The Role of Induction and Training in Team Effectiveness

Abstract

Anecdotal evidence suggests that throughout project environments there are inadequate induction and training programs for project teams. Resultant issues include poor scope of works and a lack of communication for both project teams and project managers. This research is designed to evaluate why these problems occur and provide direction as to how these can be minimized. The case studies selected for this research have noted failures or issues in relation to project teams providing a service to major clients. The researchers discovered that there was a significant lack of management support for such a program, which cascaded into other areas of concern such as inadequate training, lack of internal processes, and a client lack of confidence to deliver.

Information Systems Project Management in PMJ: A Brief History

“…These types of issues appear to have remained relevant during the entire 18‐year period that was studied (e.g., Christenson & Walker, 2004; Jiang, Klein, & Chen, 2001; Kloppenborg & Plath, 1991; Scott, 1996; Willis, Huston, & D'Ouville, 1988). Other articles falling within this subarea pertain more to issues related to team management, including the role of project teams (Ford & McLaughlin, 1992, 1993), training of team members (Atkins & Guilbert, 2003; Rogers, 1990), and trust building in project teams (Herzog, 2001).…”

Organizational Development action: Induction program

“…Several studies have addressed the effects of the induction process in organizations, such as the Hendricks and LouwPotgieter (2012), who sought to know if the theory on the creation of an induction process afforded the expected results, demonstrating if the induction program is based on an inadequate theory, will not achieve the proposed benefits.In addition, Lewis, Thomas and Bradley (2012) found a positive relationship between the induction process and employee engagement; Atkins and Gilbert (2003) evaluated an induction program and its effectiveness with respect to work done by a project team, based on the assumption that the effectiveness of a working group can be improved with a thorough induction process. Arachchige (2014) demonstrated through a qualitative study that the lack of an induction process in the company causes a significant drop in efficiency and labor productivity, a goal that also shares this work.…”

Coaching IT project teams: a design toolkit

“…The importance of project management for managing organizations is increasing rapidly as the rate of change is increasing and organizations deploy more flexible organisational design architectures (Söderlund, 2004). As a result, much work is underway regarding identifying project management competencies (Dainty et al, 2004;Kasvi et al, 2003) and training and developmental programs for improving project management practices (McCreery, 2003;Atkins and Gilbert, 2003). With increased popularity and availability of executive coaching (Sherman and Freas, 2004) offering coaching services for developmental needs of their project managers has become a real option for many organizations.…”