Abstract
The book Human Resource Management in The Project-Oriented Organization: Towards a Viable System for Project Personnel draws on research written by Professor Martina Huemann, a scholar-practitioner in the field of Human Resources Management (henceforth, HRM) at the WU Vienna University of Economics and Business in Austria. Given the emphasis on performance linked to effective management of “projects” and, correspondingly, on the often-short time window within which project teams are expected—transparently—to deliver results, Huemann argues that HRM as practiced in “project-oriented organizations” (henceforth, POOs) is particularly important. The objectives of Huemann in this book are: (a) to clearly describe how important the POOs are and (b) to demonstrate the importance of new HRM perspective towards POOs.
Huemann in her introduction to the book explains how a POO has a management strategy by projects which include permanent and temporary structures and it has specifically project-oriented culture. The POOs need to have an HRM system that is applicable to projects. Unfortunately, most of HRM practitioners have limited understanding of project management and POOs. Owing to this limited knowledge, HRM practitioners fail to understand the effects of project orientation on the strategies, goals, processes and infrastructure of organizations. The author suggests HRM practitioners to ensure alignment with the needs of POOs, organizational structure, culture and the expectation of project staff need to be considered. In addition, the HRM system needs to be developed in a way that it could increase opportunity for projects which impact positively on organizational structure, culture and staff. With the purpose of improvement of HRM system in POOs, in the second chapter of her book, Huemann focuses specifically on HRM and suggests its development through movement from its understanding of the best practices to understand HRM as a system, which adds value to organizations. Further, the author provides full outlines of development and understanding of the HRM goals. The author suggests HRM to shift from performance for stakeholder’s benefits to a more contemporary understanding of HRM goals, which include economic and social goals for a sustainable development.
The third chapter of the book focuses on “The Project as a Temporary Organization”, where the author introduces different theoretical perspectives, which help to observe projects. The author discusses a traditional understanding of a project and then its concept evolution into a temporary organization, social system and construction. To make the idea of project clear, the author differentiates among investment, process and programme and explains different types of project (project as a complex task, project as a temporary organization, project as a social system). In the next chapter of the book (chapter four), titled “The project-oriented organization”, the author discusses the kind of organization that can conduct projects. The author explains theories with the aim to provide background and an overview of different approaches to the organizations which have projects as main business and describes the strategy, structures and culture of POO. The author highlights that POO has high diversity to the temporary character of each project; therefore, the organizations apply specific structures, such as project portfolio group (PPG), a project management office (PMO) and expert pools. Using the explanation of strategy and structure, the author suggests a definition for the POO and explains its context related to HRM.
The fifth chapter of the book is titled “Project Personnel and their Challenges” in which Huemann explains the role of project personnel in projects. The chapter covers project challenges that employees of POOs face in projects or working for POOs such as limited content competencies, dealing with discontinuity and dynamics of projects. The author concludes the chapter with listed issues of employee’s well-being, which POOs need to solve to improve potential benefits that project orientation can bring. In the sixth chapter, the author focuses on HRM system in the context of POO in which she develops a working model, entitled “HRM system in the context of project-oriented organization”. The model consists of context (social, content and time-related), the internal structures of the HRM system and connection between the system and its environment along with internal structures.
The next chapter (chapter seven) presents a case study of a telecommunication company that developed into a POO. The purpose is to show changes that are required in the HRM system when a POO is developing. The author suggests two main changes and roles of HRM system in a POO: (a) HRM plays an important role in developing company towards a POO by providing training for project personnel and support HRM system; (b) the HRM system has to adapt its processes and organization with the aim to accept project-orientation.
The eighth chapter focuses upon what the author entitles, “Towards a Project-Oriented HRM System” which better describes HRM system in a context of the POO through five case studies. The analysis of the case studies shows that HRM system in each organization was organized differently which proves that HRM system in each POO cannot be the same in all the stages. In some organizations, project managers play an important part in projects and personnel, in others HRM department do not get involved except for providing guidelines.
The last chapter (nine) of the book summarizes the findings in the book and presents the Model: Project Oriented HRM system. The author highlights main points of the model: a project-oriented HRM system, structure of HRM strategies in POO, goals of HRM structure in project-orientation, HRM process in the organization and HRM infrastructure. In addition, limitations of the model are discussed. A research agenda provided that need to be considered in future researches.
From my experience as an international business consultant, Huemann presents some distinctive ideas: one is an “iron triangle” model that illustrates the tense dynamics among the project scope, project schedule and project costs in which she highlights that in traditional project management, project organization and project personnel are neglected. A detailed summative working model of an “HRM system in the context of POOs” (146-7) shows that POOs have permanent and temporary structures. She elaborates on and confirms the main difference between permanent and temporary organizations is timing: permanent organizations need only to follow a cycle (quarterly, yearly, etc.), but project-oriented needs to follow each project that has milestone and urgency.
The themes and case studies presented and developed in the Huemann book can be applied to HRM across a range of contexts, relevant to South Asian countries. The “temporary rganisation” by Huemann appears especially and is relevant towards researching and practicing HRM in nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the South Asia countries, especially for those NGOs whose mission is to provide development aid programs for improving the livelihood of people and increasing local capacity. The projects of NGOs in developing economies tend to be funded by international donors; the duration of projects can be short- or long-term depending on: (a) an on-going assessment of local community needs and (b) the durability of project funding. In recent years, the trend has been towards donors providing funds for short-term projects that generate efficiently assessable results.
The roles and impact expectations driving the projects of international NGOs across the emerging economies of South Asia remain considerable. Correspondingly, the responsibilities of HRM researchers and practitioners in the region can be perceived as daunting. To illustrate, it is estimated that currently 467 INGOs are operating in Afghanistan. Because of security issues and infrastructure deficits, these INGOs commonly struggle to achieve their objectives; over a period, the pressure of responsibility and accountability on HRM practitioners appears to be growing rather than lessening. Employees in POOs of Afghanistan due to security situation need to have ability of multitasking. Simple example, HR specialists are not able to travel to all regions to check HR work; therefore, from time to time employees in remote areas provide information for the HR Department in order to further process work and provide results for management and donors.
Against this background of current HRM reality, it is important to recognize the emphasis that Huemann puts in her book on the “well-being of employees”. In a series of detailed extracts, she highlights common and fluctuating challenges to project members’ well-being in response to the duration of projects (perhaps uncertain), the urgency of achieving project / donor goals and the common uncertainty of project impact generated by project personnel need to perform beyond their current levels of experience and/or skills and competencies. As mentioned above, INGO projects in Afghanistan tend to be of 1-year duration; long-term would mean from 1 to 3 years. During these periods, it is unlikely that project funding or expertise will extend to offer professional training or development. Commonly, whichever project member assumes HRM responsibilities will be expected or required by circumstances to provide on-the-job training (OJT) for subordinates with the specific aim to achieve operational rather than strategic objectives.
To illustrate further the challenges faced by HRM practitioners in Afghanistan, especially and across South Asia generally, this reviewer’s experience is that the availability of talented employees to INGOs varies greatly from region to region. In most remote areas, lack of project personnel creates multitasks of each project employees which leads to high staff turnover. In addition, drawing on the practical lessons, as open/close of project units due to duration of projects also has great impact on changes in staff turnover which is offered by Huemann’s book. Based on this situation, Huemann clearly highlights that high staff turnover leads to difficulties for HRM practitioners and the whole organizations. Therefore, the author suggests following with the aim to assist project management in Afghanistan and other South Asian countries that HR practitioners in INGOs are likely to face can be predicted and calculated into their discussions about resource procurement and allocation. To illustrate, by first re-conceptualizing organizations as “temporary” can inform and prepare HRM practitioners towards initiating stages that give shape and direction to create local HRM system in a context of temporary organization: for example, in terms of how they invest resources in unplanned staff or talent turnover in POOs. This suggestion from Huemann will help HR professionals and management of INGOs in Afghanistan to consider staff planning and staff turnover.
While the author highlighted many issues and challenges concerning management of human resources in POOs; issues concerning recruitment of human resources were not covered sufficiently. The first important issue in recruitment of POOs is involvement of project personnel in recruitment process due to limited number of HR professionals which leads to the selection outcome of the selection process be inefficient, ineffective and inequitable which is a common issue across all POOs in Afghanistan. Second, for HRM practitioners in the POOs, it is significant to hire personnel for different jobs immediately after the project starts. It is common that donors require project performance and progress in the first 6 months which was not highlighted in the book. An example in countries like Afghanistan where time for recruitment completion is short due to donors’ requirements and extension of recruitment process in Afghanistan up to 6 or more months become against donors’ requirement. Based on this situation, it is suggested to researchers and practitioners to consider limited number of talents in the job market for POOs for further research and cases with the aim to give guidance for POO on how to find and attract project-oriented talent.
Overall, Huemann’s Human Resource Management in the Project-Oriented Organization: Towards a Viable System for Project Personnel offers a good deal of advice for practitioners and researchers in the South Asian countries concerning certain HRM challenges that they might face in POO. As highlighted in this review, her emphasis on HRM “systems” serves to describe, explain and predict how INGOs might be considered strategically and practically as “temporary” and “POO”. INGOs that are considered POOs are expected to improve projects that are funded by donors and ensure positive and sustainable impact of projects in community. In addition, the author also illustrated “role description of project managers” (p. 78) along with “career paths for project managers” (p. 107) in which she lists tasks of project managers in each phase of the project (from starting the project till closing it) and uncertain career path due to project factors which is a guidance for other POOs to consider.
The book is useful for scholars, practitioners and candidates who are interested in POOs. An HRM system model in the context of POOs is provided which is a great guidance for scholars and practitioners to consider during research and operations. The model covers environmental analysis of organizations. Both HRM scholars and practitioners should consider environmental factors and cases that might be relevant to the geographical locations of the POOs. It is important for the South Asian organizations to consider social context of the region/country, and duration of each project. Society need analysis, South Asian organizations will be able to attract best projects that focus on society improvements, and at the same time can operate longer in the regions. The main contribution of this book for project managers in South Asia is concerning the ways to manage staff, provide professional development growth of staff and prevent high turnover in the POOs.