appendix, Part I.

Project Manager Leadership

As previously stated, a project manager's ability to perform effectively may depend on his leadership style, the task com­plexity, the required technological sophistication, and the climate of the organization in which he functions. In analyzing project management leadership, it is particularly important to understand how tasks are accomplished. Contrary to func­tional management, influences, such as direct rewards and punishments, may be in the hands of supporting department managers. Further, the overall influence a project manager has may vary over the life of his project, since complexity, budgets, client demands, and functional interfaces change. Thus effective leadership relates the human, technical, and situational variables of a project in a complex manner.

For the current investigation, sixteen statements were designed to reflect the project managers' general orientation toward developing support. The framework of this investiga­tion uses French and Raven's topology of interpersonal influ­ences which had been modified by Gemmili, Thamhain, and Wilemon for various power style studies on project managers [6] .

The actual questions and scales used in the survey are described in the Methodological Appendix, Part II. The items were designed to assess the project leaders' attitudes toward both formally derived influence sources and individually derived influences for gaining support. The formally derived influence sources are typified by authority, rewards, and punishments, while the individually derived influence sources are related to the intrinsic motivations of project team mem­bers. Examples are the project manager's attitude toward assisting contributors in their career development, matching team member interests and capabilities with task requirements, making efforts to provide a smooth transition from one proj­ect to the next job assignment, and establishing positive inter­personal relationships with team members.

To measure the leader's attitude, project managers were asked to indicate on a six-point scale (very important—impor­tant-somewhat helpful—I am indifferent about it-might do more harm than good-might be detrimental) how important each influence method is in gaining support from project personnel. For example, to measure the perceived importance of authority, three statements were used for scoring

the project manager should have formal authority; the project manager should let his personnel know that he has this authority ; the organization should let the project personnel know who is in command.

Hence, an independent set of scores was obtained on the

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perceived importance of each influence base. This method allowed project managers to be ranked according to their perceived style.

Analysis of the data indicated that some project managers rely primarily on the formally derived organizational influence bases, while others prefer building their support by focusing on the needs and concerns of individual contributors. For the purpose of this study, we defined two leadership categories.

1) Style I is primarily a leader-centered approach to man­agement; it is characterized by project managers who demon­strate a preference for organizationally derived influence sources such as authority, reward, and punishment.

2) Style II is primarily a team-centered management ap­proach; it is characterized by project managers who focus on the needs of their team members in deriving the influences for their project support.

The actual statements used in the questionnaire and their classification is shown in the Methodological Appendix, Part II.

Effectiveness Rating of Project Managers

A measure of managerial effectiveness was obtained by contacting the superiors of the 68 project managers investi­gated. Each superior was asked to rate the project manager relative to his peers on overall project performance. A 0-100-percent scale was used. The specific statements used in the questionnaire are shown on the Methodological Appendix, Part III.

RESULTS

The results are presented in two parts. First, an analysis is performed on the sample of project managers regarding their shared control over personnel. Second, a correlation analysis between managerial leadership style and managerial effective­ness is presented to formulate some tentative conclusions about the most suitable leadership style for different project situations. All correlation figures were obtained by Kendall rank order correlation methods.

Shared Control Over Project Personnel

Project managers often interact with the various functional and staff departments in managing their programs. Depending on the type of project organization, the project manager has different degrees of control over resources. At the outset of this study it was expected that project managers in a matrix organization would share more resources and have less control over project budgets, schedules, and performance than in a projectized organization. We expected this because the matrix organization is more of an overlay on the functional organiza­tion than the projectized form which is relatively independent of other support groups. However, with the exception of profit and loss responsibility summarized in Fig. 1, the data in Figs. 2 and 3 show that project managers in matrix organiza­tions perceive themselves with essentially the same amount of control over resources, budgets, schedules, and performance as their counterparts in projectized organizations.

104 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT, VOL. EM-24, NO. 3, AUGUST 1977

PROECTIZED

3 i s 5 l

M

MATRIX

HAS« BUDGET

BÜKET RESP0KS8UTY ONLY

SOMEP&L RESTONSSIUTY

FULLY PAL RESPONSBIE

Fig. 1. Perceived P&L responsibility of project managers.

PROJömZH)

i l ì

(%)

— i RESOURCES ARE ALWAYS SHARED (UTT IEQRNO CQNTROU

RESOURCES MOSTLY

— i 1 — CONTROL FULL CONTROL OVE MOST OVERALL RESOURCES RESOURCES

Fig. 2. Perceived resource sharing (follows approximately the same distribution for both matrix and projectized organizations).

il

(%) PERFORMANCE

FUNCTIONAL MANAGER ß MOSTLY RESPONSIBLE

P.M. SHAKES RESPONSftLTTY WTTH FUNCTTONAL MANAGER

P.M. FULLY RESPONSIBLE

Fig. 3. Perceived control over projects.

This is a significant finding because it indicates that the position power of a project manager probably depends less on the particular organizational type with which he is associated than the organizational climate and the task structure.

Similar findings surfaced during analysis of shared control over project personnel. Project personnel often serve two masters, the project manager and the functional manager. The more a project organization leans toward a functional struc­ture, the more control is vested with the functional manager. Therefore, project managers in a matrix organization should experience less control over project personnel than in a projectized environment. The actual data shows, however, that project managers in matrix organizations experience almost the same degree of control over support department personnel as project managers in projectized organizations. Furthermore, the degree of control seems to be independent of project size. That is, the perceived control of project man-

WHO HAS CONTROL OVER ASSIGNED PERSONNEL REGARDIN6 WORK DIRECTION?

= 100%-

50% H

3 0 % -

-PROJECT SIZE $ 1K - 10K • -PROJECT SIZE - 1M a—PROJECT SIZE > 1M

• a a

- I 1 1 1 i 1 1 r-0% 50% 100%

L0 PROJECT MANABER HAS CONTROL HI Fig. 4. Shared control over project personnel regarding work direc­

tion. (Control ranges from full sharing to no sharing regardless of project size.)

WK0 HAS CONTROL OVER ASSIGNED PERSONNEL REGARDING REWARD AND PUNISHMENT?

IUU70-"

5 0 % -

-0%

· · · · a o • ·

D

• · ° o

· · •

a

•

1 ' '

• "PROJECT SIZE $ 1 K - 10KI #o · 9 —PROJECT S I Z E - I M

a D o—PROJECT SIZE I M D

• 1

• D 0

a ·

• o

° · • o

• · • a

• • o

1 | 1 1 1 1

0% 50% 100% LO PROJECT MANAGER HAS CONTROL HI

Fig. 5. Shared control over project personnel regarding reward and punishment. (Control ranges from no control to full control by the project manager regardless of project size.)

agers over their personnel varies from low to high regardless of the project size. Figs. 4 and 5 summarize these shared control characteristics for both "control over work assign­ments" and "control over reward and punishment."

Effectiveness of Managerial Styles Figs. 6 and 7 show the type of leadership style which is

most favorably associated with project managers' performance

THAMHAIN AND WILEMON: LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS

LEADERSHIP STYLE 1

(LEADER-CENTERED)

LEADERSHIP STYLE 1

(LEADER-CENTERED)

LEADERSHIP STYLE II

(TEAM-CENTERED)

LEADERSHIP STYLE II

(TEAM-CENTERED)

POOR - - ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE - - GOOD Fig. 6. Most effective leadership style of project managers

considering organizational climate and task complexity.

(1

LEADERSHIP STYLE 1

EADER-CENTERI ED)

LEADERSHIP STYLE 1

(1 LEADER-CENTER ED)

LEADERSHIP 1 STYLE II

(TEAM-CENTERED)

LEADERSHIP STYLE II

(TEAM-CENTERED M POOR - - ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE - - GOOD

Fig. 7. Most effective leadership style of project managers considering organizational climate and position power.

under different environmental conditions. Kendall Tau partial correlation techniques were used to obtain the correlation figures based on the perceived project management leadership style and the effectiveness rating provided by their superiors.

The statistical correlation between project management per­formance and the managerial style indicated in each of the quadrants is in the range of r = 0.20 to r = 0.33 with an average confidence level of p > 90 percent. A framed style indicates a particularly strong association between leadership style and performance of τ > 0.35 with p > 95 percent. The data suggest that leadership style I, the leader-centered ap­proach, appears to be the most effective in a poor organiza­tional climate while leadership style II, the team-centered approach, appears to be most effective in a good organiza­tional climate.

More specifically, the quantitative data suggest that the poorer the organizational climate (as measured by the quality

105

of communication, the continuity of work, and the career growth) the more likely a project manager will succeed with leadership style I. That is, the more he relies on leader-centered approaches to project management, the more effective he may be perceived to be by his superior. Contrarily, the better the organizational climate and the more a project manager relies on leadership style II (team-centered), the rr.ore likely it is that he will receive a high performance rating from his immedi­ate superior.

From the summaries provided in Figs. 6 and 7, it is interest­ing to note that the choice of an effective leadership style seems to depend primarily on the organizational climate with little influence from task complexity or position power. The strength of the association between style and climate is, how­ever, substantially influenced by the task and position power. More precisely, the data indicate the following.

Leadership style I (leader-oriented) is more likely to be effective in a poor organization climate, particularly if associ­ated with high position power.

Leadership style II (team-oriented) is more likely to be effective in a good organizational climate, particularly if asso­ciated with high task complexity and/or low position power.

It should be emphasized that project managers do not necessarily operate in extreme environments characterized by "very good" or "very poor" conditions. Therefore, the project management style needs to be adapted to the mix of the prevailing working conditions.

SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION

While project management has gained widespread recogni­tion as an organizational concept, it is only recently that there has been much interest in the leadership requirements of the project leader. The early research which did focus on the leadership styles primarily concentrated on the influence modes used in gaining compliance from support personnel [7]. Moreover, little attention has been focused on possible differ­ences in the effectiveness of leadership styles depending on various task complexities or organizational climates. This research has attempted to develop new insights into these relationships.

Based on the exploratory study, several conclusions can be tentatively formulated.

1) The effectiveness of the project manager depends on his leadership style and his work environment. As shown in Figs. 6 and 7, leadership style I, a leader-oriented management ap­proach, appears most effective in a poor organizational envi­ronment where communications, work continuity, and career growth are inferior. However, in a good organizational climate, leadership style II, a team-oriented style, seems to be most effective.

2) Task complexity and the position power of the project manager does not appear to be an important determinant of the leadership style. While the effectiveness of a particular style may be influenced by the degree of position power and task complexity, the choice between style I and style II seems to depend only on the organizational climate.

106 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT, VOL. EM-24, NO. 3, AUGUST 1977

The rationale for leadership style I effectiveness is ten­tatively formulated as follows. In a poor organizational "climate," the project managers may need to exert strong direction over their project personnel. In such cases, project personnel may follow the directives of the project manager because of: the authority he possesses, the rewards at his disposal, and to avoid the penalties he may use against them. In addition, in such a climate, the only "order" project par­ticipants "see" is that which comes from the directive style of the project leader. For some project team members, this may reduce the anxieties they experience while working in an environment characterized by low degrees of work con­tinuity, poor communications, and limits on career growth opportunities.

On the other side, leadership style II appears to be more effective in a good organizational climate because project participants are not as threatened by individual and organiza­tional concerns. They are more apt to be responsive not only to the project leader's willingness to develop individual rela­tionships with them and their professional capabilities, but also to his efforts to maximize the functioning of the total team. This may typify the kind of environmental context within which the highest levels of team "integration" occur. Environments are not, however, always predictable. Rapid environmental change is not unusual in project management. Personnel, budgets, project scope, and client demands may trigger change within the project. Thus a project manager needs to be flexible in his leadership approach [8].

Several suggestions can be derived from this study which can increase the project manager's effectiveness. First, an audit of the host organization should be undertaken to identify the potential causes of a poor organizational climate. Second, a decision should be made whether the determinants of organi­zational climate can be changed. Third, if they can be altered or modified, a program to alleviate the conditions should be initiated.

Some of the elements of organizational climate, such as work continuity and career growth, are influenced by both organizational internal and external factors such as general economic conditions. Others, such as quality of communica­tion, are under the control of the organization. Management can often influence these elements in spite of their partial external dependence. Specifically, management can do the following.

Top Management can help in building the organizational climate by performing effective long-range business planning and keeping people informed about the basic corporate objec­tives and business prospects. This may reduce the anxiety often created by an uncertain future and may help to increase the perception of the quality of organizational climate, par­ticularly , with regard to work continuity and career growth. Project start-up and phase-out practices are other important areas to be considered. Personal morale and motivation often decline toward the end of a program because employees fear termination or transfer to less desirable jobs. Top management can avoid problems by setting up an appropriate project orga­nization which provides home office features and a system for phasing projects effectively. Such a system may include policies for transferring personnel between projects and inier-project training programs.

Delineation of clearly defined decision channels and sup­port of project managers in dealings with functional support departments may yet be other areas of top management in­volvement toward building a favorable organizational climate.

Project Managers must understand the interaction of orga­nizational and behavioral elements in order to build an envi­ronment conducive to their team's motivational needs. The flow of communication seems to be one of the major factors which influences the quality of the organizational climate. Since the project manager must build multifunctional teams at various organizational layers, it is important that key decisions are properly communicated to all project-related personnel. By openly communicating the project objectives and those of its subtasks, unproductive conflict may be mini­mized. Regularly scheduled status review meetings can be an important vehicle for communicating project-related issues.

Effective planning early in the life cycle of a project is another action which will have a favorable impact on the organizational climate. This is particularly so because project managers have to integrate various disciplines across functional lines. Insufficient planning may eventually lead to interdepart­mental conflict and discontinuities in the work flow.

Furthermore, the project manager can influence the work environment by his own actions. His concern for the project team members, his ability to integrate the personal goals and needs of project personnel with project goals, and his ability to create personal enthusiasm in the work itself can foster a climate which is high in motivation, work involvement, open communication, and subsequent project performance. We found, for instance, that work challenge is a catalyst which helps to integrate personal and project objectives. It is an influence source over which project managers have a great deal of control. Although the total work structure is normally fixed, individual assignments can be made to accommodate the interest and preferences of project personnel.

In summary, project managers must not only be able to adopt their leadership style to the prevailing work situation, but should also have the ability to develop an organizational climate conducive to the effective functioning of high per­forming project teams [9]. This requires the effort of a highly skilled project manager plus top management commitment.

METHODOLOGICAL APPENDIX

I. ASSESSMENT OF WORK ENVIRONMENT OF THE PROJECT MANAGER AND HIS ORGANIZATION

A questionnaire with 11 statements and one diagram was used to characterize the project-organized environment in three areas: 1) organizational climate, 2) task complexity, and 3) position power of the project manager. To minimize the potential bias introduced by social science jargons, the follow­ing statements and scales were developed to measure variables of the above sets. Project managers were asked, in detail, to indicate on a three- or four-point scale how accurate each statement described their work environment.

1. To Assess Organizational Climate 1.1) How good is communication across functional lines?

a) Very good, as good as for vertical information flow.

THAMHAIN AND WILEMON: LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS 107

b) Adequate, but not quite as good as vertical flow. c) It is difficult to communicate across functional

lines. d) Very poor, there is no way of proper communi­

cation across functional lines. 1.2) How well is work continuity being provided from one

project to the next? a) Very well, there is always a smooth transition

from one job to the next; no hassels. b) Some slack time between jobs. Individual effort

is often necessary to find a new assignment. c) It is always difficult to find a new assignment of

personal satisfaction. d) Finding new assignments is individual responsi­

bility. Phase outs are often accompanied by lay offs.

1.3) What is the potential career growth for members of your project organization? a) Very good, the organization helps to develop

individual careers and provides growth continuity throughout the various projects.

b) Career growth depends largely on the opportuni­ties that exist with a new project. Past perform­ance influences advancement.

c) Advancement opportunities exist mostly during the formation of a new project with little growth during the life cycle of the project.

d) There is little advancement potential from proj­ect to project. None during the project life cycle.

2. To Assess Task Complexity 2.1) What Skill Levels do project team members need

within your organization? a) Highly skilled professionals. b) Both highly skilled and semiskilled professionals. c) Semiskilled personnel. d) Unskilled project personnel.

2.2) What Disciplinary Diversification do project team members need within your organization? a) Most personnel deal with the same project

discipline. b) Personnel work on similar project disciplines. c) Project teams are mostly multidisciplinary.

2.3) How many task teams are typically required to com­plete a project/program? a) 1; b) 5; c) 10; d) 20; e) 50; 0 100; or g) more.

2.4) What size of projects/programs are you responsible for? a) $1000; b) $10 000; c) $100 000; d) $1 000000;e) $10000000; or 0 $100000000.

2.5) What is the Life Cycle of a typical project or pro­gram? a) 1 week; b) 1 month; c) 6 months; d) 1 year; or e) 3 years.

3. To Assess Position Power of the Project Manager 3.1) Who has Control Over Assigned Project Personnel?

(Please place "x" in each plane to indicate power sharing between project manager and functional man­agers.) (See Fig. 8.)

Ir

lis«· !ί

I 1 C

—^ρ Remarti aivl punlih- ^ ment power over project personnel

1

%

Fig. 8. Pro)rct Minagrr

3.2) Please check the degree of the program /project man­ager's accountability regarding budget, schedule, and performance. a) PM is fully responsible for.. . budget.. . sched­

ule . . . performance. b) PM shares responsibility with functional mana­

gers for. .. budget... schedule . . . performance. c) Responsibility rests mostly with functional man­

agers for . . . budget... schedule .. . performance. 3.3) What degree of P&L responsibility does the program

office have? a) Full P&L responsibility. b) Some P&L responsibility. c) Accountable for negotiated budget. d) Has no budget of its own.

3.4) To what degree do you, as project manager, have to share resources with functional departments or other programs? a) The project manager has full control over all

facilities, personnel, and support functions. b) The project manager has control over most re­

sources needed for program/project. Shares cer­tain (maybe accounting, etc.).

c) The project manager has only a few key func­tions reporting directly to him. Most personnel and facilities are shared with other projects.

d) The project manager shares all facilities and per­sonnel with other project managers.

II. ASSESSMENT OF PROJECT MANAGERS' ATTITUDES TOWARD SOURCE OF INFLUENCE OF

GAINING SUPPORT A questionnaire with sixteen statements was used to meas­

ure the general attitude of project managers toward developing support from functional support personnel. Project managers were asked to indicate on a six-point scale how important each statement is for gaining support from project personnel. The scale was graded as follows: 1) very important; 2) important; 3) somewhat helpful; 4) I am indifferent about it; 5) might be detrimental to gaining support.

Style I The following statements describe organizationally derived

influence sources, characteristic of a leader-centered approach to management, classified as style I.

1) The project manager should have formal authority. 2) The project manager should let his personnel know that

he has this authority. 3) The organization should let the project personnel know

who is in command.

108 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT, VOL. EM-24, NO. 3, AUGUST 1977

ABILITY TO RESOLVt CONFLICT 1

i « » i toi m m

OVERALL PERFORMANCE

PROJECT MANAGER OR

PROJECT

101 H I

LEADER

SOT 7S\ « 1

AS

- * BOTT»

Fig. 9.

4) The project manager should have direct reward and pun­ishment power (salary, hire, fire, etc.).

5) The project manager should at least be able to influence salary and other rewards.

6) The project manager should stress to his personnel that he has this direct or indirect reward power.

7) The project manager should be able to influence promo­tion of project personnel.

8) The project manager should let his project personnel know about his power to penalize them, if necessary (e.g., discharge from project, negative feedback to functional organization, influence performance appraisal, etc.).

Style II The following statements describe individually derived in­

fluence sources, characteristic of a team-centered approach to management, classified as style II.

1) The project manager should find out what work assign­ments interest who in his project organization, and make an effort to divide the work between his project personnel, accordingly.

2) The project manager should make an effort to provide work continuity between projects.

3) The project manager should help his personnel in their career development.

4) The project manager should have a good track record for managing projects successfully.

5) The project manager should be a technical expert in as many disciplines of his work as possible.

6) The project manager should be alert to potential prob­lems and arrange timely assistance.

7) The project manager should have good rapport with top management and elicit help when needed.

8) The project manager should establish friendship ties with his personnel.

III. ASSESSMENT OF PROJECT MANAGERIAL EFFECTIVENESS

A questionnaire with two evaluation scales was used to measure the effectiveness of project managers in two areas: a) their ability to resolve conflict, and b) their overall project performance. The superiors of the project managers in this survey were asked to provide the rating relative to other proj­ect managers reporting to those superiors. The specific ques­tions asked and their scales are shown above (Fig. 9).

How would you rate this project manager relative to his peers in your group or department with regard to some per­formance criteria?

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors acknowledge the helpful assistance given by R. Ratan in evaluating the research data.

REFERENCES [1] For representative articles which deal with these issues: J. M.

Stewart, "Making project management work," Business Horizons, vol. 8, 1965; I. Avots, "Why does project management fail," California Management Review, Fall, 1969; J. J. Hansen, "The case of the precarious program," Harvard Business Review, Jan.-Feb., 1968; P. R. Lawrence and J. W. Lorsch, "New management job: The integrator," Harvard Business Review, Nov.-Dec. 1967; A. G. Butler, "Project management: A study in organizational con­flict," Academy of Management Journal, Fall, 1970; H. J. Tham-hain and D. L. Wilemon, "Conflict management in project-ori­ented work environments," Proceedings of the Project Manage­ment Institute, Sept. 1974; G. R. Gemmili and H. J. Thamhain, "The power styles of project managers: Some efficiency corre­lates," presented at the 20th Annual Joint Engineering Manage­ment Conference, Oct. 1972; D. H. Morton, "Project manager, catalyst to constant change," Project Management Quarterly, vol. VI, no. 1,1975.

[2] This issue was discussed by Douglas McGregor, The Human Side of Enterprise. New York: McGraw-Hill, as early as 1960.

[3] F. E. Fiedler, "A Contingency Model for the Prediction of Leader­ship Effectiveness," Group Effectiveness Research Laboratory, Dep. of Psychology, University of Illinois, Evanston, IL, 1963; F. E. Fiedler, A Theory of Leadership Effectiveness. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967.

[4] For specific discussions leading to the current research study: H. J. Thamhain and D. L. Wilemon, "Conflict management in project-oriented work environments," in Proceedings of the Sixth International Meeting of the Project Management Institute, Sept. 1974; "Conflict management in project life cycles," Sloan Management Review, Spring, 1965.

[5] (R. Likert shows that the work environment of an enterprise can be characterized with a relatively small number of key variables. For this study the originally suggested variables have been modified to focus on the project environment.) R. Likert, "Human resource accounting," Personnel, May-June 1973.

[6] J. R. P. French, Jr. and B. Raven, "The basis of social power," in Studies in Social Power, D. Cartwright, Ed. Ann Arbor, Michi­gan: Research Center for Group Dynamics, 1959. For a detailed discussion of the questionnaire and survey technique used in more recent power style studies: G. R. Gemmili and H. J. Thamhain, "Influence styles of project managers: Some project performance correlates," Academy of Management Journal, vol. 17, no.2, pp. 216-224, June 1974.

[7] G. R. Gemmili and D. L. Wilemon, "The powe* spectrum in project management," Sloan Management RevU*, Fall, 1970; G. R. Gemmili and H. J. Thamhain, "Influence styles of project managers: Some performance correlates," Academy of Manage­ment Journal, June 1974.

[8] Y. K. Shetly aptly discusses the need for flexibility in leadership patterns in "Leadership and organizational character," Personnel Administration, p. 20, July-Aug. 1969, as follows: The success­ful manager is neither an autocrat, nor a complete democrat, rather one who integrates the forces operating in relation to the particular situation in question. The behavior of an effective leader under specific technological considerations may lead to failure under other technological situations. The leadership appropriate in one organizational system may be irrelevant or even dysfunctional in another system.

[9] This conclusion is supported by findings from other studies such as F. E. Fiedler, "Engineer the job to fit the manager," Harvard Business Review, p. 119, Sept.-Oct., 1965; D.G. Marquis and D.M. Straight, Organizational Factors in Project Performance. Wash­ington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, July 25, 1965; R. M. Godgetts, "Leadership techniques in the project organization," Academy of Management Journal, vol. 11, pp. 2 1 1 -219, 1968; C. Reeser, "Some potential human problems of the project form of organization," Academy of Management Journal, p. 467, Dec. 1969; G. R. Gemmilll and D. L. Wilemon, "The power spectrum in project management," Sloan Management Re­view, pp. 15-25, Fall, 1970; G. R. Gemmili and H. J. Thamhain, "Influence styles of project managers: Some project performance correlates," Academy of Management Journal, pp. 216-224, June 1974; D. C. Murphy, B. N. Baker, and D. Fisher, Deter­minants of Project Success. Springfield, VA: National Technical Information Services, Accession Number N-74-30392, 1974; H. J. Thamhain and D. L. Wilemon, "Conflict management in project-organized work environments," ChemTech Magazine, June 1975.