IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ormnsc/v65y2019i3p1408-1429.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Encouraging Help Across Projects

Author

Listed:
  • Pascale Crama

    (Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management University, Singapore 178899)

  • Fabian J. Sting

    (Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences, University of Cologne, D-50923 Cologne, Germany; Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, 3062 PA Rotterdam, Netherlands)

  • Yaozhong Wu

    (National University of Singapore Business School, Singapore 119245)

Abstract

Companies struggle with timely project execution despite employing sophisticated management methods. Although help across projects is critical for time performance, it has not been explicitly incorporated into project management (PM) systems. We model a PM system, based on an innovative real-life practice, that both incorporates and shapes project managers’ helping behavior. A help process is at the core of this system, in which project managers may ask for and provide help while top management facilitates such exchanges. We find that companies should take a nuanced approach when designing help exchange and time-based incentives in tandem. A company that faces high project rewards after delays and highly effective help can benefit from inducing help because doing so enables the pursuit of projects it might abandon if delayed or even at the outset. The formal help process delivers value by creating and exploiting interdependencies between projects. These interdependencies allow project prioritization by inducing different effort levels in otherwise identical projects. A help process also allows the company to “tune” the timing of efforts by front-loading or back-loading project work. The benefits of a help system accrue through cost efficiencies, increased probability of success under help, and intertemporal incentive effects that encourage early efforts. However, because the help process creates the opportunity for free riding, a help system is not always recommended and a no-help system may perform better, especially when there are low project rewards after delay and low opportunity costs for project work.

Suggested Citation

  • Pascale Crama & Fabian J. Sting & Yaozhong Wu, 2019. "Encouraging Help Across Projects," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(3), pages 1408-1429, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:65:y:2019:i:3:p:1408-1429
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2017.2988
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2017.2988
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/mnsc.2017.2988?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Itoh, Hideshi, 1992. "Cooperation in Hierarchical Organizations: An Incentive Perspective," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 8(2), pages 321-345, April.
    2. Bilal Gokpinar & Wallace J. Hopp & Seyed M. R. Iravani, 2010. "The Impact of Misalignment of Organizational Structure and Product Architecture on Quality in Complex Product Development," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(3), pages 468-484, March.
    3. Tobias Kretschmer & Phanish Puranam, 2008. "Integration Through Incentives Within Differentiated Organizations," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 19(6), pages 860-875, December.
    4. V. Krishnan & Karl T. Ulrich, 2001. "Product Development Decisions: A Review of the Literature," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 47(1), pages 1-21, January.
    5. Manuel E. Sosa & Steven D. Eppinger & Craig M. Rowles, 2004. "The Misalignment of Product Architecture and Organizational Structure in Complex Product Development," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(12), pages 1674-1689, December.
    6. Itoh, Hideshi, 1991. "Incentives to Help in Multi-agent Situations," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(3), pages 611-636, May.
    7. Morvarid Rahmani & Guillaume Roels & Uday S. Karmarkar, 2017. "Collaborative Work Dynamics in Projects with Co‐Production," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 26(4), pages 686-703, April.
    8. Yaozhong Wu & Karthik Ramachandran & Vish Krishnan, 2014. "Managing Cost Salience and Procrastination in Projects: Compensation and Team Composition," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 23(8), pages 1299-1311, August.
    9. Jürgen Mihm & Christoph Loch & Arnd Huchzermeier, 2003. "Problem--Solving Oscillations in Complex Engineering Projects," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 49(6), pages 733-750, June.
    10. Morris A. Cohen & Jehoshua Eliasberg & Teck-Hua Ho, 1996. "New Product Development: The Performance and Time-to-Market Tradeoff," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 42(2), pages 173-186, February.
    11. Paul S. Adler & Avi Mandelbaum & Viên Nguyen & Elizabeth Schwerer, 1995. "From Project to Process Management: An Empirically-Based Framework for Analyzing Product Development Time," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 41(3), pages 458-484, March.
    12. Martin Hoegl & Katharina Weinkauf & Hans Georg Gemuenden, 2004. "Interteam Coordination, Project Commitment, and Teamwork in Multiteam R&D Projects: A Longitudinal Study," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 15(1), pages 38-55, February.
    13. Joel Goh & Nicholas G. Hall, 2013. "Total Cost Control in Project Management via Satisficing," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(6), pages 1354-1372, June.
    14. Juanjuan Zhang, 2016. "Deadlines in Product Development," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(11), pages 3310-3326, November.
    15. Enno Siemsen & Sridhar Balasubramanian & Aleda V. Roth, 2007. "Incentives That Induce Task-Related Effort, Helping, and Knowledge Sharing in Workgroups," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(10), pages 1533-1550, October.
    16. Karan Girotra & Christian Terwiesch & Karl T. Ulrich, 2007. "Valuing R& D Projects in a Portfolio: Evidence from the Pharmaceutical Industry," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(9), pages 1452-1466, September.
    17. H. Dharma Kwon & Steven A. Lippman & Kevin F. McCardle & Christopher S. Tang, 2010. "Project Management Contracts with Delayed Payments," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 12(4), pages 692-707, October.
    18. Raul O. Chao & Stylianos Kavadias, 2008. "A Theoretical Framework for Managing the New Product Development Portfolio: When and How to Use Strategic Buckets," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(5), pages 907-921, May.
    19. Jürgen Mihm, 2010. "Incentives in New Product Development Projects and the Role of Target Costing," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(8), pages 1324-1344, August.
    20. Cheryl Gaimon & Gülru F. Özkan & Karen Napoleon, 2011. "Dynamic Resource Capabilities: Managing Workforce Knowledge with a Technology Upgrade," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(6), pages 1560-1578, December.
    21. Drago, Robert & Turnbull, Geoffrey K., 1991. "Competition and cooperation in the workplace," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 347-364, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ronald Klingebiel & Peter Esser, 2020. "Stage-Gate Escalation," Strategy Science, INFORMS, vol. 5(4), pages 311-329, December.
    2. Anatoli Colicev & Tuuli Hakkarainen & Torben Pedersen, 2023. "Multi‐project work and project performance: Friends or foes?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(2), pages 610-636, February.
    3. Cheryl Gaimon & Janice Carrillo, 2022. "Successful innovation and the alignment of knowledge workers at the executive, management, and technical specialist levels," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(12), pages 4589-4598, December.
    4. Neukirchen, Thomas & Klumpp, Matthias, 2019. "Digital logistics, strategic cognitive readiness and employee training," Chapters from the Proceedings of the Hamburg International Conference of Logistics (HICL), in: Kersten, Wolfgang & Blecker, Thorsten & Ringle, Christian M. (ed.), Artificial Intelligence and Digital Transformation in Supply Chain Management: Innovative Approaches for Supply Chains. Proceedings of the Hamburg Int, volume 27, pages 117-150, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Institute of Business Logistics and General Management.
    5. Dahai Li & Huan Wang & Yang Li, 2023. "Incentive Mechanisms for Thermal Power Generation Enterprises with Conflicting Tasks: Electricity Production versus Carbon Emission Reduction," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-22, July.
    6. Mengyang Pan & Aravind Chandrasekaran & James Hill & Manus Rungtusanatham, 2022. "Multidisciplinary R&D project success in small firms: The role of multiproject status and project management experience," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(7), pages 2806-2821, July.
    7. Haijian Si & Stylianos Kavadias & Christoph Loch, 2022. "Managing innovation portfolios: From project selection to portfolio design," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(12), pages 4572-4588, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stylianos Kavadias & Karl T. Ulrich, 2020. "Innovation and New Product Development: Reflections and Insights from the Research Published in the First 20 Years of Manufacturing & Service Operations Management," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 22(1), pages 84-92, January.
    2. Morvarid Rahmani & Guillaume Roels & Uday S. Karmarkar, 2018. "Team Leadership and Performance: Combining the Roles of Direction and Contribution," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(11), pages 5234-5249, November.
    3. Cheryl Gaimon & Manpreet Hora & Karthik Ramachandran, 2017. "Towards Building Multidisciplinary Knowledge on Management of Technology: An Introduction to the Special Issue," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 26(4), pages 567-578, April.
    4. Jeremy Hutchison-Krupat, 2018. "Communication, Incentives, and the Execution of a Strategic Initiative," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(7), pages 3380-3399, July.
    5. Bilal Gokpinar & Wallace J. Hopp & Seyed M. R. Iravani, 2010. "The Impact of Misalignment of Organizational Structure and Product Architecture on Quality in Complex Product Development," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(3), pages 468-484, March.
    6. Kevin B. Hendricks & Vinod R. Singhal, 2008. "The Effect of Product Introduction Delays on Operating Performance," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(5), pages 878-892, May.
    7. Gülru F. Özkan-Seely & Cheryl Gaimon & Stylianos Kavadias, 2015. "Dynamic Knowledge Transfer and Knowledge Development for Product and Process Design Teams," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 17(2), pages 177-190, May.
    8. Ola Kvaløy & Trond E. Olsen, 2008. "Cooperation in Knowledge-Intensive Firms," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 2(4), pages 410-440.
    9. Flores-Fillol, Ricardo & Iranzo, Susana & Mane, Ferran, 2017. "Teamwork and delegation of decisions within the firm," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 1-29.
    10. Tat Y. Chan & Jia Li & Lamar Pierce, 2014. "Compensation and Peer Effects in Competing Sales Teams," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(8), pages 1965-1984, August.
    11. Scott A. Shane & Karl T. Ulrich, 2004. "50th Anniversary Article: Technological Innovation, Product Development, and Entrepreneurship in Management Science," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(2), pages 133-144, February.
    12. Shivam Gupta & Anupam Agrawal & Jennifer K. Ryan, 2023. "Agile contracting: Managing incentives under uncertain needs," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 32(3), pages 972-988, March.
    13. Morita, Hodaka & Nakajima, Kentaro & Tsuru, Tsuyoshi, 2017. "Product Architecture and Intra-Firm Coordination: Theory and Evidence," Discussion Paper Series 659, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    14. Ashish Arora & Michelle Gittelman & Sarah Kaplan & John Lynch & Will Mitchell & Nicolaj Siggelkow & Chi-Hyon Lee & Manuela N. Hoehn-Weiss & Samina Karim, 2016. "Grouping interdependent tasks: Using spectral graph partitioning to study complex systems," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(1), pages 177-191, January.
    15. Rauniar, Rupak & Rawski, Greg, 2012. "Organizational structuring and project team structuring in integrated product development project," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(2), pages 939-952.
    16. Kai Yang & Yanfei Lan & Ruiqing Zhao, 2017. "Monitoring mechanisms in new product development with risk-averse project manager," Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 667-681, March.
    17. Julien Clement & Phanish Puranam, 2018. "Searching for Structure: Formal Organization Design as a Guide to Network Evolution," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(8), pages 3879-3895, August.
    18. Neunzig, Alexander R., 2002. "Mehraufgaben-Prinzipal-Agenten-Analyse: Effiziente Arbeitsverträge für abwechslungsbegrüßende Arbeitnehmer," CSLE Discussion Paper Series 2002-04, Saarland University, CSLE - Center for the Study of Law and Economics.
    19. Jonathan Glover & Eunhee Kim, 2021. "Optimal Team Composition: Diversity to Foster Implicit Team Incentives," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(9), pages 5800-5820, September.
    20. Mohsen Jafari Songhori & Javad Nasiry, 2020. "Organizational Structure, Subsystem Interaction Pattern, and Misalignments in Complex NPD Projects," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 29(1), pages 214-231, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:65:y:2019:i:3:p:1408-1429. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.