Abstract
A highly effective communication system and a solid commitment of the project manager to the communication maintenance throughout the life cycle of the project are mandatory to the project's success. The present research is based on integration of project management knowledge with organisational communication knowledge. The research included the development of the PCMI (Project Communication Management Index), which is a quantitative tool, designed to evaluate the effectiveness of communication in project environment. Its implementation on a body of project managers from eleven organisations yielded a detailed identification of project's communication patterns.
Introduction
Project environment provides a playing ground for an assortment of stakeholders, representing a wide selection of interests. An effective communication system, by which information can be exchanged in a clear and understandable manner is necessary, though not sufficient, for any project to succeed. Communication is the basis of every human interaction and the foundation of every community. It is the process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols. Until lately, very little academic or empirical research was devoted to the subject, but the emergence of the information era that had a significant impact on information systems, promoted substantial interest in the organisational communication system.
Various measurement tools academically reviewed and practically used are available in the field of project management, they are primarily applicable in areas of knowledge, such as scope, time management, cost management, quality management and risk management, but very few apply to communications management. The body of knowledge does not offer any known usable measurement tools to evaluate communications in projects; hence the development of a functional measurement tool for the communications area of knowledge is definitely overdue. Since communications management is one of the most time consuming activities throughout the project lifecycle, it is obvious that an efficient measurement tool could contribute to improve the communications processes and thus improve the project's chances for success.
Background
The development of the PCMI (Project Communications Management Index) was based on cross-referencing knowledge from the field of project management with organisational communication procedures. The first provides the building blocks of the communication in project environment and the other provides the attributes for assessing the communication process.
Project Communications Management
The project communications management area of knowledge is defined by A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (2000) (PMBOK®) through the following four processes: communications planning, information distribution, performance reporting, and administrative closure. These processes are interrelated and follow the projects life cycle, starting at the planning stage, continue to executing and controlling stages, and ending with the closing stage. The four communications processes yield nine communication outputs, which cover the formal aspects of data, information, and knowledge management throughout the project.
The following communication outputs are defined by the (PMBOK®).
“Communications Management Plan” is a document that contains guidelines for communications management during the project life cycle, stakeholder identification and analysis, classification of stakeholders' information needs defined by content, structure and timing parameters, responsibilities for information transferring, definition of the tools and techniques for information transferring, and the method for updating and improving the communications management plan as the project progresses.
“Project Records” include documents describing the project. These documents, such as memos, work packages definitions, directions, procurement orders, invoices and product specifications deal with the project's raw data. Project records should be gathered, briefly categorised and saved in order to enable the project stakeholders use them in any stage of the project.
“Project Reports” include formal reports on project status and/or issues. Project reports, such as budget reports, schedule reports, resources availability reports and legal contracts, provide official information concerning the project. Project reports transferred to the appropriate stakeholders on predefined timing, usually in a written manner.
“Project Presentations” include formal and informal presentations to any or all of the project stakeholders. Project presentations might deal with a specific subject such as budget, schedule, quality or changes, or they might be targeted to periodically update a group of stakeholders such as the organisation management, the customer or the project's teams. The type of information is similar to that transferred by project reports, but the communications channels are different.
“Performance Reports” present, by written documents, graphs and oral presentations, the summary of various analyses regarding project's progress. Performance reports, such as progress reports, resources usage reports, quality control reports, project expenses and incomes reports, provide analysed information and should be addressed on time to the appropriate stakeholders at the required level of detail.
“Change Requests” derive from performance analysis and may be related to any aspect of the project, such as scope, schedule, budget, resources, product specifications, etc. every change request should be handled carefully and usually includes the following steps. Document the change request regardless of its initiator or subject; appraise the request and decide whether to accept, reject or delay the request; analyse the decision's consequences with regard to scope, schedule, budget, resources and influence on other work packages in the project; inform all direct and indirect affected stakeholders.
“Project Archives” contain a complete set of indexed project records. All the information that was collected during the project life cycle is saved in files or electronic databases. The information technology devices supply useful tool for project records storage that can be updated as required. Project electronic archive includes central database which may be related to other databases such as procurement management, human resources management, accounting, etc.
“Project Closure” provides the confirmation that the project has met all customer requirements for the product of the project. The customer approves that he formally accepts the project results and deliverables and that the project is terminated to his satisfaction. The project closure documents may include regulations approvals, standards approvals, internal and external tests results, integration and final acceptance tests results.
“Lessons Learned” includes documents analysing the causes of variances, the reasoning behind corrective action chosen and other inferences and conclusions regarding the project. Lessons learned deal with the knowledge management aspect of the project communication. It should be documented and stored in the project databases for enabling improvement and expansion of knowledge relevant to the specific project and accumulative knowledge of the performing organisation.
Organizational Communication
“Communication” is defined as “the process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs or behaviour” (Webster's Dictionary, 1997). “Organisational communication” is defined as a network maintaining the flow of purposive information within the organisation and between the organisation and its environment (Samuel, 1996). Organisational communication body of knowledge is composed of various theoretical perspectives which yield various empirical approaches for communication investigation. However, there is an agreement as to the basic model of communication and its components (Shannon & Weaver, 1963; Gibson et al., 1991). The basic communication model is presented in Exhibit 1.
Exhibit 1: Chart of Basic Communication Model
The elements presented in the model include: message, channel, sender/receiver, encoding/decoding, feedback, and noise.
Investigation of the communication process usually considers answers to the following questions: What to say? To whom? When? and how? (Kezsbom, 1989). These questions are supposed to provide information concerning the components of the communication process.
Mitchell (1982) suggests the following reasons as motivation to communicate: reducing uncertainty, gather information for problem solving and decision making, confirm beliefs, and exercise power to achieve control of the situation. The quantity of information exchanged must be sufficient for decision-making. It should not be too condensed and must not be excessive. Not too many issues should be transformed so that the receiver would not neglect some of the important information. Lientz and Rea (1998) claims that at the start of the communication process identification of the person or group to whom the message is to be send must be accomplished. The sender, then, can deliver any quantity of information.
Mitchell (1982) also indicates that one of the factors to effective communication is the credibility of the communicator by the recipient. The information the receiver gets by the communication process must be true, accurate and reliable. Bartolome (1999) identifies three activities in the communication network: consuming, disseminating and creating information. Candor depends on trust, and both have strict natural limits. In the organisation hierarchy, managers must assure that the information given to them is true and accurate. Trust and accuracy of the information exchanged are interrelated and enriching each other.
Huber and Daft (1987) summarise the literature concerning the quantity of messages to internal units into four variables that affect the routing and delaying of messages from a sensor unit to a particular internal unit. The four variables are: (1) message relevance and timeline; (2) work load of message-sending units; (3) difficulty of communicating to the message-receiving unit; and (4) effect on potential sending units of the receiving unit's obtaining the information. The literature pertaining to these variables is voluminous.
Kerzner (2001) suggests a graphical model for representation of responsibility matrix of communications management in project. The matrix provides an overall picture of the communications process during the project life cycle and answers the following questions: What information should be transferred? Who transfer the information and to whom? When should the information be transferred? How the information should be transferred?
For research purpose the measurement of general communication effectiveness was reduced to the gagging of the following four attributes:
Completeness – monitors whether the information transfers sustain all the requirements allocated to the transfers without any loss of relevant data.
Timing – monitors whether the information transfers, actually arrive within the assigned time frame.
Accuracy – monitors whether the transfers to and from, the receiver, are actually, clear, legible, understandable and precise.
Volume – monitors whether all the required information is transferred, while unnecessary and irrelevant information that might clog the system is rejected.
These attributes, or dimensions, are equivalent to four parameters - breadth, depth, quality and timeliness – that affect the organisational knowledge as suggested by Alavi and Leidner (2001) in a discussion on information technology and knowledge management initiatives.
A Model for Evaluating Communication Effectiveness
The model is a method for assignment of a numerical value to the communications process of a project, for the purpose of creating a generic platform for comparison. The model is constructed as a cross-referenced format in order to depict the combination of two areas of knowledge: project management and communications. The present method is based on an investigation into the relationship between the nine outputs of project communications processes (communications management plan, project records, project reports, project presentation, performance reports, change requests, project archives, project closure, and lessons learned) with the four assessment dimensions of global generic organisational communications (completeness, timing, accuracy, and volume). The Project Communication Management Index is displayed in the Exhibit 2.
Exhibit 2: Project Communication Management Index
The model represents the nine communications outputs, produced throughout project's life cycle. Each one of the outputs has equal weight in the overall project communication effectiveness. Each one of the nine outputs is composed of four equal components represent different dimension of communication evaluation.
The model was supported by a questionnaire that requested the participants to supply general data related to the organisation and the project, to evaluate the communication effectiveness in general, followed by a matrix of 36 questions designed to assess the four general communication dimensions and the nine outputs of the communication processes.
The validity and reliability of the model and the supporting questionnaire were provided through a pilot study and a set of tests. The validity tests, which refer to the extent to which the empirical measure adequately reflects the real meaning of the concept under consideration (Babbie, 2001), contained three major tests: content validity test, criterion validity test and construct validity test. The reliability tests, which refer to accuracy and consistency, i.e. whether the particular tool, applied repeatedly to the same object, yields the same result each time (Babbie, 2001), was based on reliability coefficient calculations, test-retest method and multi-source correlations. Cronbach's alpha was found to be 0.94; the split-half method yielded an rtt value of 0.92, and the inter-judge reliability test generated correlation coefficient of 0.61.
Research Findings
The overall research database was based on 222 questionnaires, out of which 21 (9.5%) were rejected due to missing information. The data analysis was thus performed on the answers obtained from 201 complete questionnaires, collected from eleven different organisations and three academic groups.
Exhibit 3 presents the results of the average values of effectiveness for the nine communication outputs.
Exhibit 3: Communication Effectiveness of Nine Communication Outputs
“Lessons Learned” and “Communications Management Plan” are significantly the least effective communication outputs. Possible reasons for the poor performance of “Communications Management Plan” might be managers' tendency to ignore the necessity of planning communication since they perceive the whole communications system as obvious and self-evident. “Lessons Learned” is the communication output which deals with knowledge management. Its low effectiveness value may result from lack of operative tools to manage knowledge, especially in project environment, though most managers are aware of the importance of the issue.
Investigation of the impact of communication blocks on the effectiveness of communication revealed that managers evaluate organisational blocks as most dominant. These blocks derive from differences in function, status, department belonging, geographic location and the extent of responsibility and authority within an organization. The quantity blocks, which derive from information overload in the organisation network, were found to be less dominating. Cultural blocks, which derive from personal and professional differences among the organization participants, were found to be the third dominant blocks. Finally, technical blocks, which derive from problems using the channels of communication, were found to be the weakest blocks. The results are displayed in the Exhibit 4.
Exhibit 4: Impact of Communication Blocks
However, the relationships between the communication blocks and the communication effectiveness, as calculated by the PCMI are presented in the Exhibit 5.
Exhibit 5: The Relationship between Communication Blocks and PCMI
The above results imply that effectiveness of the communication in project environment is related to the impact of organisational and cultural blocks. That means that cultural and organisational barriers, which are strongly interrelated, are the main reasons for communication failures, whereas excess of information and technical problems do not significantly influence the communication effectiveness.
The relationship between the number of participants in a project and its communication effectiveness was investigated but no significant relationship could be established. Even though the number of participants enlarges the communication networks and thus are expected to make them more cumbersome and least effective, the research analysis did not provide any support to this notion.
The research revealed significant differences in the communication effectiveness among various industries. Communication effectiveness level for each industry is presented in exhibit 6.
Exhibit 6: Communication Effectiveness by Industries
Projects performed by construction companies maintain the most effective communication whereas projects performed by services oriented companies maintain the least effective communication. This might be supported by the repetitive nature of construction projects and the close similarity of its various projects, augmented by the normally high level of familiarity with project management methods common in the construction community. Services oriented organisations, on the other hand, are not familiar with the project management body of knowledge and may have difficulties in defining their activities as projects.
Conclusions
The presented model and the supporting questionnaire carried high validity and reliability values. Project managers found the PCMI to be an efficient measurement tool that can be used to identify the weak and strong aspects of a project communication system, and enable the organisation to make improvements, thus increase the project's chances for success. The research analysis revealed that “lessons learned” and “communications management plan” are normally the weakest links of the project communication chain, and that communication effectiveness is most influenced by cultural and organisational barriers.