HR Project Management Final Team Report

Running Head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT 1

PROJECT MANAGEMENT 2

Project Management

7/31/2020

Professor Jennifer Young

:

Exercising power is an essential tool in delivering projects, making it a favorite tool for project managers. There are different types of project manager power used to influence the behavior and performance of workers. In my current project, coercive power and expert power are relevant for its success. Coercive power refers to the power that managers use to threaten employees with different types of punishment in case they fail to follow directions resulting in not achieving the desired goal. It comes from the belief that one is in a position to execute punishment to achieve the required goals for a particular assignment. Expert power refers to the power exercised by the use of expert knowledge to make the junior staff to be in line with instructions and orders. It comes from the belief from subordinates of their leader possessing expertise that they do not possess themselves.

The relevance of coercive power in the project is its ability to give managers control over the operation of a project, and this is a necessity for the success of the project. With coercive power, there is the development of discipline among the subordinate; and this improves both productivity and efficiency, steering employees in one direction to fully maximize their time and skills. Coercive power’s relevance in my project is also linked to its ability to eliminate both discrimination and harassment in the workplace, enhancing performance in the actualization of the project. Expert power’s relevance in my project is linked in its developed trust from the team to the project management leader leading to more openness of guidance. This reduces any sort of friction among colleagues, and this propels the team as well as the project to greater heights. With expert power, individuals gain the respect and trust of other individuals in the organization, and this enhances the performance of the project.

In project management, different possible issues may arise; and this requires attention for outcomes to be solved. Team management is a huge challenge that may arise while managing projects. When there is limited or no team management, a project will fail to happen interactively, resulting in inefficiency. In order to achieve effective team management in a project, there is a need to bring the team together to be on the same page. Individuals from the team must be given their roles and responsibilities of their tasks to avoid collision of anyway. Staying on top of the schedule enhances efficiency in team management. Changing requirements in a project is a possible issue resulting from project management. It occurs when the project needs are not completely and clearly outlined from the beginning causing the project to sway and miss deadlines. It is a requirement to set a goal that is inclined to developing a proposal to define the purpose of the project, its objectives in achieving the goal. When all this is tabled, the project’s requirements will be clearly and thoroughly explained from the beginning.

Risk management is also an issue that requires the attention of project managers. Sometimes, projects fail to go as planned, resulting in significant project management issues. Risks are vast in terms of their occurrences, and they can occur due to uncertainty in the financial market, hidden flaws, or unknown factors that can limit the success of a project. It is hard to foretell each potential risk associated with a project; there is a need for strategic planning and collection of data at an early stage so as project managers can antedate which part of a project is likely to fail. With the collected information, a project manager is in a position to develop control measures that can assist in dealing with the risks in an effective manner. The challenges of teamwork can result during project management as possible issues. High chances of disagreements occur due to differences in a team when there is an employee’s involvement working on a project. Issues among members of the team possess a challenge to project managers hence the need to deal with it. The creation of a positive working environment is the ideal way to limit issues in a team. Also, there is a need to build trust among team members; this is to break down any sort of barriers to establishing good interpersonal relationships. Insufficient team skills are possible issues in project management and may be evident from poorly performed tasks among the team members. The issue result from recruiting team members based on their availability as opposed to their expertise, and this puts the project in a precarious spot. There is a great need to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the team members to resolve this possible issue. When the project requires extra skills for its success, there is a need to offer further training after the recruitment of the team members to enhance their knowledge and reduce the skill gaps.

They are leading virtual or global project teams to come with its unique associated challenges that top-up to existing possible issues that may result from managing projects. Despite the existence of the issues, different strategies can be put in place to deal with the challenges. Difficulties in scheduling is a major problem associated with virtual project teams. Scheduling difficulties may result due to the management of workers across different time zones, and this can be very significant when the time differences are huge. In curbing such a challenge, there is a need to find an appropriate time that is within every individual workday. Collecting feedback regarding meetings through email will enable the participation of each person in the team, including even the ones who could not attend the meeting when it was happening. Creativity can also count as a strategy to deal with scheduling difficulties, and this can be achieved by a recording of meetings for workers who were unable to attend. This will enable them to listen and view the proceedings of the held meeting.

A globally distributed workforce exists with its challenges, and this includes language and cultural divides. These differences affect employee’s interactions, prioritization of tasks, and even what they perceive to be a success. There is a need to navigate these differences to enjoy benefits of a remote global team completely. A potential solution to this challenge is the allowance of employees to share information regarding their geographic regions and cultures; this will assist in reducing cultural-related misunderstandings strengthening team member’s bonds. Emphasis on virtual team building must be emphasized to limit the differences. With virtual team building, relationships among workers will be established and nurtured; and this will increase a project’s efficiency and productivity. Taking charge of virtual or global project teams, tracking of employee’s performance becomes a challenge. When remotely managing employees, ensuring the allocated duties are accomplished on schedule is a significant challenge. There is a greater need for a project manager to be clear about the required expectations. When the needed expectations are clear, employees will be in a position of knowing what is expected of them. Co-working offices can be put in place for the employees in their different locations in the provision of a work environment free from distraction. A quantitative way of evaluation can also be used to assess a worker’s contributions. In the case of underperformance, a detailed explanation can be availed to the employee; and this will enable the remote workers to speed up their work to meet the required expectations.

Poor communication causes several management issues in the actualization of a project. Useful and efficient communication is the building stone of any functioning group, and in this case, we are dealing with the project management team. Communication coordination of team members can be challenging in different ways, and when it fails, it results in other problems. Work continuity suffers, and employees may also feel isolated from the team. With all these, there is a need for an overall plan for communication management during the project. The communication plan will be aimed to set clear expectations for how and when updates will be shared and enhancing the visibility of the project and status; all these form the sole purpose of achieving the productivity of the team meetings and aligning the project with the intended goals. The use of emails, the creation of to-do lists, videoconferencing meetings, in-person meetings, and the use of collaboration apps will be considered project team communication methods. This is due to the efficiency of these methods in communication, enabling easy reach and smooth communication. Emails communication will be structured to be happening on a weekly basis to discuss the progress of the project from different individuals of the team and also discuss potential issues. Email communication will be involving the project team and the project sponsor. The main communication end goal is aimed at keeping the stakeholders updated on the status of the project and also keep them mindful of the benefits of the project is employing an integrated HRIS. Post-mortem meeting will be held at the end of the project to assess what worked and what failed to discuss actionable takeaways, and this will be among the project team.

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