Key Top Management Tasks and Roles

During our interviews, we discovered that top managers were involved in one or several of a limited number of areas related to project managers. These are:

Definition of General Philosophy. In defining an organization’s goals, objectives, and strategic orientation, top management sends signals expressing its expectations and priorities. These signals indicate the kinds of products, markets, and technologies that the organization intends to emphasize in the future and, hence, the kinds of projects that are deemed desirable to support the successful execution of the strategy. The institutionalization of such objectives and priorities is further reinforced by organizational arrangements such as the planning process, the resource allocation process, performance measurement systems, promotion systems (“You won’t get ahead if you do not come up with good project ideas”), and so on. In some companies, top management clearly makes a strategic decision when it decides the proportion of funds to be allocated to offensive versus maintenance or replacement projects. Thus, top management influences the number and the kinds of projects initiated and undertaken.