Project Team Rewards
Literature Review
33
the extreme reward proponents (see 3.3 Perspective Two: Extreme Reward Proponents, p.
12). The statements are of general nature and evidence is mostly missing. Only the project
management sub-disciplines incentive contracting and change management do consider
rewards. However, in the best case the use of rewards in incentive contracting and change
management can give some ideas how to reward project teams. It seems unlikely that there
are no additional factors influencing the design of reward system in project management.
For instance, the PMI (2004) defines a project as “a temporary endeavor undertaken to
create a unique product, service, or result”. Lewis (2002) cites J. M. Juran who sees a
project as “a problem scheduled for solution”. Berkun (2005) adds that projects are usually
undertaken for a certain client and highlights that projects are always done by project
teams, not by individuals. Kerzner (2001a) points out that project teams are usually multi-
functional and may be from different departments. In contrast to departments or line
teams, project teams may not appear on organisational charts (Kerzner 2004).
These special characteristics affect some of the internal reward factors and it seems
likely that they change the answer to the reward questions. For instance, projects usually
provide a very clear goal. Considering the Goal Setting Theory (see Table 5, p. 15), this
may increase intrinsic motivation and rewards might become less important or even
unnecessary. On the other hand, projects are of a limited duration. Even reward opponents
acknowledge that rewards may work in the short term (Kohn 1993a). Consequently, the
use of rewards might be more advisable in projects than in long-term operational business.
The role of a project in the organisational context might affect the answer, whom to
reward. The PMI (2004:28) identifies three different project structures: functional
structure, matrix structure,
and “projectized” respectively pure project
structure.
Depending on the structure, the way a project is done differs (see Figure 6, next page). In
a functional project team, where people never have worked together before and probably
never will work together again, trust probably is rather low. In this case, team members
should maybe receive rewards individually and not as a team. On the other hand, a
seasoned and high performing project team consisting of highly skilled and excellent team
workers is probably better motivated by team rewards.
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