Psychology and Management of Project Teams

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. <p/>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many project-management scholars are largely unaware of the I/O psychology literature--relying for example on outdated models of motivation and team development.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. <p/>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.<br>