EFECTOS DE ELEMENTOS ALEANTES EN ACEROS AL MANGANESO.

Based on the key findings of the present study, there are several implications for project leadership in management consultancies. The findings show that a nodal role is attributed to the project manager, who has to accompany numerous functions and responsibilities for the initiation, progressing, and the outcome of the project. As stated earlier, leadership has been described as “the glue that holds organizations together, especially in periods of change” (Longenecker et al., 2007, p. 151). Similarly, as one of the interviewees of this study phrased it when asked about the influence of the project leader on the team outcome and project success:

That is absolutely relevant in this respect. As a project leader, if I do everything wrong what can be done wrong then I can easily bang a project against a brick wall. (Interviewee 6, 19 September 2014, 73-75, author's translation)

Accordingly, it is obvious that ambidextrous leadership is challenging for business leaders. Despite their role in defining goals, structuring tasks,

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influencing team members’ and the client’s acting, as well as representing the quality and professionalism of the consulting company, in most cases the respective person is hardly sufficiently prepared and trained. In consequence, there is a significant role attributed to the consulting company. This is especially associated with its Human Resource (HR) department in terms of providing project leaders with the skills and competences to act as ambidextrous leaders. As Probst et al. (2011) already conclude from their research, HR plays an active role in promoting and developing ambidextrous leadership. For this reason the HR department needs to train and develop individual employees to become ambidextrous leaders. From the present study, the conclusion can be drawn that this training must especially develop a project leader’s task structuring abilities, extend content and industry-relevant expertise, progress the ability to motivate people to come up with creative outcome-oriented ideas and convince them to work together on the achievement of the respective project goal. Besides, project leaders should be educated in their ability to evaluate the team members’ strengths and weaknesses, and how to successfully cope with work-related stress. Especially relevant for the consulting context is the need to train a project leader’s forecasting skills. They become crucial with regard to the consultants’ diagnostic capabilities which might positively impact the clients thriving for innovation as consultants can help users to define their need in innovation (Howells, 2006) and provide them with the strategic framework for change (Bessant & Rush, 1995).

Another implication for the consultancy business is the idea of rethinking their time scheduling mechanisms in the sense that at the beginning more time should be allowed. This is suggested due to numerous reasons: first, to clearly define the desired project outcome and deliverables; secondly to allow the project leader and the team members to get to know one another and establish the basis for a trust relationship, thirdly to better structure the tasks and create a precise time schedule, and as a result enable the project leader to be able to better assess the subordinates competences and strengths. Allowing a longer time

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window for a project would on the one hand give the team the time to generate more and better ideas by vividly exchanging ideas and thoughts in the group. On the other hand it would also reduce time pressure and thus the stress level for the team. Therefore, the establishment of an official initial phase for defining the project and allowing team members to get to know each other should be considered.

Another aspect that would diminish the stress level for the project leader would be given in the case that more decision-making power is given to the project leader with regard to staffing decisions. As of today, projects are generally staffed according to team members’ specializations and availability. However, providing more staffing empowerment to the project leader would benefit the team work. Among others, this would be advantageous as trust relationships would have already been established and team members’ strengths would have already been assessed. Also, evaluation schemes about the team members’ skills and experience should be expanded by assessing factors as team work quality, ways of approaching problems and how they generate ideas.

Last but not least, HR and the consulting partner should more carefully match the upcoming project with the characteristics of the project leader, i.e. his skills, content expertise, and working style. This is due to the fact that the findings of the study at hand point towards improved project outcomes when the person matches the context. Accordingly, the role of the organization for leadership executed on a team-level is highlighted by the statement by Frank Groll, who is the former Head of the Strategy Business Area, Industrial Solutions & Services Division of Siemens AG. He claims that “any general statements about leadership need to be placed within an organizational context that gives substance and direction to them” (as cited in: Brodbeck, Frese & Javidan, 2002, p. 30).

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