HR Project Management Final Team Report

2

Running Head: Leading and Managing the HR Project

Leading and managing the HR Project

Johnathan Bryant

Kenneth Lewis

HRM 517: Managing Human Resource Projects

August 1, 2020

For this assignment, I will consider my approach to leading and managing my human resource project. In this paper, I will discuss the types of project manager power and then select two that would be relevant to my current project. I will also identify and describe four outcomes that may be as a result of managing projects, and address how the issues may be resolved. Thirdly, I will discuss the increased challenges that a project manager may face when leading virtual or global project teams and recommend strategies that can be used in dealing with the challenges. Lastly, this paper will provide an overall plan for communication management during the project.

Types of project manager power

A project manager relies on people who do not report to them directly to undertake their responsibility in the project. Due to such cases, a project manager can use various types of power in encouraging people to perform. There are different types of power available to project managers. The first type of power is legitimate power. The formal authority in this power is based on the position of the user. The best instance to use this type of power is asking people to perform in their job description. The second type of power is a reward. This power is based on persuading others by providing them with something. It can be used when team members perform their responsibilities well and when negotiating for resources. The third type of power is coercive. It is used when punishing people for not performing. This type of power is used when there is a need to maintain discipline or enforce rules (Kloppenborg, Anantatmula & Wells, 2019). 

The fourth type of power is the referent. This type of power is used when persuading people according to their relationship. It is frequently used by project managers as they tend to lack legitimate power based on position. The fifth type of power is the expert. This power persuades people according to their knowledge and skills. It can be sued when others respect your opinion. The sixth type of power is information. It is based on the control of information. Project managers use this power frequently as their role is to convey information. The last power is connection. It is informal and is based on the user’s relationships with those who are influential. It is used when a project manager is working with project sponsors and during the negotiation for resources.

Types of project manager power to my current project

The two types of project manager power that I feel would be relevant to my current project are legitimate power and reward and coercive power. Legitimate power would be relevant as a project manager may fail to have the authority on telling the subordinates what to do. However, the project manager can ask team members in undertaking given activities and they are required to do so. One of the main obligations of a project manager is to help in planning and managing some of the projects. The core team members can be ordered by the project manager to perform certain actives. They would also be asked to help in planning the activities. Therefore, legitimate power is relevant as the project manager may be required to ask the subordinates to undertake some tasks that will impact the overall project.

The second type of project manager power is the reward and coercive power. A reward is not involved with money. An example of a reward is stimulating work. Enticing team members to perform well so that they can be given more interesting and/or challenging work in the future will help team members, projects, and organizations by improving and increasing competence. However, there are some instances where a person may not be able to perform and a project manager may have to use threats. Such cases may occur if some project team members perform while one or two members do not perform. Hardworking individuals value teamwork that works hard and maybe upset when some members fail to share (Kloppenborg, Anantatmula & Wells, 2019). 

Outcomes resulting from managing projects and how the issues may be resolved

Several outcomes may result from managing projects. The first outcome is moral challenges. A project may be involved with some difficulty. In most instances, this happens when there are high demands and few milestones to celebrate. This challenge may be resolved by communicating, appraising progress, and enhancing or detracting the morale of team members. There is a need to reinforce the purpose of the project, encourage and support team members, and understanding what their concerns are.

The second challenge is quarter-mile stones to inch stones. A team develops a list of milestones when creating a project charter. However, on some projects, that is enough detail against which performance can be measured. On other projects, more detail is needed. The solution to resolve this issue is to check the progress frequently and not to let a team member who is not performing to derail a project.

The third outcome is the staff changes. This is an issue that is caused by factors such as poor appraisal, insufficient progress, and conflict among others. The solution to this issue is by treating every team member with respect and recognizes the changes that may be happening. When there are new members added to the team, they should be provided with project information and introductions.

The fourth outcome is discipline. On some projects, performance may be poor hence team members may require to be disciplined. This issue may be resolved by using coercive power. However, the need to discipline team members should be explained clearly and specific behaviors or lack of progress are documented. Additionally, specific improvement strategies should be developed. This will reduce the chances of further discipline.

Challenges a project manager may face when leading virtual or global project teams and strategies to deal with the challenges

The first challenge that a project manager may face when leading a virtual or global project team is role clarification. Progress of a project may lack due to misunderstandings in responsibilities. The strategy that can be used in dealing with this challenge is by clarifying roles. This is by providing a detailed responsibility for each team member.

The second challenge is the issues and lessons learned. In some instances, the issues reoccur. Without having strategies to deal with such issues, the project may not be a success. A strategy to deal with this challenge is by keeping issue logs. The logs may act as living documents of issues that may arise when leading a project team. Whenever there is a new issue, it should be added to the log. By resolving the issues, good lessons may be learned and this may help the future project team to avoid problems. Therefore, the lessons learned can then be documented and stored for retrieval.

The third challenge that may be faced is training needs. Lack of training may cause the failure of the project. Therefore, it is important to ensure that the immediate project needs are kept along with training needs in mind. Having an effective training for the project teams will help provide them with the required knowledge and skills.

The fourth challenge is poor communication. This may occur mostly in virtual teams. Such a team may lack informal, daily face-to-face communication which may lead to loss of information or miscommunication. The team members may end up doing for days without communication hence this may lead to a feeling of isolation. The solution to this problem is enhancing communication to increase everyday interactions. This can be done by creating smaller interdependent tasks and developing a partnership that may give the project team goals to achieve together (Lee, 2013). 

The overall plan for communication management during the project

My overall plan for communication management during the project will identify the important information that will be communicated to all stakeholders in the project. The communication plan will include; the goals of the communication plan, information on stakeholders and their roles, types of information that will be shared, methods for communication, the frequency that each stakeholder would like to receive information. A more structured approach to communication will be used. The communication model used will comprise of the sender, message, and the receiver. The factors that will be considered will be language and cultural effects.

Stakeholder expectations will also be managed. Proactive actions will be undertaken to make the stakeholders feel that their needs and concerns are considered. Managing stakeholder expectations will allow communication channels to be open between stakeholders and project managers (Gronwald, 2017). This will ensure that the stakeholders are informed about potential risks, changes, and other information. This will help in building trust, resolving conflicts, and preventing any problems and increasing the feeling of belongingness to all parties involved.

The methods of communication will also be included in the communication management plan. Some of the methods that will be used include; weekly check-ins, meetings, either via the phone or video conferencing, status reports, project dashboards, surveys, and formal presentations among others. The plan will also include the frequency of communication. It will include how often each type of communication will be sent out. Communication frequency will also be scheduled.

References

Gronwald, K. D. (2017). Global Communication and Collaboration: Global Project Management, Global Sourcing, Cross-Cultural Competencies. Springer.

Kloppenborg, T. J., Anantatmula, V. S., & Wells, K. N. (2019). Contemporary Project Management. Cengage.

Lee, M. R. (2013). Leading virtual project teams: Adapting leadership theories and communications techniques to 21st century organizations. CRC Press.