Behavioural Aspects of Project Management
Duration and timing: 30 hours, Autumn Term
Module leader: Sarah Gregory
Overview
For all its apparently robust plans and formal schedules, below the surface of project management lie a series of more complex and unpredictable elements: the human or behavioural aspects. This core module looks at challenges involved in undertaking change initiatives with human ‘resources’.
This module aims to give you a broad theoretical and practical understanding of some key concepts and issues in organisational behaviour, and in particular their implications for project managers in organisations in an era of change and of globalised markets. Drawing on a series of case studies and the experience of students within the class, it will examine the main approaches to organisational behaviour, focusing particularly on:
- organisational structures
- organisational culture
- individuals in groups and teams
- motivation of project management teams
- power and conflicts in teams and organisations
You will conduct a team/organisational analysis drawing on techniques and concepts from the five areas above, as means of understanding more about project management and organisations.
The module also includes an interactive exercise, run by project managers.
Assessment
Individual 2,000-word assignment
Group-based case study (4,000 words)
The module also contributes to the integrative case study exam held in the Summer Term.
