Whittington, Richard et al. 1999 . Change and Complementarities in the New Competitive Landscape: A European Panel Study, 1992–1996 . Organization Science 5 : 583–600 .

Chapter 16: Criteria for Effective Leadership in Technology-Oriented Project Teams

Hans J. Thamhain, Ph.D., PMP Bentley College

Introduction

Teamwork is the frontier in today's competitive business world. More than 70 percent of managers in our organizations consider effective cross-functional teamwork a key determinant of business performance and success. Virtually all managers recognize the critical importance of effective teamwork and strive for continuous improvement of team performance in their organizations. Yet, only one in ten of these managers have a specific metric for actually measuring team performance. Obviously, this creates some tough challenges, especially in project-based environments where teamwork is crucial to business success. In these organizational environments, work teams must successfully integrate multidisciplinary activities, unify different business processes, and deal with cross-functional issues, such as innovation, quality, speed, producability, sourcing, and service. Managerial principals and practices have changed dramatically. Not too long ago, project management was to a large degree considered "management science." Project leaders could ensure successful integration for most of their project by focusing on properly defining the work, timing, and resources, and by following established procedures for project tracking and control. Today, these factors are still crucial. However, they have become threshold competencies, critically important, but unlikely to guarantee by themselves project success. Today's complex business world requires project teams who are fast and flexible, and can dynamically and creatively work toward established objectives in a changing environment (Cusumano and Yoffie 1998; Engel 1997; Thamhain 1998, 1999, 2000). This requires effective networking and cooperation among people from different organizations, support groups, subcontractors , vendors , government agencies, and customer communities. It also requires the ability to deal with uncertainties and risks introduced by technological, economic, political, social, and regulatory factors. In addition, project leaders have to organize and manage their teams across organizational lines, dealing often with resource personnel over whom they have little or no formal authority. Resource sharing, multiple reporting relationships, and broadly based alliances are as common in today's business environment as email, flex time, and home offices. Managing project teams effectively in such dynamic environments, requires task leaders to understand the interaction of organizational and behavioral variables . These project leaders must develop their multidisciplinary task groups into unified teams, and foster a climate conducive to involvement, commitment, and conflict resolution, in spite of these organizational challenges.