Seyyed Babak Alavi, Graduate School of Management and

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HRM in Project-based organizations Concepts and
challenges

• Seyyed Babak Alavi,
• Graduate School of Management and Economics,
• Sharif University of Technology.

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Content

• HRM challenges in project-based organizations
• Specific characteristics of HRM in project-based
  organizations
• Challenges of HRM in some Iranian project-based
  organizations
• Main recommendations
• Conclusion.

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HRM challenges in project-based organizations

• The impacts of specific features of project-based
  organizations have not yet been discussed
  adequately in HRM or PM literatures.
• Key features of PBO influence HR mechanisms and
  may raise new HR challenges for PBO.

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Specific characteristics of HRM in project-based
organization (Huemann, Keegan, and Turner, 2007)

• Managing by projects as the main strategy of
  the project-based organizations
• Temporary nature of projects
• Dynamism
• Project-portfolio resource and role demands
• Specific management environment
• Specific considerations for the wellbeing of
  employees and their families.

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Dispersement from the project

• If there is no project to go to straight away,
  there are some other choices

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Retention of project-oriented engineers and
managers

• Research suggest that engineers with project
  orientation may possess different values and
  personal characteristics.
• Having opportunities to work in interesting and
  challenging projects that keep people marketable.
• Employees in PBO build their careers on a series
  of projects.

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Some challenges of HRM in some Iranian
project-based organizations

• Lack of adequate planning for HRM
• Administrative approach to understanding HRM
• Lack of clear distinction between staff and line
  HRM roles
• Given the centralized HRM processes (e.g.,
  selection, compensation), project managers may
  not possess required authority for human resource
  management
• Limited and unclear delegation
• Project management and HR competencies must be
  developed in relation to the strategic directions
  of PBOs
• Leadership crisis given the workload of project
  management activities

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Some challenges of HRM in some Iranian
project-based organizations (continued)

• Succession planning and career development plans,
  especially for project management careers
• Lack of adequate acceptance of young staff
  employees by project members
• Transferring knowledge from experienced to young
  employees
• Retention of knowledge workers
• Internal/external recruitment approaches
• Limited resources that result high stress
• Safety issues
• Work-family and morale issues.

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Main recommendations

• Development of succession management plans
• Development of career development plans for
  becoming project managers
• HRM organization in projects
• Development of work-family plans for project
  employees
• Assigning some project roles to young engineers
• Training and development plans for stress
  management
• Development of competency models specifically
  designed for project environments
• Development of strong PMOs in order to specify
  more time on leadership activities.

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Conclusions

• New lines of research and case studies must be
  conducted in the area of HRM in PBOs.
• For a long term development of project management
  in Iran, we need to develop a body of knowledge
  of HRM in PBOs.