- Paperback: 260 pages
- Publisher: Project Management Institute Communications Office,U.S. (Feb 1997)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1880410435
- ISBN-13: 978-1880410431
- Product Dimensions: 23 x 15.3 x 1.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 971,981 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Synopsis
Here, Pinto sheds light on power and politics, specifically in how they relate to effectively managing projects.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The book starts with a familiar tale. Tim Robinson is an angry and bewildered Project Manager. He considers his failure to obtain resources for his project from Ed, the Diagnostics Manager. Politics has reared its ugly head.
The book sets out to investigate how politics affects Project Management and what Project Managers can do about it.
We start by looking at Stakeholder Analysis, a process for Stakeholder Management and Stakeholder Conflict. We arrive at the conclusion that it is impossible to maximise stakeholder satisfaction. We should aim to minimise stakeholder dissatisfaction.
Pinto argues for Political Behaviour as a positive force in organisations. Certainly it has its negative side. In the hands of 'sharks' it has the power to corrupt. There is a middle ground, he says, where we can use politics to serve the organisation. Political ineptitude of Project Managers can be a major contributor to project failure. The need for self-interested groups within organisations to bargain for scarce resource leads to conflict. The use of power and politics then becomes the mechanism for its resolution.
We are told we can harness the positive forces of power and politics using Negotiating Skills and Conflict Management.
The discussion of negotiating skills draws on the 'principled' negotiation methods in "Getting To Yes" by Roger Fisher and William Fry. We review the sources of conflict and the merits of three methods of conflict resolution: Avoidance, Defusion and Confrontation.
Pinto leaves us with the implications that we must acknowledge politics within our organisations. We must cultivate the appropriate political tactics and recognise the self-interest of stakeholders. Using Influence, Negotiation and Conflict Management we can tackle this sometimes distasteful aspect of project management.
This is a very important book that provides clues for identifying political games. The war stories describing political behaviour are very good. We are shown the methods to combat these games, but they are kept a little too detached from the problem. More examples of how the skills can be successfully employed are needed. It is a bit like having the parts of an engine laid out and being given a set of spanners. It does little to help put the engine back together again.
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