Project management is ideally matched to the new business environment. Project managers are experienced in “influence without authority” (Cohen & Bradford, 1990). They are accustomed to working in organizationally flat environments, where bosses do not have direct control over human and material resources but rather are influencers. Outsourcing is not new to them. For decades they have used it as an important mechanism for acquiring products and services on projects. In recent years, as organizations have reduced hierarchies and explicit chains of command, the role of employee obligation in research and popular writing on management has become more prominent than ever (Cohen & Bradford, 1990).

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When creating coordinating roles, the organizational designer must select and develop candidates who can influence without authority and who can exercise this influence across national boundaries. The designer should also create additional power bases other than authority to augment the personal skills of the coordinator. These issues must be addressed to successfully implement the coordinator role. Besides the interpersonal persuasiveness, a number of other attributes are associated with effective coordinators. First, they have expertise in the business or product lines; they need expert power if they have no position power. Second, they have good networking ability and good networks, which they use to get information and to get things done. Third, they have credibility, either through a proven track record or by some other means. But the key is still the ability to influence without authority.