The AMA Handbook of Project Management, 4th Edition

CHAPTER 22

Business Acumen for Today’s Project Manager

DEBORAH BIGELOW CRAWFORD, PMP, PRESIDENT, PM COLLEGE

The “flat” organization, an idea first floated in the 1940s, has come into its own, as Gartner Vice President Mike Rollins has noted, because “the nature of work is fundamentally changing” as the marketplace demands companies to become more customer-relationship oriented.¹ Driving decision making down to frontline employees has meant, in most cases, removing levels of hierarchy. Nearly a decade ago, the National Bureau of Economic Research reported that “layers of intervening management are being eliminated and the CEO is coming into direct contact with more managers in the organization . . . while managerial responsibility is being extended ...