Procedia

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Social and
Behavioral
Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 00 (2011) 000–000 Sciences
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 31 (2012) 837 – 840
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia

WCLTA 2011

Role of human aspects in project management

Hamid Tohidi*, Mohammad Mehdi Jabbari
Department of Industrial Engineering, South Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
Department of Electrical Engineering, South Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Today in the world of management, despite of project managers' technical and technological domains becoming more
complicated and extended, the focus of project managers is mostly tended to human aspect rather than technical and
technological aspects. Thus, nowadays the need for developing soft skills in project managers is considered so much more by
organization. One of the human aspects that should be specifically considered in project team is motivation of the project
team members.

Keywords: Human aspect; Motivation; Project management

1. Introduction

In today's world of management, despite of project managers' technical and technological domains becoming more
complicated and extended, the focus of project managers is mostly tended to human aspect. Thus, nowadays the
need for developing soft skills in project managers is considered more than before by organization. One of the most
important influencing factors on increasing job satisfaction and as a result increasing the efficiency of human
resource is increasing motivation [2,6]. The way of keeping and increasing employees' motivation in project-based
organizations regarding to special properties of projects is different from activities of other organization. The aim of
this research, in the first step, is identifying and measuring motivating factors in project-based organizations, and in
the second step, is ranking of these factors using Multi Criteria Decision-Making techniques (MCDM). For this
reason, project-based traditional organizations were primarily compared with each other. Six fundamental criteria
and 21 indicators in order to increase project team motivation were identified and finally ranking of these factors in
order to increase motivation as well as improving project management system in two state of dependent and
independent to main criteria was made [4,7,9]. In this research we concluded the most important effective criteria in
improving employees' motivation in project-based organizations in turn, justice –based, leadership method, work
environment conditions, work objectively and employees' development[15,16].

2. Project

Project provides special conditions for project team members whom these conditions can have different
effects on them, because it has special properties (it has a given beginning and end, limited resources and

* Hamid Tohidi
E-mail address: H_Tohidi@azad.ac.ir

1877-0428 © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Prof. Hüseyin Uzunboylu.
Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.12.152
838 Hamid Tohidi and Mohammad
Hamid Mehdi Jabbari
Tohidi / Procedia / Procedia
Social and - Social
Behavioral and Behavioral
Sciences Sciences 31 (2012) 837 – 840
00 (2011) 000–000

uniqueness). These effects in some cases can cause human resource efficiency reduction during performing
the project. For example, work pressure and abundant stress resulting from performing project activities are
not comparable to work pressure of current activities in organization [1,8,11]. On the other hand, increasing
and decreasing of human resource during the project is so variable, whereas the effort level of human
resource in non-project activities of organization is almost monotonous. In addition, to these differences,
there are other differences between current and project activities which cause differences in organization
members' morale and requirements of in project team and staff [12,14].

3. Role of human resources in project

In most of the projects in spite of non-project activities, human resource plays a more important role than
other work factors like machines, approaches, materials etc. in a productive factory, it is possible that
according to producing automation ,Job dissatisfaction of workers has no much effect production volume, but
during executing a project job dissatisfaction of welding technician will have a high effect on the amount of
project progression; and in current activities of organization negative effects resulting from changing
personnel will be less than negative effects resulting from changing a work resource in the middle of
executing a project[3.10,13].

4. Role of motivation in project

According the above cases, the necessity of effort for change keeping or increasing human resource
productively in project will be very large. One of the most effective factors on increasing job satisfaction and
consequently increasing efficiency of human resource is increasing motivation. The way of retention and
increasing employees' motivation in project activities regarding to special features of projects is different
from non-project activities.

4.1. Effective factors on reducing motivation

But what happened that people's motivation is reduced for executing activities in the project environment?
As we said, a project has unique properties which can affect on project team members'
motivation. The main cases which cause motivation decrease are[5]:

 Losing the support of chief officer by project team member

 Individual conflicts between project team members
 Consecutive current and indifference to human resources
 Not conducive working environment for
 Not using expertise in jobs
 Not obligatory according to the needs of employees
 Job insecurity
 Injustice in rewarding system
 Time conflicts (project resources timing)
 Time and cost increase of project
 The fear of being fired after finishing the project
 High fluctuation in individuals activities level

4.2. Method of rising motivation in organizations

 Hamid Tohidi andHamid
Mohammad
TohidiMehdi Jabbari
/ Procedia / Procedia
Social - Social and
and Behavioral Behavioral
Sciences Sciences
00 (2011) 31 (2012) 837 – 840
000–000 839

But, how we can cause motivation in project team member. Some of motivating methods in project and non-
project organizations are equal, such as cash and non-cash rewarding, etc. but there are some methods which
have more importance in project organization than other non-project organizations. Most of the motivation
increase methods in project team are focused on communications. Sufficient authority to the staff, so they have
more responsibility in their work . Trying to staff participation in decision making and setting goals and
programs that; This will result in the employee performance in achieving organizational goals and feel
responsible to do more updates Establishing an appropriate system of performance-based pay system and to
establish discipline and encouragement.
Increasing communications between project team members and providing a transparent environment and
without ambiguity happen to increase people's motivation in project team. This environment will cause to reduce
conflicts between project team members and positive feedbacks in respect to efficiency increase to be
represented. On the other hand, contributing project team members to discussions and decision makings will help
people to represent their inner abilities and skills. The point that should be taken into account about project team
motivation is the amount of people's motivation during the length of the project. Researches have showed that
people's motivation is high at the beginning of the project and by elapsing time and approaching to the end of is
reduced. This can have several reasons, such as work volume increase of project team, concerns about job status
after the project being finished, time project becoming long and concerns about its failure. In addition, over time
most of the project managers allocate more time to technical and executive activities of the project and they less
deal with soft activities like motivation, communications etc. thus, it is important that project managers consider
final steps more.

5. Conclusion

Unfortunately, in our country there is not much attention to soft skills of project managers and project
managers often spend their time on financial and technical problems of the project during executing it, while
they are unaware of that the source of all problems in the project is related to the human issues of the project.
Therefore, it is necessary for project managers in our country to learn soft skills which today are one of the
most needs of the project manager in the international level; and they apply them in order to increase job
satisfaction and eventually develop project team members' efficiency.

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840 Hamid Tohidi and Mohammad
Hamid Mehdi Jabbari
Tohidi / Procedia / Procedia
Social and - Social
Behavioral and Behavioral
Sciences Sciences 31 (2012) 837 – 840
00 (2011) 000–000

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