Effects of Change on Project Success

Introduction

Even though a project is considered a temporary endeavor (PMI, 2004) there are often instances when the project's duration may outlast the leadership's expertise, tenure, qualifications or shifting resource needs (Muller & Turner, 2007). When this occurs, the change may be planned as a succession between project milestones, management may decide to terminate the manager due to poor performance measures, or the project manager may simply walk away. Each of the scenarios will have an impact on both the project team and project due to the elaborate unraveling that occurs in resource relationships and organizational dependencies (Parker & Skitmore 2005; Wilemon & Cicero, 1970). However, the severity of the impact will greatly depend upon the action plan by the incoming manager and the succession plan of the parent organization.

Without understanding the potential effects of a change in project leadership, projects may be jeopardized to the point in which they are considered for termination, even with continued project sponsor support (Qureshi, Warraich & Hijazi, 2009). Many research studies outlined potential causes of project failure, but many of these studies did not broaden their view and mention leadership change as a potential source of the failure (Ballinger, Schoorman & Lehman, 2009).

The purpose of this paper was to review and analyze the implications of management turnover on project team performance and project success after investigating the primary reasons of turnover. Additionally, the research effort presents actions the incoming project manager may take that will benefit the project in restoring team motivation and keeping the project on track. Finally, the present benefits and disadvantages of having an internal or external successor are viewed while determining who would be more successful in establishing trust and renewing motivation that is often sacrificed during this transition period.

In the next section, literature review presents an examination of past research efforts to illustrate that a common theory has not been reached within the study of management turnover. Due to the paucity of research on management turnover and project success, we used a survey questionnaire as our research methodology for data collection and analysis. Following the literature review, research results were analyzed to determine if turnover's impact is