INVITATION TO JOIN AS A CASE STUDY COMPANY

International Research Team

Professor J. Rodney Turner, Professor for Project Management, ESC Lille

Dr. Martina Huemann, Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration

Dr. Anne E. Keegan, Erasmus University Rotterdam

Overview of the Research Project: HRM in the Project-Oriented Company

The goals of the research project are:

• To explore if, and to what extent, the distinctive characteristics of project-oriented companies, including the temporary nature of the work processes and the dynamic nature of the work environment, lead to the necessity for specific HR policies, processes, and practices.
• To consider the implications for both organizations and individuals of these emergent policies and practices.

One of the main outcomes of this stage of the research is that we develop a model of HRM in the project-oriented company, reporting on the policies, processes, and practices adopted by project-oriented companies, and proposing how these influence outcomes at the organizational and individual levels. The research project is partly sponsored by the Project Management Institute.

The research project started in January 2006 and will be finished by the beginning of 2007. See the following bar chart. At the moment we are organizing the case studies.

Objectives and Scope of the Case Studies

The proposed central part of this research is to undertake three major case studies. The aim of the case studies is:

• To explore and understand the HRM policies, practices, and processes adopted by the particular project-oriented company.
• To investigate the implications of the policies, practices, and procedures adopted for both the organizations and the individuals employed by the organizations.
• To compare the different case studies and look for commonalities and differences.

The case study companies are selected companies with relatively high maturity as project-oriented companies. The companies come from different industries and perform different types of projects. The names of the companies will be kept anonymous.

Benefits for the Case Study Company

• The case study will offer an opportunity to reflect on HRM policies and practices adopted, and consider them in light of current research with feedback from the researchers.
• The results of the research will indicate the strengths and areas for improvement regarding HRM of the particular project-oriented company.
• There will be early access to the research results. Copies of the report will be made available to the companies as it is written. Final copies and intermediate products will be made available. Also, copies of research reports will be made available.
• There will be a contribution to the project management community, developing new knowledge. This will also feed back to the participating organization as the project management community becomes stronger.

Contributions of the Case Study Company

• Provision of interview partners for group and single interviews to understand the HRM policies, practices, and processes adapted by the project-oriented company.
• Provision of (nonconfidential) documentation and other infrastructure, such as databases, to understand how they support the HRM practices and procedures adopted.
• The duration of the researchers on site will be about 1 to 1.5 days.

Interviews

We would like to conduct mainly group interviews with a duration of about 90 minutes. Single interviews will have a duration of about 60 minutes. People we would like to interview are:

• Managers from the HRM department, to investigate the HRM policies practices and procedures adopted by the organization, the role of the HRM department in their implementation, and the support given to front line managers in their implementation.
• Project and program managers, to understand their role in implementing HRM practices and procedures, to explore their role in assignment, engagement, and dispersement¹ of project team members, and to investigate their perception of the HRM system, both as project management professionals to whom it applies and as managers of project team members responsible for its application on projects.
• Managers of project management personnel, to understand their role in implementing HRM practices and procedures, to explore how assignment, engagement, and dispersement are enacted and to investigate their perception of the HRM system as line managers or expert pool managers.
• Manager of the project management office, to explore his or her role in implementing HRM practices and procedures, and the support given to the managers of project managers and project, program and portfolio managers in applying practices and procedures, and to investigate his or her role in the assignment of team members to projects and their dispersement from projects.
• Project portfolio managers, to investigate how the HRM systems support them in the assignment of project team members to projects and in their dispersement from projects.
• Project team members, to investigate their perception of the HRM system, how it manages their work in the organization and on projects, and how it meets their own needs.

Documentation Analysis

We would like to have access to (nonconfidential) documentation and relevant databases. In the documentation analysis, we would like to look at:

• General information on the project-oriented company, to understand the organization for example, its vision, mission, and strategy of the organization, annual report, company organization chart, etc.
• Project management and portfolio management documents, to understand which projects are conducted and the maturity as a project-oriented company, for example, PM process description, PM standards.
• Project management documents linked to HR issues, for example, role descriptions of project management personnel, PM career path, competency profiles, documents regarding incentive systems, performance appraisal forms for project personnel, and project portfolio database, etc.
• General HR documents, to understand the HRM system of the company, for example, HR policies and strategies, HR manual or procedures, role descriptions of line managers, HR managers, and skill database, etc.

Overview on the HR Topics Covered in the Case Study

• Specific requirements and challenges for HRM in the project-oriented company
• HRM in the project-oriented company needs to support the strategy of the company, which is “management by projects.” This creates different needs for HRM in the project-oriented organization.
• Project-oriented companies use temporary organizations, including projects and programs, to undertake their work, because the HR configuration of the organization is continually changing as projects start and finish. Therefore, HRM is more invasive than it is in classically managed organizations.
• Because every time a new project is created the HR configuration of the organization changes, the environment in a project-oriented company is more dynamic and discontinuous.
• Project-portfolio resourcing and multi-role demands are specific features of the project-oriented company
• Project oriented companies have a specific project management culture and management paradigm. This influences HR issues.
• Based on these specific characteristics of the project-oriented company, specific HRM challenges arise.

• Employee well-being and ethical treatment in the project-oriented company
• In a dynamic environment in which the HR configuration is constantly changing, the challenges of ensuring employee well-being and ethical treatment of workers is important but may be overlooked in project-oriented organizations.
• When it comes to considering the effects of HR policies and practices, the organizational/managerial perspective dominates and the effect on individual employees are marginalized.

• HRM processes and practices in the project-oriented company
• The project-oriented company needs additional processes for HRM, and particular assignment to projects, appraisal, development and reward on projects, and dispersement from projects.
• The project-oriented company needs different practices for HRM; specific practices within the traditional processes of selection, appraisal, development, reward, and release; and different practices within the additional processes of assignment to projects, appraisal, development and reward within projects, and dispersement from projects.

• HRM roles in the project-oriented company
• The roles of the HR department continue to be to set policies, standards, rules, and guidelines for HRM; to delegate the operation to those parts of the organization where the decisions have the greatest effect (the principle of subsidiarity); and to provide support in their operation, as necessary.
• Line managers, project managers, deployment managers, and HR managers all have specific HR roles and tasks they fulfill.

• Different variables that influence the specific design of the HR function
• The different HR roles (line managers, project managers, HR department, and deployment managers) for processes and practices adopted depend on the nature of the projects (size, duration, repetitiveness, single discipline versus multi-discipline, and internal versus external), the maturity of the organization as a project-oriented organization, and its HR configuration.

• Trends in HRM
• Some of the trends in HRM, such as global sourcing, centralization of the HRM function, outsourcing of the HRM function, and devolution of HRM roles and tasks to managers at the work interface, can also be identified in project-oriented companies. However, these trends create specific challenges in the project-oriented companies.

Contact

Dr. Martina Huemann

[email protected]

Tel: +43 1 313 52262

Mobile: +43 699 11891410

1 Dispersement: a word coined by the researchers to refer to the step of the HRM process when project team members are released from the project.