Traditional project management principles and practices

Traditional Project Management

Please write on: Traditional Project Management techniques have been shown to be less effective in when used on new product development projects. What, according to Belassi et al.(2006) explains this phenomenon?

In the study New product development projects: The effects of organizational culture (Belassi, Kondra, Tukel, 2007) the authors illustrate through an empirical analysis of which aspects in an organizations' culture benefit New Product Development (NPD) the most and least why traditional project management techniques are marginally effective. Throughout the detailed analysis the authors find the three critical success factors of work environment, management leadership and results orientation as being essential for any NPD strategy to succeed (Belassi, Kondra, Tukel, 2007). Their contention is that traditional project management techniques do not take into account these aspect of an organization and actually slow down the overall process of project team performance (Belassi, Kondra, Tukel, 2007). The authors also contend and show through intensive levels of empirical research just how critical it is to have strong leadership that is uncomfortable with uncertainty driving an NPD project. Further, an effective leader is one that can integrate the work environment, management leadership and results orientation to match the specific requirements of the team and project. All of these factors must be orchestrated for optimum results with leaders who are fully engaged in the overall vision of the project. Traditional project management technique's fail to take into account these more exogenous variables of cultures and fail often as a result, according to the authors' research and conclusions (Belassi, Kondra, Tukel, 2007). The need for being more transformational, not transactional, is shown in the study.

What role does entrepreneurship play in organizational culture? Please review several sources from journals with an entrepreneurial focus and discuss the affect an entrepreneurial orientation can have on a team's ability to manage a project.

The role of entrepreneurship in organizations is considered by many researchers to be indispensable in creating a culture of risk and continual renewal. From the highly disruptive nature of intrepreneurship that at&T has tried and successfully implementing from a business process management (BPM) standpoint (Morris, Trotter, 1990) to the highly disruptive nature of building entirely new divisions and incubators (Kuratko, Hornsby, Naffziger, Montagno, 1993), companies are increasingly realizing that entrepreneurship is a very powerful catalyst for bringing organizational change quickly into a culture.

The most successful efforts and initiatives within established companies are predicated on a strong sense of autonomy, mastery and purpose on the part of employees and the internal entrepreneurs (or intrepreuners at at&T calls them) who are running these programs (Kuratko, Hornsby, Naffziger, Montagno, 1993). What each of these initiatives attempt to do is completely remove the barriers from a process and performance standpoint to achieving higher rates of innovation and new product development initiatives (King, 2006).

These initiatives aimed at innovation are also completely separate in many companies from a financial accountability perspective as well, not held to as tight of controls as the mainstream businesses (Morris, Trotter, 1990). There is also more of a focus on creating a unique culture of knowledge management and information sharing across these incubators as well. The ability to create greater levels of innovation through more efficient use of information and knowledge is a critical success factor in the development of these incubator and entrepreneur programs (Kuratko, Hornsby, Naffziger, Montagno, 1993). There is also a very strong focus on long-term investment over just getting a new product out the door quickly. This speaks to the time orientation of these programs, and the realization that programs may take years to pay off. This is very difficult for companies who are below $1B in sales for example (King, 2006). The majority of successful incubators are in companies who create a culture that includes a very high tolerance for risk and non-linear product development cycles. This is especially the case in process industries and those areas of innovation that defy the development and execution of equations to gain competitive advantage (Kuratko, Hornsby, Naffziger, Montagno, 1993).