Leadership

The Psychology and Management of Project Teams

by François Chiocchio; E. Kevin Kelloway; Brian Hobbs | 1st Edition | Oxford University Press | eText ISBN 9780190226558

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About this book

Organizations today are increasingly using projects in their daily activities. Projects and project-management principles frame goal attainment in academia and many business sectors, and they even serve as theoretical footing for organizational-change endeavors. However, the ubiquity of project management does not mean that project work, project teams, and the ways organizations use projects are well understood. Moreover, while project-management theory and practice aim at providing structure and control to enable successful project completion, an alarmingly high percentage of projects struggle or fail.

As the authors of <em>The Psychology and Management of Project Teams</em> explain, this is in part because projects are still mostly managed as technical systems rather than behavioral systems. Even though project-management researchers have become increasingly interested in factors that may have an impact on project-management effectiveness, their efforts fall short of addressing the “human factor.” And, unfortunately, many project-management scholars are largely unaware of the I/O psychology literature–relying, for example, on outdated models of motivation and team development. On the other side, I/O psychologists who research groups and teams often ignore the contextual influences–such as business sector, project type, placement in the organizational hierarchy, and project phase and maturity–that have a crucial impact on how a project will unfold.

In this volume, a cross-disciplinary set of editors will bring together perspectives from leading I/O psychology and project-management scholars. The volume will include comprehensive coverage of team selection, development, learning, motivation, and communication; conflict management and well-being; leadership; diversity; performance from a multi-level perspective; and career development. In the concluding chapter, a research agenda will provide a roadmap for an integrated approach to the study of project teams.