Power & Politics in Project Management

Because projects often exist outside the traditional functional business structure, project managers often have an unstable base of power and must cultivate other methods of influence. Here, Pinto sheds new light on power and politics, specifically in how they relate to effectively managing projects. You will learn about the skills you need to succeed in the project environment, especially the abilities to bargain, manage conflict, and negotiate.

Power & Politics in Project Management offers you something that is immediately useful in your project management work—a better and more sensitive set of warning signals for spotting and reacting appropriately to unseemly political ploys. There is also useful information here for novice project managers who are beginning to understand the importance of becoming influential and are eager to learn ways to test their wings.

Pinto presents a combination of theory and practice. The first chapters lay a foundation, using important guiding principles from research on power and political behavior to put project politics in its proper context. He then details the key decision processes that often influence interdepartmental cooperation and conflict. Once that's understood, it's easy to see how pervasive political behavior is and how to take steps to minimize its potentially negative effects on projects. The last chapter then examines some specific arenas of politics including negotiation skills and conflict management.

This is a practical discussion of the role of political behavior in project implementation, a pragmatic guide to project management politics and the lessons that managers need to derive from its practice. In a nutshell, Pinto helps project managers do a better job of running their projects.

About the Author

Jeffrey K. Pinto is the Samuel A. and Elizabeth B. Breene University Endowed Fellow in Management and associate professor of management in the School of Business at Penn State-Erie. He received his B.A. in history and B.S. in business administration from the University of Maryland and his M.B.A. and Ph.D. degrees in business administration from the University of Pittsburgh.

Dr. Pinto has authored or edited nine books and over ninety articles in a variety of professional journals. His publications include the study of project management, the management of geographic information systems, causes of new system implementation success, social science research methodology, and leadership and motivation. His research interests include project management, the study of interorganizational sharing of information and the processes by which organizations implement innovations and advanced technologies.

Dr. Pinto is a member of the Project Management Institute, the Engineering Management Society, and the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association. In addition, he has had consulting experience with a number of Fortune 500 companies and federal and state agencies on topics such as total quality managemment, organizational change, project management, time management, corporate entrepreneurship, and successful implementation of innovation.