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Leadership Without Formal Authority: The Project Department
Melcher, Arlyn J., and Thomas A. Kayser
13/2  (Winter 1970): 57-64

Leader of a project group is faced with two sets of problems. First, there is the problem of building a team that is directly under his control. Second, he must obtain the cooperation from other departments outside his authority. The project director is held responsible for the project but often with little or no formal authority over groups that provide essential information and services. This article is an intensive case study of a project director in action. The focus is how he built cooperative relations with other departments and the factors that tended to undermine this cooperation. Pressure from the environment, management reaction to pressure, formal organization, leadership style and complementary key personnel were each important in influencing individual, group, and intergroup relations. Complementary personnel and formal authority over other units may be useful but not necessary. When the pressure is on to meet difficult goals and standards, carefully built relationships are likely to erode rapidly, particularly if there also are changes in key personnel at the operating and general management level.

 

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