The Relationship of Work Attitudes to Job Performance in Project Management

Project Management: Enhancing Work Attitudes

Project management is an excellent example of a social group that is based on individual attitudes. As a result, this study focused on how a project manager structures a team. A project manager’s sole responsibility is project planning. The primary responsibility is to develop an executable plan that the team can manage while keeping the specific task and available resources in mind. The project manager is responsible for planning, organizing, leading, and controlling his or her team.

Developing a Project

When developing a project, the project manager has to come up with a definite plan on how the project will be undertaken right from the start to the end. The manager has to develop a scope, plan, schedule, and set up procedures, policies, and responsibilities for the team. This paper will focus on some of the ways through which a project manager can enhance the work attitudes and by extension the general job or task performance.

Trust Development

In the case of newly formed teams, there is a risk of inconsistency caused by the lack of trust. For a project manager, dealing with a team that lacks trust is a great challenge. One method of dealing with this issue is the application of different communication apparatus to improve communication within the team (Turner, 2009). If the project manager chooses communication as a means of enhancing trust, he or she needs to also ensure that all members of the team can access the communication channels or mechanisms.

Individual Identity and Responsibility

According to some psychologists, there are four main stages that most teams go through namely; forming, storming, norming, and performing. These are the stages that teams go through at most stages of the project management. The first stage is just the formation, this is whereby the team members come together with no clear demarcation of responsibilities. The second stage, storming, is whereby leaders take their position and hence the creation of responsibilities (Backstrom et al., 2006). A team that is dispersed may not even know the leaders or even each individual’s responsibility. Moreover, the team members will lack shared experiences given that they do not meet or spend time together hence lack of cohesion within the team. In order to deal with this, the project manager should consider holding regular conferences whereby he or she should engage all members of the team and let them interact and get to know each individual’s responsibility. During these conferences, the manager can address underlying issues such as conflicts and issues that may be hindering cooperation and performance all through the four stages. The project manager should ensure that all members of the team attend the meetings or conferences as they are significant for teamwork and bonding (Australian Institute of Project Management, 2008). The project manager will play an important role as a guide and leader throughout the course of the project. He or she will be tasked with additional responsibilities such as problem-solving, motivation, rewards, and punishment. These responsibilities are instrumental in the development of the work attitude within and between the teams.

Communication

Every team needs communication systems since team members are not together all the time but still need access to relevant information on the project. Computer systems are therefore not special for virtual project management only but also for normal projects. In instances whereby a team does not bond or interact well, computers can be used for its different forms of communication such as video conferencing, emails, and live chat. In normal projects whereby the team members are close to each other, the project manager should also ensure that the team members are in constant communication and are working together as a team (Bakker & Leiter, 2010). There is a definite need for meetings for motivation, problem-solving, and such. Virtual systems such as video conferencing can be used in normal projects on occasions such as when the team members are not together or in a particular place at the same time. Technology is a major factor in every company. Therefore, project managers have to ensure that their technology is up to date and that they are able to develop products that compete well with the competitors. Technology enhances creativity within a workplace as tasks can be completed faster and better (Turner, 2009).

Sharing Information

For the final stage of performing to be achieved, sharing of information is paramount as it greatly affects not only performance but also the team members’ rapport which in this case is the norming stage. The main task of a project manager is to ensure that the team members know each other’s responsibilities and are aware of every detail on the project (Backstrom et al., 2006). In the course of each project, the team members should be able to reach each other without any difficulty on a regular basis. It is important to note that the lack of means to share information will hinder the team from discussing work-related issues or even getting to work together and bond. The solution offered to this problem is for the project manager to ensure that the team members can access alternative communication mechanisms. The project manager can come up with tailor-made software or a system for the team through which they can communicate and relate to each other conveniently. As mentioned above, the project manager can also provide the team with additional means such as telephones or mobile phones for more instant communication. Close contact between the team members and the leaders will, in the long run, develop dedication, teamwork, and through the interaction, better work attitude (Australian Institute of Project Management, 2008).

Conclusion

Project management in business organizations is very fundamental. Without a Project manager or a project management office, most of the business’s projects are literally running uncontrollably. Team projects are examples of social groupings whereby different individuals have to come together and complete certain tasks. The four steps mentioned above summarize their stages of interaction. Each step is interdependent on the intermediate step. For the stages to be complete and conflict avoided, in this case, the team members, the project manager, and other relevant leaders need to work together and form a viable organization. Once that relationship is fostered then performance is ultimately improved.

References

Australian Institute of Project Management (2008) Professional Competency Standards for Project Management (Available: http://www.aipm.com.au/html/ncspm.cfm) [Accessed 16 November 2009]. 

Backstrom, L., Huttenlocher, D., Kleinberg, J., & Lan, X. (2006, August). Group formation in large social networks: membership, growth, and evolution. In Proceedings of the 12th ACM SIGKDD international conference on Knowledge discovery and data mining (pp. 44-54). ACM.

Bakker, A. B., & Leiter, M. P. (Eds.). (2010). Work engagement: A handbook of essential theory and research. Psychology Press.

Kerzner, H (2009) Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling, (10th ed), John Wiley & Sons, New York. 

Turner, JR (2009) The handbook of project-based management (3rd ed), McGraw-Hill, London.