Assignment Critique

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Original Assignment:

Primary Task Response: Your first task is to post your own Key Assignment Outline to the discussion area so that other students are able to review your plan. Attach your document to the main discussion post, and include any notes that you feel are appropriate. The purpose of this assignment is to help improve the quality of the Key Assignment Draft that you will complete next week.

Current Assignment:

Respond to Another Student: Review at least 1 other student's Key Assignment Outline, and provide meaningful feedback. Refrain from general feedback, such as simply stating "good job." Your feedback to other students is most helpful if you not only point out weak areas but also offer suggestions for improvement. The best feedback takes a three-stage approach to identify what was done well, weaknesses, and areas for improvement.

125 words min

Student assignment below Table of Contents I. The Organization 3 II. Problem Statement 4 III. Research Strategy 5 Examples of Memo & Questionnaires 6 IV. Ethical Considerations 9 V. Sample Population 10 VI. Data Analysis Summary& Management Strategy 11 VII. Research Results 12 VIII.References 13

The Organization

Environmental Management Alternatives, EMA, was founded by two brothers and a friend to provide an alternative to the disposal of hazardous waste. Starting out with the three owners, a sales rep., and two laborers they built a profitable business. They began to look into new markets within the environmental industry and hired project managers that had a client list they could bring with them and so began the growth and expansion of the company. They ended up with five project managers and three sales reps which were bringing in more work than they could handle so a hiring spree ensued and along with this the troubles began. They ended up with a workforce of twenty personnel consisting of operators and laborers. As with any company growing pains can be difficult to deal with but in the case of EMA they had the additional problems of having no true, defined management structure in place and they were winging it. With the lack of a clear plan or clear leadership the work force quickly became disgruntle in the disorganization that followed. It became apparent to the owners that a restructuring was in order that included defined roles, chain of command, and accountability.

Problem Statement

The lack of structure was the problem for EMA, if one were to best describe the leadership at the time a functional or weak matrix would best describe this situation. When looking at these two styles we can see that there are five characteristics that are considered and the role of the manager in each. The project manager’s (PM) authority, resource availability, management of the project budget, PM’s role, and project management administrative staff are the five characteristics to be considered. Under these two styles the manager has little to no control over these characteristics with no real control over the project (PMI, 2009). The management staff lacked leadership within in itself with trickled down to the workforce who was unclear of the chain of command and who to report to since the management was fighting all the time for the assignment of personnel and no one manager handled the assignments. Project managers lacked authority to make any real decisions in regards to their projects without first getting the approval of the owners which created an atmosphere of incompetence and a feeling of distrust towards the management staff by the workforce. Following is a breakdown of what the structure at EMA looked like prior to this project of restructuring.

Research Strategy

In order to develop a research proposal we must first have an understanding of what this means and entails. At the very beginning we must have the basic knowledge that the meaning of research is a process that uses systematic, reproducible steps to obtain new or gain additional facts about a topic of interest (N.A., n.d.). The research approach gives us the broad picture of what we expect the results to show us along with the plans and procedures for getting there. We next need to know that the issue or reason for the research is referred to as the research problem. And finally we have two terms that are dependent upon each other; research methods and research designs. Research designs are the procedures outlined within the research methods that give us direction for the research to proceed and the methods are the broad steps needed to achieve the end result. Another way to look at this would be to consider the research methods milestones in a project and the research designs are the steps needed to complete each milestone.

For this research project the action approach shall be used, which allows the researcher to make adjustments to the designs and methods along with continuous input from the people affected. The methods will be; to have an understanding of the problem, adjust for the problem, and then relook at the problem to see what additional adjustments are needed. The designs to accomplish these methods will be to first conduct a survey based in the form of a questionnaire from a set number of subjects to get a clear understanding of the problem. We will then put a plan together and implement the plan for one month and then do a follow-up questionnaire survey to the same subjects to see if the changes helped and if there is additional input on how to better the plan. We can then revise the plan as needed, implement it, and re-survey again as many times as needed.

Considering that the problem we are looking at is a change in management this approach would work best since we can survey those directly affected by these changes to see if the problems we are currently having are being addressed and receive input on how best to address the problem.

Examples of Memo & Questionnaires

Memorandum

To: All Employees

CC: Tim Hylla

From: Mike Hylla

Date: 9/10/2014

Re: Management Changes

To all employees,

During the next couple of weeks we will be implementing changes in the management structure of the company. We will be handing out questionnaires to all employees to complete in an anonymous manner. Please complete these and place in to the provided sealed box. These questionnaires will be used to assist in the restructuring process and everyone’s input would be appreciated. As these changes are put into place we will be asking for input as to how the changes are working in the form of additional questionnaires. We will be going over the changes at the next near miss meeting in two weeks from this date.

Sincerely;

Tim Hylla

Confidential

Memorandum

To: All Employees

CC: Tim Hylla

From: Mike Hylla

Date: 9/10/2014

Re: Initial Questionnaire

1) Do you feel that changes to the current management structure are needed?

YES NO

2) Do you feel that the current structure is hindering the growth of the company & why.

3) What changes do you feel are most needed & why.

4) How do you feel these changes will benefit the company?

5) Would you support changes even if they are not what you feel is most needed?

YES NO

Confidential

Memorandum

To: All Employees

CC: Tim Hylla

From: Mike Hylla

Date: 9/10/2014

Re: Follow Up Questionnaire

1) Do you feel that the changes made to the management structure have corrected the problems?

YES NO

2) Do you feel that additional changes are needed & why.

3) Do you feel that the changes made have been good for the company & why?

4) Are there still problems that the changes have not addressed, if so what are they?

5) Do you support the changes that have been made?

YES NO

Confidential

Owners

PM's

Workforce