In referencing social complexity, it seems that a problem description has been found that, at the very least, reveals the difference to traditional project management and opens the door to a space of solution into which we have yet only ventured a few steps. It is unfamiliar to think about political and cultural aspects in project management. However, initial experiences are promising.
The following is an exploration of the existing possibilities, which make dealing with social complexity fruitful for project management. After a brief, fundamental consideration of complexity (II.) and strategic complexity reduction (III.), the inevitability of the social (IV.) is considered against and with the backdrop of practical experience in change management (V.). This allows then, in the sense of Next Practice development perspectives (VIII.) a shedding of light on the instrumental manageability of the practice of the political (VI.) and the cultural (VII.). Finally, the conclusion (IX.) will provide an answer to the primary question: How can the exploration of social complexity further develop and improve the capabilities of project management?
Keywords: Social complexity, politics, culture, Next Practice, strategic complexity reduction
Researchers of project management over the last 20 years have published multiple significant reviews that have served to map the landscape of project management, revealing its complexity and deepening our understanding. Contributing to this understanding is an ongoing challenge, and one dependent on the timely identification of topics that reveal truths and propel practice. This paper contributes to this understanding through a systematic review of more than 1100 journal articles published in the last 5 years on the theme of the ‘human factors’ of project management that reveals their multiplicity, distribution and focus. The article will conclude with directions for future research.
‘Project’ as a form of organising work has received an increased popularity, among several reasons due to its ability to handle various strategic and operational complexities. However, frequent reports suggest that many projects fail to meet the set objectives, in terms of outcome quality, time of delivery, and costs. There are various reasons to this, however one important cause, yet little researched, is what is called ‘time leakage’. The latter occurs when human agents’ perceived time (cognitive time) differs from the clock time (physical time) and thereby produces Cognitive Time Distortion. This is unconditional to any human agent due to the cognitive functioning, and its typical consequence is that more time is consumed by professionals than it was planned for (prospective time distortion) and also than it is reported (retrospective time distortion).
In order to advance techniques to handle Cognitive Time Distortion in a somewhat positive manner, a generic hypothesis was formulated stating that: information about a subject’s time-perception, both from planned and executed activities, may be fed back (feedback) to the subject who conducted the activities, and thereby induces subject’s learning of how to perceive time. By development of time perception capability, in turn, may contribute to the reduction of time leakage due to Cognitive Time Distortion, which will have positive influence on the execution of project vs the set objectives.
More specifically, this paper presents results form a laboratory experiment (N = 63) in which different modes of feed-back has been tested. The experiment targeted especially the quality dimension ‘precision of delivery’ and the economic goal as measured in profit. The participators in the experiment were sorted in two groups; and each group was asked to conduct a task, and make time assessments, which was followed by subjects’ reception of feedback. Two kinds of feedback were compared in the experiment; one based on promises of monetary reward and one based on precise information about errors in individual time assessment. The time related feedback was specifically based on the participators time perception as measured in percent of the assessed time duration. Mean values and dispersion of the time assessments of the two groups were compared. It is concluded that feedback with individual time perception improved the quality dimension precision of delivery significantly. It can also be concluded that feedback with individual time perception supports the budgeted profit, while feedback of only monetary rewards only does not. In addition, the two groups exhibited significantly different attitudes with respect to work-related factors, such as perceived motivation and perceived efficiency, suggesting that mode of feedback is an important work environmental factor. The outcome from this study suggests that project management may reduce failure rate in projects and improve project outcome with respect to service quality and profit, when feedback information about individual time perception is utilized.
