Complex Project Leadership: Challenges in Developing an Advanced Master’s Program

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Short Description

Organizations require employees to have project management capacity in order to lead projects that are increasingly complex and subject to a high level of failure. The roundtable will address this issue by engaging with participants on how to best prepare leaders to successfully deliver complex projects through a master’s program.

Detailed Abstract

Every organisation—public, private, or non-profit, large or small, starting or mature—conducts some measure of its activities as projects. It is estimated that 51 million people worldwide are involved in the management of projects (Project Management Institute, 2014). Yet project failure is a common occurrence (Shepherd, Patzelt, & Wolfe, 2011). Reports of failed or struggling projects are common in the media worldwide in construction (Sage, Dainty, & Brookes, 2014), aerospace , IT (Sage et al., 2014) and retail (Wahba, 2015). IT projects fail at a notoriously high rate (Johnson, 2006; Murray, 2001; Savolainen, Ahonen, & Richardson, 2012), but other types of projects also fail often, such as procurement projects (Yeo & Ning, 2002), new product development (Griffin & Page, 1996), and various forms of organisational change initiatives (e.g., business transformations, business reengineering) (Hornstein, 2015; Kuijpers, Joosten, & de Natris, 2012; Sarker, Sarker, & Sidorova, 2006). These type of projects fail because they are frequently delivered late, very much over budget, below client specifications, and once the projects are done, their long term value is often unclear (Pinto & Mantel, 1990). Failed projects mean that organizational strategies do not fully mature into competitive advantage, innovations do not reach markets in time, or that organisational change does not produce more efficient and effective organisations. When projects fail, people, organisations and economies lose.


Two intertwined reasons can explain project failure. The first is that most projects are complex endeavors. Projects are complex for a variety of reasons. First, projects are complex because they require the setup of a temporary organisation—they have a beginning and an end—within the web of permanent processes and routines that either make the fabric of companies and government (Grabher & Ibert, 2011; Turner & Müller, 2003) or that function outside the realm of existing organisations and link them within a larger national and international ecology (Jones & Lichtenstein, 2008). Second, projects involve many interdependent contributors and stakeholders with diverse and shifting needs. Third, the goal of the project and the methods to reach these goals are unknown, uncertain, or changing (Williams, 1999). Usually, the bigger the project, the more complex it becomes. But small projects can be complex too, especially when the roles of those involved are shifting because of the project or during the project (Chiocchio & Richer, 2015). The fourth element of complexity has to do with the human element (Chiocchio & Hobbs, 2014; Slevin & Pinto, 2007). Indeed, project management practitioners often point to the human element as the most acute of project management challenges (Thamhain, 2013). Scholars have reported for years that project success or failure depend on the people working on the project (Henrie & Sousa-Poza, 2005).


The second reason why projects fail is that project management is often mistakenly reduced to skilful use of tools and techniques (e.g., Gantt charts, Programme Evaluation and Review Technique, Earned Value Management) whereas a growing number of practitioners and scholars view project management as a complex system of people and teams (Belout & Gauvreau, 2004; Chiocchio, 2015; Morris, Pinto J, & Söderlund, 2011). Tools and techniques are necessary but are not sufficient to foster project success—a project is truly a complex socio-technical endeavor (Morris et al., 2011). Slevin and Pinto note that “project management has been engaged in an inexorable movement toward the human side of the enterprise” (2007, p. 1). In fact, project management practitioners often describe the human element as the most challenging when it comes to managing projects (Thamhain, 2013). Indeed, “a common theme to project management success or failure is the people involved with the project” (Henrie & Sousa-Poza, 2005, p. 5). As Lalonde, Bourgault, & Findeli (2010) point out project failure can be addressed through the interaction of people’s behaviors, the social system in which they evolve, and the technology they use (Pardo & Scholl, 2002; Pinto & Mantel, 1990).


Clearly, we need new and better prepared leaders in charge of complex projects. The round table will use the following questions to initiate interactions and discussions on the general topic of “How to best prepare leaders to successfully deliver complex projects through a master’s program”:
• Is leadership different in the complex project context? How should this be addressed in a master’s program dedicated to complex project leadership?
• What balance should be struck between teaching about complex systems and teaching about leadership to fully address the challenges of complex project leadership?
• What in-class exercises and workplace assignments can best expose master’s candidates to the human factor aspects of leading complex projects?

Participants

• Francois Chiocchio, University of Ottawa

• Stephane Tywoniak, University of Ottawa