Game Based Learning for Project Management Robert Castel ... Based... · Game Based Learning for...

Game Based Learning for Project Management

Robert Castel

Master of Business Administration Program

Centre for Innovative Management

Athabasca University

Word Count: 15,528

November 21, 2011

Game Based Learning for Project Management Robert Castel

Castel Robert Applied Project. APRJ-699 Applied Project Research Project 2

Table of Contents

Abstract...................................................................................................................................... 3

Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 4

Modern Technology and Games ................................................................................................ 7

Game Technology .................................................................................................................. 8

Literature Review ......................................................................................................................10

Cognitive Skills and EI Competencies Found in Games ........................................................10

What Games Do For Us .....................................................................................................11

The Design of Games in the Workplace .............................................................................13

Uses of Games in the Workplace .......................................................................................14

Game Limitations and Concerns ........................................................................................17

Emotional and Social Intelligence and Its Implications on Project Management ....................19

Project Management and EI/ESI ........................................................................................22

The Role of Behaviour in Project Management Failure ..........................................................25

Discussion of How Games Support EI and Project Management Success ................................29

Conclusion and Further Research .............................................................................................35

References ...............................................................................................................................37

Appendix A: Project Management Systematic Biases ...............................................................42

Appendix B: Emotional Intelligence Competency and Games Matrix ........................................43

Appendix C: Wargaming Model .................................................................................................51

Appendix D: MMORPGs ...........................................................................................................52

Appendix E: Hierarchy of Social and Behavioural Development ................................................53

Appendix G: Summary of Biases Affecting Each Case Study ....................................................55

Appendix I: Ranking of Classic Mistakes ...................................................................................57

Appendix J: Classic Mistakes and Best Practices Matrix ...........................................................58



Abstract

This paper provides an overview how games can be used as a learning tool to

increase the level of emotional intelligence and behaviour interaction of project

team members to deliver a positive impact on project successes. Games are an

ancient activity that provides individuals with a safe place to learn skills with

limited organizational or societal impacts. Unlike the knuckle bones, dice, and

chessmen of earlier times, today’s multiplayer online role-playing games

(MMORPGs) span the world by reinventing communities of interest on a global

scale, imparting social and innovative learning techniques as individuals and as

groups. Project management has been lingering in acceptance of digital based

games as compared to other industries. Games, as it turns out can be more

interesting than life. The paper will provide a literature review that supports the

premise that emotional intelligence (EI) provides a sound basis for project

improvement and a marked improvement in project performance. This

performance acceleration is available once the project management profession

steps to the side from its linear project manager-centric practice to a team-based

EI approach. A stronger EI team-based approach is best suited for the modern

era of rising social and organizational complexity. Games, particularly

MMORPGs, teach players a plethora of 21st century EI competencies and social

and emotional skills that project management can leverage and benefit from.

The project management profession stands to benefit significantly from the EI

experience games are capable of bestowing on the entire project team.

Furthermore, games can be equally effective as a training vehicle for project

training development.

Key words:

Games, emotional intelligence competencies, EI, project management, social

and emotional intelligence, projects, MMORPGs, project teams, project manager-

centric, organizational culture.



Introduction

This paper will cite various literary reviews which show the pedagogical benefits games

bring to our societies, how games are being used in the workplace, and how games

promote Emotional Intelligence (EI) competencies. This latter point is of particular

importance to project management since higher levels of EI are particularly important to

project management success.

It is often said games are a safe place to practice for real life. As much or as little that

we succeed in playing games, it is about fun, the fun of learning, being trained and the

enjoyment that follows from the practice of trying. There is a positive advantage gained

from an individual to a project team of being allowed to practice and share common

experiences of success and disappointment. These shared experiences can be a

source of growth for cognitive skills, social behaviour and/or psychological

understanding of oneself and others.

One can draw the parallel that the project management framework is a type of complex

game. The Project Management Institute’s “A Guide to Project Management Body of

Knowledge” (PMBOK Guide) (2008, p. 39) identifies the five process groups as being

initiating, planning, executing, controlling and monitoring, and closing. Each of these

process groups is subject to various influences of change. The forces of change can

originate from within the project team, external competitive forces, internal

organizational circumstances, cultural dynamics, technology proliferation, and

stakeholder shifts in priorities to name but a few.

Games are being used in other fields such as the military, government, education,

healthcare and the corporate workplaces to illustrate how project management can

benefit from the lessons learned from these sectors. There is a long history of games

being related to training. For instance, Michael and Chen (2005) state chess board

games have evolved from the 7th century into “one of the most well-known military

training games” (p. 49).

One of the unintended consequences of many of the modern games is the close

relationship they (i.e., games) share with EI competencies as found in Goleman’s EI

model. To view games as having entertainment value only is short-sighted and without

merit. Even though the contexts of games are different from formal training forums,

games have the ability to promote EI competencies such as self-confidence, empathy

trustworthiness, and communications. Project success and improvements can be traced

to a project team’s collective EI and emotional and social intelligence (ESI) of the

project team.



Goleman (2010) asserts that “[e]motional intelligence is actually a set of skills that

anyone can acquire” (The Summary in Brief, ¶ 1). In describing his New Yardstick of

how well people are at managing themselves and others, Goleman (2010) states “[t]his

new measure takes for granted we have enough intellectual ability and technical know-

how to do our jobs; it focuses instead on personal qualities, such as initiative and

empathy, adaptability and persuasiveness” (Working with Emotional Intelligence - The

Complete Summary, ¶ 3). Goleman views the emotional competencies of self and

others as being intrinsically critical for organizations to become successful; moreover, EI

competencies are learnable.

Applying EI concepts directly to project management, Müller and Turner (2009) found

“there is a significant relationship between the leader's perception of project success

and his or her personality and contingent experiences. Thus the inner confidence and

self-belief from personal knowledge and experience are likely to play an important role

in a manager's ability to deliver a project successfully. The project manager's emotional

intelligence, his or her inner self-confidence, has a significant impact on their

competence as a project leader, and hence on project success” (Chapter 2,

Perspectives on Leadership, ¶ 21).

The rise of EI, in part, stems from the growth of project complexity. Complexity in this

case should be viewed in terms of a number of interactive variables from multi-social

and cultural dynamics, ascending technological pervasiveness, to globalization of

commerce and ideas. Project management education has lingered with traditional

project manager-centric models which incorporate linear and analytical techniques that

are a mismatch for a profession requiring greater skills in dealing with ambiguity,

uncertainty and the adaptive project team capabilities.

One of the more complex issues in project management has to do with the inter-

relationship amongst project team members within an organizational context.

Generally, there is a lack of appreciation and study on the behavioural impact and

decision-making implications that contribute to project failures. Unfortunately, too much

project management training is focused on the linear approach of standardized

knowledge transfer, tools and techniques accompanied by a project leader (often

assumed to be the project manager) who applies a rational approach to succeed with

the project’s objectives. Shore (2008) refers to systematic biases as having a “Point of

view that may be contrary to rational thought” (p. 7) and can take on characteristics of

having the illusion of control, group think, or conservatism (failure to accept new

information as being relevant) as well as six other systematic biases found in Appendix



A. These systematic biases influence our decision-making capabilities and co-mingle

with cultural, financial, organizational, and personal variables to name a few.

To this end, this paper will suggest that games can be used as a management tool to

assist project team members to achieve higher project success rates, by promoting a

higher level of personal and team-based emotional and social intelligence sensibilities.

As Thomas and Mengel (2008) stated we need project managers to be able “to

diagnose situations, adopt appropriate tools and techniques, adapt the tools and

techniques as necessary, and to learn continuously.” (p. 311). In order to fulfill this

quest a new learning and teaching approach requires a paradigm shift to an ancient

concept of game playing.



Modern Technology and Games

Prior to the literary review of the paper, this section will briefly highlight the evolution of

games in a historical technology context and examine a few of the major trends in

current game technology. By briefly tracing the role games have had in our ancient

societies to its present day technology platforms, the learning and training patterns will

become recognizable even with the significantly different 21st century context of today’s

games.

Carr (2010, p. 2) states what was lost in McLuhan’s iconic quote ‘the medium is the

message’ was “the transformative power of new communications technologies”. The

transformation was not about information or content but more to do with the way the

technologies are propelling us to act and think. The Gutenberg press caused a seismic

shift in the growth and distribution of knowledge and became a disruptive technology of

global proportions. In this case, the ramifications took hundreds of years and many

societies/nations today still remain fundamentally or functionally illiterate. As the

Information Age (circa 1970) accelerated, it was becoming evident the Gutenberg-

based learning tool was increasingly inadequate with the exponential growth of

information and the Internet’s global capacity to source and distribute information.

In 2004, the birth of Web 2.0 was heralded. Compared to Gutenberg’s impact, Web 2.0

became a quantum leap of knowledge-based transfer. In the last seven years, the

entire world suddenly became engaged in multi-directional conversations. Web 2.0 is a

platform of web applications that allows for multi-media and multi-channel

conversations. It has impacted the business, government, and entertainment sectors

across the globe. Many of the Web 2.0 tools, such as wikis, chat services, and

SharePoint type file directory services are increasingly common place as part of project

management’s daily workflow.

Whereas business and project management tend to view Web 2.0 applications as

productivity tools, gamers tend to view these Web 2.0 tools as an extension of

knowledge harvesting and elevating the social experience the virtual world players find

themselves. The intensity by which gamers exploit these Web 2.0 tool kits is almost

unimaginable in most organizations. In part, the difficulty in conceptualizing the

pronounced use of Web 2.0 applications are generational misconceptions as well as the

linear thinking embedded in the concept that games and business don’t mix.

Unfortunately, this binary misconception had led to a polarizing of the interpretation of

what games and their tools are fundamentally accomplishing.



Furthermore, Carr (2010, p. 48) makes the case “[n]europlasticity provides the missing

link to our understanding of how information media and other intellectual technologies

have exerted their influence over the development of civilization and help to guide, a

biological level, of human consciousness.” If there are transformative powers of new

communications technologies and games are linked to neuroplasticity of our collective

consciousness, games, perhaps more than any other cultural activity, are positioned in

the crossroads of technology and our neuroscience reconfiguration. To that end,

games continue to fulfill the historic role Herodotus once identified.

Game Technology

Two events combined at the end of the 20th century helped fuel the explosion of games

as we know them today. Firstly, during the late 1980s and 1990s personal computing

power became accessible and affordable on a public scale never before witnessed.

Secondly, the Internet became a global information distribution channel. The breadth

and scope of the Internet’s rise corresponded with the rise of global communications

infrastructure capabilities; therefore, it is no consequence the popularity of games had

exploded with the arrival of Web 2.0.

In order to understand how games can be used as a management tool in a modern

context, one needs to be familiar with a few of the major game development trends.

The following briefly describes this:

Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs or MMOs) are a recent

gaming phenomenon that combines the ubiquitous nature of the Internet, highly

distributed software (gaming) programs and the computing power available to

individuals. The result is tens of thousands of players can be engaged in a game at the

same time, as individuals, collaborators, and/or competitors at different tiers/levels

within the game. In Ritke-Jones’ (2010, p. 63) book, Bodi Anderson describes

MMORPGs as supporting learning behaviours in four ways: “(1) the presence of

complex and diverse approaches to learning processes and outcomes, (2) high levels of

various types of interactivity, (3) the ability to address cognitive as well as affective

learning issues, and (4) the ability to tap into motivation for learning.”

To give an indication of the size of MMORPGs popularity, according to Anderson,

estimated MMORPGs’ worldwide 2008 revenues were approximately $20US billion in

comparison to Aune’s (2009) estimate of Hollywood’s record 2008 revenue totalling less

than $10US billion. (http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/01/18/movie-industry-has-a-

record-year-in-2008/, ¶ 1).

http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/01/18/movie-industry-has-a-record-year-in-2008/




A unique characteristic of modern digital games is the way the original game can be

manipulated by a technique known as modding or mods. Scacchi defines modding as a

“form of meta-gaming - playing games for playing with the game systems. At least five

types of game mods can be observed: user interface customization; game conversions;

machinima and art mods; game computer customization; and game console hacking”

(2010, p. 3). Stated another way, people involved in modding are reconstructing an

original game using their technical capabilities to fulfill their intrinsic desires and at the

same time creating an innovative solution set of new ideas/games/products which the

original model (or game) did not explore.

The game experience is very often supplemented by Web 2.0 platform technologies.

This would include live/on demand chat functions, collaborative game wikis, (a

significant variation of project management’s lessons learned), live camera feeds, and

social networking forums. All of these tools add to the gamers’ knowledge transfer and

socialization. Gamers are extraordinarily research-oriented. As McGonigal (2011, p.

233) states “gamers spend more time compiling collective intelligence – and making use

of it – than anyone else.” For example, the encyclopaedia-sized wiki devoted to World

of Warcraft (http://www.wowhead.com) has an incredible amount of user generated

material as does http://elitistjerks.com that is user-based generated.

Many games are designed to focus on the players’ sensory experience and technology

plays a dominant role in this regard. The escalating computation power of devices (e.g.,

PC) monitor evolution into high-definition or 3D capabilities and graphic cards, when

combined with audio/phonic rich audio output, bring greater realism to the gaming

experience. Driving the pictorial experiences are technologies such as Unlimited Detail

Technology that is pushing programming graphics using polygonal shapes to further

deeper limits. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-ATtrImCx4).

Virtual reality helmets or glasses and body suits have been on the fringe of

entertainment and gaming for a number of years and still haven’t lived up to their

expectations. Alternately, Wii, Xbox, and Sony’s PS2/3 have provided players with a

plethora of experiences that parallel the virtual sense of reality.

http://www.wowhead.com/

http://elitistjerks.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-ATtrImCx4



The human race has always used games as a means of creating novel experiences and

utilized the technology available to assist in the understanding of social norms or as a

means of exploration. Today’s MMORPGs are really no different than the knuckle

bones, dice, and stone board-games of ancient times. Games remain relevant as they

ever have by providing teaching models for our socially complex environments. The

role of games in our societies is to encourage us to explore unseen potential. The safe

haven games provide to learn without the social and/or organizational penalties is a

critical element for a positive teaching and learning environment. This is particularly

relevant in skills related to social and emotional intelligence that often requires many

shades of experiences to understanding the impact of oneself and others.

Literature Review

The literature review is broken into three sections consisting of academic reviews of the

cognitive skills and EI competencies found in games, the emotional and social

intelligence and its implication on project management , and the role of behaviour in

project management failures.

The academic review of games will illustrate how games provide the foundation for

personal and team-based skills that span beyond the traditional knowledge-based

training to exhibit cognitive skills, EI proficiencies and how games are being utilized in

the workplace. The second part of the literary review looks at Emotional Intelligence

competencies as a factor of organizational and project success. The final part of the

review examines project failures relating to project management structural stresses and

importance of behaviour competencies for project managers and teams.

Cognitive Skills and EI Competencies Found in Games

Serious games are thought to be associated with specific vocational skills training and

non-serious games are often associated with the entertainment value the participants

experience. For the purpose of this paper, the term ‘game’ will encompass both serious

and non-serious games since both categories provide unique value propositions that

teach EI well-being as well as cognitive skills.

Games have rules that the participants abide by, actionable tasks with definable goals

and objectives. Rules contrived by the creators or game developers must be followed

by the participants. In game design, rules or framework boundaries are present to

encourage structural and innovative ways for the player to achieve success. The game

itself provides a measure of success (e.g., points, higher levels of achievements,

rewards) which determine who is winning (i.e., over-coming obstacles). Winning can be



in terms of a low score (e.g., golf) or the highest score or level (e.g., a winning hand at

poker, basketball). Additionally, breaking the rules of the game is not permitted to

achieve a winning position. Jane McGonigal refers to these frameworks/rules as

voluntary, (i.e., not under the threat, coercion or necessity) but as voluntary play;

voluntary play with a strong feedback system to turn failures into successes. Generally,

we accept the rules of the game to play and learn technical and social skills.

Bernard Suites (1967) suggests “that games differ from technical activities in that the

means employed in games are not the most efficient” (p. 148). Suites (1967) concludes

“a game is to engage in activity directed toward bringing about a specific state of affairs,

using only means permitted by specific rules, where the means permitted by the rules

are more limited in scope than they would be in the absence of the rules, and where the

sole reason for accepting such limitation is to make possible such activity” (p. 156).

B. Anderson (2010) describes that cognitive benefits found in games are “(1) the

presence of complex and diverse approaches to learning processes and outcomes, (2)

high levels of various types of interactivity, (3) the ability to address cognitive as well as

affective learning issues, and (4) the ability to tap into motivation for learning” (p. 63).

Specific to social benefits, Anderson (2010) states “[i]t has been suggested that explicit

socialization processes are embedded into many MMORPGs and that trust and

responsibility are both fostered by them” (p. 65).

What Games Do For Us

Games as a human activity date back to ancient times with the oldest game artefacts

found in the city once called Shahr-e-Sookhteh in Iran’s southeast province of Sistan.

Built in 3200 BC, archaeological excavations unearthed “the oldest known

backgammon, dice and caraway seeds and numerous metallurgical finds”

(http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/5668.html, ¶ 4). The question arises as to why games

have been and continue to be a part of human activity.

McGonigal cites the work done by Milaly Csikszentmihalyi as being critical in our

understanding of why the human race has games. McGonigal (2011) citing

Csikszentmihalyi relays that games provide a certain type of happiness that he refers to

as “flow: the satisfying, exhilarating feeling of creative accomplishment and heightened

functioning” (p. 35). McGonigal (2011) makes the statement that “[c]ompared with

games, reality is depressing. Games focus our energy, with relentless optimism, on

something we’re good at and enjoy” (p. 38).

http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/5668.html



Emotional Intelligence is described in more detail in the next section of the paper. For

the moment, EI can be viewed as a person’s ability to be aware of their emotions,

understanding one’s own emotions can be self-regulated, and the individual

comprehends the social context of how his/her emotions are impacting others. Noted

below are four examples of EI behaviour competencies as they are uncovered in

games:

1. Emotional self awareness

Reeves and Read (2009) state “[g]amers expect and are comfortable with

discussion, group action, and, importantly, group conflict” (Chapter 9,

Gamers Sensibilities, ¶ 3).

2. Trustworthiness

McGonigal (2011, p. 244) writes “[w]hen a game is intrinsically rewarding

to play, you don’t have to pay people to participate – with real currency,

virtual currency, or any other kind of scarce reward. Participation is its

own reward, when the player is properly invested in his or her progress, in

exploring the world fully, and in the community’s success.”

3. Empathy

McGonigal (2011, p. 163) citing Judith Donath regarding people

interacting with virtual game characters notes “[t]ime spent playing with

them feels like care-taking, an act of responsibility and altruism … [w]e

develop empathy for them and become invested in their well-being.”

4. Influence

Reeves and Read (2009) state “[t]here is good and new evidence that

enjoying work—being engaged and emotionally involved—can positively

influence productivity and a host of other desirable outcomes.” Chapter 9,

Play and Productivity, ¶ 1).

Appendix B presents a matrix that links Goleman’s EI competencies with corresponding

attributes that people playing games are experiencing. EI competencies found in

games are not the foundational intention of games or for a player(s) to succeed.

Instead, EI competencies are behaviour outcomes that form part of the decision-making

consequences and role playing an individual performs in attempting to become

successful within the framework of a game. For instance, a player needs to become

emphatic of others in order to gain the confidence of a follow gamer in order to secure a

leadership position to advance their progress to the next level of the game. Without

having a degree of empathy, a player may not be able to gather enough forces to be



successful. This would be particularly true with regards to MMORGRs. MMORGRs

require a very significant level of planning, cooperation, collaboration, and trust among

the game participants to be effective. In some respects, MMORGRs reinforce the

ancient notion that games are large-scale systems that assist in the organization of

people and ideas.

In contrasting organizational environments to games, Reeves & Read (2009) identify

common behaviours such as the “setting goals for self and others, hoarding and filtering

information as a source of power, restrictions on free speech, measuring and rewarding

the wrong things, micromanagement, and best of all, burnout from too many corporate

change initiatives. You will not be surprised to note that these are not the personal

strategies that lead to success in today’s multiplayer games” (Chapter 3, What is the

Difference Between Real and Virtual?, ¶ 5).

The Design of Games in the Workplace

Kessey and Smith-Robbins (2010) discuss the pedagogical practices of how games

need to be designed to capture corporate sensibilities when applied to virtual world

training, the importance of social interaction within games, as well as the role of avatars.

The customizable features of organizational culture, process simulations, narrative or

story-telling and stakeholders would make the games more realistic and relevant to a

specific firm.

According to Kessey and Smith-Robbins (2010) “the most successful organizations

prepare their employees for the intricacies of virtual world collaboration through

substantial cultural orientation experiences” (p. 41). Kessey & Smith-Robbins conclude

“a virtual world solution may offer an invaluable new opportunity for your training

program” (p. 49). Van Eck supports Kessey’s and Smith-Robbins’ view of training

opportunities games can bring to the corporate environment. Van Eck (2006) identifies

the value in digital game-based learning as “[l]earning that occurs in meaningful and

relevant contexts is more effective than learning that occurs outside of those contexts,

as is the case with most formal instruction. Researchers refer to this principle as

situated cognition”

(http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Review/EDUCAUSEReviewMagazineVolume4

1/DigitalGameBasedLearningItsNot/158041 ¶ 9). Van Eck believes that situated

cognition games can be viewed as a complimentary learning process to the formal

training and learning process.

http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Review/EDUCAUSEReviewMagazineVolume41/DigitalGameBasedLearningItsNot/158041




Uses of Games in the Workplace

Michael and Chen (2005) examine the use of games across a number of sectors such

as government, non-profit, commercial and social sectors inclusive of military,

healthcare, education and other fields. The authors contend “games also offer a

significant paradigm shift in training. No longer will employees be presented with

information that can be ignored. Instead, they are immersed in the lesson to be learned

and are expected to demonstrate their mastery of the material within the context of the

serious game” (p.149). In this context, games provide play-like simulation with the

additional criteria of learning and or improving a functional proficiency and social

interaction.

In the corporate sectors, one area of mutual interest to organizations and project

management is with regards to virtual teams that are increasingly global in nature.

Beyond the common project objectives and travel cost advantages, a multiplayer game

can re-enforce social/cultural organizational value in a short period of time for the

participants. Citing a Caltrans project management case study, Michael & Chen (2005)

highlighted the success of “[s]imulation, beyond teaching the basics of project

management, [where] the team also wanted the game to promote better relations

between project managers and engineers” (pp. 94-95).

In the education sector, Michael & Chen (2005) citing Beck and Wade state “gamers

were more creative, more ambitious, and more optimistic about their abilities and

circumstances” (p.116). With games there is no organizational penalty for failure, the

marginal expenditure to an organization to restart a game is minimal, and as Michael &

Chen (2005) emphasize there is an improvement in “cognitive skills, including improved

visualization and mental maps” (p. 117).

For example, Van Eck (2006) provides tangible examples of games such as

RollerCoaster and Cruise Ship Tycoon that require learners to have “the same skills

expected of business students, who as professionals will need to develop business

plans, write reports, and manage budgets”

(http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Review/EDUCAUSEReviewMagazineVolume4

1/DigitalGameBasedLearningItsNot/158041, ¶ 21).





Jan Schwarz elevates the use of war games into the realm of organizational strategic

foresight planning. He identifies various cognitive barriers to preventing organizations

from developing foresight. Schwarz (2009) maintains organizations “often fail to

perceive weak signals of change or trends because they do not fit the mental models of

the organisation and are therefore rejected” (p. 293).

According to Schwarz (2009) “wargames can have several purposes, among which are

strategy-testing, crisis planning and management, change management, planning, and

training and education” (p. 294). He further indicates that the value proposition of

games is not a substitute for a constant foresight process but rather “it can add to and

improve the company’s foresight ability. A business wargame can identify weak signals

that can be used as a starting point for a foresight process” (p. 300). (See Appendix C).

He finally concludes that “by involving its participants actively in a dynamic strategic

simulation, business wargaming has the potential to challenge mental models, foster

learning and develop the kind of foresight that is essential to success in an increasingly

dynamic and complex business environment” (p. 302).

McGonigal (2011, p. 233) notes: “On the whole, gamers already spend more time

compiling collective intelligence – and making use of it – than anyone else.” In today’s

business environment, individuals who have developed self-discipline research style

and organizing capabilities are highly prized.

In attempting to place some context of how corporate problems may be solved by

games in the corporate sector, Reeves and Read (2009) state: “How the user

experience available to gamers outside of work will drive expectations about what the

experience should look like at work” (Chapter 3, Settlements, ¶ 1). The resulting

(external) user experience, as the authors suggest, is occurring at the same time as

“institutions struggling to come to terms with titanic shifts in the flow of information

among global collaborators and competitors.” (Chapter 3, Settlements, ¶ 2).

Reeves & Read (2009) categorize the details of work and its context as being

transformational, transactional, and tacit work. Transformational work is thought of in

the industrial model of manufacturing where products and labour are inputs and the

outputs are finished goods. Today, transformational work employs approximately 15%

of the US labour force. Reeves & Read (2009) define transactional work as including

“people interacting with people but in fairly routine ways according to rules that may

eventually be automated” (Chapter 3, Analyzing Work, ¶ 3). The third category is tacit

work “which defines tasks that are ambiguous and require tacit or experiential

knowledge” (Chapter 3, Analyzing Work, ¶ 3). It’s unlikely that tacit work can be readily

replaced by digital formatting and/or outsourcing.



Tacit work is rapidly becoming the value work proposition due to a large number of

factors including the Internet, globalization of trade, geopolitics, demographic population

shifts, and integrated information technology systems to name a few. In short,

complexity is accelerating and people required to perform tacit work are escalating

rapidly in most organizations.

In an attempt to systematically validate if games resemble the real world, Reeves &

Read (2009) undertook to “find taxonomies of information work that could serve as a

template for mapping games to work” by utilizing college gamers. (Chapter 3, Mapping

Games to Work, ¶ 2). The authors settled on the Occupational Information Network of

the North Carolina Security Commission. The Commission matches employer

requirements with job design to assist individuals looking for employment. According to

Reeves & Read (2009) “[k]eeping in mind that the taxonomy was intended to cover all

the key building blocks of modern jobs, it was interesting to find that every skill in the list

was represented in multiple instances of gamer experience” (Chapter 3, Mapping

Games to Work, ¶ 5).

Games are expanding rapidly in the workplace spanning the spectrum of industries and

organizational requirements. One of the unintended consequences of games is their

close link in promoting EI and workplace competencies. To view games as an

accidental reprieve from workplace experience is an erroneous position. Our

organizations and, more importantly, the people who work in those companies would

benefit from the imparted skills games offer.



Game Limitations and Concerns

The challenge of virtual games is not without its perils and disappointments for

organizations that wish to enter into this space. Kessey and Smith-Robbins (2010)

identify large multi-national companies such as Coke, Reebok, Adidas and others that

have had significant failures in venturing unprepared into the realm of three-dimensional

(3D) games in hopes of capturing marketing attention to their products. The authors

state “[u]ltimately these failures were the result of one or a combination of missteps all

leading down the same path of lack of proper research, knowledge, information and

planning for proper implementation of a virtual world for adding value in the enterprise”

(p. 37). They estimate the initial high failure rate can be upwards of 90%.

As with any product or service that does not meet customer expectations, an

organization could suffer from short or longer term negative repercussions. There are

differences between the virtual worlds and reality as is in the case of training and

learning. In the virtual world, players see themselves as part of a social community and

collaborative participants where information exchange and discussion are commonly

reviewed. In this context, Kessey & Smith-Robbins (2010) view “[m]ost successful

projects have a project manager who is assisted by community managers” (p. 47).

The authors point out that learning in the virtual world is different whereby the social

interaction of questions and answers among the participants is more interactive. This is

possible due to the nature of the (Web 2.0) technology which allows all players to have

the capability to create and share content. The scale and means of having the

capabilities of creating and altering content, exchanging/conceptualizing ideas, learning

from mistakes and the ease of being able to do so becomes a massive exercise in

instantaneous collaboration. For the most part, within games, this is an unstructured

process. For instance, a leader or a community manager is a role that can be filled by

someone who wishes to emerge as a leader under one circumstance and a follower in

another situation. This combination of learning scalability, collaborative exchange, and

self-determined role playing is what games are leveraging. Highly successful games

are a commercial business and as such there is large entertainment value. Often times

the entertainment value of games are war oriented to or anti-societal behavioural

oriented.

Reeves and Read (2009) identify three concerns associated with game culture and

technology. They consist of aggression, arousal, and addiction. Aggression is closely

related to violence and is a significant public concern. Reeves & Read contend it is

likely aggressive behaviour more than aggressive games themselves that some players



seek out violent games; however, the authors summarize that the “effects on

aggression do exist, although the effect sizes are small” (Chapter 10, Aggression, ¶ 3).

Regardless of the authors’ opinions and research, the public view is somewhat negative

towards games resulting from the link of aggression and violence. From an

organization perspective (war/battlefield training aside) it would be difficult to support

the contention of training of project managers, by way of games, would produce highly

aggressive workforce professionals. A similar case, as stated above, can be made for

arousal (i.e., emotional experience and physical encouragement).

Addiction is often associated with substance abuse (e.g., alcohol, drugs, gambling) at

the expense of normal culturally expected norms (e.g., providing for a family`s financial

well-being, food, and shelter). In the case of games, addiction is applied to the amount

of (perceived) over abundant time a person spends playing a game. The term

addiction, as applied to game is generally associated with something negative. Reeves

& Reed (2009) draw some suggestive addictive physical parallels with games and habit-

forming drugs as they (i.e., drugs) “cause more dependence when they leave the body

quickly than when they wear off slowly because the user is more aware of the change.

It’s in part that awareness that perpetuates continued use … [t]here’s some evidence

that media might work the same way” (Chapter 10, Addiction, ¶ 5). This notion reflects

two points of linking withdrawal/behavior patterns between games and habit-forming

drugs and links McLuhan’s view of the transformative role technology plays in media.

McGonigal (2011, p .3) provides a global scope of game usage as she states

“[h]undreds of millions of people worldwide are opting out of reality for larger and larger

chunks of time.” In the US, she estimates 183 million active gamers spending

approximately 13 hours a week playing games with a gaming community of 200 million

in China, 100 million in Europe, and 10 million in Vietnam to name a few countries.

McGonigal (2011) realizes there is an ominous side to the use of games. She

expresses an all too common fear where “bigger, better, and immersive virtual worlds

provide increasingly compelling alternative to reality. If we stay this course, we’ll almost

certainly see the exodus from reality continue. Indeed, we are already well on our way

to a world in which many of us, like the ancient Lydians, spend half our time gaming” (p.

7). It is clear the present trajectory of games could lead us down a disconnected path of

irrelevant self-delusion with little or no benefits accruing to society or stakeholders in our

respective organizations.



In relationship to MMORPGs, Anderson (2010) notes that “[a] majority of the published

research on MMORPGs falls into either loose theoretical work or anecdotal accounts of

classroom use. While such reports can be useful for direct classroom implementation,

there is a definite need for a higher level of scholarly examination” (p. 70). Anderson

attributes the weakness in empirical research to the relatively newness of the medium

and the social stigma to attached scholarly study perceived within academic circles.

Anderson (2010) categorizes the advantages and limitations of MMORPGs into three

disciplines as being cognitive, social, and psychological (see Appendix D). The

cognitive limitation requires a higher level of instructor interaction than is normally

associated with traditional games used in traditional settings. In the case of project

management this could involve an expanded role of the Project Management Office to

provide the meaningful scenarios or content to the project related games. With regards

to the social limitations, Anderson (2010) also notes that there is a lack of in-game

asynchronous computer-mediated communications. Lastly with regards to

psychological limitations, he sees little evidence that MMORPGs are uniquely addictive

as previously discussed. In addition, Anderson (2010) acknowledges that “[t]here is…a

lack of longitudinal studies present in this body of research” (p. 70). This is somewhat

understandable since Web 2.0 evolved in 2004 and MMORPGs have had a relatively

short life span of a little more than 6-7 years.

Emotional and Social Intelligence and Its Implications on Project Management

This section of the paper provides a literary review of EI or Social Emotional Intelligence

(SEI) and its implications on project management.

Salovey and Mayer (1990) have described EI as “the subset of social intelligence that

involves the ability to monitor one’s own and other’s feelings and emotions, to

discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and

actions” (p. 189). Cherniss and Goleman (2001) note that “[s]ome make a distinction

between emotional intelligence and social intelligence, seeing EI as personal self

management capabilities like impulse control and social intelligence as relationship

skills” (pp. 15, 16). For the purposes of this paper Emotional and Social Intelligence

(ESI) and EI will be used interchangeably.

Cherniss & Goleman’s (2001) EI definition expands on Solovey’s and Mayer’s earlier

work by modelling EI into four domains (i.e., Self Awareness, Self Management, Social

Awareness, and Relationship Management) and within each domain there are 20

emotional competencies as noted below.



(The Emotionally Intelligent Workplace, p. 28). (See Appendix B for a summary of the

emotional competency matrix).

Cherniss & Goleman (2001), citing Goleman’s earlier work, state “that for jobs of all

kinds, emotional competencies were twice as prevalent among distinguishing

competencies as were technical skills and purely cognitive abilities combined. In

general, the higher a position in an organization, the more EI mattered: for individuals in

leadership positions, 85 percent of their competencies were in the EI domain” (p. 23).

Additionally, the authors state “EI may so strongly outstrip intellect alone in this context

because those in the pools that were evaluated had had to clear relatively high entry

hurdles for IQ and technical competence” (p. 23).

Goleman unquestionably believes, as do others, that EI can be taught using the Social

Emotion Learning (SEL) approach. The issue becomes how individuals and teams can

be best EI trained. Goleman offers a framework for EI learning as noted below:



(The Emotionally Intelligent Workplace, p. 219).

Cherniss & Goleman (2001) admit their 7-step SEL program “can be expensive to

follow” with the use of one-on-one and group coaching support services and repetitive

sessions which can last up to 12 weeks plus follow-up sessions. (p. 232).

Specific to project management, Clarke summarizes project managers’ EI capabilities

as being a factor to successful project outcomes. Clarke (2010) points out “emotional

intelligence abilities to be associated with a range of important work-related behaviors.

Particularly significant from a project’s perspective have been associations found

between EI and leadership …, team effectiveness …, and workgroup effectiveness.” (p.

5). Validating part of Goleman’s Social Competencies of Self Awareness, Clarke (2010)

suggests “that emotional intelligence abilities and empathy may be a significant aspect

of individual difference that contributes to behaviors associated with project manager

competences in the areas of teamwork, attentiveness, and managing conflict, as well as

dimensions of transformational leadership” (p. 6). Clarke (2010) advances the

correlation between a project manager’s EI and the project`s successful outcome.

For instance, Clarke (2010) cites that Dulewicz and Higgs found 15 “leadership

competences of emotional resilience and communication accounted for the most

success in projects of medium complexity, while the emotional competency of sensitivity

was found to be most important for high-complexity projects” (pp. 6-7).

Clarke (2010) citing various authors has suggested “that emotional intelligence is either

responsible for or underpins an individual’s ability to engage in social interactions …



such that it may well be an underlying construct of social skills” (p. 7). Clarke agrees

with Goleman’s belief that EI can be a learned experience (i.e., ESL). For example,

Clarke (2010) notes “overall EI scores were found to be significantly associated with the

competences of teamwork and managing conflict, respectively. Project managers’

empathy was also found to be significantly associated with the competence of

attentiveness” (p. 17). Games also provide learning experiences and an EI emotional

competency learning framework.

Project Management and EI/ESI

Weiss and Cropanzano (2009) state “[t]he social interactions through which

relationships in projects are constructed and developed are inherently emotional; thus,

emotions are likely to play a significant role in influencing both their development and

trajectory within a project setting” (Section 2.1, ¶ 2). Whereas, many authors focus

almost exclusively on the project manager to the betterment of project success, the

authors place more of EI’s currency on the project team’s capabilities. Clarke & Howell

(2009) citing the works of EI, Ayoko, Callan, and Hartel identified “positive relationships

between team levels of emotional intelligence and less task and relationship conflict”

(Section 2.3.1, ¶ 2). Citing additional research, Clarke & Howell (2009) find there are

“positive relationships with both team level measures of emotional intelligence and team

performance indices” (Section 2.3.1, ¶ 2).

Further, Clarke & Howell (2009) highlight four components “of effective project working

places [that] emphasize particular attributes of project workers that are highly likely to

be underpinned by emotional intelligence” (Section 2.3.2, ¶ 3). These components are:

1. The temporary nature of projects

“[R]equires project workers to be able to quickly form and facilitate good

interpersonal relationships at the outset of each new project” (Section

2.3.2).

2. Projects are unique

“[T]here is now far greater acknowledgement of the complexity associated

with managing projects arising from their temporary and unique goal

oriented characteristics” (Section 2.3.2, ¶ 5).



3. Projects involve change

“Change evokes significant emotions ranging from excitement to anxiety,

frustration, and even anger” (Section 2.3.2, ¶ 5).

4. Increased cross-cultural project work

“[P]rojects nearly always involve a coalition of different organizations

sometimes from different countries but nearly always involving parties

from a wide range of differing professional backgrounds, brings unique

challenges for working in projects. Inevitably there is considerable scope

for misunderstanding and miscommunication arising from cultural

differences, which can cause serious problems if not managed effectively”

(Section 2.3.2, ¶ 5).

Upon reviewing research publications Clarke & Howell (2009) surmises personality as

playing a larger role in team work and conflict management. They conclude that

“agencies or organizations would do better to screen based on personality differences in

the first instance, with emotional intelligence providing a subsidiary mechanism”

(Section 5.1.1, ¶ 1).

Clarke & Howell (2009) suggest “potential avenues for organizations to consider in

terms of implementing developmental strategies for improving these competences

possibly through improving the emotional intelligence of project managers” (Section

5.1.1, ¶ 2). The authors also state “that the emotional ability of using emotions to

facilitate thinking is associated with these transformational leadership dimensions again

suggests that developing the EI of project managers may offer significant benefits

through its potential capacity to improve transformational leadership behaviors” (Section

5.1.2, ¶ 2). Other auxiliary training benefits would include:

Being more able to negotiate social encounters

Building team commitment and trust

Increasing self awareness

Increasing the motivation of project managers to use EI performance

Clarke & Howell discuss the environmental factors project managers find themselves

and how these factors exert influence on how project managers apply their skills or

apply their knowledge. They (2009) make the additional comment that “[a] significant

component of this context is the social network or relational field surrounding the project

manager, which will affect how they are able to obtain, share, and interpret the

knowledge they rely on for achieving project success” (Section 5.1.6, ¶ 2). In an article

reviewing the communities of practice, Ruuska and Vartianen (2005) make similar

social observations when they identify “critical elements of the studied communities



were: formality, learning goals, practice based activities, coordination as enabling and

enhancing contacts between members and the environment, organizational

encouragement and focus on outcomes on personal, community, and organizational

levels” (p. 373).

Adams and Anantatmula (2010) state that “no social or behavioral publications were

discovered that analyzed the individual’s role with respect to the development of the

team process” (p. 89). Adams & Anantatmula (2010) identify a five phase hierarchy of

social and behaviour development and state that “each phase … presents a challenge

to the project manager” (p. 94-95). The five phases consist of self- identity, social

identity, group emotion, group mood, and group intelligence (see Appendix E). The

authors perceive their model as a series of progress stages or steps that is initiated with

the individual and then transforms into the project team’s sensibilities: “As the individual

strengthens his self-perceptions and self-identity, the individual begins to relate to and

mold the development of the team’s social and behavioral identity. At the same time,

the team influences the individual’s social identity. Individuals then begin to integrate

into a higher state of team development, group emotion, where a unified team identity

begins to emerge. Over time, team members learn to decode the verbal and nonverbal

expressions of their teammates as they collectively move to group mood. At full

maturity, with the continued oversight of the project manager, the team operates

independently, as though it is one individual, in emotional intelligence. The transition to

the highest level, it appears, is a function of time; the longer the team works together,

the greater the probability to reach this stage” (p. 94).

Adams and Anantatmula match their hierarchical model against Tuckman’s project team

development model of Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing. (See Appendix

E). They view their hybrid model as being hierarchical and project manager centric.

Adams & Anantatmula (2010) further highlight that project managers “should assess

each team member to determine his background and maturity level in social and

behavioral skills” (p. 95). Their suggestion may be counterproductive to the project’s

objectives and beyond the skills of the typical project manager. It is an open question

whether or not the project manager would be the appropriate person to fulfill the role as

conceived by the authors.



The ESI of the project manager and project team is a significant factor which positively

influences successful project outcomes. The uniqueness and temporary nature of

projects that give rise to organizational change in an increasingly cross-cultural

workgroup environment require higher levels of EI competencies of both the project

manager and team. EI skills are learnable and needed in greater magnitudes than

previously experienced in the project management practice. The linkage of games to EI

competencies both as being teachable and beneficial to project management is what

this section has established.

The Role of Behaviour in Project Management Failure

Project management failures have often been documented as a result of the improper

use of project management processes, knowledge areas or management tools. The

literary review that follows attributes much of the failure to behavioural relationships

within projects as being a significant factor in the demise of projects. Having reviewed

the positive impact of EI on project success, this section will identify behavioral aspects

of project failures.

Shore (2008) indicates “failures occur despite the fact that we have significantly

improved the process of planning, executing, and controlling projects.”

(http://marketplace.pmi.org/Pages/ProductDetail.aspx?GMProduct=00101162600, p. 5).

Shore’s assumption is that project managers have the project management

knowledge/framework to exercise their professional competencies. Shore identifies the

Project Management Body of Knowledge, Capability Maturity Model, Earned Value

Management, Critical Chain Management and defining critical success factors as the

frameworks the project management profession leverages to generate successful

projects. He further states that the frameworks “assume that project leaders follow a

rational and consistent approach to project management and strive to achieve specific

organizational goals.” (p. 5). In addition, he contends the behavioural view of project

management of how individuals within organizations make decisions is not given

enough focus to understand project failure. Drawing from various case studies, Shore

(2008) identifies nine systematic biases (Available Data, Conservation, Escalation of

Commitment, Groupthink, Illusion of Control, Overconfidence, Recency, Selective

Perception, and Sunk Costs; Appendix F) .

http://marketplace.pmi.org/Pages/ProductDetail.aspx?GMProduct=00101162600



Similarly Clarke and Howell (2009) pose that so far “[traditional] research in the area of

project management has tended to direct its attention to the application of tools and

techniques with far less attention given to the role of people management and the

management of relationships more specifically” (Section 2.0, ¶ 1). Inherently, this is a

developmental short-coming of the profession. Ultimately, people matter and attention

paid to the framework processes and knowledge areas at the expense of the social

behaviour is a significant gap that needs to be re-addressed.

Shore (2008) examines eight case studies and applies his nine systematic biases

against each of the case studies (see Appendix G). The four highest systematic biases

applied to each of the case studies were found to be:

1. Conservatism (the failure to recognize/accept new project information).

2. Illusion of Control (ability to control the situation).

3. Selective Perception (participants view circumstances differently).

4. Sunk Costs (inability to comprehend previous expenditures as irrelevant).

The Author believes behaviour is a larger factor in the success of a project than

processes related to project management technical faults. Of the four leading biases

influencing project failure Conservatism, Illusion of Control and Selective Perception are

not the result of failed project management framework failures; they are the result of

decisions made within the context of the social reinforcement of the organizations. For

instance, the illusion of control is often re-enforced by the organizational view if enough

money and/or resources could be applied then the outcome is ‘expected’ to be

successful regardless of how the range of the scope of the project or the

external/competitive factors may have changed. If, as Shore (2008) suggests, process

and knowledge training are measures of success a project manager could always feel in

control even if circumstances and stakeholder disappointment is apparent.

Furthermore, Shore (2008) takes the position that the “failed project appear[s] to be

related to organizational and project culture characterized by an internal focus and

stability. This suggests that those organizations protecting their own structures and

management processes, as well as those organizations resisting change and

dismissing external threats, may have created an environment in which systematic

biases should not be unexpected, even when the application of the traditional tools of

project management [are] vigorously enforced” (p. 14).

Shore’s (2008) work shows most of the difficulties of project management are cultural

and behaviour-related. While he illustrates project communications transparency

among team members can produce better results, he does not recognize the team as a



source of positive behavioral attributes. Instead the project manager is viewed as the

individual that is best suited to act as a catalyst for constructive project team

engagement.

Nelson (2007) observes, based on the previous Standish Group’s Chaos studies, that IT

project failure rates “the failure rate does not seem to be decreasing” (p. ??). Nelson

(2007) attributes “[t]his lack of statistical improvement may be due to the rising size and

complexity of projects, the increasing dispersion of development teams, and the

reluctance of many organizations to perform project retrospectives” (p. 67). This

complexity may be rising as the 2009 Chaos Report by the Standish Group identifies

“marked decrease in project success rates, with 32% of all projects succeeding”

(http://www.standishgroup.com/newsroom/chaos_2009.php, ¶ 2).

Citing 10 notable/public failures, Nelson (2007) categorizes project failures into four

categories of people, process, product, and technology (see Appendix H). People

related concerns are closely tied to leadership and relationship issues between the

various team members; whereas, process impacts are associated with project

management’s procedural processes are not as realistic as they should be. In some

measure, it can be disputed whether these process issues are more culture or social in

nature. For instance, an overly-optimistic schedule may be conforming to a

stakeholder’s expectation. In this case, the failure is not found in the process but in the

decision to be more pliable on a social basis. If anything, the process failure rates may

be significantly lower than the people related issues as noted below. Product failure is

associated with functionality failure and technology failures are equipment related. The

vast majority of project failures result from process or people mistakes at 45% and 43%

respectively with only product mistakes accounting for 8% and technology contributing

to 4% mistakes.

“It becomes apparent that failure is seldom a result of chance. Instead, it is rooted in

one, or a series of, misstep(s) by project managers” (Nelson, 2007, p. 70). It is clear

that the author finds project failure to be a project manager-centric issue. Specifically,

he highlights “that project managers should be, first and foremost, experts in managing

processes and people” (p. 73). He continues his critique of project managers by stating

the “finding clearly shows that if the project managers in the studied projects had

focused their attention on better estimation and scheduling, stakeholder management,

and risk management, they could have significantly improved the success of the

majority of the projects studied” (p. 73). Nelson’s (2007) assessment is that “[r]oughly

one-half of the projects experienced problems in three areas: estimation and

scheduling, stakeholder management, and risk management, while over one-third

struggled with the top seven classic mistakes” (p. 77; see Appendix I). In order to

http://www.standishgroup.com/newsroom/chaos_2009.php



correct the situation, Nelson (2007) suggests the “project management offices (PMOs)

would be wise to focus their education and training efforts first in these areas, while

simultaneously instituting best practices that address these shortcomings” (p. 77; see

Appendix J).

Jugdev (2008) traces the modern project management era through the 1950s as it

evolved in publications and literature:

In the 1950s, project management literature focused on “mathematical research

based on algorithms and project planning techniques” (p. 180).

In the 1960s greater literary emphasis was placed on “organizational structure

and project leadership” (p. 180).

The 1970s brought “literature focused on techniques i.e., software, work

breakdown structures, and Program Evaluation and Review Techniques” (p.

181).

In the 1980s, the “literature was still rather technically oriented and covered

design-to-cost, lifecycle costing, risk management, cost and schedule control,

and control systems” (p. 181).

“In the 1990s, the literature took more of a human resources approach and dealt

increasingly with team-building and leadership topics. Recent project

management literature focuses on competences, stakeholders, performance

measures, and project management as a career path. (p. 181).

Jugdev’s (2008) timelines indicate that it has only been recently that behaviour sciences

are entering the project management field. This could explain why the focus on the

operational aspect of project management has led to modest project successes.

Jugdev (2008) suggests the way forward may consist of “[b]uilding a project

management theory with multiple world viewpoints [that] will help lead to a more

comprehensive, inclusive, and complete understanding of the human, social, and

cognitive phenomena. To achieve this we should encourage dialogue on and the use of

multiple ways of building theory” (p. 186). By introducing the human, social and

cognitive development aspects into the project management discussion, EI

competencies would surface prominently in the examination of theory and practice.

Project failures are more related to the cultural and behavioural patterns that project

teams find themselves. Nelson’s (2007) model of people, process, product, and

technology are compartmentalized definitions that are presented in a linear context. If

process and people contribute the most to project management, separating the two has

not proven to be effective. The present-day discussion of introducing behaviour and

social competencies into the project management field is a progressive step to building

EI of project teams.



Discussion of How Games Support EI and Project Management Success

As noted earlier, Jugdev (2008) traced much of the project management research since

the 1950s which emphasized more of a rational, analytical approach with the interjection

of social sciences having been a relatively recent influence. Project management

training has tended to follow a similar trajectory path. Thomas & Mengel (2008)

observe that despite the level of project management training, this education “fails to

prepare project management students to deal with the increasing complexity that they

face in today’s working environment nor does it make full use of existing innovative

learning environments and techniques” (p. 305). There is a certain irony as the number

of project managers grows on a worldwide basis there is a corresponding mismatch of

project management training skills being espoused. This section will examine how

games may be used as an innovative learning to tool to assist with social/environmental

complex situations and develop the leadership skills required for ambiguous/uncertain

times.

Nelson (2007) along with Adams and Anantatmula (2010) share a common element to

improve the project management profession. Their differing solutions are similar in that

they both propose a project manager-centric model. Nelson would like to see the PMO

intervene, having the project manager focus on education, training, and best practices;

whereas, Adams & Anantatmula would like to extend the project manager’s role deeper

into the behavioural sciences role.

The difficulty with the linear project manager-centric approach the authors propose is

the layering of soft-skill leadership training solely onto a project manager is likely to

have limited benefits for the project team. As it turns out, this project manager-centric

approach when applied to today’s project management’s structural processes are akin

to a slightly more humanistic form of Taylorism. These approaches fail to recognize

how the entire project team can contribute to the group’s well-being. The complexity of

project management requires a more collective approach in order to make a marked

difference with regards to project success. The underestimation or non-recognition of

the shared project team experiences is seldom acknowledged in the project manager-

centric model. Viewed in this context, the project managers’ success rate (i.e., of being

a leader, manager, and project management expert) will dwindle as complexity rises.

From an organizational perspective, Daniel Pink views there is an intrinsic clash

between the ways and means organizations currently apply their human resources

management and motivation systems. Pink (2009, p. 29) offers the view that “[d]uring

the twentieth century, most work was algorithmic” (i.e., routine or linear work effort) as



contrasted to today’s requirement for heuristic work force (i.e., experimental, novel

problem solving). This is consistent with a massively complex social environment,

pervasive technology and information-based systems, and a globalized competitive eco-

system that is present in today’s marketplace. Amar makes a similar observation with

regards to the rise of contemporary/knowledge workers and the impact of globalization

within the work force. Amar states (2004) “In the knowledge environment, the involving

of employees' minds in their work has become more important than winning the

commitment of their effort. It draws from the importance of human knowledge in

contemporary work. As the role of knowledge in work increases, the emphasis on

engaging employees' minds in its execution will increase. The linkage draws from the

earlier stated fact that knowledge is a product and function of mind” (p. 93).

In an algorithmic rational world, expert knowledge is valued and, more times than not, is

vertically accessed within an organizational structure; whereas, in a heuristic

environment thinking, conceptualizing and synthesizing insights tend to be more

horizontal to have value for the organization. In regards to motivational theories, Lam

(2008) makes the statement it is the “contextual differences and changes, such as in

culture and other demographics, should be considered in their applications” (p. 57).

Lam’s concept of culture and demographics are exceedingly important. What will work

for a Brazilian corporation may not be easily transferable into a North American context.

What is of consequence in a dynamic way in today’s globalized and instantaneously

accessible world is the redefinition of cultures as different societies collide. Games,

particularly MMORPGs, are at the forefront of these happenstances.

The unintended consequence of this linear, rational learning processes, and project

management’s structural education/training may be as Thomas & Mengel (2008) have

identified: “today’s project managers may not be equipped or trained adequately to

handle complex projects even though significant efforts have been put into

professionalizing project management and providing an ever growing number of project

management education courses” (p. 308).

In the Design of Business, Roger Martin (year) suggests that one of the reasons

companies fail is organizations fall in love with their algorithms. Stated another way, by

continuing to repeat (once) successful business models, an organization loses its ability

to adapt in a changing marketplace environment. The same can be said for project

management when it comes to training and extending the project manager’s skill sets

that may be beyond a single person’s capabilities. In order to be successful in today’s

project management field, the project team needs to focus on EI training skills, not the

project manager-centric model. According to Thomas & Mengel (2008) the project

management profession needs to develop project managers with “[s]hared leadership;



social competence and emotional intelligence; communication; skills in organizational

politics; and the importance of visions, values, and beliefs have emerged as

competencies that are required from project managers in complex environments” (p.

308). Games provide project team members with the collective learning pathways to

learn and experience without the recriminations of organizational disfavour.

One reason the notion of games is perceived to have limited social/learning values lies

in the concept that games are a non-serious activity. Suits (1967) suggests “there

is always something in the life of a player of a game more important than playing the

game, or that a game is the kind of thing that a player could always have reason to stop

playing” (p. 152). McGonigal would agree there is something more important than

playing games and, extending the game discussion McGonigal believes games, with

their digital attributes, can be extended to a virtually endless amount of serious/real life

situations. As McLuhan had foreseen the transformative powers of new

communications technologies would affect how we act and think. At present, the

epitome of game evolution is found in MMORPGs.

Anderson (2010) describes the cognitive, social, and psychological benefits attributed to

MMORPGs. In terms of cognitive benefits that support learning, he states that “players

are offered many different choices regarding how they choose to interact with the game.

They [i.e the players] can, for instance, choose to test their strategic and team-work-

based skills” (p. 63). This type of non-linear relationship between role and responsibility

is rarely available in the vast majority of organizations. With regards to the social

benefits MMORPGs can provide, Anderson (2010) states that a number of studies

“suggest strong empirical support for high levels of social interaction being present in

MMORPGs” (p. 66). Finally, with regards to the psychological benefits, Anderson

(2010) identifies supporting research that states “pedagogical agents help learners by

stimulating social interaction and socially based cognition and motivation and allow for

more naturalistic learning, making them an invaluable tool in computer-based

educational technology” (p. 68). The essence of role playing, social interaction and

confidence building can only be viewed as positive attributes to project management

and EI.

In addition, Anderson identifies competencies as building trust, empathy, and

collaboration as being amongst the project team’s more notable achievements. Trust,

empathy, and collaboration are experiences that need to be shared to be significant and

contribute to the project team’s elevated EI. Games provide a safe and fun place where

EI sensibilities can be practiced, refined, and achieved by the individual as well as the

team.



In the virtual world of games where mistakes are non-judgemental and peer review is

supportive, there is a greater likelihood that positive personality shifts are possible. To

paraphrase Stone, ‘culture matters’ and avoiding the cultural/social issues within project

teams is to ignore a large portion of what EI is attempting to accomplish. A project

manager-centric model may be easier to conceive and deploy; however, project

management deserves a broader solution to EI-related competencies. Games provide

an expansive environment of EI opportunities to be available at a relatively low cost and

organizational accessibility.

Michael & Chen (2006) cite numerous examples of games that are being used in many

sectors such as the military, healthcare, education, journalism and others. For the most

part these focus on tactical skills training. For example, in military games the benefits

incurred were the improved ability to multitask, target prioritization, ability to work within

a team using minimal communications, and desensitization of shooting human targets

(pp. 58-59). In government related game simulations cover a wide spectrum of services

from emergency services scenarios for a region or a wide geographic area to

firefighting. In the education sector games exhibited the benefits of students’ ability to

model complex systems, higher engagement with the [teaching] material, and

advantages of interactivity when learning (p. 120). In healthcare, games “can assist

patients as they recover, help doctors as they prepare for delicate surgery, promote

general wellness, help patients with mental problems, and more” (p. 179). While not all

of the purported benefits of these games may be applicable to project management,

what is clear is the functional training and people skills development are being met by

the use of games.

More importantly, games are a viable conduit to support Goleman’s (year) frameworks

of Emotional Competencies (See Appendix B). The personal and social competencies

embraced in Goleman’s EI model are directly relevant to projects and project team

members. This is particularly true given the rising state of complexity that projects are

increasingly finding themselves. The organization of people and their appropriate skill

set to reach common goals and objectives becomes a social process of personal and

group discovery. In broad terms, the greater the intensity and complexity a project

offers, the greater the likelihood the personal (e.g., emotional self awareness,

adaptability, trustworthiness) and social competencies (e.g., empathy, communications,

conflict management) will be required amongst all team members.



In these circumstances it’s not enough to hoist the EI burden on to the project manager

and pretend one trained EI member is sufficient. Goleman’s somewhat elaborate and

expensive 7-step SEL program/model reinforces the view that there is significant

investment in a person’s EI skill set adoption. More importantly, Goleman’s (and others)

is a traditional way of teaching EI skills (i.e., structured classroom, study, work

application of skills, and periodic review and assessment. Goleman’s view training, its

distribution and learning values within the classical model as do many other types of

educational and training programs. There is value in this approach to the individual and

the organization; nevertheless, if the SEL teaching and learning model was designed as

a game, the accessibility would by over a wider population and benefits more dispersed

within an organization.

Reeves and Read (2009) state media that games are built on “are quite up to the task of

representing social relationships in a virtual world in ways that primitively engage

players as if the people and places in the game were real” (Chapter 10, Section Dots

Get Faces, ¶ 4). It would seem games have the capabilities to provide a virtual world

real enough for us to play in. This playfulness allows us to make mistakes, have

continuous feedback, expand our social competencies, and to physiologically react in

ways that are similar in the real world. It would seem that games provide the training

ground for project teams to gain greater SEI skills. A project team that has acquired

the collective ability to elevate their EI skills, the team is exponentially more likely to be

successful than the project manager-centric model.

Games increase the quality of work by increasing the ambiguity and complexity without

threatening the real world. In Reeves and Reads terms, ambiguity is where Tacit work

is experimented with, experienced, and shared. Learning becomes simpler and it is still

hard work.

The current EI training models tend to be focused on the individual’s EI skills

development rather than the larger (project) team’s EI capabilities. The underlying

assumption is, if there is at least one person trained in EI, the benefits will have a

multiplier effect with the rest of the colleagues involved. While it may be true that one EI

trained employee is better than none at all, it is too limited in scope. The greater the

complexity of the environment, the greater the amount of collective wisdom needs to be

harnessed. The traditional EI learning processes are structured in a historical and

generational approach to learning (i.e., knowledge is dispensed and the student self

corrects). The context of learning within games is different whereby the players share

their experiences with one another and gain a personal/collective understanding of their

shared experiences. The resulting EI impacts are genuine and real. The EI (or SEL)

learning processes built into games are of a different context and media. This is what



McLuhan had predicted (i.e., the empowerment of new communication technologies)

and the rewiring of our brains as Carr noted is an ongoing biological process.

Games do not have to be customized ‘for project management’ to start to bring the

benefits of ESI to project management. In fact, EI intelligence is already developing

within the gaming community. Entertainment alone is not a sufficient motivator to keep

such vast numbers of people engaged in ‘playing’ various games/MMORPGs. Play, as

games, is a form of learning skills that range from research capabilities, EI learning, and

global/cross cultural communications to leadership skills to highlight a few. All of these

learned behaviours and abilities are available to anyone who is engaged in the modern

games. For example, World of Warcraft is not totally about desensitizing emotions in

order to hurt people; it also is about learning and practicing skills to help us deal with an

ever increasingly complex world. Games are doing what they always have done and

have been - providing a safe place to practice for real life. This evolution is occurring

already as an organization known as doublemasters where they envision “a future

where all project managers, just like airplane pilots, will train on virtual simulators to

improve their skills, reduce the potential for costly errors, and help them be more

successful in delivering projects on time and on budget”

(http://www.doublemasters.com, ¶ 3).

An EI styled game-based learning system is more aligned with how organizations are

structured between the project management resources and the business units. A

simplified example of a project team may have resources built around functional

processes (e.g., project managers from the PMO, subject matter IT experts, and

business analysts from Marketing). If each of the team members had EI training this

would compound the effectiveness of the group. A closer examination of Appendix D is

suggesting many of the EI competencies are experienced in games as they are

currently designed. It’s the current social context and interpretation of games such as

World or Warcraft, Diablo, and Farmville that often prevents us from seeing the EI

benefits that emanate from these games.

As McGonigal (2011) established, games are intrinsically satisfying as we play to learn,

adapt, enjoy and have fun. McGonigal understands Csikszentmihalyi’s deep views on

human life and the role modern games play in our development. Her comprehension of

the vast potential of games is based on new technology platforms and social

environments (e.g., MMORPGs, social networking) that fulfil our personal intrinsic

desires. Pink (2009), also citing Csikszentmihalyi, states “[o]nce we realize that the

boundaries between work and play are artificial, we can take matters in hand and begin

the difficult task of making life more liveable” (p. 130).

http://www.doublemasters.com/



Conclusion and Further Research

The ability of games to teach us skills and concepts are rooted in our ancestral cultures.

Games allow us the freedom to fail with only minor personal and social consequences.

Learning is fun. We can learn in the solitude of our own play as naturally as when the

game is shared with others. Games have always been there for our personal and social

learning. Relative to project management, games are a conduit for EI skills learning to

be experienced by a wider audience.

EI has been shown to be of considerable value to the success of project teams. The

skill sets of the 21st century require us to be more trusting, have a greater empathy and

collaborative skills as we interface with our project team colleagues. There is little

choice in the matter. In the project management context, the complexity of the

competitive business environment, integration of global cultures, and technological

ubiquity are powerful forces found daily within our profession.

If project management is to retain its valued professional role to our stakeholders, it

needs to broaden its strategic perspective from a project manager-centric model and

embrace SEI to be inclusive of a majority of project team members. Traditional learning

and training models have concentrated their effort on the individual experience and not

so much on the team’s capabilities. What passes for team-building exercises loses its

potency rather quickly and has shown little in terms of emotional and social skill

development. Games, conversely, have shown to be inherent venues of significant

skills development.

The accelerating complexity faced by individuals and organizations requires us to gain

greater insight into a model that includes the external environment, the internal

resources of our organizations and more importantly, to discover the latent ESI talents

within ourselves and colleagues. Games, as a source of SEI training and insights, are

at the epicentre of how to bridge the dominant operational/engineering tendencies with

a suite of SEI capabilities bringing real value to our organizations.



Just as reading and writing were unnatural acts for the untrained mind, games,

leveraging the suite of Web 2.0 technologies are rewiring our brains to prepare us for

the challenges ahead. McLuhan’s media impacts are found most vividly in the gaming

environment where the inflection points of technology, the Internet, story-telling

narratives, vast quantities of data manipulation, and deep social interaction (e.g.,

collaboration, trust building, leadership) are common place. It’s been almost 40 years

since Pong was released and it’s only been since the turn of the century the digital

media – and games in particular - have appeared. It would appear McLuhan’s

convictions have been validated. Project management, with the use of games to

accelerate a project team’s ESI, stands to benefit significantly from the play of learning.

Further research is warranted in a number of areas to validate how modern games can

be used to validate EI competencies and project management success:

1. Empirical data to determine the EI competencies of gamers across levels of

playing involvement and over time.

2. Determining which games allow the transfer of EI competencies into project

management within each of the four sections of Goleman’s framework of

emotional competencies (i.e., self awareness, self management, social

awareness, and relationship management).

3. The minimal and optimal amounts of EI competencies a project team would

benefit from given different levels of complexity and project success.

4. The role emotions play in successful and unsuccessful projects.

5. Determining the degree and reasons to which organizations are not adopting the

practice of playing games as learning and training tools?

6. More empirical analysis of MMORPGS with regards to longitudinal studies,

relationship development, and employee performance.



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Appendix A: Project Management Systematic Biases

(http://marketplace.pmi.org/Pages/ProductDetail.aspx?GMProduct=00101162600, p. 7)


Appendix B: Emotional Intelligence Competency and Games Matrix

Goleman’s

Domain

Goleman’s

Competence

EI Overview Games to EI Referencing

Self awareness Emotional self

awareness

Cherniss & Goldman (2001) state

“[e]motional Self Awareness, reflects

the importance of recognizing one’s

own feelings and how they affect

one’s performance. (p. 33).

Reeves and Read (2009) state

“[g]amers expect and are

comfortable with discussion,

group action, and, importantly,

group conflict” (Chapter 9,

Gamers Sensibilities, ¶ 3).

Accurate self-

assessment

Cherniss & Goldman (2001) note

“[i]ndividuals with the Accurate Self-

Assessment competence are aware

of their abilities and limitations, seek

out feedback and learn from their

mistakes, and know where they need

to improve and when to work with

others who have complementary

strengths” (p. 33).

Reeves and Read (2009) note

“[a] trial-and-error strategy

redefines risk, an important

ingredient for innovation in

business. Gamers learn to

expect that plans will often fail.

What’s important is to make the

effort, register the feedback, and

keep going” (Chapter 9, Gamers

Sensibilities, ¶ 5).

Self-confidence Cherniss & Goleman state “[s]elf-

confidence was fact a stronger

predictor of performance than the

level of skill or previous training” (p.

34).

Spires states “[t]he modern work

environment is about managing

complex information streams,

which increasingly is a critical

part of job performance. Games

can provide a context for

situated learning in which



players are immersed in

complex, problem solving tasks

that require expertise”

From the Journal of Computer

Assisted “In addition to the

predefined locations and objects,

players may also extend the

game universe by utilising

external channels and objects in

order to optimise their

performances” (p. 424).

Self

Management

Emotional self-

control


“[e]motional self control manifests

largely as the absence of distress and

disruptive feelings” (p. 34).


“[w]hen people control

characters in interactive games,

their experience is one of taking

action, not just evaluating

whether they might be

interested. Knowing that you can

change what happens in the

virtual world gives a sense of

power that keeps people

engaged” (Chapter 10,

Contingency: I Can Influence

What Happens Next, ¶ 3)

Trustworthiness Cherniss & Goldman (2001) note

“[t]rustworthiness competence

translates into letting others know

one’s values and principles, intentions

and feelings, and acting in ways that

McGonigal (2011) writes “[w]hen

a game is intrinsically rewarding

to play, you don’t have to pay

people to participate – with real

currency, virtual currency, or any



are consistent with them. Trustworthy

individuals are forthright about their

own mistakes and confront others

about their lapses (p. 34).

other kind of scarce reward.

Participation is its own reward,

when the player is properly

invested in his or her progress,

in exploring the world fully, and

in the community’s success (p.

244).

Conscientiousness Cherniss & Goldman (2001) state

“[c]onscientiousness competence

include being careful, self-disciplined,

and scrupulous in attending to

responsibilities” (p. 34).

Anderson (2010) states “based

on the need in many MMORPGs

for players to often work together

to achieve in-game goals

organized social networking is

often inherent to players’

success and progression in the

virtual word” (p. 62).

Social

Awareness

Empathy Cherniss & Goldman (2001) define

empathy as “[a]n astute awareness of

others’ emotions, concerns, and

needs. Can read emotional currents,

picking up on nonverbal our

understanding of others’ feelings and

concerns flows from awareness of our

own feelings” (pp. 35-36).

McGonigal (2011) citing Judith

Donath regarding people

interacting with virtual game

characters notes “[t]ime spent

playing with them feels like care-

taking, an act of responsibility

and altruism … [w]e develop

empathy for them and become

invested in their well-being” (p.

163)

Service Orientation Cherniss & Goldman (2001) identify

Service Orientation as the “[t]he

ability to identify clients or customer’s

often unstated needs and concerns

Reeves and Read (2009) in

describing the Star War Galaxies

games point out “this game

requires that players either train



and then match them to products or

services” (p. 36).

for professions that provide

game services or make useful

products—and then market

those services or products on

game planets. To advance,

players must keep the supply

chain filled and satisfy customer

demand” (Chapter 2, Popular

Games, ¶ 2).

Organizational

awareness


Organizational awareness “as the

ability to read the currents of

emotions and political realities in

groups, is a competence vital to the

behind the scenes networking and

coalition building that allows

individuals to wield influence, no

matter what their professional role” (p.

36).

Reeves and Read (2009)

comment “Human experiences

are increasingly chaotic and

complex, and cut across

boundaries. Those who are

adept at new digital skills bridge

these boundaries and are

redefining what it means to be

computer literate in a digital

world” (Chapter 9, The Modern

Convergence of Work and Play,

¶ 2).

Adaptability Cherniss & Goldman (2001) define

Adaptability as being “open to new

information and can let go of old

assumptions and so adapt how they

operate. Emotional resilience allows

an individual to remain comfortable

with the anxiety that often

accompanies uncertainty and to think

McGonigal (2011) writes “[r]eal-

time data and quantitative

benchmarks are the reason why

gamers get consistently better at

virtually any game the play: their

performance is consistently

measured and reflected back to

them” (p. 157),



‘‘out of the box,” displaying on-the-job

creativity and applying new ideas to

achieve results” (p. 35).

Achievement drive Cherniss & Goldman (2001) define

“[a]chievement drive refers to an

optimistic striving to continually

improve performance” (p. 35).

Anderson, in Ritke-Jones (2010)

book, states “unlike most

traditional games, there is no

way to beat an MMORPG;

rather, they provide multiple

paths and constantly changing

goals to be achieved.

MMORPGs have higher levels of

the ability to both tap and sustain

player motivation and interest”

(p. 65).

Initiative Cherniss & Goldman (2001) define

“[i]nitiative competence act before

being forced to do so by external

events. This often means taking

anticipatory action to avoid problems

before they happen or taking

advantage of opportunities before

they are visible to anyone else” (p.

35).


“there is substantial new interest

in using games to promote

healthy choices and to solve

important health problems. The

general logic is the same as for

games at work: higher

engagement leads to more

influential participation in

behavior change” (Chapter 10,

Health, ¶ 5).

Relationship

Management

Developing others Cherniss & Goldman (2001) define

developing others “[i]nvolves sensing

people’s developmental needs and

bolstering their abilities—a talent not


“[f]inally, the games promote a

meritocracy. Any player who

performs well … has a chance to



just of excellent coaches and

mentors, but also outstanding

leaders” (pp. 36-37).

advance. There are no secret

paths to the top. Leadership is

bestowed on those who are

doing well now, and it’s not

predetermined (as it often is in

business) by a résumé of past

accomplishments. Supervision is

less important than mentoring, in

part because the environments

in which leadership happens

contain so much useful

information about how things are

going” (Chapter , Gamers

Sensibilities, ¶ 6).

Influence Cherniss & Goldman (2001) define

influence as being able to “[h]andle

and manage emotions effectively in

other people, and so are persuasive”

(p. 37).


“[t]here is good and new

evidence that enjoying work—

being engaged and emotionally

involved—can positively

influence productivity and a host

of other desirable outcomes”

Chapter 9, Play and Productivity,

¶ 1).

Communications Cherniss & Goldman (2001) define

communication “competence are

effective in the give-and-take of

emotional information, deal with

difficult issues straightforwardly, listen

well and welcome sharing information


“[w]hether the groups are virtual

or more traditional, games allow

people to confirm membership in

a group and communicate that

membership to others, often in



fully, and foster open communication

and stay receptive to bad news as

well as good” (p. 37).

ways that celebrate the

connection. When

anthropologists analyze group

identity, they say that play offers

group members an occasion to

persuade each other that they

belong together” (Chapter 9,

Play as Community Identity, ¶ 2).

Conflict

management

Cherniss & Goldman (2001) define

conflict management as “spotting

trouble as it is brewing and taking

steps to calm those involved. Here

the arts of listening and empathizing

are crucial to the skills of handling

difficult people and situations with

diplomacy, encouraging debate and

open discussion, and orchestrating

win- win situations” (p. 37).

McGonigal (2011) states

“[g]amers rely on each other at

all times to keep the game going,

even if it’s not working out in

their favor. Whenever they see

a game through to completion,

gamers are honing their ability to

honor a collective commitment”

(p. 269).

Visionary

leadership


visionary leadership competence as

drawing “on a range of personal skills

to inspire others to work together

toward common goals” (p. 37).

McGonigal (2011) identifies

SONY’s PlayStation 3 game

Folding@Home (a cancer curing

initiative) as “matching ability

with opportunity, which is the

fundamental dynamic of good

crowdsourcing project. It’s not

enough to draw upon a crowd –

you have to ask the crowd to

something they have a real

chance of doing successfully” (p.



240).

Building bonds Cherniss & Goldman (2001) define

building bonds competence people

who are able to “balance their own

critical work with carefully chosen

favors, building accounts of goodwill

with people who may become crucial

resources down the line” (p. 38).


“[i]ncreasingly, we, too, are using

games to create better rules of

engagement and to broaden our

circle of cooperation. More and

more, we recognize the

unrivalled power of gameplay to

create common ground, to

concentrate our collective

attention, and to inspire long-

term efforts” (pp. 349-350).

Teamwork and

collaboration


teamwork and collaboration

competence as “[t]eam members tend

to share moods, both good and bad—

with better moods improving

performance (Totterdell, Kellett,

Teuchmann, & Briner, 1998).

The positive mood of a team leader at

work promotes both worker

effectiveness and retention (George &

Bettenhausen, 1990).

Positive emotions and harmony on a

top-management team predict its

effectiveness” (p. 38).


“[p]erhaps most importantly,

gamers actively work together to

make believe that the game truly

matters. They conspire to give

the game real meaning, to help

each other get emotionally

caught up in the act of playing,

and to reap the positive rewards

of playing a good game.

Whether they win or lose, they’re

creating reciprocal rewards” (p.

269).

Appendix C: Wargaming Model

http://0-

web.ebscohost.com.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=d298fe02-

5e81-436c-ad8b-86c2f20294df%40sessionmgr15&vid=5&hid=17, p. 301).

http://0-web.ebscohost.com.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=d298fe02-5e81-436c-ad8b-86c2f20294df%40sessionmgr15&vid=5&hid=17





Appendix D: MMORPGs

http://0-www.igi-global.com.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/viewtitle.aspx?titleid=41467, p. 69.

http://0-www.igi-global.com.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/viewtitle.aspx?titleid=41467



Appendix E: Hierarchy of Social and Behavioural Development

http://0-

vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/hww/results/getResults.jhtml?_DAR

GS=/hww/results/results_common.jhtml.35, p. 94.

http://0-vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/hww/results/getResults.jhtml?_DARGS=/hww/results/results_common.jhtml.35





Appendix E (continued)

http://0-

vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/hww/results/getResults.jhtml?_DAR

GS=/hww/results/results_common.jhtml.35, p. 95.






Appendix G: Summary of Biases Affecting Each Case Study

(http://marketplace.pmi.org/Pages/ProductDetail.aspx?GMProduct=00101162600, p. 12)

Available

Data Conservation

Escalation of

Commitment Groupthink

Illusion of

Control

Overconf

idence Recencey

Selection

Perception

Sunk

Cost

Airbus 380 X X X X

Coast Guard Marine X X

Columbia Shuttle X X X

Denver Baggage X X X

Mars Orbiter X X

Merck Vioxx X X X

Microsoft Xbox 360 X X

New York City Subway X X X

Totals 1 4 0 2 4 2 1 4 4




Appendix H: Nelson’s Four Categories of Failures

Category Description

People Undermined motivation

Individual capabilities of the team members or project working

relationships

(Project) leaders to deal with problem employees

Adding human resources too late into a project

Process Wasted or unproductive loss at the beginning of a project

Underestimating scope, creating over-optimistic schedules,

stakeholders requirements, and quality assurance

Product Requirements gold plating (i.e., unnecessary functionality)

Feature creep

Developer’s gold plating (i.e., unnecessary functionality)

Research-oriented development

Technology Silver-bullet syndrome (i.e., new practice or technology that will

solve all their problems)

Reliance on new (management) tools or methods

Switching tools in the middle of the project



Appendix I: Ranking of Classic Mistakes

74 MIS Quarterly Executive Vol. 6 No. 2 / June 2007, University of Minnesota

Classic Mistakes (descending order of occurrence) Category

No. of

Projects

% of

Projects

1. Poor estimation and/or scheduling Process 51 54%

2. Ineffective stakeholder management People 48 51%

3. Insuff icient risk management Process 45 47%

4. Insuff icient planning Process 37 39%

5. Shortchanged quality assurance Process 35 37%

6. Weak personnel and/or team issues People 35 37%

7. Insuff icient project sponsorship People 34 36%

8. Poor requirements determination Process 29 31%

9. Inattention to politics People 28 29%

10. Lack of user involvement People 28 29%

11. Unrealistic expectations People 26 27%

12. Undermined motivation People 25 26%

13. Contractor failure Process 23 24%

14. Scope creep Product 22 23%

15. Wishful thinking People 18 19%

16. Research-oriented development Product 17 18%

17. Insuff icient management controls Process 16 17%

18. Friction betw een developers & customers People 15 16%

19. Wasted time in the fuzzy front end Process 14 15%

20. Code-like-hell programming Process 13 14%

21. Heroics People 13 14%

22. Adding people to a late project People 9 9%

23. Silver-bullet syndrome Technology 9 9%

24. Abandonment of planning under pressure Process 8 8%

25. Inadequate design Process 8 8%

26. Insuff icient resources Process 8 8%

27. Lack of automated source-code control Technology 8 8%

28. Overestimated savings from new tools or methods Technology 8 8%

29. Planning to catch up later Process 8 8%

30. Requirements gold-plating Product 8 8%

31. Push-me, pull-me negotiation Product 5 5%

32. Sw itching tools in the middle of a project Technology 5 5%

33. Developer gold-plating Product 4 4%

34. Premature or overly frequent convergence Process 4 4%

35. Noisy, crow ded off ices People 3 3%

36. Uncontrolled problem employees People 3 3%



Appendix J: Classic Mistakes and Best Practices Matrix

© 2007 University of Minnesota MIS Quarterly Executive Vol. 6 No. 2 / June 2007 77

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