Harold Kerzner: Organ

“The project manager’s job is not an easy one. Project managers may have increasing responsibility, but very little authority. This lack of authority can force them to “negotiate” with upper-level management as well as functional management for control of company resources. They may often be treated as outsiders by the formal organization.”

Harold Kerzner

Source: Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling (1979), p. 10 (2e ed. 1984) partly cited in: Frederick Betz (2011) Managing Technological Innovation. p. 172

“Project management is the planning, organizing, directing, and controlling of company resources for a relatively short-term objective that has been established to complete specific goals and objectives. Furthermore, project management utilises the systems approach to management by having functional personnel (the vertical hierarchy) assigned to a specific project”

Harold Kerzner

the horizontal hierarchy
Source: Project management for executives (1982), p. 3

“If these responsibilities were applied to the total organization, they might reflect the job description of the general manager. This analogy between project and general managers is one of the reasons why future general managers are asked to perform functions that are implied, rather than spelled out, in the job description.”

Harold Kerzner

Source: Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling (1979), p. 95-96 (1e ed. 1979) cited in: Howard G. Birnberg (1992) New directions in architectural and engineering practice. p. 192

Future

“Project management has long been discussed by corporate executives and academics as one of several workable possibilities for organizational forms of the future that could integrate complex efforts and reduce bureaucracy…. This approach does not really destroy the vertical, bureaucratic flow of work but simply requires that line organizations talk to the other horizontally so work will be accomplished more smoothly throughout the organization”

Harold Kerzner

Source: Project management for executives (1982), p. 2

Effort , Future

“Today, the concept behind project management is being applied in such diverse industries and organizations as defense, construction, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, banking, hospitals, accounting, advertising, law, state and local governments, and the United Nations.”

Harold Kerzner

Source: Project management for executives (1982), p. 2

Law

“There are always “class or prestige” gaps between various levels of management. There are also functional gaps between working units of the organization. If we superimpose the management gaps on top of the functional gaps, we find that companies are made up of small operational islands that refuse to communicate with one another for fear that giving up information may strengthen their opponents. The {[w|project manager}}’s responsibility is to get these islands to communicate cross-functionally toward common goals and objectives.”

Harold Kerzner

Source: Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling (1979), p. 4 (2e ed. 1984)

Fear , Communication