ABSTRACT
During the manned landings on the moon, researcher Richard Chapman conducted a study of NASA project management.1 This was during NASA’s heyday-a period marked by extraordinary achievements and a time when NASA was upheld as exemplar of a large agency that actually worked. It is instructive to begin this chapter with some of Chapman’s observations about the project managers of that era; paraphrasing his comments:
In another study of NASA, E. H. Kloman compared the performance of two large projects, Lunar Orbiter and Surveyor. Lunar Orbiter was a success and fulfilled objectives within time and resource limits;
Surveyor was less successful and experienced cost and schedule overruns. The study characterized Lunar Orbiter’s customer/contractor organizations as tightly knit cohesive units, with good teamwork and mutual respect and trust among project counterparts. In contrast, teamwork in Surveyor was characterized as “slow and fitful” to grow and “spurred by a sense of anxiety and concern.”2 Kloman concluded:
This chapter discusses issues broached by the two studies cited: participative decision making, teamwork, conflict resolution, and the related matter of emotional stress in work.
