HR activities and practices for project success: A multi-method approach from Indian IT firms

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of Human Resource activities and practices (HRAPs) on value-driven project management in the Indian IT industry. It is a sector that offers various jobs for young IT skilled labour force, but faces major challenges in recruiting and retaining talent. A multi-method research has been carried out, using Delphi technique and a simultaneous equations model. Using the Delphi method, we developed an initial set of 136 globally accepted HRAPs. This was reduced to 20 most significant attributes applicable to Indian IT projects with the help of Kendall's coefficient of concordance (W) used over three rounds of iterations. Later, from 431 observations, we selected the top 10 HRAPs based on mean ranks in round 3 to study the impact on value-driven project success, in terms of meeting project, customer and organizational goals. The study also uses triangulation through a multimethod research approach to achieve convergence. The significant HRAPs impacting valuedriven project management include efficient project leadership, effective communication, training of project leaders, ensuring job-matching and listening to team members' issues. Frequent team conflicts and personnel turnover, however, adversely impact IT project success. Our results confirm that the impact of HRAPs on project goals is more prominent and immediate as compared to meeting customer or organizational goals, which is often delayed. The results emphasize the necessity of integrating all stakeholders of IT projects in order to accomplish value-driven success.

Modelling human resource dimension of international project risk management

“…According to Peled (2000), a project manager needs to play a broader role than simply managing the project processes. Bhoola and Giangreco (2018) mentioned the challenges and constraints accompanying the project manager's role. One of the biggest challenges before a project manager is managing people effectively.…”

“…Flaws in the performance appraisal process can hamper employee morale and also adversely affect the retention of skilled and experienced project staff. A defective performance appraisal may lead to non-participation of the project team in risk management (Foss et al, 2015;Frederiksen et al, 2017;Bhoola and Giangreco, 2018;Murphy, 2020).…”

“…The project team must be trained to identify the risks, define them clearly, prepare a probability-impact matrix for these risks and plan various risk response strategies. Failure to provide formal training in PRM may lead to ineffective risk management in international projects (Coetzer and Gibbison, 2016;Hanna et al, 2016;Dandage et al, 2017;Bhoola and Giangreco, 2018;Dandage et al, 2018b).…”

“…It can create obstacles in identifying the risks and also planning and implementing the risk response strategies. The fear of failure may be due to a lack of confidence by top management and poor performance appraisal process (Bhoola and Giangreco, 2018;Dandage et al, 2018b).…”

“…The project team has a significant role in maintaining and regularly updating the information within the project organization. The ignorance of the project team can lead to a poor information management system (Rane et al, 2019b;Bhoola and Giangreco, 2018;Dandage et al, 2019).…”