Radiance International (RI) had spent more than half a decade becoming a global leader in managing pollution, hazard, and environmental protection projects for its worldwide clients. It maintained 10 offices across the world with approximately 150 people in each office. Its projects ranged from a few hundred thousand dollars to a few million dollars and lasted from six months to two years. When the downturn in corporate spending began in 2008, RI saw its growth stagnate. Line managers who previously spent most of their time interfacing with various project teams were now spending the preponderance of their time writing reports and memos trying to justify their position in case downsizing occurred. Project teams were asked to generate additional information that the line managers needed to justify their existence. This took a toll on the project teams and forced team members to do “busy work” that was sometimes unrelated to their project responsibilities.
Reorganization Plan
Management decided to reorganize the company primarily because of the maturity level of project management. Over the years, project management had matured to the point where senior management explicitly trusted the project managers to make both project-based and business-based decisions without continuous guidance from senior management or line management. The role of line management was simply to staff projects and then “get out of the way.” Some line managers remained involved in some of the projects but actually did more harm than good with their interference. Executive sponsorship was also very weak because the project managers were trusted to make the right decisions. The decision was made to eliminate all line management and go to the concept of pool management. One of the line managers was designated as the pool manager and administratively responsible for the 150 employees that were now assigned to the pool. Some of the previous line managers were let go while others became project managers or subject matter experts within the pool. Line managers that remained with the company were not asked to take a cut in pay. In the center of the pool were the project managers. Whenever a new project came into the company, senior management and the pool manager would decide which project manager would be assigned to head up the new project. The project manager would then have the authority to talk to anyone in the pool who had the expertise
needed on the project. If the person stated that he or she was available to work on the project, the project manager would provide that person with a charge number authorizing budgets and schedules for his or her work packages. If the person overran the budget or elongated the schedule unnecessarily, the project managers would not ask this person to work on his or her project again. Pool workers who ran out of charge numbers or were not being used by the project managers were then terminated from the company. Project managers would fill out a performance review form on each worker at the end of the project and forward it to the pool manager. The pool manager would make the final decision concerning wage and salary administration but relied heavily on the inputs from the project managers. The culture fostered effective teamwork, communication, cooperation, and trust. Whenever a problem occurred on a project, the project manager would stand up in the middle of the pool and state his or her crisis, and 150 people would rush to the aid of the project manager asking what they could do to help. The organization prided itself on effective group thinking and group solutions to complex projects. The system worked so well that sponsorship was virtually eliminated. Once a week or even longer, a sponsor would walk into the office of a project manager and ask, “Are there any issues I need to know about?” If the project manager responds “No,” then the sponsor would say, “I'll talk to you in a week or two again,” and then leave.
Two Years Later
After two years, the concept of pool management was working better than expected. Projects were coming in ahead of schedule and under budget. Teamwork abounded throughout the organization and morale was at an all-time high in every RI location. Everyone embraced the new culture and nobody was terminated from the company after the first year of the reorganization. Business was booming even though the economy was weak. There was no question that RI's approach to pool management had worked, and worked well! By the middle of the third year, RI's success story appeared in business journals around the world. While all of the notoriety was favorable and brought in more business, RI became a takeover target by large construction companies that saw the acquisition of RI as an opportunity. By the end of the third year, RI was acquired by a large construction firm. The construction company believed in strong line management with a span of control of approximately 10 employees per supervisor. The pool management concept at RI was eliminated; several line management positions were created in each RI location and staffed with employees from the construction company. Within a year, several employees left the company.

QUESTIONS
1. Is it a good idea to remove all of the line management slots?
2. If pool management does not work, can line management slots then be reinstated?
3. How important is the corporate culture to the pool management concept?
4. Are there project sponsors at RI?