Leadership and Human Capital Assessment within a Project Management Team
Author: Moolman, Marius
Supervisor: Professor Erik Schmikl
Date: September 2009
The objective of this study is to establish how to create high performance teams and leadership effectiveness in a turbulent world market.
The target population for this dissertation was the Gemalto Global Services (GGS) department within Gemalto Southern Africa and covered the entire department. The researcher identified a lack of processes to measure leadership performance of management within Gemalto. Without effective assessment tools in place, managers are ill-equipped to provide effective leadership for their subordinates.
For this study the researcher conducted the MBTI® Q, Kolbe A™ Index and the LSC tests on the 19 team members comprising the GGS Johannesburg project team. The measuring instruments were chosen based on the reliability and validity of these tests, the developer’s vision, and the benefits to the team. The team consists of three Project Managers, one Project Assistant, one Senior Integrator, four Integrators and nine Developers reporting to the Delivery Centre Manager. The team members of GGS South Africa are of diverse nationalities and are highly specialized, each in their own field. The team also completed a validated Group Development Questionnaire to determine the team’s stage of evolution using the Tuckman’s Five-stage theory of group development.
Key findings of this research are that the GGS Johannesburg project team is comprised of a very good mix of creative talent, both in terms of diverse Kolbe (Conative) and MBTI (Cognitive) profiles. The Kolbe team analysis revealed that the entire team is well selected (viability and effectiveness were at 98%), yet the teams goal attainment was only at 78% despite the fact that this team has an ideal synergy curve. Based on the LSC and the Group Development Questionnaire that was used to assess each manager’s leadership competence and the project teams overall perception of its functioning, a number of action recommendations were made how the team can further improve on its goal attainment. It can be concluded that it is essential for team leaders to have knowledge of their subordinate’s conative and cognitive profiles as this will enable them to build on their strengths, coach them more effectively as leaders, and facilitate individual striving into greater team synergy for improved goal attainment.
In the current state in which many organisations find themselves within the world economy, great benefit can be derived by using these tools, especially the Kolbe technology which is the predictor of performance and can be classified as the most advanced organisational development technology that is available to date. When the literature survey was conducted, the researcher found little evidence of actual reported studies which made use of the above combination of tools to enhance project management team performance.
