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The International Journal of Human Resource Management

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The HR quadriad: a framework for the analysis of HRM in project-based organizations

Karin Bredin & Jonas Sderlund
a a b

Department of Management and Engineering, Linkping University, Linkping, Sweden

b

BI Norwegian Business School, Oslo, Norway

Available online: 24 Jun 2011

To cite this article: Karin Bredin & Jonas Sderlund (2011): The HR quadriad: a framework for the analysis of HRM in project-based organizations, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 22:10, 2202-2221 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2011.580189

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The International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 22, No. 10, June 2011, 22022221

The HR quadriad: a framework for the analysis of HRM in project-based organizations

Karin Bredina* and Jonas Soderlundb
a

Department of Management and Engineering, Linkoping University, Linkoping, Sweden; b BI Norwegian Business School, Oslo, Norway This paper introduces the idea of the HR quadriad as a framework for the analysis of HRM as a collective, congurational, and complementary system of roles and practices. The framework highlights the interplay between HR specialists, line managers, project managers, and project workers in the implementation of HR practices. On the basis of a multiple case study comprising six project-based organizations, two organizational factors are singled out as important for the design of the HR quadriad: (1) the nature of project work as either intra-functional or interfunctional, and (2) project participation as either focused or fragmented. The paper gives empirical support to recent research on HRM favoring the synergic integration of the elements of HRM systems designed in a way that acknowledges internal coherence and organizational conditions. Keywords: collective; conguration; HRM; line manager; project-based organization; project work

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Project-based organizations and HRM Contemporary rms put greater emphasis on projects, project management, and various types of project structures to increase exibility and more effectively integrate knowledge resources. This projectication has led rms in a range of industries to adopt characteristics similar to the project-based organization, particularly in knowledgeintensive industries, high-velocity industries, and in industries producing complex products and systems (Hobday 2000). The survey by Whittington, Pettigrew, Peck, Fenton and Conyon (1999) gives convincing empirical support to the increased use of projectbased structures among European rms. Several studies show that the move toward project-based structures has implications for employees, and hence for HRM. Mainstream management rhetoric refers to the ideal project worker as a competent, knowledgeable, and exible team worker who is responsible for staying current and employable. To a great extent, projects are the everyday working environment for these individuals. Accordingly, their competence and careers are built upon project participation; performance in projects is what provides them with on-the-job training, and builds their reputation and critical experience for future project assignments. The study by Hovmark and Nordqvist (1996) demonstrates that project-oriented engineers perceive a number of positive effects in terms of increased commitment, dynamism, support and solidarity, communication, and autonomy. However, there are also critical voices that plea for a more balanced view of project

*Corresponding author. Email: karin.bredin@liu.se

ISSN 0958-5192 print/ISSN 1466-4399 online q 2011 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/09585192.2011.580189 http://www.informaworld.com

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work, pointing to a number of challenges related to HRM, such as role strain (Goodman 1981), project overload (Zika-Viktorsson, Sundstrom and Engwall 2006), and competence deterioration (Packendorff 2002). The survey presented in Zika-Viktorsson et al. (2006) gives empirical evidence that project work in multi-project environments increases the risk of excessive workload which results in lesser time for reection, learning, and recuperation between the projects. The study also shows that these effects lead to stress reactions and might hamper competence development. In addition, Hobdays (2000) study indicates that project-based organizations leave little room for formal training and staff development. The lack of structures and mechanisms for cross-project coordination, Hobday argues, constitutes a severe problem for the long-term effectiveness and learning of project-based organizations due to a lack of incentives for human resource development (Hobday 2000, p. 885). The project-based organization stands out as a highly relevant organizational context for research into HRM (Midler 1995). Project-based work settings also seem to have certain characteristics that emphasize the importance of HRM. At the same time, these characteristics challenge existing models and practices of HRM (Turner, Huemann and Keegan 2008a). Some of these challenges were identied in Whittington et al. (1999, p. 591):
Decentralised and more intensely interacting organizations need new kinds of human resource practices / . . . / Thus, there seemed to be considerable increases in the emphasis put on human resource management to provide the skills and the glue to make the atter and more horizontal structures work.

Even though research has recognized a set of challenges for HRM in project-based organizations and called for the need to adapt the HRM system to the context of projectbased organizations, there is a lack of studies that explore the basis and organizational conditions for this adaptation. Given the typical at and decentralized features of projectbased organizations, the adaptation in HRM systems at the operational level should be particularly relevant. Moreover, as pointed out by MacDufe (1995), studies of HRM typically tend to focus too much on the corporate level far removed from the settings in which many HR practices are implemented (p. 217). In this paper, we therefore give more attention to the operational level. Studying HRM at the operational level In general, this paper seeks to contribute to previous research into the roles and practices for HRM in particular organizational contexts. We focus on three elements of HRM research, which are particularly relevant for the study of project-based organizations. First, research has tended to emphasize the signicance of analyzing the role of HR specialists, whereas downplaying other important roles that are important for delivering HR value (such as line managers and project managers). This broader view addresses the collective nature of HRM and the ongoing devolution of HR responsibilities to line managers (Thornhill and Saunders 1998; Cunningham and Hyman 1999; Larsen and Brewster 2003). Second, research into HRM has overstressed the corporate and strategic levels of analysis (MacDufe 1995; Francis and Keegan 2006). This is also brought up as a difcult area for HR practitioners in the study by Francis and Keegan (2006). Their study shows that the heavy emphasis put on the strategic amplication of HR work has led to a situation in which employee champion roles that focus on the people dimension of dayto-day operational issues are less valued in relation to the strategic partner roles (Ulrich 1998). According to Francis and Keegan (2006), this has some important consequences for

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employees well-being and trust in the HRM system. Thus, our concern is similar to MacDufes (1995), namely, that the strong focus on strategic levels of analysis has created a disregard for the basic operational settings in which many of the HR practices are performed. In response to this shortcoming, we specically address the HR organization at the operational level, closely related to or even embedded in the operational work setting. This standpoint acknowledges the importance of context and contingency factors, however, our take is also congurational one that acknowledges the interplay between organizational conditions and factors. Third, building on the observations above, there is a dearth of studies that take differences in the operational work setting into consideration when analyzing roles and practices of signicance to HRM. We expect that the way people are organized to carry out their work be it in functional departments, cross-functional teams, projects, or other forms should have a profound impact on the HR roles on an operational level. In this paper, we focus on project-based organizations, but this is a broad term denoting a variety of organizations with certain features in common: that they carry out most of their core activities in projects, and that project work hence is routine rather than the exception for the people working there (Packendorff 2002; Lindkvist 2004; Whitley 2006). The intention of the framework presented in this paper is twofold: (1) to improve the analysis of HRM in project-based organizations and (2) to contribute to research that seeks to explore the collective, congurational, and complementary nature of HRM systems in new organizational forms. The collective nature stresses the idea that HRM is increasingly carried out in a complex interplay between several organizational roles, including the line managers, project managers, and the individual worker herself (Bredin and Soderlund 2007). The congurational nature emphasizes the fact that HRM systems need to be designed according to a set of multidimensional organizational conditions (Martn-Alcazar, Romero-Fernandez and Sanchez-Gardey 2005). The complementary nature highlights the interdependence between practices and roles in the HRM system, which asserts that changes for one role or one practice have implications for other roles and other practices. In this respect, HRM systems are better perceived as bundles of roles and practices (MacDufe 1995). In the following section, we review extant literature to build the theoretical cornerstones of the HR quadriad, a framework particularly targeting the analysis of the central HR roles at the operational level in project-based organizations. Central roles delivering HR value in project-based organizations Drawing on previous research into HRM and project-based organizations, we suggest that the HR organization at the operational level in project-based organizations mainly consists of four key roles: HR specialists, line managers, project managers, and project workers.

HR specialists Even though, as mentioned earlier, the general rhetoric in both theory and practice has stated that HR specialists and their work need to become more strategic and that operational HRM should be handed over to line managers, the value of HR competence in basic operational settings is highlighted in a number of studies (Guest and King 2004; Hope-Hailey, Farndale and Truss 2005; Ulrich and Brockbank 2005). However, as put by Francis and Keegan (2006), the neglect of people-centered roles is shown to have a negative effect on the sustainability of high rm performance, as employees feel increasingly estranged from the HR department. Previous investigations into HRM in

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project-based organizations have shown that access to HR competence that is integrated in the day-to-day activities and that have an understanding of the project-based setting is desired by many line managers and project managers (Clark and Colling 2005; Bredin and Soderlund 2006). In practice, though, the strategic focus pointed to above leads to a reduction of HR specialists who are integrated at the operational level, in favor of HR service centers and more strategic HR roles. Line managers As stressed in recent HRM literature, line managers are also important players delivering HR value to the company. Previous research suggests that the line managers role in project-based organizations tends to move toward new forms of management (Larsen and Brewster 2003; Bredin and Soderlund 2007). When employees carry out most of their work in different kinds of projects, the line managers role shifts toward a competence management role that tends to focus on HR issues, including project stafng, competence development, and career counseling (Clark and Wheelwright 1992). Project managers In project management, recent studies indicate that project managers play an important role in delivering HR value in project-based organizations (Bredin and Soderlund 2006). This usually concerns not only direct feedback to employees but also the contacts with line managers to give input to the evaluation and review processes. In some cases, the project manager is the project workers closest manager for extensive periods of time. In general, this would increase the HR responsibilities that rest with the project manager. Nevertheless, the HR role of project managers has been given only limited attention in previous research in HRM, and the matter is not an easy one. As Clark and Wheelwright (1992) state, the long-term career development and other long-term people issues cannot reside with the project manager, because project members are not assigned to a project team on a permanent basis the project is by denition a temporary organization. Project workers Research on project-based organizing emphasizes the expanded responsibility for each individual employee in project-intensive work settings to stay employable and to drive their own careers and competence development. This development is discussed in further detail by, for example, Arthur, DeFillippi and Jones (2001) and Garrick and Clegg (2001). As it seems, individual project workers take on an increased responsibility for a variety of HRM processes and activities which points out the importance of regarding the individual workers in project-based organizations as potentially active and important participants in the HRM process instead of passive receivers. This change pattern has also been discussed in recent research. For instance, Hallsten (2000) analyzes the decentralization of personnel responsibilities in a project-based organization in which HRM essentially refers to a relation among various parties of which the coworker is one and in which all parties have a responsibility for maintaining and developing the relation. Studies have documented the difculties and uncertainties that individual project workers must handle as a consequence of this transformation. Frequently, these studies report on the ambiguity and vagueness of HR responsibilities in project-based work settings as a fundamental underlying problem (Packendorff 2002; Turner et al. 2008a). As documented in Tengblad and Hallsten (2002),

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HR specialists

Line managers

Project managers

Project workers

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Figure 1. The HR quadriad in project-based organizations.

the unclear assignment of responsibilities among the different players in the HR organization, especially concerning the individuals role, repeatedly leads to issues falling between the stools. In the end, many of these issues are left to the individual to handle. This further illustrates the role of the individual in the HR organization of the rm. Consequently, in this paper, we will regard the individual project worker as holding a critical role in the HR organization: a role that needs to be acknowledged and claried. On the basis of previous research into project-based organizing and HRM in projectbased organizations, we propose the HR quadriad, illustrated in Figure 1, to describe the critical constituencies of the HR organization at the operational level in project-based organizations. A quadriad is generally understood as a group of four with an interest or a task in common. The HR quadriad consists of (1) HR specialists, (2) line managers, (3) project managers, and (4) project workers. Two types of project work As stated earlier, one of the main arguments in this paper relates to the congurational nature of HRM. In our framework, this implies that the design of the HR quadriad would differ in accordance with certain organizational conditions and factors, such as the type of project work. A number of researchers have developed different typologies or variations of project-based organizations (Clark and Wheelwright 1992; Hobday 2000). Most of these, however, distinguish between organizations with more or less strong project focus, in which the project-based organization is seen as one extreme. In this paper, we compare organizations on the basis of the characteristics of the work setting at the operational level. Hence, we make the simple yet important distinction between two types of project work in project-based organizations, that is, intra-functional and inter-functional project work. Both types of project work can reside in the same project-based organization but, as we will see, the logics for organizing the work are different. On the basis of this insight, we argue that these two types of project work might require different designs of the HR quadriad. The rst type is referred to as intra-functional project work. This can be compared with the project matrix discussed in Hobday (2000) and the lightweight team structure as suggested by Clark and Wheelwright (1992). The majority of the project workers remain co-located in their line function during the course of the project, even though a project core team from different functions may be dedicated and co-located. Line managers are often directly involved in the problem-solving activities in the projects; they supervise the work

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Table 1. Comparing the intra-functional and inter-functional settings. Intra-functional project work Core activities

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Inter-functional project work

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Performed in projects, although Performed in projects, functionally distributed to line units interdisciplinary problem-solving processes Focused, normally focused Characteristics of project Fragmented, often many parallel on one project at a time, participation projects simultaneously, working working with colleagues with colleagues with similar with different expertise expertise Afliation of project workers Functional departments Competence networks Location of project workers Line/functional departments Co-located projects during project assignments Manager of problem-solving Line manager Project manager activities Personnel responsibilities Line manager Competence manager

and control key resources. However, this does not imply that project managers are lightweight coordinators or that the project dimension is less important than the line dimension. On the contrary, the vast majority of the activities carried out in the line units are essentially project activities, and the projects are the fundamental source of revenues and constitute the fundamental unit of production. The second type will in this paper be referred to as inter-functional project work. This type of work resembles work carried out in the project-led organization (Hobday 2000) and the heavyweight team structure or even the autonomous team structure (Clark and Wheelwright 1992). In this setting, project workers have a basic long-term afliation to a line organization of some sort, but they are normally dedicated to and co-located with the rest of the members in their project team during the project assignment. Project managers take on more of the management responsibilities concerning the technical problem solving, and line managers are instead responsible for stafng the projects with the right resources as well as for long-term career development and competence development (Bredin and Soderlund 2007). Table 1 outlines the two types of project work. There might be several reasons for organizing project work according to one type or the other. The choice might be determined by such factors as task complexity, uncertainty, duration, and pace (Shenhar and Dvir 2007). The main focus here is, however, not the underlying reasons for choosing one type or the other. Instead, we see the operational work setting as an important point of departure for the closer analysis of the design of the HR organization and the responsibilities and relationships among the roles in the HR quadriad. Thereby, focus is on how the aforementioned two types of project work inuence the roles and functions of line managers, project managers, project workers, and HR specialists in other words, the design of the HR quadriad.

Research methodology This paper is based on a multiple case study comprising six engineering-intensive and project-based rms/organizations. We argue that the multiple case-study methodology is particularly suitable for research that seeks to combine the holistic approach with the ambitions to make comparisons and generalizations beyond the individual case (Martn Alcazar et al. 2005). The rms participating in our study operate in different industries, ranging from aircraft, automotive, pharmaceutical, telecom, and complex machinery

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systems. One may say that all rms are dominated by engineers and development work that involves taking part in complex problem solving, typically organized in temporary teams and/or large-scale projects. The companies are all relatively large (more than 2000 employees); however, the present study centers on the part of the companies that are most project-intensive, typically the units for research and development. In the initial stage of our empirical work, we searched for companies that would make good comparative cases, that is, they should be project-based, but different in certain respects to allow for comparative data analysis. We therefore relied on strategic sampling (Flyvbjerg 2006) to allow for comparisons of the HR quadriad in two main settings, that is, intra-functional and inter-functional project work. This also led further to a differentiation in terms of project participation. Table 2 gives a brief presentation of the companies participating in the study. All the companies are in this paper referred to by code names. We rely on a mixture of data, including documents, public presentations, workshops, and interviews. We analyzed internal company material on policies and role descriptions and, in some cases, the results from internal employee surveys. The primary purpose of the interviews was to get a deep insight into how people with formal or informal HR responsibilities understand their role, with whom they interact, in what matters, and when they interact. In sum, we conducted more than 50 interviews, on average 8 10 interviews per rm. The interviews were transcribed and used as the basis for case-study write-ups and within-case analyses in line with the methodology suggested by Eisenhardt (1989). The analysis followed a three-step model. In the rst step, each company was analyzed to understand the central roles in the HR organization and the interaction between them. This rst step in the analysis contributed to the development of the HR quadriad, presented and discussed above. Hence, the elaboration of the HR quadriad was a way to make sense of common empirical patterns in the six cases. In the second step, the analysis was based on the respondents descriptions and discussions concerning the four roles in the HR quadriad. We analyzed each role separately to nd potential similarities and patterns regarding these roles and their interaction in relation to which type of project work that was dominant. In the third step, we initiated a cross-case comparison and explored further the similarities and differences among the studied organizations. To further validate our ndings, more data will be needed, including case studies of project-based organizations in other settings and large-scale surveys. Findings from the multiple case study Three of the studied organizations run complex R&D activities with relatively long life cycles (Pharma, Aerospace, and Automotive). For example, a drug development project within Pharma normally takes several years and involves complex research and the integration of many scientic specialist competencies. Likewise, a development project within Aerospace is normally a 2 3-year increment project that is part of an existing product development program. In Automotive, each development project runs for several years and involves the integration of complex R&D activities, ranging from early-stage product design to marketing planning. In these three organizations, the project work can best be described as intra-functional. Project workers are normally located in a line organization during the course of the project, working with problem-solving activities together with people representing more or less the same competence area. From time to time, they might temporarily move to a project area to work with integration activities or critical problem solving; however, the

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Table 2. Overview of case-study rms. Aerospace Automotive, development of new cars Intra-functional project work Fragmented Inter-functional project work Focused Packaging and dairy machinery systems Automotive Machinery Engine Aerospace and defense, development of engines and engine components Inter-functional project work Focused Telecom Telecom, development and implementation of telecom systems Inter-functional project work Focused

Pharma

Line of business

Pharmaceuticals, development of new drugs

Type of project work

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Intra-functional project work Fragmented

Aerospace and defense systems, development of new products and systems Intra-functional project work Fragmented

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base is always the line organization. A line manager at one of the organizations describes the everyday work as follows:
A regular working day for the employees? Well, most of the time they sit here, this is where we work on a day-to day basis. We have an ofce-space here, and in the back we have a lab where we work with integration activities. /.../ Sometimes you need to integrate different kinds of competencies to solve an overall problem, and we do that mostly in the form of meetings. But when we do the actual handicraft, when we do our coding and testing, we do it here. (Line Manager, Aerospace)

In these rms, line departments constitute the basis for long-term technology and scientic development and for ensuring that the projects have access to adequate resources and competencies. The responsibility for competence development, work situation, assessment and performance reviews, and career development also rests with the line units. Even though most of the problem-solving activities take place in the line units, the organizations are still project-based because there are almost no activities that are pure line activities; all the work carried out is essentially in the form of project activities. Each project normally has a smaller core team of project members that are assigned full time to the project and might even be co-located. Nevertheless, the majority of the project members are often assigned to projects on a part-time basis, which means that it is common that they work for several projects at the same time. In this respect, project participation can be seen as fragmented. In the other three studied rms (Machinery, Engine, and Telecom), the projects include elements of research and development, but are generally based on contract with a client. For example, Machinery delivers complete plants for the processing of liquid foodstuff, and Engine and Telecom both develop products, systems, and solutions on customer orders or directly in response to a known customer demand. The duration of the projects varies from a couple of months to several years. In these organizations, project work can rather be described as inter-functional. Interdisciplinary project work is much more privileged in day-to-day operations. Project members have their long term afliation to a line department or a competence network, but they are normally co-located with their project team during the course of their project assignment. This does not necessarily mean that they are part of the project team during the entire project life cycle; they might be assigned to the project team during certain stages. During these project assignments, however, the majority of project members are assigned to the project on a full-time basis and co-located with the project team. In that sense, project participation can be characterized as being focused. This means that project activities take place in inter-functional project teams rather than in teams consisting of specialists of similar competencies. Two of the studied rms have attempted alternative labels on the line units, such as competence networks, which indicates their somewhat different characteristics as compared with the line units in the three cases of intra-functional project work. Moreover, here, the functional units are the basis for ensuring that the projects have access to adequate resources and competencies. Furthermore, the responsibility of competence development, work situation, assessment and performance reviews, and career development is the main focus for the line. The line functions are not the basis for technological and scientic problem solving and development to the same extent. Rather than being physical line departments, they take the form of competence networks for project members, supporting long-term competence development and career development as well as well-being and work environment. Project workers are assigned to projects; they move to a project area or specic project site during their project assignment, and when assignments have been completed, they are assigned to

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a new project. Thereby, people spend little time working together with other members of their competence network. Instead, they move from one interdisciplinary team to another and normally only meet formally with their competence network once a week to share experiences, build social networks, and talk about common technical problems and solutions in their respective assignments. Line managers and competence managers In the organizations with intra-functional project work, in which project workers are normally located in the line while working on project activities, line managers are typically senior technical leaders. They coordinate and supervise the work, and are responsible for strategic technology development and for securing high quality in project deliveries. In the organizations with inter-functional project work, in which members spend most of their time located in inter-functional project teams, the line managers have less focus on technology. As one line manager said:
` Its hard to stay a jour. The things I knew ten years ago... well, there is not much value in them anymore. The experience is still there, but the way you did things then has no value today. /.../ But, I dont think that managers should get down there and get involved in details. They should stay away from that, there are others who know it better. (Line Manager, Machinery)

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Instead, these line managers are more focused on HR issues with a strong focus on competence. They are responsible for supplying competencies and resources to the projects, and for ensuring that the competencies continue to develop and improve. This often involves balancing the short-term needs of the projects with the long-term development needs of the employee. A line manager at Aerospace, with considerable experience from management duties in inter-functional project work settings, told us about these kinds of situations:
Sometimes you need to remove someone from a project for the sake of their own development, which does not always make the project manager very happy. But you need to nd solutions. A lot of my time goes to nding strategic switches and intelligent ways to solve it. Normally you want to remove someone because of competence development reasons. The person needs to move on, and this project does not offer what the person needs. One more even stronger reason is that another project needs that competence and cannot get it from anywhere else. Usually you try to nd combinations of these two reasons, competence development is difcult to use as the only argument. (Line Manager, Aerospace)

The line managers in intra-functional settings also have an important responsibility for competence development and other HR issues, and in the studied rms, this is a responsibility that has augmented in the last two decades. Nevertheless, their responsibilities for technology remain and, as a consequence, they sometimes nd it hard to prioritize HR and people issues. To some extent, it is also hard to nd people with a strong interest and competence within both HR and technology to ll the line management positions. The line management role in settings with inter-functional project work, on the other hand, seems to be more open for people with less technical depth but with an understanding of the disciplinary area and its competencies, and with a strong interest in HR. As the project workers in inter-functional settings are normally located in a variety of project teams, the line managers get an important responsibility for creating a long-term afliation and interaction between project workers within the same disciplinary area.
We have meetings together with the two other groups with similar competencies every Thursday. Sometimes we dont have an ofcial agenda. We just meet to have a cup of coffee together. Sometimes we go through important information, and sometimes we invite guests that talk about their experiences from working with a specic and novel technology. We also

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might let someone that is just nishing a project tell the others about that, or someone who has just been assigned to a large project and has made the initial plans. We recently decided to meet once a month with only people from our group. We just felt there was a strong need for it. (Line Manager, Machinery)

The responsibility for performance reviews and salaries rests with the line management role in all the six studied organizations. However, the differences in project work directly inuence the way this is handled. In the organizations with intra-functional project work, the employees are not scattered in project teams even though they work on project assignments. The line managers can then use their own direct experience of their work in the performance review process, even though input from project managers is also important. A line manager explained this in the following way:

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For most of them [the project workers] I believe that I have a quite good overview of their performance. But usually I also check with sub-project managers and project managers to get their point of view about how the people work. I try to get some more impressions to complement my own. (Line Manager, Aerospace)

One line manager at Aerospace manages a unit with a mix of intra-functional and interfunctional project work. For him, the difference when it comes to assessment and performance evaluation becomes clear.
The people that work on their project assignments here at the unit are not a problem. I know how they work. When it comes to those who are co-located in their project teams I usually speak with their project managers to get to know how theyre doing, if they have achieved their goals, etc. For them I dont have any own direct impression that I can base my evaluation on, I have to trust the project managers. The employees understand the problem. If youre not part of the project yourself its hard to keep track on their performance. But the alternative would be to try to join the project yourself and do project assignments in their projects, and that is hard. /.../ You just have to ask the ones they have worked with: project managers and team leaders. In practice, they are the ones that decide the salary. Not the actual numbers, but they give their judgments and I decide on salaries based on that. (Line Manager, Aerospace)

In the organizations with inter-functional project work, line managers hence spend a lot of time communicating with project managers and sometimes other team members to get input to the performance review process. In general, the line managers in the organizations with predominantly intra-functional project work are central technical leaders and mentors for the project workers in their problem-solving activities. They also need to balance this role with an augmented responsibility for HRM issues. On the contrary, the line managers in organizations relying on inter-functional project work are more similar to consultancy managers, selling resources to the projects, and focusing on the long-term development of competencies in their units as well as the career development and well-being of project workers. In the settings with inter-functional project work, line managers talk about the need for them to help ambitious project workers prioritize and achieve work life balance, as projects and continuous deadlines tend to create a high-intensive work environment. Project managers The project managers in the intra-functional settings normally do not have all the project members co-located, but often have a small core team. The responsibility for technology development rests with project members or teams at the different line units, and the project managers spend a lot of time communicating and coordinating across the different organizational units. The project managers in these cases are not responsible for the separate technical solutions, but for achieving overall quality and functionality of the nal

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product. The responsibility for the quality and functionality of the technical solutions rests with the line units. A line manager explained this as follows:
For example, the documents that describe the different [technical solutions]; no project manager will take the responsibility for what is written there. Project managers have a lot of coordination and planning responsibilities, its not so much about technology. (Line Manager, Aerospace)

Nevertheless, project managers and sub-project managers in the organizations with intra-functional project work are more than coordinators. To achieve a high-quality result, they try to make project members feel afliated to the project and the common project goals.

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Sub-project managers have an important responsibility to create a team spirit and a sense of common commitment among team members. / . . . / To some teams it would of course be preferable to be co-located, but that is not a question of vital importance. It has much more to do with the abilities of the sub-project manager. (Line Manager, Pharma)

In the organizations with inter-functional project work, project managers are team leaders in a more direct way, as the teams are co-located. The project managers then become the closest manager for many of the project members during longer periods of time. In these cases, many of the people management issues are part of the responsibility of the project managers. A senior project manager in one of the organizations with interfunctional work told us:
I do believe that project managers will develop into non-specialists that are really good at managing projects and people. I always stress this aspect. You have to take care of your people, because if you dont youre in trouble. Of course you need to know the other stuff as well, like project control and all the traditional project management things. But I think that the importance of caring for the human capital is often forgotten. And I think that it will become increasingly important. (Project Manager, Machinery)

Project managers in the inter-functional settings normally participate actively in the performance review process as compared with the project managers in the intrafunctional settings. As these project managers are the ones working closest to the project workers during the course of the project, they need to communicate with the line managers to provide input and information for performance reviews and salary discussions. At Machinery, for example, project workers had questioned their respective line managers abilities to make well-founded evaluations of their performance in the projects, which led to the development of new routines for performance reviews:
We developed this instrument a particular kind of performance review meeting that should precede every salary negotiation, where the individual, the coach [i.e. the line manager] and a third party evaluate the individual concerning a set of items. The third party is normally a project manager that you have worked with recently. (HR Manager, Machinery)

Project workers In the organizations with intra-functional project work, the project workers mostly collaborate and develop their competencies together with people from the same discipline. They hence tend to develop a specialist competence within that area. Project workers in the organizations dominated by inter-functional project work are grouped in organizational units that consist of people representing various disciplinary areas. As a consequence, they need to develop skills for handling the repeatedly changing team afliation, in combination with a more general understanding of the other disciplines to be able to collaborate and communicate with the other team members.

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In the organizations dominated by inter-functional project work, project workers normally have focused project participations; they are assigned full time to one project at a time. This enables them to create an afliation to the project team and focus on one assignment, but on the other hand, it distances line managers. In some cases, this leads to a certain frustration concerning the HR responsibilities:
Our employees work in quite long term projects, from six months up to a couple of years. We have project workers that have worked in England for more than a year, they come home once every eight weeks, and they dont stay for very long. They wondered how do you [i.e. the line manager] know how I work? (HR Manager, Machinery)

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The situation is quite different for project workers in intra-functional project work settings. Here, project workers have their afliation to the line unit, but are normally assigned to several parallel projects. Their project participation is hence fragmented and for many, this causes inefciency problems as well as troubles with planning and prioritizing. A project manager recognized the problem also for her own sake:
At least in my case, it affects my work a lot when Im involved in several projects. It requires a lot of juggling just to nd time to meet. People are normally fully-booked already. There are a lot of people involved and several teams to coordinate, it gets very complicated. And you spend a lot of your time attending meetings. Its hard to manage and structure all the different tasks, its easy to mix-up the different projects. Its also hard to keep up motivation, its really complicated. (Project Manager, Pharma)

In all six cases, there is a clear message that employees need to take responsibility for their own competence development and careers. This is done in discussion with a responsible line manager who ideally should plan the assignments in accordance with individual development plans. In the inter-functional project work settings, the project workers move from project to project, and build their careers on their previous project participations. Each project then represents an important career and competence investment. In these cases, project workers are active when it comes to driving their own competence and career development by striving for the right project assignments. Project workers in all six cases also participate in activities such as evaluating other project members and being mentors and educators to newcomers or less experienced colleagues. In the cases with intra-functional project work, the mentoring and support is a natural part of the work in the line units; there are always highly competent and experienced employees who are valuable for the development of others. A line manager told us about one such valuable teaching colleague:
We have a very competent specialist at our department, and hes a real asset. He is incredibly patient and he spreads a lot of knowledge. We try to avoid giving him a lot of own project assignments, he simply has to dedicate more time supporting the others. But, there is often some kind of crisis situation where something went wrong, and then, who do we turn to? The specialist, of course! (Line Manager, Aerospace)

In the cases with inter-functional project work, on the other hand, learning from experienced colleagues in the line unit is much more difcult, as people are dispersed in different project teams. One of the line managers told us about the difculties of keeping a very scattered unit together and creating a sense of belonging. For new employees, who are normally instantly assigned to and co-located with a project, the support from experienced colleagues becomes important. The line manager gave us an example of a new employee and the importance of a mentor system, and said that Its important to have someone to lean against when you are new. In our situation it is not possible to bring him into the team in the same way that I could have done if we would work together in the

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unit. This, it was argued, had important implications on the role of the line manager and the possibilities of assuming HR responsibilities. HR specialists In all the companies in our study, there are HR specialists assigned to support the project operations. In ve of the rms, the HR departmental structure has recently been restructured going from local HR departments and a central HR staff function to a business partner model. Local HR departments have been downsized and replaced by a central HR service center that gives support in specic HR areas (recruitment, competence development, expatriation, law, etc.), and a few HR managers who work as direct support in strategic HRM at different parts of the company. One company had not converted to this model but kept a structure of local HR departments, although these had also been downsized. In general, the local HR specialists are supposed to be strategic partners and business partners to line managers. They usually give support on issues such as recruitment processes, sick leaves, rehabilitation processes, and a limited number of matters that may require specialist knowledge. Normally, they are also involved in strategic competence planning and leadership inventories and they participate in management meetings on middle management levels. In the cases with intra-functional project work, some line managers wondered what the HR specialists really did, and questioned the value of their contribution because they were seen as being too far from the operational setting. However, many line managers expressed a wish for HR competence to be integrated at the operational level. One line manager, for example, talked about his good experience from having an HR specialist involved:
Our HR specialist wants to be more involved in our daily work, but she hasnt really got the time for it. She is responsible for a very large area. But I really appreciated the times when she has taken an active part in for example leadership inventory processes. She brings in another perspective and that is great! Sometimes you get a real eye-opener. And since you are supposed to work more with people issues, it would be great with such a sounding board on other issues as well. That could give you more incentives to work with people issues and feel that it is rewarding. But it cannot be an HR department on the side, it needs to be more integrated in the daily work. Yes, that kind of sounding board would be really nice... to get the opportunity to discuss soft issues in another way. I think that all line managers should benet from that. It would be great. (Line Manager, Aerospace)

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In the cases with inter-functional work, the line managers did not express a need for more integrated HR support in their daily work. Most of them thought that they had developed the skills they needed to take on their HR-oriented role, and that it was good to have an HR specialist to call when they needed the support. In one of the cases with an inter-functional project work setting, the local HR specialist saw the need for line managers to meet and share experience about their HR work, so he launched specic HR meetings for line managers.
The line managers need to have an arena where they can meet and discuss HR and competence issues and create a common language. This has been difcult, but since a year back, I have meetings with all the line managers once a month. I call and run the meetings and prepare the agenda. It is intended to be an arena where the line managers can bring up questions, share experience and lessons learned. We discuss different issues to get a common view. (HR Manager, Machinery)

The interaction between HR specialists and line managers is clear in all the six cases, but the relationship between HR specialists and the project dimension is less clear. In one of the cases with intra-functional project work, there is a special support unit for project

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managers which also includes support in people issues. However, there is no relationship between this support unit and the HR department. In some of the other cases, intrafunctional as well as inter-functional project work, there have been some attempts to direct HR competencies toward the project operations, but these attempts have not lasted for long.
Even though we have been working in projects for a long time, the HR department has been organized according to the line and some people think this is a weakness. On the other hand its kind of reasonable, since the line managers assume the heavy part of the personnel responsibilities. Weve tested solutions for, for example, HR specialists who worked with direct support to project managers, but we dont have that anymore. (HR Manager, Automotive)

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The HR quadriad and the type of project work The research reported here suggests that the roles within the HR quadriad are strongly inuenced by the characteristics of the operational work setting: the type of project work and the type of project participation. In the following section, we will analyze the HR quadriad in each type of project-based work setting, starting with intra-functional project work, then analyzing in further detail the settings with inter-functional project work.

The HR quadriad in intra-functional project work settings In the three organizations with intra-functional project work, line managers maintain a strong technical management role, but at the same time, they are expected to take on an increased responsibility for operational HRM. As acknowledged in previous research in the devolution of HR responsibilities, this balancing act often turns out to be difcult for several reasons. McGovern, Gratton, Hope-Hailey, Stiles and Truss (1997), for example, argue that line managers have limited incentives to get involved in HR activities and that this often leads to a short-term focus and a situation in which people issues get low priority. Larsen and Brewster (2003) instead question whether line managers have the time, the ability, or even the competencies required. The ndings presented here indicate that the role of line managers in settings with intra-functional project work requires a main focus on new technologies and technical problem solving. This does not necessarily mean that the line managers are uninterested or incapable of carrying out their HR responsibilities. However, they are often frustrated due to the administrative hurdles involved in much of the HR work. Apart from the administrative HR work, line managers in this type of project-based work setting have an important role in the HR quadriad as mentors for the project workers. Moreover, as project workers are located in the line units, these managers have a fairly good overview of their performance and therefore, they can use their own direct experience as input in performance reviews and salary discussions. The empirical study presented here shows that the possibilities for line managers to take on HR responsibilities can not only be explained by the competencies and interests of the line managers (McGovern et al. 1997; Thornhill and Saunders 1998; Cunningham and Hyman 1999), but also needs to be seen in light of the project work setting in which they operate. To a great extent, this molds their role in general and, of course, also their role in the HR quadriad. The empirical study further indicates that the project managers role in the HR quadriad in settings with intra-functional project work is less prominent than the line management role, although it still has a role to play in the HR quadriad. These project

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managers normally work with dispersed project teams, in which project members are located in the line units. They do not directly lead the work on the different project assignments, but still have an important role in assessing the quality of the deliveries from different team members, and communicate high-quality as well as low-quality performance to the respective line managers. Project workers in organizations dominated by intra-functional project work perform most of their work in the line units, close to the manager with HR responsibilities, which seems to give them a sense of security concerning the whereabouts of HR responsibilities. On the other hand, they normally have fragmented project participation, which, according to Zika-Viktorsson et al. (2006), might lead to prioritizing problems, stress symptoms, and project overload. The empirical study reported here also shows that project workers in intra-functional project work settings can use each other, particularly experienced colleagues, to learn and develop, and also for technical support. Informal mentor systems are quite easily set up in these work environments. Given the roles of the other players in the HR quadriad in this type of project-based work setting, it is interesting to note the quite limited integrated HR specialist support at the operational level. The general trend seems to be that local HR departments are replaced by a smaller number of HR specialists who act as strategic business partners to the line units and as HR service centers (cf. Ulrich and Brockbank 2005). One of the organizations has local HR departments, but the others have created new structures for the HR department based on the business partner model. However, the services from the few integrated HR specialists are frequently required from line managers who in many cases wish for a closer collaboration with HR specialists in the day-to-day operations, because they themselves are trying to manage the balancing act of HR and technological orientation. Therefore, on the basis of the empirical study, we suggest that the HR specialists role in the HR quadriad in settings with intra-functional project is important as an integrated part of the line, collaborating with line managers on HR issues. The HR quadriad in settings with inter-functional project work In the organizations with inter-functional project work, the HR quadriad takes a somewhat different form. Here, line managers are almost entirely HR-oriented, with none or very little technical responsibilities. In the cases in which they have technological responsibilities, these concern the long-term technological development and securing of long-term technological competencies. In that respect, they are not involved in the everyday technical problem solving. Instead, this is mainly taken care of by the interfunctional project teams. This does not mean that the line dimension is weaker than the project dimension, as suggested by, for example, Hobday (2000) and Clark and Wheelwright (1992). From an HR point of view, the line is instead strengthened by the strong HR orientation of the line managers role. The line management role in these three organizations are better viewed as competence managers, rather than line managers in the traditional sense (Bredin and Soderlund 2007). Their focus is on competence and competence development and other central HR issues. A central part of their role is to supply high-quality competencies to the projects in both the short term and long term. In addition, it is about planning project participation in a way that matches peoples individual career plans, something that is brought up as a key HRM issue in recent studies of project-based organizations (Turner, Huemann and Keegan 2008b). Owing to its strong HR-orientation, the line management role becomes central in the HR quadriad. However,

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as the project workers are normally dispersed in various project teams and not physically located in the line units, these competence managers also have a somewhat complicated task. They spend a lot of time communicating and interacting with the other players, such as project managers, in the HR quadriad to get input to be able to carry out their HR assignments. It also involves spending time on establishing arenas in which project workers within the same discipline share experiences and give support to each other on work-related issues. Moreover, their work involves contacting project workers who are on project assignments to get an understanding of the general work climate as well as to discuss career plans, competence development plans, and future project assignments. The empirical study also suggests that project managers have a prominent role in the HR quadriad in settings dominated by inter-functional project work. They are project team managers who manage a temporarily co-located and dynamic team of relative strangers. Even though the project managers do not have a formal HR responsibility, they play an important role in feeding the HR process with information about work performance, competence gaps, and possible work environment problems or stress symptoms. In particular, the interaction between project managers and competence managers seems to be crucial for delivering HR value in companies dominated by inter-functional project work. Project workers operating in this type of project-based work setting also have a more prominent role in the HR quadriad than those working in intra-functional settings. As their project participation is normally focused and they work in temporary inter-functional teams, their work implies changing tasks, teams, and workplaces on a continuous basis. This creates a situation in which each individual project worker needs to take on a greater responsibility for staying employable and striving for assignments that are valuable for his or her career development. Moreover, the situation of being dispersed in different project teams and not having much collaboration on problem solving within the competence network creates a need for experienced project workers to act as backup and support for less experienced project workers in order for them to perform in their inter-functional teams. Such mentor systems are usually structured and managed by the competence managers to assist and develop less experienced employees to strengthen their skills. In settings with intra-functional project work, the collaboration within the line seems to create natural forms of mentor systems and a disciplinary learning platform for inexperienced project workers. Turning to the HR specialists role in the HR quadriad of the organizations dominated by inter-functional project work, the overall HR departmental structures have recently been changed to business partner models (Ulrich and Brockbank 2005), just as they have in the other organizations. As pointed out earlier, this seemed to generate a lack of integrated HR specialist competencies at the operational level in intra-functional settings, but what about the inter-functional ones? Here, all the other three roles have more prominent roles in the HR quadriad, which requires a constant interaction between these roles to make it work. The HR specialists role becomes more important for providing specialist competencies when needed. The integrated day-to-day HR support might be less important as long as the competence managers and project managers are well prepared for their HR responsibilities. The empirical study shows that the HR specialists at the operational level are foremost focused on support to line managers, but in light of the results, one might discuss whether the HR specialists role should be oriented also toward supporting project managers and project workers in their HR roles. The comparisons of the two types of project work and the responsibilities of the four players in the HR quadriad are summarized in Table 3.

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Table 3. Comparing the HR quadriads. Intra-functional project work HR specialists Integrated HR support. Integrated with line operations. Collaborators with line management. Inter-functional project work

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Line managers

Project managers

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Project workers

HR service centers. HR specialists. Internal consultants. Support on demand. Providing arenas for HR experience sharing. Technology/competence managers. Competence managers. Competence Supervisors. Direct assessment. puzzle solvers. Disciplinary coordinators. Assessment hubs. Artist agents. Project coordinators. Sources of Team leaders. Participants in information for performance appraisal. performance review processes. Ensuring working climate. Disciplinary specialists. Fragmented Disciplinary generalists. Focused project participation. project participation.

Conclusions This paper has reported on a study of central roles for delivering HR value at the operational level in project-based organizations. We suggested the HR quadriad as a framework for the analysis of HRM in project-based organizations. The quadriad builds on the insight that HRM is carried out in collaboration among four roles, including HR specialists, line managers, project managers, and project workers. We have shown that the HR quadriad creates improved possibilities for studying HRM at the operational level, something that has not been adequately studied in recent strategically focused HRM research. The framework emphasizes the importance of studying the responsibilities, functions, and interactions of the players who deliver HR value, while previous research has tended to focus on HR specialists and, to some extent, line managers. In that respect, the HR quadriad seeks to facilitate an analysis of HRM which acknowledges its contextual, collective, and congurational nature in project-based organizations. The paper has also explored another argument: the project-based organization as an important empirical context for studies of HRM. Primarily to enhance the analysis of HRM on an operational level in project-based organizations, we differentiated between two primary types of project work. The rst one was intra-functional project work, in which project workers carry out most of their project activities in a line function. The second one was inter-functional project work, in which project workers are normally colocated in inter-disciplinary teams. This distinction was based on the insight that work settings constitute an important determining factor for HRM. The HR quadriads in these two different types of project-based work settings differed considerably. This analysis offered an improved understanding of how the roles in the HR quadriad are shaped by the type of project work and type of project participation. Our analysis suggests that in cases of intra-functional project work, line managers have the most prominent roles in the HR quadriad, but due to their need to balance the HR and technological orientations, they wish for an integrated support and collaboration with HR specialists. In the HR quadriad in organizations relying on inter-functional project work, line managers get an even more important role, although in these cases, more HR responsibility is handed over to the individual project workers and project managers. Here, focused project participation, which implies that functional departments take the form of competence networks, increases the HR orientation of line managers, as well as project

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managers and project workers. The interaction among these three roles and with HR specialists is therefore critical for delivering HR value. However, the empirical studies show that HR specialist competencies are still organized to support line managers, where as project-oriented HR support for project managers and project workers have not yet been developed. In sum, we propose that the framework of the HR quadriad could be useful to the understanding of the roles on an operational level which are vital to the people management systems in project-based organizations. This generally highlights the importance of taking different kinds of work systems into account when designing overall HR organizations, because work systems inuence the roles in the HR quadriad and thereby also each roles possibility of adding value to HRM. These insights are well in line with recent calls for more HRM research adopting a congurational approach (Martn Alcazar et al. 2005) and research that highlights the importance of looking at HR practices as bundles and not isolated islands (MacDufe 1995). The research presented here, however, gives quite strong evidence for the complementarity of HR practices and the organizational variables affecting the design of the HRM system. The HR quadriad framework is one possible framework to strengthen the empirical analysis in line with the congurational approach in the sense that it acknowledges the increasing collective nature of HRM and the devolution of HR responsibilities to line managers and individual workers. The framework also points out that changes in one area might have profound effects on changes in another area, for instance, the devolution of HRM responsibilities to the line managers affects the HR specialists. In that respect, the framework points out the importance of developing HRM practice and research that embrace the complementarity of practices and roles in the HRM system. The HR quadriad therefore is not only a way to address four roles in the HR organization of the project-based organization, but also equally a framework intended to better address the collective, congurational, and complementarity dimensions of contemporary HRM. References
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