Authors: 1Dr. David Ackah PhD, 2Dr. Dotsey Nelson Monday PhD, & 3Dr. Maindson Kweku Benn PhD
President of IPMP, Head of Research Development, & Vice President Academics,
Institute of Project Management Professionals – IPMP
Email: dackah@goldensunbeamuniversity.edu.gh & nelsonmonday@gmail.com
Abstract
Project management is the art of managing the project and its deliverables with a view to produce finished products or service. There are many ways in which a project can be carried out and the way in which it is executed is project management. The evolution of organization theories from mechanistic to people based ones has influenced the approaches taken by managers in organizations towards the firm as well as organizing people. While the earlier decades of the 20th century witnessed the rise of the mechanistic of the rational approaches, since the 1970’s and particularly in the last decade of the 20th century, there has been a trend towards viewing organizations as interdependent, complex and chaotic. This has led to the adoption of the systems approach of organizations that embraces complexity and uncertainty. However, many managers continue to take the rational approach which views people as building blocks and the organization as a machine leaving little scope for flexibility and adaptability to changes in the external environment (Baecker, 2006, 80). This article considers the reasons for doing so and takes the position that managers would be better served to adopt the systems approach to deal with the challenges of the 21st century.
Keywords: Managing a Project, Role of Project Manager, Need for Project Manager
