Project Management and Organization Performance - Literature review Example

Project management By Course Professor’s Name Institution Location of Institution Date Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 1.0 Introduction 3 2.0 Project management and organization performance 4 3.0 The concept of profession 5 4.0 Project management as profession or not 7 6.0 Conclusion 12 Reference 14 1.0 Introduction Project management can be defined as science and art of initiating, planning, executing and controlling the component of project to achieve intended objective or purpose (Kerzner 2013). Some of the components of project management which is included in the definition of what project management include; 1. Huge task 2. Beginning and End 3. It includes various tools like Gantt Charts, PERT charts, Work break down structures among others 4. It comprises of Ad hoc resources and lastly 5. Risk and successes Project has several phases they include i. Project definition include objectives and goals ii. Project initiation which is mostly project set up before it can kick start iii. Project planning which is simply outline on how it should be carried out iv. Project execution v. Project monitoring and control vi. Project closure Over the years, project management has replicated itself from the field of engineering, defense and aeronautical engineering to almost every sector and profession (Kerzner 2013). The association of project management has been in existence for several years, in recent past, many have taken on the more formal characteristic of other professional bodies (Schwalbe 2015). Despite all these, the impact on the project based sectors are very limited and this leads to the question whether project management should be taken as profession or discipline of its own (Schwalbe 2015). There is much confusion among scholars as to what discipline actually refers to and with little research if any into the discipline as a whole; while many accept it as a management normal practice, few if any industries and other research institutions sees it as a cognate discipline that consist of the overall definition and development of projects and which is central to the performance of the business. Project management is used in various industries and almost all sectors of economy (Verzuh 2015). This implies that all head of departments should have project management skills and this paper intends to evaluate why project management should be a profession on its own rather than a general discipline within broader disciplines (Kerzner 2013). 2.0 Project management and organization performance Recent research by Kerzner (2013) indicates that high performing organizations have shown adherence to proven project management and proper portfolio management practices that helps in reducing the risk, cost reduction and increased success rates of the project programs. One characteristics of these successful business or organization is that they have hired experts in project managements to head their various projects. This implies that all organizations need to go back to project management basics by embedding a project management mindset in their culture and this will help create a sustainable competitive advantage. Turnern (2016) states that high performing organizations drives project management and deploy related competencies with the sole aim of maximizing organizations values. Study by Whitaker (2016) shows that projects within these organizations meet original goals and business intent two- and –half times more often than those in low performing organization. The most important question here is that what help organization to build organization to create sustainable development and high growth rate? This question is answered by proper project management (Hill 2013). 3.0 The concept of profession To help in clench the contemporary definition of profession and the word professionals in the context of the 21st century, we can begin our discussion by looking at the Aristotle, Socrates, Plato and of course Hippocrates. The most important person here is the Aristotle’s. “It states that what we learn to do we learn by doing.’ (Edkins et al., 2014) Fundamental to all professions is the principal that you cannot learn what you need to know for any kind of profession by just reading the books. Therefore, we call it the “practice” of medicine, an indication that knowledge and skills acquisition is never ending. Similarly, it is important to study Socrates view on the deception that “self-deception is the worst deception”. (Schwalbe 2015). As we discuss more about professionalization of the project management. Hence the clarification of the concept of profession. Which has bring much disputes among scholars, and this is a difficulty for defining the field of profession work, professional learning and practices. Scholars have shifted the discussion on the meaning of profession and distinguishing it from other occupation (Schwalbe 2015). The distinction between the work of Socrates and Aristotle is the characteristics of profession which gives it identity over other profession. Morris (2013) defines professionalism as the conduct or the qualities that characterized professional in an individual. One important concept to note is the first the concept of profession is dynamic and is a changing historical concept to some extent, reflects the values of the society of the time (Morris 2013). Another important concept is that most of theoretical literature on the sociology of professions is normally based on industrial nations strongly influenced by Anglo-American institutions. Some of the common professions are law and medicine and this was mostly influenced by western society. Lock (2014) question how profession should be defined, he questioned the difference between doctor and Carpenter and may be teachers. For this case, we can ask the difference between an accountant and project management, what makes us to talk of one as a profession and deny the other one as not profession. Turner (2016) states that professional activity is one which involves intellectual, carrying with it great personal responsibility, it was learned, being based on the great knowledge and not merely routine. He believes that profession is technical rather than academic or theoretic. The technique could be taught being the basis of professional education. Profession is strongly organized internally and it was motivated by altruism, the professional viewing themselves as working for some aspect of the good of the society. Garel (2013) states that profession like law, medicine and engineering are automatic profession while ones like plumbing may not be classified as profession while project management by its nature of cutting across many discipline, may or may not qualified as profession depending on the way you approach it. Nevertheless, what matters is the spirit of professionalism (Hill 2013). 4.0 Project management as profession or not Garel (2013) defines profession in his play “The doctor’s dilemma of 1906 as conspiracies against the laity. Alexander (2013) defines the profession as a subject that attract people who had a psychological predisposition to seek social recognition for their work over wealth. Therefore, we can summarized profession as the combination of both talent, attractiveness and call that someone has willing join to perform through academic processes. The work by James in the mid-1960s indicates the extent of the persuasiveness the concept of professional had become by the beginning of the early 20th century (Campbell, Jardine and McGlynn 2016). The same work was replicated by Morris and Turner (2016) in the true professional ideal in America and the professionalization of everybody respectively. With time, there has been increased trend towards people wanting their occupation to be recognized as profession thereby reaping the respect, benefit and prestige which was long associated with the description (Campbell, Jardine and McGlynn 2016). As per the statement of the project management institute (PMI), the world largest organization dealing with project managements clearly states in its manual that project management is a profession. In the recent version of the project management manual and professional code of ethics, the word profession appears 11 times citing and indicating the project management as a profession while the word professional was 20 times hence this is enough proof that the topic project management is a profession as the world governing body on project management (Campbell, Jardine and McGlynn 2016) Cetindamar, Phaal and Probert (2016) argues that repeating the word many times does not make it become fact hence whether the world project management governing body mentioned it several times, does not make it to be a profession. Just like the parable of the emperor’s new clothes tells us human beings are prone to believe not what they see but what they have heard and are heavily influenced by peer pressure to conform to the norms of the group? Unlikely enough, this would be the case with the project management. Instead of it to stand alone, profession, there is much evidence that each and every specialty is justified in claiming that the concept of project management as it cut across all sectors (Cetindamar, Phaal and Probert, 2016). Lock (2014) argues that project management is not a profession but a mere process one uses to deliver a specific project output. For instance, if a civil engineer who specialized in building and construction delivers a building or a construction project, he or she does not change to be a project manager professional but a civil engineer hence project management is a process but not a profession of its own. Lock (2014) furthers argues that, it does not matter if someone is very talented in a specific activity and competently deliver it in the way it is expected then, he or she should be considered as a professional. Therefore, if profession is considered by the manner and competency through which one is able to deliver a particular activity, then it is obvious that we will confusion and fail to differentiate a talent and a profession and what one can easily do as a leisure. Edkins, et al., (2014) argues that in order for one to build a profession, he must be able to define and control the body of knowledge under that specific subject. It should be noted that the knowledge should also be not generic. The body of knowledge must be by all means be unique, secret, esoteric, abstruse and complicated. However, the knowledge used by project managed in most a time based on the very same general knowledge of common management and the only noticeable distinction being that project management can have specific end. Meanwhile, the tools, techniques and the methodologies are not very much different from those used in the normal management. Therefore, they concluded that project management does not meet the definition of the word profession hence it is not a profession but rather any other term which can be used in the general management. Verzuh (2015) states that project management is rather a process which is always in the all activities which we do in all organization. In the circumstances where we use PMI we to some extent over simplified the definition of the term project as being a temporary undertaking to produce peculiar product, services and results and we are able to appreciate how pervasive ubiquitous and broad the context specific applications are for the processes associated with project management. Looking at the processes that take place in organization for instance, accountant who have to produce payroll on a monthly basis, project is a producing payroll while all other activities involve in producing payroll is just but programs. For a lawyer managing case for a client, coming up with strong defense is a program while project is the management is the process of handling the client case. Therefore, in one way or the other, we are all project management within our organization. While some of people are extremely good at project management and are able to get a living out of it, this only is not enough to justify the word or term project management to be a profession. Alexander (2013) believes that project management is just a merely Job Tittle which an individual assigned the duty of managing the process should maintain it and job tittle has never proved to be a profession hence one should not claim that he or she is a project management professional. Garel (2013) believes that the qualification of project management as a profession depends on the individual definition of the word profession. On a wider definition that a profession is something that and individual does and get paid for the service he or she has offered, then that is an automatic qualification of project management as a profession. However, if one applies narrow definition like a specialization or something which is governed by the government through licensing board, then this disqualified the project management as a profession. Therefore, the debate on whether project management is a profession or not does not matter but what one wants to achieve by the end of the definition and the objective one wants to achieve. Hill (2013) argues that since project management is a process of creating new things, then it does not qualified as a profession as there is specific qualification be it technical or any other way, what matters, there is an idea first to create new product and by the end you need someone who is able to guide stages and process of creating this new thing hence the work of project manager. If project management would be a profession, then all other profession would not exist as project management itself cuts across all profession and all sectors. 5.0 Benefits of project management as a profession With increasing demand of improve performance among firms, the demand of project managers is increasing Turner (2016). It should be noted that the work and practice of project management has been proven in the traditional project based industries both in manufacturing, engineering, construction among other industries and there is increase demand in other sectors like health, energy among others. It is estimated that over fifteen millions new riles of project managers will increased between the years 2010 to 2020 globally hence, this calls for more project managers in different sectors of the economy (Hill 2013). Many scholars like Ahlemann, et al., (2013) have written much concerning the skills, characteristics and the competencies of serving as a project manager. Skills like honesty, team development, client management among other skills are very important factors to consider in a project manager (Heagney 2012).This does not entirely require technical aspect of the project to be undertaken while it concentrates mostly on the project as a whole. Therefore, it does not matter the technical know-how of an individual concerning specific area of specialization but general soft skills of management (Hill 2013). Therefore, these soft management skills are very important in the general management of organization processes (Ahlemann, et al., 2013). It should be noted that leading organizations across sectors and geographical border are increasing and with this trend, project management skills have become very important. Proper project management has become important tool in cost cutting and improving the overall performance of the organizations (Morris 2013). With the recession, the concept of project management has been more embraced than ever before as the management realized that adhering to processes involve in project management has helped most organization to remain relevant and competitive in the market. Project management experts are able to blend various management and strategic skills in ensuring that their project excel at minimum cost possible and this has resulted to increased demand of professional project managers (Ahlemann, et al., 2013). With increased challenging and competitive business environment, it is quite possible for business to fail if it is not able to develop and deliver competitive products or services in time (Heagney 2012). Project management professionals will be able to train individuals who are capable and have skills to deliver product within given time framework and within the required budget. The training on the principles of project management purely will enables an individual to be all round individual who will be very beneficial to the organization as a whole hence project management as a profession is very important and is required by all the organization (Heagney 2012). The resources in organization are not only scarce but also precious and proper management of these resources are very necessary (Ahlemann, et al., 2013). Without proper management of production and construction processes, these resources might go to waste hence the need for the project managers who are able not only to manage these resources but are able to create more value to the available resources so that the owners are able to get more value for them. These value creation is only possible through project management. Without proper project managers, the companies will not be able to meet these essential demands. Therefore project management profession is necessary (Morris 2013). Success of organization does not only involve proper production but also people who needs to be properly managed (Morris 2013). Professions like engineering focuses mostly on tools while others like marketing is busy with the sales turnover of the company. Is only project management which comes at the middle grounds and looks at the combination of these factors so that the required output is achieved in the organization? Therefore, professional project managers with skills across all sectors are very important (Morris 2013). 6.0 Conclusion Whether project management is a profession or not is still debatable as illustrated in the literature. There are many factors which requires consideration before one can comfortably decide that project management is a profession or not. With the rapid changing business dynamic and academic development, we can easily conclude that project management is necessary requirements for every organization. All other professions can easily integrates with project management individuals within the organizations and this will help in propelling the development and growth of organization. In summary, I can conclude that project management is a profession as it meets all the requirements of what entails for a particular concept to be referred to as a profession. Reference Ahlemann, F., El Arbi, F., Kaiser, M.G. and Heck, A., 2013. A process framework for theoretically grounded prescriptive research in the project management field. International Journal of Project Management, 31(1), pp.43-56. Alexander, K., 2013. Facilities management: theory and practice. Routledge. Campbell, J.D., Jardine, A.K. and McGlynn, J. eds., 2016. Asset management excellence: optimizing equipment life-cycle decisions. CRC Press. Cetindamar, D., Phaal, R. and Probert, D.R., 2016. Technology management as a profession and the challenges ahead. Journal of Engineering and Technology Management. Edkins, A., Konstantinou, E., Morris, P. and Earl, S., 2014. Academia and the Profession of Project Management–The Case for a More Active Relationship. Garel, G., 2013. A history of project management models: From pre-models to the standard models. International Journal of Project Management, 31(5), pp.663-669. Heagney, J., 2012. Fundamentals of project management. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. Hill, G.M., 2013. The complete project management office handbook. CRC Press. Kerzner, H.R., 2013. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons. Lock, M.D., 2014. The essentials of project management. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. Morris, P.W., 2013. Reconstructing project management. John Wiley & Sons. Schwalbe, K., 2015. Information technology project management. Cengage Learning. Turner, R., 2016. Gower handbook of project management. Routledge. Verzuh, E., 2015. The fast forward MBA in project management. John Wiley & Sons. Whitaker, S., 2016. Foundational Concepts of Project Management. In Pass the PMP® Exam (pp. 1-33). Apress. Read More