Human resource management in the project-oriented organization: Employee well-being and ethical treatment

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International Journal of Project Management 26 (2008) 577–585

Human resource management in the project-orientedorganization: Employee well-being and ethical treatment

Rodney Turner a,b,*,1,2, Martina Huemann c,3, Anne Keegan d,4

a Centre for Project Management, Kemmy Business School, University of Limerick, Limerick, Irelandb Lille School of Management, Avenue Willy Brandt, F59666 Euralille, France

c Project Management Group, University of Economics and Business Administration, Wirtschaft Universitat Wien, Franz Klein Gasse 1, A1190 Wien, Austriad Amsterdam Business School, University of Amsterdam, Roetersstraat 11, 1018 WB Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Received 16 May 2008; accepted 20 May 2008

Abstract

As part of a wider study into human resource management (HRM) practices in project-oriented organizations, we investigated theissue of employee well-being. Project-oriented organizations adopt temporary work processes to deliver products and services to clients.This creates a dynamic work environment, where additional pressures can be imposed on the employee from fluctuating work-loads,uncertain requirements, and multiple role demands. These pressures can create issues for employee well-being and ethical treatment,which need to be managed. HRM has traditionally had two roles, a management support role, providing the organization with compe-tent people to undertake the work processes, and an employee support role, caring for the well-being of employees. In this paper wereport our results on the HRM practices adopted in project-oriented organizations to fulfil the second role. We find that by and largein project-oriented organizations the management support role dominates, and they are not very good at caring for employees. The needfor profit and responding to client demands often takes precedence over employee well-being. However, some of the organizations weinterviewed have adopted HRM practices to care for employees, and we report those. Also providing employees with career developmentopportunities is as important for the individual as it is for the organization, and we report practices for that.� 2008 Elsevier Ltd and IPMA. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Huemann et al [1] suggested the conditions underwhich human resource management (HRM) emerges inthe project-oriented organization may differ from thoseassociated with mainstream HRM, which is shaped bytypically large, classically managed organizations, [2,3].Project-oriented organizations adopt project-based waysof working, [4–6], in response to customers’ demands

0263-7863/$34.00 � 2008 Elsevier Ltd and IPMA. All rights reserved.

doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2008.05.005

* Corresponding author. Address: Wildwood, Manor Close, EastHorsely, Surrey, KT24 6SA, UK. Tel./fax: +44 1483 282 344.

E-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected] (R. Turner), [email protected] (M. Huemann),[email protected] (A. Keegan).

1 Tel.: +353 61 202993; fax: +353 61 332312.2 Tel.: +33 3 2021 5972; fax: +33 3 2021 5974.3 Tel.: +43 1 4277 29405; fax: +43 1 3687510.4 Tel.: +31 20 525 5499; fax: +31 20 525 5092.

for bespoke products or services, [7]. They use temporaryorganizations in the form of projects and programs, andassociated temporary work processes to deliver productsand services to their customers. This creates a transientand dynamic work environment. Every time a new projector program starts or an old one finishes the configurationof human resource in the organization changes, as peopleare transferred from the line to new projects, or from oldprojects back to the line. This can create additional pres-sures for the employees of a project-oriented organizationthrough:

� peaking work-loads making it difficult to achieve awork-life-balance.� uncertainty about future assignments, including the nat-

ure of the assignment, its location and future workcolleagues.� matching assignments to career development objectives.

mailto:[email protected]





578 R. Turner et al. / International Journal of Project Management 26 (2008) 577–585

Managing these pressures requires positive action bothby the individual and by the organization. Looking afterthe well-being of employees, and their ethical treatment,requires specific HRM practices to be adopted by the orga-nization [8–10]. Pastoriza et al. [11] have shown that theethical treatment of employees, and looking after theirwell-being, can increase the social capital of an organiza-tion. As part of a wider investigation into the HRM prac-tices adopted by project-oriented organizations [12], wealso investigated how and to what extent the practicesadopted support the well-being and ethical treatment ofproject workers. We report the results in this paper. Westart by summarizing the nature of work in the project-oriented organization, and the pressures it can create forproject workers and other employees. We then describeour methodology. We describe what we found about thenature of the problem and what organizations do or donot do to manage. We found that often organizations donot manage the problem, or do not care about it, for thesake of profit maximization and because of client demands.In fact it is often the demands of clients that exacerbate theproblem. However, some organizations do take positivesteps to manage the problem and we report those. In spiteof the heavy pressures that project working creates wefound that bay and large project workers enjoy the natureof the work, but that it tends to be self-selecting, so thatthose who can manage the pressures stay with the career.We also report practices adopted to match project assign-ments to career development needs.

2. The project-oriented organization

Interest in project intensification [4,6] and project-basedworking [5,7] has intensified in recent years. Reasonsinclude the need for organizations to adopt appropriatestructures to respond to ‘‘the highly differentiated and cus-tomized nature of demand” [4] p. 1475, particularly inorganizations in the creative and cultural industries, hightechnology sector and professional and consulting indus-tries. Interest has also increased because of a tendencyfor firms in all types of industries ‘‘to undertake projectsas a growing part of their operations even while their pri-mary productive activity might be volume-based or opera-tions-oriented” [4] p. 1475. Most writers distinguishbetween those companies that do most of their work inprojects and/or have a main emphasis on the projectdimensions, and firms where the functional dimensions oforganizational structure and processes dominate and pro-jects take place in the back office to support the function-ally based front office, [7,13].

Turner and Keegan [7] p. 256 defined a project-basedcompany as one ‘‘in which the majority of products madeor services delivered are against bespoke designs for cus-tomers”. This implies it is project-based perforce becauseof the customized nature of the demand from their custom-ers. However, the corporate governance still needs to make

the choice to adopt project-based ways of working as astrategic choice [5], p. 25. Gareis suggests that an organiza-tion is project-oriented it perceives itself as such andchooses to shape its policies, practices and culture for pro-ject-based working.

There are several features of this work environment thatcreate the need for new and different HRM practices thanthose shaped by the typically large, classically managedorganizations [2,3]. These include:

2.1. Temporary work processes

Project-oriented organizations use temporary organiza-tions, (projects and programs) to perform work. Every timea new project or program starts or an old one finishes thehuman resource configuration of the parent organizationchanges. Thus not only will the organization require HRMpractices in the parent organization, it will need to applypractices specific to the temporary organization that is theproject. This creates the need for new HRM practices likeassigning personnel to projects, assessing, developing andrewarding their work on projects, dispersing them on projectcompletion, and linking project assignments to careers.

2.2. Dynamic work environment

The temporary nature of the work creates dynamic workboundaries and contexts, and can influence the motivationand stress of project workers [14] and creates the need forproject managers to develop strategies how to cope withstress [15]. Further, the number and size of projects per-formed can constantly change, making predictions offuture resource requirements difficult [16].

2.3. Project-portfolio resource and role demands

At any time a project-oriented company holds a portfo-lio of different internal and external project types [5]. A per-son can work in different projects at the same time, maybeeven in different project roles. This can create role conflictat an individual level [17]. The organization also needsHRM practices to assign people to several projects or pro-grams, and to smooth the demands between projects andprograms.

2.4. Specific management paradigm

The ideal project-oriented organization has a specificmanagement culture expressed in the empowerment ofemployees, process-orientation and teamwork, continuousand discontinuous organizational change, customer-orien-tation, and networking with clients and suppliers [5].Therefore specific competences and skills are needed byproject personnel to work together in projects. This mayrequire the project-oriented organization to adopt trainingand development practices to develop employees capable ofworking in the project environment, which in turn may

R. Turner et al. / International Journal of Project Management 26 (2008) 577–585 579

require it to adopt specific HRM practices in these areasmatched to the management paradigm adopted.

Thus project-oriented organizations need to adoptHRM practices which support this choice to adopt projectbased ways of working [18,19]. They need to adopt HRMpractices which are aligned [20,21]:

� vertically with the choice to be project-oriented andadopt project-based ways of working.� horizontally so that HRM practices are consistent with

and support working in temporary organizations suchas projects and programs.� horizontally so that HRM practices adopted in projects

and programs are mutually consistent with and support-ive of practices adopted in the line, and vice versa.� horizontally with the organizational context.

Huemann et al. [1] showed that this requires the project-oriented organization to adopt new and different HRMpractices:

1. Novel HRM practices need to be adopted within thetemporary organizations that are projects and pro-grams, consistent with and supportive of project-basedways of working.

2. Different HRM practices in the line to be adapted sothat they are consistent with and supportive of project-based ways of working.

3. Well-being of employees

In the dynamic work environment where the HR config-uration is constantly changing, the challenges of ensuringemployee well-being and ethical treatment is importantbut may be overlooked. The temporary nature of the workand the dynamic nature of the work environment can cre-ate specific pressures on employees. These may include thefollowing.

3.1. Achieving a work-life balance

Employees can find it difficult balancing their workloadin the face of peaks in project work, especially againstunpredictable demands from customers. This in turn cre-ates problems in managing their work-life balance. Recentresearch has shown that companies have problems ingrasping the work and emotional situation of the individ-ual [6], and multi role assignments that may lead to burnout for younger employees or to manage the damagingconsequences of role overload and role conflict [22,23].

3.2. Uncertainty of future work assignments

Temporary projects bring a degree of uncertainty foremployees who cannot be sure what kinds of projects theywill be assigned to, the locations of those projects, or the

colleagues they will work with. Noe et al. [24] suggest thatboth tasks and roles, and managers and co-workers, arecore aspects of employee work experience. From an orga-nizational and managerial perspective, failure to addressthe role conflict of project work may damage efforts toretain workers as both can cause job dissatisfaction andin extreme cases physical, psychological and behaviouralwithdrawal and voluntary turnover. It can also impact onthe organization’s initiatives to improve the work environ-ment with staff working away at client’s sites [25].

3.3. Linking project assignments to career development

Finally there is a need to link project assignments tocareer development, both from an organizational and indi-vidual perspective. The organization needs to develop stafffor its future projects, but if staff members do not feel thattheir project assignments offer them the developmentopportunities they aspire to, they may look elsewhere.

When it comes to considering the effects of HRM prac-tices, the organizational or managerial perspective domi-nates and the effect on individual employees can bemarginalized. Greenwood [9] suggests that we shouldassess the application of fairness and justice to specificHRM practices and concludes that they often disregardthe needs of stakeholders in favour of the organization.She goes on to suggest that we should adopt an ethicalstance to develop minimum standards against which wecan assess HRM practices, but finds HRM lacking whenjudged against these standards. Bonache [10] suggests thatthe simultaneous use of new work arrangements seems toput them in conflict with principles that would make thema fair means of managing people in organizations. He saysthese points to a need for people to develop a more criticalview of the concept of justice in the HRM practicesadopted by an organization. Failure to consider the specificrequirements of HRM in project-oriented companies maymean theorists overlook these issues, and fail to considereffects, positive and negative, of project-oriented workpractices in individuals. However, we have also observedthat project work does seem to be inherently more interest-ing than routine work. Project-oriented companies havegreater success of retaining their employees doing projectwork than those doing routine work.

4. Methodology

Our research consisted of two stages

1. First we reviewed the literature on the project-orientedorganization and identified specific pressures in thatworking environment which could affect the emergenceof HRM practices in a project-led context. We alsoreviewed the project management, general managementand HRM literatures to find what has been writtenabout HRM in that context. Our literature review isdescribed in Huemann et al. [1].


2. Second, we conducted semi-structured interviews toexplore pressures encountered in project-oriented orga-nizations, and the HRM practices adopted in response.We interviewed more than 50 people in 15 companies,from several different industries. The companies inter-viewed are shown in Table 1.

Throughout we formulated proposals about the natureof the work environment in the project-oriented organiza-tion and the new and different HRM practices adopted tomeet its needs. At each stage we reviewed and revised ourproposals based on what we had learnt at that stage, todevelop a model of the HRM practices adopted in theproject-oriented organization. To make the results viableand to ensure a transparent and high quality research

Table 1Companies interviewed

Co No Organization interviewed Maturity as POC Nature of projects

1. IT consulting industrysubsidiary of anAmerican company

High Internal and exterdurations 4 month

2. Business unit of an ITconsulting companysubsidiary of anAmerican company

High in unit,variablethroughoutcompany

External duration1 year

3. Global IT outsourcingcompany

Medium Mainly external dabout 6 months-1

4. Global electroniccompany

High Internal and exterand programs durmonths to 4 years

5. Telecommunicationcompany

Medium to highin unit variable incompany

Mainly Internal pprograms durationmonths-2 years

6. Management consultancy High External7. Information systems

consultantHigh External mainly sm

medium sized pro8. Company specialized in

IT and business processoutsourcing

High External large sca

9. Company specialized inIT and business processoutsourcing

High External large pro

10. ICT vendor subsidiary ofan American company

Variablethroughout thecompany

Internal and exterassignments, smalvery large projects

11. Construction consultingcompany subsidiary of aBritish company

High External mainly la

12. Gas turbine and aero-engine manufacturer

Low to medium Internal and exter

13. Medical and securityassistance globaloperation

High low Internal ICT exterdevelopment

14. Engineering design andconstruction management

High External small toprojects

15. Aerospace research anddevelopment

High Internal, Small toprojects

process a common interview/case study guide [26] wasapplied.

5. The nature of the problem

Our findings suggest that the problem of employee well-being was most significant in organizations undertakingsmall to medium-sized projects. It is less severe in organiza-tions undertaking large projects or small assignments. (Wedefine a small assignment as task of a few weeks’ work orless, involving just one or two people. In our view, such anassignment is not a project because it is not a temporaryorganization [27]. However, we include them in our discus-sion for completeness, and we also recognize that somepeople might classify them as projects. Large projects are

Interviewees Location

nals – 1 year

HR manager three project managersresource pool manager

Austria

s 4 months – Project manager Austria

urationsyear

HR manager project manager Austria

nal projectsations 4

HR manager Austria

rojects ands about 3

HR manager PM office manger threeproject managers line manager twoproject team members

Austria

Two consultants HR manager The Netherlandsall and

jectsTwo project managers The Netherlands

le projects HR Director Head, PPM (Project andprogram management) Capability, 2program managers, PPM capabilityleader, PM office manager, 2 projectmanagers, project team manager, 2project team members

The Netherlands

jects Program manager Ireland

nall projects to

Practice manager for programmanagement

Ireland

rge projects General manager France

nal Consultant, PM office manager,project manager, HR director

UK

nal client Sales and Marketing UK

major Program manager project manager QSmanager Unit manager HR manager

UnitedKingdom

major Deputy PM (Resources), Deputy PM(Technical), Project Manager, DeputyProgram Manager, Former ProjectManager, Diversity Manager

United States


temporary organizations which exist for more than a yearand involve several people or more. Small to medium-sizedprojects are temporary organizations which exist for sev-eral months and involve several to many people.)

5.1. Small assignments

In organizations undertaking small assignments, longworking hours are not a significant problem. With Com-pany 14, assignments are given to people who have suffi-cient time to available to meet the client’s desiredcompletion date. If nobody in the organization is available,then either the work is refused or it is given to anotheroffice or to contract staff. It is very easy to manage anemployee’s workload in this context.

5.2. Large projects

In organizations undertaking large projects it was alsoeasy to plan an employee’s workload. In companies 12,13 and 15 the assignment of people to projects is plannedthrough the annual budgeting cycle. It is therefore easyto ensure that the norm is that people working on projectswork a normal working week (40 h, 9–5). It might be thecase that at critical points on projects longer working hoursare required, especially during final commissioning. Butsuch events can be forecast, and action taken to reducethe pressure on employees. For instance, the following ispossible:

� ensure project staff have time with their families justbefore or just after the forecast period of intense work.� employ contract staff to supplement for normal staff

during the period of intense work.

The problem with organizations undertaking large pro-jects was often more that employees needed to spend longperiods of time away from home if the project is in a dis-tant location. Company 11 reported one employee whohad been working for sometime in South Korea who threa-tened to resign if he was not brought home in the nearfuture. Company 13 also requires their medical staff towork for long periods in remote locations. One of the peo-ple we interviewed in Company 14 had just finished anassignment on one large project that had lasted five years,and had just been assigned to another that could poten-tially last the same length of time. Although both werewithin fifty miles of his home, he was feeling isolation fromhis normal business unit. He saw his career as being in thatbusiness unit, and yet he was spending long periods of timeaway. He was suffering the ‘‘no-home syndrome” describedby Keegan and Turner [28].

Company 15 also reported a slightly different problem.Again they can ensure that the correct number of peopleis assigned to a project to ensure that people can work nor-mal hours for most of the duration of a project. Again atproject commissioning there is a requirement for people

to work long hours, but those occasions can be plannedand ameliorated as above. It is the case that the projectmanagers and deputy project managers find it difficult todelegate their work, and so they work slightly longer work-ing weeks than normal, fifty hours rather than forty. Mostof the project team members could work normal workingweeks, but the project managers and their deputies foundthemselves working slightly longer. The main problem theysuffered is that many of the project managers are very taskfocused, and are excited by the science. They end up work-ing longer hours than needed, not because it is particularlynecessary, but because they enjoy the job, and they encour-age the people around them to do the same. This was rec-ognized by the organization, and they tried to counter it byensuring that at least one of the project management teamof three on each project (project manager and two depu-ties) was people focused and not task focused. The deputyprogram manager we interviewed in the afternoon told usthat the project manager and one of the deputy projectmanagers we had interviewed had both been chosenbecause they were people focused. Indeed the project man-ager the deputy was working for was known to be particu-larly task focused and so the deputy had been specificallychosen to counter that.

5.3. Small to medium sized projects

The most significant problems of ensuring employeewell-being and avoiding excessive levels of work occur withsmall to medium sized projects. Projects typically last threeto nine months, and so that causes several issues which canlead to project demands peeking together:

� With projects lasting three to nine months it is less easyto pace the work. The clients have tight timescales, andso the projects require intensive working all the waythrough.� Again resource demands will peak at commissioning,

but now that is occurring two or three times a year,and at times that are less easy to plan and balance.� With much shorter timescales on projects it is not so

easy to give the project member two weeks of to be withhis or her family, or pursue other non-work interests,either immediately before or immediately after thepeak.� Projects cannot be planned as part of the annual budget-

ing cycle, because most of them are not known about atthe time the budgets are drawn up, so it is less easy toensure that there are sufficient people for the encoun-tered project work-load.� The resource demands for successive projects might be

quite wildly different, and that makes it difficult to planfor the required number of project staff. It is possible toemployee temporary workers, but it can take one, twoor even three months to find an appropriate personwhich is too much use for projects lasting six months.Company 10 specifically mentioned this as a problem.


� People will be working on more than one project at onceand so there is a chance that two or more will peaktogether.� To win the work, contracting companies deliberately

underestimate the required workload, and then employ-ees have to work long hours to complete the project intime. Clients collude with this by assigning the workto the lowest bidder even though they know that thework cannot be done in that time.

We found in some of the companies we interviewed thatit was quite common for people to regularly work 60 oreven 70 h weeks.

6. Project Management 9–5

By and large the companies we interviewed were notvery good at managing these problems, especially contract-ing companies, and sometimes they didn’t seem to care.Reasons include:

(a) Contracting companies need to make a profit, andthat requires them to bid a price that will enable themto win the work, and once they have won the work,they need to do it at a cost less than the price.

(b) In some contracting (and consulting) companies,employees are set targets for utilization, which givesthem a target to work as much time as possible. Ifthey are falling short of their targets, they may startto adopt inappropriate behaviours, such as not tak-ing holidays, working while ill, or not taking training.

(c) Managing the problem requires some effort, particu-larly in the creation of a resource management sys-tem. While no resource management system cancompletely solve all the problems we outlined above,it can certainly help to reduce the stress onemployees.

(d) Some consulting companies do not want a resourcemanagement system because they want employeesto be responsible for their own utilization. Peoplewho perform well and network well will have highutilization; people who do not perform well and/orwho do not network well will have low utilizationand so will leave the company. A resource manage-ment system will help achieve high utilization evenfor poor performing employees. Company 15 wasbetter than most at managing employee well-being,so perhaps that is why they were the most open aboutwanting their employees to be responsible for findingtheir own assignments by developing and maintainingnetworks. Company 8 was also quite open aboutmaking employees responsible for their own utiliza-tion, and hence for finding their next assignment forthemselves.

Zika-Viktorsson et al. [23] suggested that if these prob-lems are left unmanaged they can lead to greater inefficien-

cies, exacerbating the issues. Gallstedt [14] explored theirimpact on the motivation and stress of project workers,and showed how they can impact on goal fulfilment. Thusthe ethical treatment of employees can have a beneficialeffect of organizations [11]. There were some examples ofcompanies making an effort to manage employee well-being.

1. Company 8 has divided HRM roles among threebroadly different groups, one of which is HRM rolesin the line. The purpose of having the line manager lookafter the majority of HRM issues, including employeewell-being, is to give that responsibility to a person witha broad view on the employee’s project portfolio andresponsibilities. While the intention is positive, the out-come is less so. The ‘‘people care managers” we inter-viewed all have very large groups of employees tomanage. In some specific cases they are managing 47employees at any one time. It become clear during theseinterviews that monitoring the well-being of employeesis difficult when there is so little time to devote to eachperson. Some specific managers tried to ensure employ-ees take time off between projects, either by going onvacation or training, but this was achieved from all thetime for all employees. One major issue was the high uti-lization targets in this company and the stigma of being‘‘on the bench”.

2. We have already mentioned that Company 15 made aneffort to assign a project management team (of three)with at least one people focused person. They mentionedthe need to ensure that project team members spendtime with their families. They particularly mentionedthe spring holiday, when children are off school for aweek, and encouraging project team members with fam-ilies to spend time with their children. (It was springwhen we were doing the interviews). Because they areundertaking large projects, it is easier to ensure that pro-jects are adequately resourced. The main problem, as wesaid, is that many team members are excited by the sci-ence and so perhaps give more attention to the task thanstrictly necessary.

3. Company 15 also put a lot of effort into socializing onprojects. That makes people feel much more part of ateam, but also enables concerns to be much more freelyaired.

4. In Company 11, the managing director of the Parisoffice maintained a close working relationship with allhis staff, and so was well aware of the concerns theyhad. As we have mentioned, one staff member wantedto return from South Korea, and another was concernedwith the amount of time he was spending in Dubai.Again by maintaining a close working relationship withstaff, the managing director enabled staff to voice theirconcerns, which enabled the problems to be managed.

5. Turner and Muller [29] give the example of a Swedishtelecommunications company that included as a crite-rion for selecting project managers that they could


achieve a work-life balance, thereby actively ensuringproject managers are adequately people focused.

All the examples we are able to give of companies activelymanaging employee well-being are companies either under-taking large projects or companies undertaking internalprojects. For companies undertaking large projects thework environment is less dynamic, less frenetic, and sothere is greater scope for balancing the work load. Forcompanies undertaking internal projects, there is less ofan immediate focus on making a profit. Yes, they need toundertake work in a cost-effective way. But many compa-nies do recognize that keeping their employees healthy con-tributes to cost effectiveness. The equation changes whenclients employee contractors or consultants. Because ofthe principal-agency relationship [30], clients feel the needto employ the cheapest contractor, and so they contributeto the frenetic work environment. Perhaps clients need totake some responsibility for the well-being of the employeesof their contractors and consultants.

7. Enjoyment of project work

Given these problems, why do people continue to work ina project environment? The answer is they seem to enjoy it.Company 13 reported that people working in the project-oriented parts of the business have longer periods of employ-ment with the company than people working in the routineparts. Project personnel may work for the company for 20years, whereas the average term of employment of a call cen-tre worker is 6 months. This is partly because the routinework attracts transient labour, but also because the tempo-rary nature of project work gives greater variety and moreinterest. In addition, project managers we interviewed inCompanies 8 and 15 said how much they enjoy project work.One person we interviewed from Company 8 had sufferedburn-out a few years earlier, but he had now returned towork and was finding satisfying work in a project supportrole. He also revealed that the company had made effortsto find him a role in which he could function more effectivelyand where the danger of burnout was minimised.

Working as a project manager does seem to be self-selecting. Dolfi and Andrews [31] report that people whohave worked as project managers for five or more yearsare more optimistic than people who have been projectmanagers for fewer than five years. They suggest the reasonis that people who do not like the work environment moveon to other careers. In Company 15, one of the deputy pro-ject managers we interviewed stated quite explicitly thatpeople who do not like the work environment tend not tostay more than two years. So project management attractspeople who thrive in that work environment. Lee-Kellyand Leong [32] report that project managers become moreself-confident with experience, changing their perception ofthe task, and perhaps increasing their self-awareness andimproving their self-management and self-regulation.

Thus, it is difficult for project managers and team mem-bers to achieve a work-life balance, but those who enjoy thelife-style stay the course and continue to thrive in it. How-ever, it is easy for companies to abuse that position, andsubject project managers and other project personnel toexcessive working hours. Both employers and clients havea role to try to ensure that project managers and other per-sonnel do strike an appropriate balance in their lives.

8. Matching projects to career development

Project managers enjoy their career, and the career isself-selecting. But for it to be attractive, projects assign-ments must be linked to career development needs. It isimportant to ensure project managers achieve the develop-ment opportunities they require, and are satisfied in theirdevelopment. Many of the organizations we interviewedhad career structures for project managers, with definedgrades and defined competencies at each level. Elsewhere,(27; 22), we report that many organizations in the engineer-ing industry have defined careers structures for projectmanagers, and spend 15 years developing a project man-ager to manage projects of $100 million or greater. Wereport that they use what we dubbed the spiral staircasecareer, where potential project managers gain experiencein technical, client interfacing, and line management rolesas well as project management roles. We also identified thatcompanies in the information system industry use what wedubbed a Battersea power station career, with managersfollowing the spiral staircase up to about level 3 (of 7)but then following just one path from that point forward;climbing the chimney stack up the function for the remain-der of their career. Microsoft dubs the different careerpaths ‘‘swim lanes”, and allows people to change lane inthe early stage of their career. Thus organizations do offerproject managers structured careers. But it is important toensure project managers are offered appropriate develop-ment, and that it suits their needs.

Many organizations identify development needs in theannual appraisal. Company 6 for instance has a highlystructured appraisal system linked to the annual budgetingcycle. Staff members are appraised twice per year, and setdevelopment targets. Individuals are given their own devel-opment budgets, to spend as they wish (though in consulta-tion with their manager) and they are judged at the end ofthe year on whether they have achieved their developmenttargets. Also in Company 10, each individual is set an indi-vidual development target, and their annual bonus is influ-enced by how well they achieve that objective. But theorganization also has duties to identify appropriate projectsfor the individual to work on and to ensure that he or sheachieves those opportunities. Company 8 has started tofocus attention on employee development opportunitiesafter a period of retrenchment in which budgets for devel-opment were very thin. The HRM Director expressed con-cern that this had damaged the company’s ability to attractand especially retain talented personnel and leaders at the


corporate centre had begun to recognise and address thisproblem. In interviews with project managers and projectpersonnel there was clear evidence that mentoring pro-grams, which had been heavily invested in about seven yearspreviously had been allowed to lapse, while on the otherhand most interviewees told us that they did have opportu-nities, and finding, for development on an annual basis. Onedevelopment barrier identified was a lack of excellence insenior project and program management which has nowbeen targeted for action with the appointment of a directorfor program and project management and appointments ofhighly experienced senior project managers and directors.Company 15 has project management as a function withinthe organization, so project managers are appraised by linemanagers in project management, and developmentrequirements identified in the project management line.They take great care to provide project managers with theopportunities they require. The Deputy Program Managerwe interviewed last described how one of the Deputy ProjectManagers we had interviewed earlier in the day had beencarefully groomed, particularly since he is more peoplefocused than task focused and so will help achieve that bal-ance on the project team he is assigned to.

Company 12 takes a different approach with a pro-gramme management council and development cells. Thecouncil maintains an overview of the project and programmanagement requirements. The development cells thenwork to ensure that people are developed to meet therequirements. Promising project managers are identifiedand then offered development opportunities to meet theirown and the organization’s requirements. In particularthe development cells try to stop line managers Bogartinggood project managers, holding them in inferior positionswhere they are performing well, both to the detriment ofthe individual and the company. The company also runsa consortium masters program for project managers inconjunction with the University of Manchester and Penn-sylvania State University (Erie). (There are three othercompanies in the consortium which also sponsor staffmembers onto the master program.) Promising projectmanagers are encouraged to attend the program, the com-pany pays for their study and tries to allow them time tofind time to undertake the program. Using this approachthe company shows commitment to its project managersand their career development, while providing a ready sup-ply to meet their needs.

9. Conclusions

As we have seen, the dynamic work environment in theproject-oriented organization imposes considerable pres-sures on employees, as also reported by Packendorff [33].In this paper we considered the problem of employeewell-being in this dynamic environment. In our researchwe confirmed that it is a problem, and, unfortunately, byand large project-oriented organizations are not very goodat dealing with the problem, both because it is often a

threat to profitability, and because to deal with the prob-lem effectively requires an effective resource managementsystem. We outlined that pressures are especially high insmall to medium sized external projects, where employeeswork simultaneously in more than one project, and unex-pected projects add on to the work-load. These findingsare confirming prior research by Eskerod [34], Blichfeldtand Eskerod [16].

However, there were some welcome examples of organi-zations taking positive steps to improve employee well-being, to make project management a job for working9–5. In spite of, or perhaps because of, the pressures of pro-ject working, it is a career those who choose it enjoy,although it tends to be self-selecting; those who don’t likeit as a career opt out within five years. This can lead toissues of diversity, with all project managers in an organi-zation looking the same, which Company 16 was takingpositive steps to manage. Finally, if project managementis to be made an attractive career to as wide a range of peo-ple as possible, organizations must ensure that projectassignments match people’s career aspirations.

Acknowledgement

This work was sponsored by the Project ManagementInstitute (PMI�) and the institutions we work for. Weare grateful for their support.

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Human resource management in the project-oriented organization: Employee well-being and ethical treatment