Micro management in project management

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Abstract

This article will go into detail abound micro-management in project management, and which negative effects it can have on project success. Everybody knows the term micro-management and that it can seriously affect many factors in the workplace and thereby also in project management.

“79% have experienced micromanagement from their current or past managers.”

This meant that even if a team leader or manager thinks that they are not micromanaging there is still a high chance that it’s still happening. Therefore it’s important for all team leaders and members to know abound micromanagement and its negative impacts. Which includes reduced team morale, decreased motivation, increased stress levels, and a less successful project result. To avoid micro-management, project managers should strike a balance between control and autonomy and whit this delegate responsibilities, thereby boosting team innovation. By considering the four perspectives of project management (Purpose, People, Complexity, and Uncertainty), this article will give project managers can gain a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of micro-management and what tools can be used to avoid Micromanagement.

Definition of micro management

What is Micro mangenment

Micro-management is a management style where a manager or project manager exerts excessive control over their team, often getting involved in even the smallest of tasks. According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, micro-management is "the act of controlling every part of a situation, including small details." While some may see micro-management to ensure high levels of productivity and quality, it can have a negative impact on employee morale and creativity. In regards to project management, especially, employee morale in the area and the possible lack of creativity can have a huge impact on the solution space of a project.

Understanding micro-management

Understanding the impact of micro-management is crucial for effective project management. While micromanagement can have some short-term advantages in certain situations, such as training new team members, increasing productivity on certain tasks, and controlling high-risk issues, the long-term costs can be excessive and significantly affect a project. These long-term disadvantages could be low employee morale, high staff turnover, reduction of productivity, and dissatisfaction among stakeholders. In fact, micro-management is among the top three reasons employees quit. Ultimately, micro-management leads to long-term decreased growth potential in a department, hindering progress and success.

By knowing the symptoms and impacts of micro-management, project managers can avoid its negative effects and promote autonomy, trust, and innovation among team members, ensuring the success of one or multiple projects.

Symptoms of Micro-management

Symptoms of Micro-management refer to the excessive supervision and control that a manager puts on their employees. The following points are some common signs of a micro-manager exhibits in their approach to managing employees and projects.

• Micromanagers oversee their workers too closely and spend an excessive amount of time supervising a particular project and telling people exactly what to do and how to do it.
• They are control freaks, often Type A personalities who are fundamentally insecure and afraid to trust the performance of those below them.
• Micromanagers typically go alone to the bosses office, as they do not wish subordinates to gain credit. They become irritated when others make decisions without consulting them. They explode when their bosses bypass them and go directly to one of their subordinates.
• Micromanagers are obsessed with meaningless details. They love numbers, lots of them. They confuse accuracy with precision.
• Micromanagers come in earlier than their employees and stay later. Employees at first feel guilty, but no matter how late they stay, the micro-boss stays later.
• Micromanagers dictate time, often creating deadlines for deadlines' sake. They demand overly frequent and unnecessary written status reports. They are so busy that delays happen frequently, while people wait for their input or signoff.
• Micromanagers stretch themselves too thin and take on too many projects. They move from one to another without completing any of the jobs. They are too busy to meet with subordinates and not available to provide guidance.
• Micromanagers abhor mistakes. Seldom praising, they consider their employees incompetent and soon lose the respect of coworkers and employees. While quick to blame, they seldom admit their own mistakes and shortcomings.

The impacts of micro management

Micro-management can have an impact on many areas, which can be within all areas of project management, such as project success or efficiency, but it can also have an impact on the people involved. This section will go through some of the most impactful areas within project management.

Team morale and motivation

Micromanagement has negative impacts on employees. It reduces job satisfaction and makes them feel like they have no control. Constant supervision and criticism create a stressful work environment that affects mental and physical health. This makes employees become less motivated and their creativity suffers. Being monitored damages there trust in the manager and creates a negative work environment.

"morale suffers as subordinate employees feel the administration does not trust their ability and competency as corrections officers, effectively driving a wedge between management and subordinates"

Project progress and efficienty

Micromanagement can have a significant impact on project progress, both positively and negatively. Micromanagement can ensure that tasks are completed on time and at high standard due to high amounts of checkups from a project manager. This can also prevent errors and misunderstandings, leading to a more streamlined project process. However, this may only work for a short period since the long-term effect of micromanagement from a project manager can give employees the feeling of low autonomy, thereby decreasing problem-solving capabilities. This can leads demotivation and a decrease in productivity. "Indeed, micromanagement can benefit performance when it helps to minimize coordination failures and to ensure quality control. Such benefits, however, may be outweighed by the costs of micromanagement, including reduced employee autonomy."

Project success

Project success means completing a project according to the agreed-upon terms, which include factors like time, budget, scope, and quality. These factors can be impacted by micromanagement. While some factors like budget and quality can be closely managed under micromanagement and have positive impacts, excessive micromanagement can hinder the overall project's success. "Empowered employees are engaged employees. They have all the tools they need to learn and grow, connect with colleagues and others throughout the company, make their own decisions, be leaders, and contribute to the success" Put another way "Empowerment is a key driver of engagement."

The need for a balance between control and autonomy in project management and promoting creativity and innovation

The stages of management styles are illustrated by the Double Diamond model, which was created by the student to visualize the connection between micro-management and innovation.

In management, and therefore also in project management, it is necessary to strike the right balance between micro-management and no management. As mentioned in the sections above, micro-management can be beneficial in ensuring that project sub-tasks are completed on schedule and to quality standards. It allows project managers to closely monitor the progress of the project, identify issues early, and take action to keep the project on track. However, too much micro-management can have an impact on creativity and innovation, leading to disengagement and low morale among team members.

On the other hand, no management can lead to chaos and confusion, resulting in missed deadlines, poor quality, and ultimately project failure. Without any structured approach to managing a project, team members lack clear direction, leading to misunderstandings and miscommunications. Therefore, the balance between micro-management and no management in project management is critical. This requires project managers to delegate tasks, provide clear guidelines and expectations, and ensure that team members have the optimal conditions to solve the sub-task efficiently.

At the same time, project managers should avoid micromanaging and give team members the autonomy to make decisions and solve problems. This approach fosters a sense of ownership and accountability among team members, leading to greater engagement, innovation, and ultimately project success.

This is also illustrated by the diagram using the double diamond model at different levels of management. It is noted that the more micro-management, the smaller the solution space becomes, and vice versa, less management opens up the solution space, but the amount of the solution may become difficult to grasp. The digram and this analyses was created by the student to visualize the connection between micro-management and innovation.

The use of micro management under a crises

During a crisis, it is essential to ensure that critical tasks are completed on time and to a high standard. This could be due to a project being behind schedule or unexpected problems arising during the project. Micro-management can be a valuable tool during a crisis, as it allows project managers to efficiently and quickly complete a particular task. However, it is crucial to avoid excessive micro-management and allow team members to rest after a period of micromanagement. Micro-management should only be used as a short-term, high-intensity boost to a project and limited to crisis situations to avoid long term effects on the employs. "Micromanagement has been proven to be a stressful management style that achieves results only in the short term, and can be extremely taxing on both team members and management."

Strategies and tools for avoiding micro management

By using certain tools micro-management can be avoided. These tools can help managers create a more productive and good work environment. When using these tools correctly a manger can make a workplace more efficient and more innovation and thereby solve projects even better.

Delegating responsibilities by promoting

By promoting certain people in your team, you can delegate some tasks. In this way, as a head manager, you don't have full control and say in sub-projects. But don't just delegate for the sake of delegating; it's important to choose the right people who can manage correctly and not just do their old job. "Because it is often more difficult to manage a job than to do it yourself, many people cannot make the transition from worker to supervisor, and if incapable of doing their new job, they micro- manage those doing their old job."

Clear understanding of tasks

If no guidance is given or if the goals of a project or task are unclear, it is common for micromanagers to emerge. Since managers do not know the exact purpose of a task or project, they do not know when their task is done, and they may never feel like they have provided what top management asked for. Therefore, giving clear guidance and defining the purpose of a task can reduce micromanagement. "Often micromanagement is created when managers are unclear about their duties. With no guidance from above, they never know when they have done enough and have no idea how their performance is being judged."

Encourage managers to delegate

The best skill for a manager is to effectively delegate tasks. However, this can also be challenging for some. Therefore, helping managers learn the skill of giving away power is key to avoiding micromanagement and can help build even better trust within a team. When all participants know that tasks are handled well and correctly, it can enhance trust and improve teamwork. "To some, handing over control is horrifying, but they must soon learn that delegation is one of the most important productivity skills a manager can master. When properly exercised, delegation establishes responsibility and accountability, and builds mutual trust and reciprocity between superiors and subordinates."

Allow mistakes

Allowing innovation and being creative is highly important to avoid micromanagement. However, since being innovative and thinking outside the box can result in mistakes, it's important to accept that these mistakes happen. Getting a better result doesn't happen by doing the same thing all the time, but it happens by being creative and open to new solutions that have not been tested, even if there is a risk involved. "Create an organizational environment that is open to innovation and new ideas. When mistakes happen then you know employees have been empow- ered with decision making authority and are taking risks. "