Synopses & Reviews
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 The Psychology and Management of Project Teams 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many project-management scholars are largely unaware of the I/O psychology literature--relying, for example, on outdated models of motivation and team development.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.
About the Author
François Chiocchio is Associate Professor of Industrial/Organizational Psychology at the University of Ottawa.
E. Kevin Kelloway is Professor of Management at Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Canada.
Brian Hobbs is Project Management Research Chair at the University of Quebec.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: The Importance of Project Teams and the Need for an Interdisciplinary Perspective
Brian Hobbs, François Chiocchio, and E. Kevin Kelloway
Chapter 2: The Specifics of Project Contexts
Brian Hobbs
Chapter 3: Defining Project Teams: A Review of Conceptual Underpinnings
François Chiocchio
Chapter 4: Project-Based Organizations: What Are They?
Jonas Söderlund
Chapter 5: Contextual Issues in Project Performance: A Multi-Level Perspective
John E. Mathieu, Lauren D'Innocenzo, and Michael R. Kukenberger
Chapter 6: Leadership and Project Teams
Alyson Byrne and Julian Barling
Chapter 7: Motivating Project Teams through Goal Setting, Team Members' Goal Orientation, and a Coach's Regulatory Focus
Cristina Sue-Chan, Kazem Rassouli, and Gary P. Latham
Chapter 8: Identification and Commitment in Project Teams
Isabelle Tremblay, Helen Lee, François Chiocchio, and John P. Meyer
Chapter 9: Conflict in Project Teams
Frank R. C. de Wit
Chapter 10: Bullying in Project Teams
Catherine Loughlin and Lindsay Bryson
Chapter 11: Occupational Health in Project Teams: Considerations for Employee Well-Being
Patrick A. Horsman and E. Kevin Kelloway
Chapter 12: Team Composition and Performance: Considering the Project-Team Challenge
Natalie J. Allen and Thomas O'Neill
Chapter 13: Functional Diversity in Project Teams: Working across Boundaries
Sujin K. Horwitz
Chapter 14: Cross-cultural Communication in Project Teams
Laure E. Pitfield, Aleka M. MacLellan, and E. Kevin Kelloway
Chapter 15: Virtual Project Teams
Michael Beyerlein, Ambika Prasad, Jon Cordas, and Priyanka Shah
Chapter 16: The Development of Project Teams
Marina Pearce, Charlotte L. Powers, and Steve W. J. Kozlowski
Chapter 17: Learning in Project Teams
Edwardo Salas, William Kramer, and Nastassia Savage
Chapter 18: The Future of Project Teams: A Research Agenda
François Chiocchio, E. Kevin Kelloway, and Brian Hobbs