II~UTTERWQ RTH E I N E M A N N

International Journal of Project Management Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 83-88, 1995
Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in Great Britain.

0263-7863 (94) 00018-2

Leadership and the projectmanagement body of knowledge

David I Cleland
University of Pittsburgh, 1048 Benedum Hall, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA

The paper presents some preliminary thoughts about leadership and the project-management body of knowledge, and how that body of knowledge provides insight into the role of leadership in the management of projects, and other forms of teams used in contemporary manufacturing organizations. A summary review of leadership is offered, including insight into how the opportunities for leadership in the use of teams has expanded to the point where all members of the teams can become leaders. The limited description of leaders and leadership in the project-management body of knowledge is noted with the suggestion that a more expansive discussion of leadership is needed for the body of knowledge, particularly as it continues to provide guidance in the management of crossfunctional and crossorganizational initiatives.
Keywords: body of knowledge, leadership, teams

In this paper, some preliminary thoughts about leadership in project management are presented. A limited review of the contributions of the project-management body of knowledge (PMBOK)to leadership is also given. This body of knowledge has reached a level of maturity that requires a continuing assessment of its contribution to the evolving field of project management. The use of alternative teams in today's enterprises provides added challenges to the PMBOKin its continuing role as a model for the management of crossfunctional and crossorganizational initiatives. The manufacturing community is used in this paper as an example of a setting in which alternative team-driven strategies are emerging which promise to have a significant impact on the ability of manufacturers to compete in the global marketplace. Examples could have been given from other industries. The manufacturing industry has been selected because many different industries are involved in supporting the manufacture and delivery of products and services. Also, the use of project/team-driven strategies in manufacturing is gaining momentum, and should have a significant impact on how organizations in such a community are being 'strategically managed' to survive and grow in an increasingly competitive global marketplace. Until a few years ago, most global companies were using manufacturing techniques that were little changed from those of mass-production systems. These techniques are no longer state of the art in relation to the new paradigm of manufacturing pioneered and used by some global companies. However, manufacturers, aware of their historical success in using traditional strategies, still tended to emphasize them. Many manufacturers delayed dealing with the real

issue: the emergence of a new paradigm of manufacturing systems technology encompassing 'lean production' or 'agile manufacturing' which embodied a distinctive approach to the use of manufacturing systems technology. This new paradigm contains a prescription for new and innovative ways of dealing with manufacturing changes in the growing global marketplace in terms of the design, development, production, marketing, and after-customer support of products and services.

The stage is set

There is no question that the changes in manufacturing techniques have been profound, bringing about farreaching improvements in global manufacturers' competitiveness. The impact of flexible manufacturing systems, just-in-time inventory management, Total Quality Management, concurrent engineering, and automatic materials identification, to name a few of the new initiatives, has improved manufacturers' global competitiveness. The improvements in the utilization of people in manufacturing have been without precedent, and they have represented a radical improvement from the 'command and control' cultural ambience of earlier periods. The development and use of team-based strategies to facilitate productivity and quality improvements have been among the more creative innovations in the strategic management of manufacturing. These team-based strategies are described in the context of the various manufacturing support teams (MSTs) listed below: 83

Leadership and the project-management body of knowledge: D I Cleland Traditionalproject teams are utilized to design, develop, and construct facilities and equipment. Concurrent-engineering teams are sometimes called product-process development teams. Their function is to simultaneously design products/services and organizational processes. Self-managed production teams are formed for the purpose of upgrading the quality of products/services and processes. Reengineering teams are organized to rethink and radically redesign organizational processes in order to achieve dramatic improvements in contemporary measures of performance, such as cost, quality, service and speed. Benchmarking teams are established to determine the best practices and competitive points of reference so that efficiency and effectiveness measurements can be made. Such measurements can then be used to determine the efficacy of the operational and strategic initiatives under way in the enterprise. Crisis-management teams are used to organize resources in response to emergencies facing the enterprise. New-business development teams are typically made up of functional representatives who have as their purpose the conceptualization, definition, and development of new business ventures for the enterprise. Task force~problem solving teams are usually formed for a limited period of time to investigate or undertake the evaluation of an organizational problem or opportunity. Audit teams evaluate organizational efficiency/effectiveness. Plural executive teams are made up of managers who work together in a team mode to deal with key operational and strategic initiatives.
Table 1 Preliminary taxonomy: various types of teams Type Output/contribution Timeframe

Design/develop/construct facilities/equipment Concurrent product-process development Management and execution of production work Development implementation of total quality initiatives Reengineering teams Business-process changes Benchmarking teams Evaluation of competitors/best in the industry performance Crisis-management Management of organizational teams crisis New-business Developmentof new business development teams ventures Task forces/ Evaluation/resolution of problem-solvingteams organizational problems/ opportunities Audit teams Evaluation of organizational efficiency and effectiveness Plural executive teams Integration of senior-level management decisions

Traditional project teams Product-process development teams Self-directed production teams Quality teams

Ad hoc Ad hoc

Ongoing Ongoing
Ad hoc

Ongoing
Ad hoc Ad hoc Ad hoc

Ad hoc

Ongoing

attitudes related to working in the organization. Some of the key characteristics of these changes are as follows: recognition that, in general, the properly trained person doing the work knows best about how that work should be done; changes in the traditional manager/supervisor roles that lead much more to teaching, counselling, coaching, and facilitating than to a traditional ' I ' m in charge' approach; assumption by team members of many of the traditional management functions of planning, organizing, motivation, direction and control as these members take an active role in both the strategic and operational activities of these teams; social and managerial acceptance of the fact that, as organizational members participate more in the affairs of the company, they may assume adversarial roles when they sense inconsistencies, inadequacies, or the carrying out of wrong or imprudent actions by other people in the enterprise; 'whistle blowing' becomes acceptable in the organization; the use of power by more people as they recognize that, in their increasingly proactive role, they can influence their work and the conditions under which they work; closer cooperation with unions, leading to a decline of the role of unions as adversaries and an increase in the role of unions as strategic partners; increased flow and dissemination of information about organizational performance resulting in a greater appreciation of how individual performance impacts cost and resulting profits; the assumption of leadership initiatives by more people in the enterprise. The emergence of more leaders has opened tunities for creativity and innovation extending the 'warp and woof' of enterprises. This has helped to test traditional notions about up opporthroughout
emergence

The growing recognition of alternative types of teams in contemporary enterprises raises the question of what the differences in the types and uses of such teams today are. A very preliminary attempt at providing a summary distinction is reflected in Table 1, in which alternative teams are identified, their outputs/contributions are noted, and the timeframes in which they operate are indicated. More research is needed to verify whether the taxonomy in Table 1 is adequate.
Reverberations

The use of MSTs has brought about significant changes in relation to two major areas: the management of team members, and the carrying out of leadership initiatives in the enterprise. When people are assigned to these teams, they become aware of management and leadership issues and opportunities that have previously been hidden from them when traditional manufacturing methods were used, when they were managed with the more hierarchical 'command and control' management philosophy. In particular, under the traditional philosophies, workers were hired for their brawn and told to go to work and do a specific job. Under modern management strategies, the workers are not only hired for both their brawn and their brains, but also asked to help plan, organize, and execute the work, and to take a proactive role in the improvement of products/services and processes. The results of such proactive roles have been changes in philosophies and 84

leadership,

Leadership and the project-management body of knowledge: D I Cleland

its definition, and how and when leaders emerge in enterprises. the social, economic and political milieu. According to McGregor, the personal characteristics required for effective performance as a leader vary, depending on the other factors 6. McGregor's fundamental explanation is that leadership ' . . . i s not a property of the individual, but a complex relationship among these variables '6. McGregor believed that industry required a very different type of leader in 1960 than it did in 1900, and that tomorrow's organization would require people who were quite different in terms of their leadership abilities from those who were effective in 1960 (see Reference 6, p 360). Seng 7 defines learning organizations as 'organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together'. He states that learning organizations demand a new view of leadership that is distinct from the traditional style. Leaders in learning organizations are designers, stewards, and teachers, who are responsible for building organizations in which people continually expand their capabilities to understand complexity, clarify vision, and improve shared mental models, that is, they are responsible for learning (see Reference, 7, p 340). Leadership in learning organizations is both collective and highly individual, with the responsibilities of leadership being diffused among people throughout the organization, with responsibilities allocated as a result of individual choice (see Reference 7, p 360). It is not clear if those adhering to traditional concepts of leadership ever consider the possibility that it could be a widely shared function throughout the organization. However, empowering people and giving them responsibilities can charge them with the need to develop leadership abilities. Under such circumstances, people often assume leadership as a natural consequence of their knowledge, experience and skill. In this respect, then, the leadership qualities that someone might feel that he or she inherently possessed can also be found distributed around many people in a particular community. Leadership of this sort may then rest with many people, and emerge only when the right circumstances activate their leadership capabilities. The differences, if any, between leadership of an enterprise and leadership in the management of a project team are not clear in the literature. Certainly there are some similarities, such as the development and dissemination of a vision, guidance in both the operation and strategic directions of the project and the enterprise, and the need to influence those being led so that they are motivated to contribute to the effective and efficient utilization of resources. The leader of a project team, or other type of team, has some additional challenges: providing leadership throughout a crossfunctional and crossorganizational environment as the multiple 'stakeholders' become involved in the team effort; operating without documented formal authority over the team members, who may report in a traditional authorityresponsibility relationship to their functional managers; working in a 'matrix' organizational design which, because of its 2D structure, raises question relating to "unity of command' and 'parity of responsibility', two venerated principles in management theory. 85

Leadership and the PMBOK

Paragraph 2.4.1 of 'The project management context' of Reference 1 contains a few brief paragraphs on leadership entitled 'Leading' which provide an introduction to the subject. There are manifold opportunities for the exercise of leadership knowledge, skills, and attitudes in all of the areas of concentration or blocks of knowledge in the PMBOK. Leadership excellence in the definition of a project's scope, and the management of project costs, time, quality and communications are all based on a project manager's ability to lead the human resources affiliated with the project: the project stakeholders. A project's success or failure is the result of the leadership of the project's stakeholders. Gaining the wholehearted support of those people who have, or believe that they have, a claim on those things of value created by the project is the culmination of the leadership displayed by the project manager. However, what is leadership? The concept of leadership can be traced back to antiquity. There are many examples of people who have been leaders in the political, social, military, legal, economic, and technological environments, and yet a precise, universal and accepted definition of leadership does not exist. One author cites nearly a dozen different definitions with varying connotations and degrees of emphasis on elements 2. He defines a leader as the 'individual in the group given the task of directing and coordinating tasks in relevant group activities, or who, in the absence of a designated leader, carries the primary responsibility for performing these functions in the group'". Jago 3 defines leadership as both a process and a property. In his view, leadership is the use of noncoercive influence to direct the activities of the members of an organized group toward the accomplishment of group objectives. He considers leadership in the context of a 'set of qualities or characteristics attributed to those who are perceived to successfully employ such influence '3. An appreciation of the different definitions and views of leadership can be gained by reviewing Reference 4, which cites one study with 130 definitions of the term. Reference 5 cites over 5000 research studies and monographs on the subject. The editor of the handbook concludes that there are no common factors, traits, or processes that identify the qualities of effective leadership 5. Literally thousands of studies have explored leadership characteristics and traits, identifying dozens of desirable traits of leaders, including physical factors, abilities, personality, intelligence, knowledge, dominance, and self confidence, and so the list goes
on.

McGregor's seminal work on people in organizations ~ summarizes some of the key generalizations from research on leadership in 1960, which portrayed 'leadership as a relationship'. He identifies four major variables in leadership: characteristics of the leader; the attitudes, needs, and other personal characteristics of the followers; characteristics of the organization, such as its purpose, its structure, and the nature of the tasks to be performed;

Leadership and the project-management body of knowledge: D 1 Cleland

The challenge for those management theorists and practitioners who research and write about leadership is that of continuing to draw distinctions between enterprise leadership and team leadership, particularly in terms of determining whether there are any market differences. In this paper, little distinction is attempted, but the challenge is noted. Under the traditional organizational hierarchy, leadership is an attribute of the individuals at the top of the organization. This pattern is now inappropriate for today's transformed workplace, where alternative forms of teams are used as key strategies in the management of the enterprise. In such an organization, the acts of leadership that are carried out are linked more to the competence of those working in the teams than to that of an individual in a superior position in the organizational hierarchy. In the traditional hierarchy (autocratic and bureaucratic), individual leadership styles prevailed, even when informal leaders emerged and provided leadership that was not accounted for in the formal structure. However, such an autocratic style is extremely inconsistent with the more egalitarian culture found in team-driven organizations. In such cultures, the management of organizational processes that cross internal organizational structures requires active, well diffused leadership expertise. Every member of a team has an opportunity to be a leader. These members need to become familiar with the composite knowledge and skills of the entire team. They also learn to share the leadership processes with other people on the team, and in other elements of the organization. Some teams may choose their own leaders. This process conforms to the policy of the organization, which provides guidelines on how often the leaders will change, and what the basic team leaders' responsibilities are, including training in social and leadership skills. Teaching, facilitating, coaching, conflict resolution/mediation, team building, and management skills are some of the more important attributes that these leaders are expected to develop as a result of formal classroom instruction and onthe-job training programs. the two roles that are likely to be performed by a project manager. A prolific writer in the field of leadership9 offers an intriguing differentiation between these two roles: 'a leader does the right thing (effectiveness); a manager does things right (efficiency)'. In this context, the project leader develops the vision for the project, assembles the resources, and provides the inspiration and motivation for working with project stakeholders in doing the right thing to accomplish the project's objectives: completing the project so that its technical performance, cost, and schedule objectives are attained, and so that the project results have a place in the future of the enterprise. In a sense, the subject of leadership is terra incognita (unknown territory). Our concept of leadership is changing with the changed pathways that new leaders have pointed out. Today's new ideas about leadership are testing and threatening many of our traditional notions of what leaders do. Leadership taken in the context of projects presents special challenges.

Project-related definition of leadership

Recognizing the lack of a generic definition of leadership, the author suggests one that could prove useful to someone who has development and execution oversight of a project. Project leadership is defined as a presence and a process carried out within an organizational role that assumes responsibility for the needs and rights of those people who choose to follow the leader in accomplishing project results. Assuming that this definition is acceptable, the question can then be asked as to the relevance of leadership to the PMBOK. The PMBOK consists of eight areas of concentration or blocks of knowledge: scope management, cost management, time management, quality management, contract procurement, risk management, human-resources management, and communication management. These areas of concentration form the key and unique 'functions' of project management. For example, few would doubt that one of the key attributes of a leader is the ability to communicate and to work with people in bringing about project results. By examining leadership in the context of doing the right thing, one identifies several key issues with which the project leader must be concerned. The first issue is the identification, development, and communication of a vision for the project stakeholders who the leader wishes to lead. Project stakeholders include the members of the project team, and other principals in the political, social, legal, economic, technological, and competitive environments in which the project exists ~. A vision is a mental image produced by the imagination. Jonathon Swift describes a vision as the 'art of seeing things invisible to others'. For example, Orin E Smith, president and chief executive officer of the Engelhard Corporation, describes the strategic direction of the company in terms of a vision, that is, to be a world-class competitor. He notes the followingJ~: That's our vision, our aim, and our commitment. I intend to do whatever has to be done to make Engelhard a worldclass competitor--and to keep it that way. We know where we're going. Beyond that, we know how to get there. We have the programs in place to do just that. First, a total quality management process we call 'Exceptional Quality'

Leadership and management

What is the difference between leadership and management? Davis 8 defines the difference in the following way: Leadership is part of management, but not all of it. A manager is required to plan and organize, for example, but all we ask of the leader is that he gets others to follow... Leadership is the ability to persuade others to seek defined objectives enthusiastically. It is the human factor which binds a group together and motivates it towards goals. Management activities such as planning, organizing, and decision making are dormant cocoons until the leader triggers the power of motivation in people and guides them towards goals. Davis's differentiation between management and leadership 8, written over 25 years ago, was one of the early attempts to describe what managers and leaders do, in terms of moving the organization forward. However, do not project managers manage, and project leaders lead? This simple question is designed to establish the fact that, in today's complex project environment, there is a real difference, and yet a complementary relationship, between 86

Leadership and the project-management body of knowledge: D I Cleland

or 'EQ'. World-class competitors don't just believe in quality, they live quality. They demand it of their management, their employees and their suppliers. How important is a vision? One study ~2 reporting on the benchmarking of business teams that had produced extraordinary results noted that team members stated that the most important factor for high performance was a clear techniques, to name a few characteristics of the successful project leader. However, having a vision is not enough. The leader has to inspire others to believe in and be committed to the attainment of that vision. When the leader influences others in this way, a shared vision comes into play. People become leaders in team-driven organizations because of situations, seniority, personal qualities, politics, credibility, preparation, and adaptability. In such organizations, there are many opportunities for the individual who aspires to become a leader. Once they have taken on a leadership role, there is a variety of sources of influence that individuals can use. An effective and prudent use of influence depends on the individual's manner, and style, and the needs of the situation. Team leaders as well as those who are leaders of particular elements of the team's work act as links to the parent organization and to other team stakeholders in the team's work. Remember that leaders are the people who do the right things for the team. To one degree or another, all of the changes coming about through the use of teams have had an impact on the 'human system' in organizations, particularly on the traditional managers and followers in such settings. The growing use of alternative teams has become an emerging art in global organizations. 'Those companies that learn the secrets of creating cross-functional teams are winning the battle for global market share and profits. Those that don't are losing o u t . '13 Another article enters a strong plea for the use of teams by stating the following. 'Forget the pyramid. Smash the hierarchy, break the company into its key processes, and create teams from different departments to run them. '~4 Given such 'smashing', leadership opportunities will continue to greatly expand. One of the purposes of the PMBOK is tO advance and improve the effectiveness of communications among the many technologies involved in project management. Another purpose is to facilitate the development of a mutual understanding of an accepted body of knowledge for the profession. The growing interest in alternative teams in contemporary organizations poses extraordinary challenges in terms of understanding how such teams operate, and how the leadership of such teams can best be undertaken, drawing on an appropriate body of knowledge. There are significant opportunities to weave additional strength into the PMBOKby way of more extensive descriptions of the leadership perspective in the theory and practice of project management, as well as in other situations in which alternative teams are used in contemporary organizations. A few preliminary suggestions follow: Define, describe, and set forth a common vision of leadership in the context of managing projects and other team endeavors. Describe how leadership cuts across the 'warp and woof' of the PMBOK, particularly in terms of humanresources management and communications management. Capture the idea and demonstrate that the opportunities for leadership by team leaders and team members have never been better, considering the current downsizing and restructuring of enterprises and the strong movement towards the use of teams as elements of enterprise strategy. Present the differences, if any, between the leadership required for an enterprise and that needed where teams are used. 87

and elevating vision. Second, a project leader working with the team identifies the resources that will be needed to realize the vision. Having done this, the project leader designs and maintains oversight of the implementation of the initiatives needed to acquire the resources, and the way in which they will be aligned to support the project and the organization. The third issue is the conceptualization and designation of the project's organizational design to align the people and the resources to facilitate the accomplishment of the vision. TheJburth issue is that of gaining the commitment of the stakeholders to support the project leader's initiatives in the attainment of the vision. Gaining a commitment to the project vision requires that the leader find the means and processes to foster an environment in which team members will be motivated to work towards the vision. This commitment is not a destination, but an ongoing journey in terms of keeping the people loyal to the vision, and constantly striving for its attainment even during periods of adversity. The communication skills of the leader, and the followers, are important in gaining and retaining this commitment.

Leadership essentials
Like leaders, visions come in all sizes, shapes, and configurations. For example, a manufacturing manager may have an image of how the design and installation of a flexible manufacturing system could reduce costs, improve flexibility, and increase profit. Such a vision has an impact throughout the entire establishment, and it affects most of the people working in manufacturing. On a much smaller scale, but still important, is the vision that a production worker may have about how better to position the tools being used at a workstation. A member of a self-managed manufacturing team may have a vision about how better to schedule production work, potentially leading to improved efficiency at that workstation. A member of a current engineering product-process design team may have an idea for a small design change that will lead to easier maintenance or some other advantage for a user. For example, during the design of the Ford Taurus automobile, a production worker on the concurrent-engineering team provided an idea to make the dipstick for checking the oil level in the engine's crankcase easier to identify. 'Paint the dip stick a distinctive color apart from the color of the rest of the car's engine'. This idea, or vision, was accepted by the design team, thus making it easier to check the oil in the Taurus. A small vision, but yet one that, when implemented, made the automobile more 'user friendly'. Project leaders are able to influence those project stakeholders who are involved in the particular activity that is under way. This influence comes about through charisma, knowledge, skills, political savvy, networks, interpersonal skills, the ability to communicate, empathy, and coaching

Leadership and the project-management body of knowledge: D I Cleland Acknowledgements Parts of this paper have been paraphrased from References 15 and 16. References
1 Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) Project Management Institute, USA (1987) 2 Feilder, F E A Theory of Leadership Effectiveness McGraw-Hill, USA (1967) 3 Jago, A 'Leadership: perspectives in theory and research' Management Science 1982 28 4 Burns, J M Leadership Harper & Row (1978) 5 Bass, B B Stogdill's Handbook of Leadership: A Survey of the Theory and Research Free Press, USA (1981) 6 McGregor, D The Human Side of Enterprise McGraw-Hill, USA (1960) 179-189 7 Senge, P M The Fifth Discipline Doubleday Currency, USA (1990) 8 Davis, K Human Relations at Work (3rd Ed.) McGraw-Hill, USA (1967) 96-97 9 Bennis, W 'Good managers and good leaders' Across the Board 1984 10 Cleland, D l 'Project stakeholder management" Project Management J Sep 1986 36-43 11 'Annual meeting of shareholders' Post-Meeting Report Engelhard Corporation (7 May) 1992 12 Larson, C and Lafasto, F What Must Go Right~What Can Go Wrong Sage. USA (1989) 13 Business Week 1 Nov 1992 162 14 Byrne, J A 'The horizontal hierarchy' Business Week 20 Dec 1993 76-81 15 Cleland, D I 'The changing dimensions of leadership' PM 25th Annual Seminar~Symposium Vancouver. Canada (Oct 1994) 16 Cleland, D I 'Patterns of leadership in modern manufacturing' Proc Internet '94 Oslo, Norway (Jun 1994)

"Dr David 1 Cleland is the Ernest E Roth Professor and professor of engineering management in the School of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, USA. He is the author/ editor of 24 books in the fields of project management, engineering management, and manufacturing management, and has written many papers. He has received funding for 18 major research projects, and has given many lectures and seminars outside his university. He has acted as a consultant for US and foreign companies, and is a leading member and a fellow of the Project Management Institute, USA. He received a Distinguished Contribution to Project Management Award from the PMI in 1983 and 1993. He is a cofounder and codirector of the University of Pittsburgh Manufacturing Assistance Center, which provides manufacturingsystems technology assistance to small and midsized manufacturers.

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