Stakeholder Management and Organizational Behavior

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction
1.1. Description of the Essay

2. Literature Review
2.1.1. Organizational Theory and Design
2.1.2. Classical Organizational Theory
2.1.2.1. Scientific Management Concept
2.1.2.2. Administrative Principals
2.1.2.3. Bureaucratic Approach
2.1.3. Neo -Classical Organizational Theory
2.1.4. Contemporary Organizational Theory
2.1.4.1. Contingency Organizational Theory
2.2. Organizational Structure
2.2.1. Functional Organization.
2.2.2. Pure Organization.
2.2.3. Matrix Organizations.
2.3. Project Human Resource Management Processes
2.3.1. The Impact of Human Resource management on Project Performance
2.4. CARE International Somalia Organizational Structure and Human Resource Policy

3. Human Resource Management processes of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Project
3.1. Water Sanitation and Hygiene Project Organizational Structure
3.1.1. Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM) of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Project
3.1.2. Organizational Responsibility Chart.
3.2. The Impact of Human Resource management on WASH Project performance

4. Conclusion and Recommendations

1. Introduction

The definition of project management can be traced to the definition of the two terms: the project and management. Project is defined as a “temporary effort made up of a related set of activities undertaken to create a unique product or service within specified requirements”^[1]. Management is also defined as “an achievement of organizational Objectives through people and other resources”^[2].Therefore, project management is temporary organization made up of related set of activities undertaken to accomplish a particular objectives through people under specific requirements. People are the most imperative part of any project organization. “The success or failure of the Project organization and the quality and reliability of its products depends on the competency of its people” ^[3] . Hence, the project management Processes of “organizing, managing, and leading the project team to accomplish the project goal in scope, time and cost constrains is referred to as the Project Human Resource Management”^[4].

The project human resource management processes are “project management enabling processes that facilitates to accomplish balanced project deliverable objectives of scope, Cost and time performance”^[5]. The actual competency level of the acquired staff of the project would directly change the project schedule as the staff responsibilities have a direct relationship with the project Work Breakdown structure (WBS) and its resource requirements. “The Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) designed to show how project deliverables are broken down into work packages provides a way of showing high-level areas of responsibility”^[6]. The organizational Assignment matrix is used to show the correlation between the project WBS and project staff. It is a mechanism to ensure that all project work packages with in the project scope are whole among the distributed responsibilities to the acquired project team. Moreover, organizational responsibility chart combines the work break down structure, and project schedule with the staff responsibilities and authorities.

Projects are always implemented through organizations with size larger than the projects. The project staff competency and project success is highly affected by its organizational internal and external environments. Project organizational structure is the most crucial organizational environment that triggers the staff motivation and work performance. “The term organizational structure refers to the formal configuration between individuals and groups with respect to the allocation of tasks, responsibilities, and authority within organizations”^[7]. According to (PMBoK, 2003) the project organization and its structure are key factors influencing the project staff competency. “Different organizational structures have different individual response, individual performance, and personal relationship characteristics”^[8].Therefore, Keith Lockyer & Gordon James (2007) had stated that developing a project organization which reflects the project task needs and acceptable to the personal needs is more acknowledgeable to project success.

1.1. Description

The purpose of this essay is to examine the Impact of project Human resource management on the project performance. It will determine the role of the competent project Human resource management on the project performance in the practical case of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Development project component of the Rural Women program implementing by CARE Somalia.

The scope of this essay is the project organization management particularly Human resource management body of knowledge. It will give details of project Human resource planning processes, as well as the project Human resource acquiring process; it will not deal to elucidate the project human resource management processes of developing and managing project team. It will analyze the impact of competent staff on project performance. The essay will emphasize more with the project organization management of development projects in the case of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Development project.

Due to the very inadequate time for data collection, analyzing and interpretation, it will not intend to propose strategies that could be employed to improve the future project organization aspects of the similar projects whilst it focuses more in academic intent.

This essay relies on the Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) project secondary sources of data. Both qualitative and quantitative data were used within this essay. The major sources of information adopted within this essay were taken from CARE Somalia Human Resource policy, Organizational structure, WASH Strategy and WASH Project proposal, Rural Women Program strategies and other related policy documents.

This essay has two major significances. First it has an academic significance as it will understand me the project organization and Human resource management. Again It will reveal the extent of my dedication in self studying upon the project human resource management discourse. It combines my academic endeavors to my professional experiences, which will ease the experiential and academic understanding of Project organizational design and Human resource management course as an essential part of the project management discipline.

This essay is organized into four chapters: The first chapter is the introduction of the essay. The second is the Literature review. It reviews the organizational theory and designs. It will also explain the project human resource planning, acquiring, developing and managing project staff processes. It will pinpoint the impact of competent personal on project performance. The Third chapter is Water, sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) project Human resource management processes. The fourth chapter is the conclusions and recommendations.

2. Literature Review

Organization is number of people who work together to attain a common goal. “Organizations are social entities that are goal-directed, are designed as deliberately structured and coordinated activity systems and are linked to the external environment”^[9]. The organizational effectiveness and productivity depends on the capabilities of its working force.“The success or failure of the Project organization and the quality and reliability of its products depends on the competency of its people”^[10]. In fact, Organizations are made up of people interacting with one another as a “resources deliberately structured and coordinated by managers to accomplish the organization’s goals”^[11]. This organizational behavior arouses much of staff motivations towards the achievement of the organizational goal. “Scientists have defined motivation as the process of arousing, directing, and maintaining behavior toward a goal”^[12].The organizational management Concepts bestow on both businesses and public world for the notion of the most effective organizational characteristics.

The greatest contributions of these concepts are the structure and working performance of the organizations. “The greatest contribution of organizational theories have been collected and called focus on task performance and structure”^[13]. The existing schools in the literature of organizational design are the Classical, neoclassical and cotemporary organizational concepts. These concepts are known as the organizational theories. They are all about how organization can be made effective and productive. “Organizational theories are the study of organizations for the benefit of identifying common themes for the purpose of solving problems, maximizing efficiency and productivity, and meeting the needs of stakeholders”^[14].

Though these theories are focused on the organizational effectiveness from different perspectives; the Classical perspective, neoclassic perspective and Environmental perspective, I argue that these concepts are supplementary rather than contentions. I argue that each individual organizational theory is packed with dents, and every one of them is propping against the other concepts.

The scientific management theory for instance, had contributed the scientific calculation of work expected from the labor; it encouraged the division of work between the subordinate and the superior. While, the administrative Concept had improved the design and functioning of a organization. It created unity of command, unity of direction and hierarchal structure of organization. Later, the administrative principle had triggered the bureaucratic organizations.

However, all of these concepts were concerned much on how to organize the internal structure and formalization of organization, but they did not give room for both humanity and external environment in the competitive world. “These rational perspectives are failed to consider the social context, human needs and external organizational environment”^[15].

Despite the fact that the “hierarchal and bureaucratic approaches functioned well into the 1970s and 1980s”^[16], there was a need to consider the human prospective, and the inquiry of people became the concern of the theorists. Thereby, Human movements had supplemented the former two principles with the human needs. “Hawthorne Studies concluded that positive treatment of employees will improve their motivation and productivity”^[17].Even though the humanity side of organizational effectiveness was thrown within the sector, yet there was a need for considering organization at a broader prospective. The contemporary organizational theory had witnessed the relationship in between the organization and its environment.”One thing depends on other things, there must be a constant goodness of fit’ between organizations’ structure and the external environment”^[18].Hence, the organizational theories are supplementary rather than controversy.

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Source: www.iei.liu.se/.../Lecture4.HumanResource- Organizational Behaviour

2.1. Organizational Theory and Design

There are three sub topics under the Organizational theory (OT): the Classical Organizational Theory, Neoclassical Organizational Theory, and Contemporary Organizational Theory.

2.1.1. Classical Organizational Theory

The Classical theory for instance was the commencement of the logical study of the organization. It considers the human organization as a machine whose productivity depends on its workers. “The classical theorists considered organization as a machine –goal fulfilling machine and workers were cogs in the machine, while efficiency and productivity can be improved by improving the efficiency of the workers”^[19].There are three principles under the Classical organizational Theory. “Three main approaches of classical OT are: (1) Scientific Management, (2) Administrative Process, and (3) Bureaucracy”^[20].

The difference in between these three concepts is that the scientific management theory deals with how an individual worker could be more efficient, while other two concepts are focused in how a large number of workers and their leaders could be most efficiently organized.

2.1.1.1. Scientific Management Concept

Frederick W. Taylor was the primary contributor of the Scientific Management Theory at the beginning of the 20th century. “F. Taylor emphasized scientific observation and analysis, job design and standardization, time and motion studies, scientifically selecting and training workers and incentive systems to increase productivity”^[21].Taylors had started the process at the individual workers which has a significant brunt on the system. “Taylor argues that inefficiencies could be controlled through managing production as a science”^[22].He argued that managers are the focal point of the scientific calculation of work solutions. Taylor defines scientific management as "concerned with knowing exactly what you want men to do and then see in that they do it in the best and cheapest way”^[23].Therefore, it became crucial to set up personnel specialists who are capable to select the optimum work process.

Frederick W. Taylor had set the five basic principles of scientific management. “scientific management philosophy can be summed up in the following words,1)Management is a science and not a rule of thumb, 2 ) production is improved by harmony and cooperation and not by discord, 3)Team and team spirit and not a group of individuals, 4)The goal is maximization of output and not restriction, 5)Production improves by a) selection of men and train, b)the best method of doing a job c)Appropriate tools’ d)motivation and e)fair wages”^[24].

The scientific Management had increased the organizational effectiveness and in a while, it maximized the production of the limited industries at the industrial revolution. “It is believed that through the use of scientific management Taylor increased productivity on the shop floor by 200 percent and it was adopted throughout the world including in France, Russia and Japan”^[25]. The scientific management is still used as a guideline for technical procedures of not only industrial sector but it is also useful in the service sector. “In today’s world, scientific management has been merged with other ideas and is used by managers in the form of time and motion studies to eradicate wasted motions, incentive schemes based on performance and hiring the best qualified workers for each job”^[26].

2.1.1.2. Administrative Principles

Taylor Henri Fayol had developed the administrative thought which was not widespread outside France until 1949. The Administrative theory is a rational prospective that invert the focus of the scientific management. The technical process was rationalized to Administrative process. “Administrative Process, Fayol defined major activities of an organization, considers management as a process of consisting five functions: planning, organizing, directing, coordinating and control”^[27]. Several different theoretical contribution of this administrative approached are concerned with two over all principles that are coordination and specialization.

Coordination is based on hierarchical pyramid structure in which the members of organization are linked to each other and are must be clear in administrative structure. The coordination relates that all employees are accountable in one superior, and each superior can have the number of subordinates that he can manage; whilst the subordinates are performing a routine work so as the superior can attend the special tasks. Specialization on one hand is concerned in the way of grouping the organizational activities that must be effective in separate entities or departments. This is referred to as departmentalization, where as the homogeneous activities in according to their purpose, process, customer, and geography (related activities) are grouped in one entity with. As it appears from both coordination and specialization, they express as high formalization which is one of the principle theme of the rational prospective.

2.1.1.3. Bureaucratic approach

Next to that was Max. Weber, who has been described as the father of sociology had made a great endeavor to elucidate the western civilizations. Weber had contributed the understanding of Bureaucracy. Bureaucracy is fundamental that represent pattern which exist in variants. “The Main characteristic of bureaucratic structure are division of work with accordance to functional specialization, clearly defined hierarchical structure, principles and procedures, impersonal and formal relations, tenure and job security, selection and promotion of personnel on the basis of technical qualifications, and use of rational-legal authority”^[28].

Weber was different from Taylor and Fayol in that he has a broader concept of organization and he include the social and historical prospective. He believed that understanding of organization and their structure can be found in historical prospective.

He formulated a number of criteria for bureaucracy.The characteristics of bureaucracy established by Weber were as follows: 1) a specific administration structure which is based on legal and rule oriented authority, 2) established distribution of work between the member of the organization,3) an administration hierarchy that is rule oriented system which distributes the performance of the work, 4)separation of staff possession and right for office, 5) selection of personnel according to their technical; qualifications and employment evolving career.

Weber received the goal rational as the optimum form for behavior. Acting goal rational is an ideal approach that considers goal as the means and side effect. Therefore Weber, considered the formal organizational structure as means of reaching the organizational goal. This perception is still the hypothesis of much structural analysis both for practitioner and scientists. The simplified Hypothesis of this outstanding goal rationality model can be arranged as the below conceptual sketch:

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Though the scientific and classical theory had contributed a lot to the organizational task performance and productivity, the existing theoretical imperfections in the organizational concepts were increasing with the increasing complexity of the organizations.”The central themes of both scientific management and classical organization theory are rationality, efficiency, and standardization but the roles of individuals”^[29].The classical Organizational Theory was criticized both employee and managers as the scientific time studies disregarded their own common sense and judgments. “Though the classical perspective encourages efficiency, it is often criticized as ignoring the importance of human needs”^[30].

2.1.2. Neo-classical Organizational Theory

Herbert Simon attempted in 1976 to clarify the above mentioned characteristics of the rational perspective goal specificity and formalization. Herbert Simon has moved in individual psychology in that, he criticized the individual understanding that lies in Taylors studies that was a matter of studies of organization at macro level.

Simon makes more humanity model by stating that even though the individuals are seeks his own interest, he is not always aware of his basic interest. Simon emphasizes that the rational model for its lack of realism. “He criticized general principles of management as being inconsistent, conflicting and inapplicable to many situations facing managers”^[31]. He called them “proverbs of administration”. “March and Simon coined the term “bounded rationality”. Obviously the classical model is crashed down both when we want to research the decisions behavior, and when we want to decision in practices. The behavioral pattern that is characteristic by Simon is the behavioral model designed and termed the “administrative man” in contrast to “economic man”. “The behavioral theory of management holds that all people (including employees) have complex needs, desires, and attitudes. The fulfillment of needs is the goal toward which employees are motivated. Effective leadership matches need-fulfillment rewards with desired behaviors (tasks) that accomplish organizational goals”^[32].

Some more researches also supported the issue of Simon. “The Hawthorne studies were conducted between 1927 and 1932 at Western Electric’s Hawthorne plant near Chicago; it concluded that positive treatment of employees will improve their motivation and productivity”^[33].

Therefore , Herbert Simon had came forward with some principles that can enhance the task performance and organizational productivity that are summarized as the following five major points: 1)“the satisfactory interrelationships between the coworkers, 2) It classifies personnel as social beings and proposes that sense of belonging in the workplace is important to increase productivity levels in the workforce, 3) an effective management understood the way people interacted and behaved within the group, 4) The management attempts to improve the interpersonal skills through motivations, leading, communication and counseling, 5) This study encourages managers to acquire minimal knowledge of behavioral sciences to be able to understand and improve the interactions between employees”^[34].

2.1.3. The Cotemporary Organizational Theory

We have discussed the classical and neoclassical organizational theory that was emphasizing two different perspectives. First , Weber and Taylor were supposed that effective task performance of organizations have related with its formal hierarchy, existing set of a clear rules, specialization of its labor, routine of work, and a highly impersonal task environment. Next to that, the Neoclassical organizational theory witnessed that effectiveness is not the just a goal of oriented, but also staff satisfaction. It argued, that was not strictly controlling of workers activities, but enthusiastically endorsing their mind-set of sense of worth and their substance to the enterprise.

However, now a days there is more understanding of the organizational concepts at a broader prospective. The contemporary organizational theory had recognizes that organization relates more with its environment “Today, it is widely believed that the best design for an organization depends on the nature of the environment (e.g., the economy, geography, labor markets) in which the organization is operating. This is known as the contingency approach to organizational design”^[35].

2.1.3.1. Contingency Approach

The contingency concept focuses on the organizational structure dependence on the surrounding and its main hypothesis. “There is no one best way to do things, it depends upon the situation, and organizations having internal structure that match with the demand from its surroundings best have the chance to survive”^[36]. That means, the one best design of organization depends upon its external environment will last long. Lawrence and Lorsch emphasizes that the organization must match in its external surroundings’ that is each organization units must be adjust to the surrounding they relates to, and the differentiation in the organizations whole must express the surrounding it operates. Based on a survey of ten industrial companies Lawrence and Lorsch designed the model with two variables: Differentiation and Integration.

A differentiation was defined as the appearance and development of different intellectuals and emotional orientations between the managing employees. Integration is also defined as the coordination and harmonization of various activities within the organization. The important conclusion o0f Lawrence and Lorsch was that the most efficient wsa not weakened on differentiation neither in acute nor long term problems. That means those having good coordination and conflict solving mechanisms have the potentiality to exist.

The Lawrence and Lorsch performance had inspired Hennery Mintzberg to develop theory on the connection in between the organizational forms and external environment factors.He focused on the connection in-between a four of specific external factors that are the stability, complexity market heterogeneity and hostility, and organizational forms. based on that literature he designed five organizational forms: Simple Structure, Machine Bureaucracy, expert Bureaucracy, Adhocracy and divisional zed organizational forms’.

“Henry Mintzberg, Specifically claims that organizations are composed of five basic elements, or groups of individuals, any of which may predominate in an organization; The one that does will determine the most effective design in that situation. The five basic elements are as follows: Operating core, Strategic apex, Middle line, Techno structure, and Support staff”^[37].The contingency theory is most applicable concept concerning the effective organizational structure. “The correct management approach is contingent on the organization’s situation”^[38]

2.2. Organizational Structure

Organizational structure is the allocation of tasks, responsibilities and authorities for various individuals, groups and departments within the organization. It is the framework, typically hierarchical, within which an organization arranges its lines of authority and communications, and allocates rights and duties. “ Organizational structure determines the manner and extent to which roles, power, and responsibilities are delegated, controlled, and coordinated, and how information flows between levels of management”^[39].There is an organizational chart which always shows the organizational structure.“An organizational chart identifies pictorially the various functions performed within an organization and the lines of authority between people performing those functions”^[40].

The organizational structure shapes the organizational action in several different ways. First, it outlines the reporting and organizational line of communication. It shows the vertical line of reporting and command and horizontal coordination line of the working force. “The number of people formally required to report each individual manager is immediately clear from the organizational chart”^[41]. The number of people who are reporting to one individual manager is known as manager’s span of control. If an individual manager has wide span of control then its organization has a flat hierarchy. On contrary, if an individual manager has a narrow span of control then its organization has a tall hierarchy.

Secondly, the organizational structure sets the formal operating procedures of the organization. It provides the role of decision making to individual workers who can thereafter participate the organizational decision making process at different levels. “Organizational structure affects organizational action in two big ways. First, it provides the foundation on which standard operating procedures and routines rest. Second, it determines which individuals get to participate in which decision-making processes, and thus to what extent their views shape the organization’s actions”^[42].

There are three types of organizational structures that have different characteristics and relative advantages and disadvantages. “The existing three organizational structures are the functional organizational structure, pure project organizational structure and the Matrix organizational structure”^[43].

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