Human Systems Engineering™— A Trilogy, Part II: May The Force Be With You: Anatomy Of Project Failures
Publication: Leadership and Management in Engineering
Volume 6, Issue 1
Abstract
This paper was derived from research I conducted at three professional design engineering service firms concerning their perceptions of the “sudden” surfacing of conflict within a project team. The data collection methods included confidential one-on-one employee interviews, employee surveys, interviews with the firms’ clients, and feedback from subconsultants (suppliers) to the firms. A review of workplace conflict literature within the design and construction industry, and also in other workplace settings, was compared to proprietary data from management assessment reports of the three firms. This second part of the trilogy will present practical conflict “navigational” guides, including project team assessment for constructive versus destructive conflict, theoretical basis and practical application of Lewin’s force field analysis, three universal metrics of project success, brief anatomies of project failures, an estimate of the cost of unresolved conflict, and a proactive risk assessment checklist.
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Acknowledgments
The author gratefully acknowledges the funding of this research by the three professional design engineering firms noted. Many thanks also go to the many more firms whose work also contributed to the author’s dissertation and this trilogy. The author’s final degree was granted by California Coast University, a thirty-years young nontraditional distance learning institution in Santa Ana, California, on September 18, 2003. The author also singles out Dr. Herbert C. Newsom, associate dean of the School of Engineering Management, with gratitude for the advice and challenging questions given over the last six years of the author’s eight-year journey.
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Biographies
William M. Hayden Jr. is a senior member of the American Society for Quality, former chief operating officer of an A/E design engineering firm, and president of Management Quality by Design, Inc, in Buffalo, New York. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Leadership and Management in Engineering
Volume 6 • Issue 1 • January 2006
Pages: 1 - 12
Copyright
© 2005 ASCE.
History
Published online: Jan 1, 2006
Published in print: Jan 2006
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