Sankaran, Shankar; Vaagaasar, Anne Live & Bekker, Michiel C. (2019)

Assignment of project team members to projects: Project managers’ influence strategies in practice

International Journal of Managing Projects in Business Doi: 10.1108/IJMPB-12-2018-0285

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how project managers, influence the assignment of project team members by directly assigning or specifying who they want or by indirectly using lateral influence strategies to secure the appropriate resources. This study is part of a wider study investigating the balance between vertical and horizontal leadership in projects in which nomination (or assignment) was identified as a key event contributing to balancing the leadership. It focuses specifically on the nomination or assignment event at the start of a project. Design/methodology/approach: Based on the philosophy of critical realism, case studies were used to collect data through 70 semi-structured interviews in Australia, Scandinavia and South Africa. Interviews were conducted with senior managers, project managers and project team members. Two project team members who worked with the same project manager were interviewed to gather diverse views. The data were analyzed individually by researchers from each location using a coding method proposed by Miles et al. (2014). The researchers then jointly analyzed the findings to arrive at five common themes from that explained how team members were assigned in practice. Findings: Despite the recognized need for project managers to form their own teams, this study found that project team members were often assigned by others. This was because project managers lacked authority to secure their resources. Therefore, they used lateral influence strategies to help with assigning project team members. The study identified five lateral influencing strategies adopted by project managers to assign team members: creating an image of competence; creating coalitions; taking a gamble; waiting for the right moment; and reasoning with facts. Two of these lateral influencing strategies were not identified in the previous literature on influencing strategies used in organizations. Research limitations/implications: The findings should not be viewed as representative of the respective continents where the cases were studied. However, this study contributes to the literature on project management, illuminating how project teams are assigned and by whom and, specifically, the role that influence plays during this event of the balanced leadership theory. It also identifies the types of lateral influence strategies used by project managers when assigning team members to their projects. It provides a pathway to explore the use of lateral influencing strategies by project managers beyond the assignment process. Practical implications: This study will help project managers to become aware of influencing strategies that they can use in practice while assigning team members to their projects. It will also highlight the importance of assigning the right resources to projects with a view to achieving balanced leadership. Originality/value: This research is of value to organizations using projects to successfully deliver their strategies by assigning suitable resources to their projects.

Vaagaasar, Anne Live; Müller, Ralf Josef & De Paoli, Donatella (2019)

Project managers adjust their leadership: to workspace and project type

International Journal of Managing Projects in Business Doi: 10.1108/IJMPB-05-2018-0098 - Fulltekst i vitenarkiv

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the triadic relationship between project workspace (i.e. spatial context), project type and project manager’s leadership style. It develops the concept of leadership construct (i.e. mental models of leadership to predispose the way leadership is performed) to explain related preferences for workspace and behaviors.

Yu, Miao; Vaagaasar, Anne Live, Müller, Ralf Josef, Wang, Linzhuo & Zhu, Fangwei (2018)

Empowerment: the key to horizontal leadership in project teams

International Journal of Project Management, 36(7), s. 992- 1006. Doi: 10.1016/j.ijproman.2018.04.003

Leadership in projects can shift between the project manager (a.k.a. vertical leadership) and one or more team members (a.k.a. horizontal leadership). Our study examines the processes, dimensions, and conditions for empowerment of project team members to temporarily assume leadership of project processes. Twenty interviews were conducted in 10 organizations in China. Results show that empowerment for horizontal leadership is a 3-stage process, wherein the project manager takes justification perception and demand factors as essential conditions for his/her empowerment orientation, which in turn frames the announcement, acceptance, control, autonomy and future of horizontal leaders. Four categories of horizontal leaders were revealed, namely Deputies, Future Stars, Bench Players and Oysters. Managerial and theoretical implications are discussed.

Drouin, Nathalie; Müller, Ralf Josef, Sankaran, Shankar & Vaagaasar, Anne Live (2018)

Balancing vertical and horizontal leadership in projects: Empirical studies from Australia, Canada, Norway and Sweden

International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 11(4), s. 986- 1006. Doi: 10.1108/IJMPB-01-2018-0002 - Fulltekst i vitenarkiv

Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold: to identify how horizontal leaders (within project teams) execute their leadership task in the context of balanced leadership; and to pinpoint scenarios that can occur when horizontal leaders are identified and empowered by the vertical leader (senior or project managers) and a project task is handed over to them to lead. This research is based on the concept of balanced leadership, which conceptualizes leadership as a dynamic, situation-dependent transition of leadership authority from a vertical leader (like a project manager) to a horizontal leader (a project team member) and back again, in order to contribute positively to a project’s success. Balanced leadership consists of five events (nomination, identification, empowerment, horizontal leadership and its governance, and transition). This paper focuses on the fourth event, and its specific aspect of leadership distribution between horizontal and vertical leader. This event begins when a team member(s) accepts the empowerment to assume the role of horizontal leader. This paper explicitly links the leadership style of the vertical leader based on Frame’s (1987) leadership styles and the nature of decisions taken by both the vertical and horizontal leaders to deliver the project. Design/methodology/approach The method used for this paper is the qualitative phase of a sequential mixed methods (qualitative-quantitative) study. Data were collected through case studies in four different countries, using a maximum variety sampling approach. Data collection was through interviews of vertical leaders (senior leaders who were often sponsors of projects or members of senior management or project managers) and horizontal leaders (team leaders or members) in a variety of industry sectors. Data analysis was done through initial coding and constant comparison to arrive at themes. Thematic analysis was used to gain knowledge about the split of leadership and decision-making authority between the horizontal and vertical leader(s). Findings The results show that for Canadian and Australian projects, a combination of autocratic and democratic leadership styles were used by vertical leaders. In the case of Scandinavian projects, a democratic leadership style has been observed. Linked to these leadership styles, the horizontal decision making is predominantly focused on technical decisions and to daily task decisions to deliver the project. Delegation occurs most of the time to one specific team member, but occasionally to several team members simultaneously, for them to work collaboratively on a given issue. Research limitations/implications The paper supports a deeper investigation into a leadership theory, by validating one particular event of the balanced leadership theory, which is based on Archer’s (1995) realist social theory. The findings from this paper will guide organizations to facilitate an effective approach to balancing the leadership roles between vertical and horizontal leaders in their projects. The findings can also be used to develop horizontal leaders to take up more responsibilities in projects. Originality/value The originality lies in the new leadership theory called balanced leadership, and its empirical validation. It is the first study on the leadership task distribution between vertical and horizontal leadership in projects. Its value is new insights, which allow practitioners to develop practices to find and empower the best possible leader at any given time in the project and academics to develop a more dynamic and, therefore, more realistic theory on leadership as it unfolds in projects.

Müller, Ralf Josef; Sankaran, Shankar, Drouin, Nathalie, Vaagaasar, Anne Live, Bekker, Michiel C. & Jain, Karuna (2018)

A theory framework for balancing vertical and horizontal leadership in projects

International Journal of Project Management, 36(1), s. 83- 94. Doi: 10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.07.003

This paper develops a framework for understanding the interaction between person-centered leadership by project managers (a.k.a. vertical leadership (VLS)) and team-centered leadership by individuals in the project team (a.k.a. horizontal leadership (HSL)). It builds on Archer's Realist Social Theory and its morphogenetic cycle, which describes the interaction of structure with agency for task fulfillment and the resulting reshaping (morphogenesis) or continuation (morphostasis) of structure for subsequent iterations of the cycle. Data were collected globally in 33 case studies with 166 interviews and analyzed using Alvesson's Constructing Mystery technique. A theory about the cycles and events that shape the interaction between VLS and HLS is developed, which includes events such as nomination, identification, selection, execution and governance, as well as transitioning. Managerial and theoretical implications are discussed.

Karlsen, Jan Terje; Solli-Sæther, Hans, van Oorschot, Kim & Vaagaasar, Anne Live (1)

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BI Leadership Magazine [Kronikk]

Bygballe, Lena Elisabeth; Swärd, Anna & Vaagaasar, Anne Live (2019)

Routines as truces in temporary multi-organizations

[Academic lecture]. Academy of Management Meeting.

Swärd, Anna; Vaagaasar, Anne Live & Bygballe, Lena Elisabeth (2019)

On connectivity, temporality, and organizational change processes

[Academic lecture]. Academy of Management Meeting.

Bygballe, Lena Elisabeth; Swärd, Anna & Vaagaasar, Anne Live (2019)

Connective technologies and temporality in the realm of organizational change processes

[Academic lecture]. Process Symposium.

Bygballe, Lena Elisabeth; Swärd, Anna & Vaagaasar, Anne Live (2019)

Routines as truces in inter-organizational projects

[Academic lecture]. EURAM.

Sankaran, Shankar; Vaagaasar, Anne Live & bekker, giel (2018)

Sankaran, S., Vaagaasar, A. L., & Bekker, M. C. (2018). Nominating project team members with a potential to take on leadership roles in projects. In Proceedings of EURAM 2019, June 20-22, 2018, Reykjavik, Iceland.

[Academic lecture]. EURAM.