In the past executives have attempted to ease the impact of the environmental conditions by embarking on massive cost-reduction programs. The usual results of these programs have been early retirement, layoffs, and a reduction in manpower through attrition.
As jobs become vacant, executives pressure line managers to accomplish the same amount of work with fewer resources, either by improving efficiency or by upgrading performance requirements to a higher position on learning curve.
Almost all of today's executives are in agreement that the solution to the majority of corporate problems involves obtaining better control and use of existing corporate resources, looking internally rather than externally for the solution.
Project management is one of the techniques under consideration.The project management approach is relatively modern. It is characterized by methods of restructuring management and adapting special management techinques, with the purpose of obtaining better control and use of existing resources.
Thirty years ago project management was confined to US Department of Defense contractors and construction companies. Today, the concept behind project management is being applied in such diverse industries and organizations as defense, construction, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and banking.
The rapid rate of change in both technology and the marketplace has created enormous strains on existing organizational forms.
The traditional structure is highly bureaucratic, and experience has shown that it cannot respond rapidly enough to a changing environment. Thus the traditional structure must be replaced by project management, or other temporary management structures that are highly organic and can respond very rapidly as situations develop inside and outside the company.
Project management has long been discussed by corporate executives and academics as one of the several workable possibilities for organizational forms of the future that could integrate complex efforts and reduce bureaucracy. The acceptance of project management has not been easy, however. Many executives are not willing to acept change and are inflexible when it comes to adapting to a different environment.
The project management approach requires a departure from the traditional business organizational form, which is basically vertical and which emphasizes a strong superior- subordinate relationship.Project management can mean different things to different people. Quite often, people misunderstand the concept because they have ongoing projects within their company and feel that they are using project management to control these activities.
Project management is really designed to make better use of existing resources by getting work to flow horizontally as well as vertically within the company. Almost everyone agree that the best way to reduce or minimize risks is for the organization to plan better. Since project management is one of the best methodologies to foster better planning, it is little wonder that more organizations are accepting project management as a way of life.
All organizational theories and management philosophies have undergone a dramatic change in recent years with the emergence of the project management approach to management. Because project management is an outgrowth of system management, it is only fitting these underlying principles of general system that a theory can be described.
Simply stated, general systems theory can be classified as a management approach that attempts to integrate and unify scientific information across many fields of knowledge. System theory attempts to solve problems by looking at the total picture, rather than through analysis of the individual components. |
