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The lack of support from top leadership on The Trophy project compounded Reinhart’s problems and made managing the project a complete nightmare. This was also mainly due to the fact that there was no business case formulated for this project. The baseline plan might have been formulated but it did not cover all aspects of the project plan.
For instance there was no clear project objective outlined so the team members only realised that they had a role to play months after the project had started. Had the project been divided into work packages commonly called Work Breakdown Structure, and responsibilities handed to the right parties the project would have kicked of on a positive note. By creating a network diagram which shows what goes where and the interdependencies of activities it would have made it easier for everyone to see the objective of the project. There was a need to review the project immediately after it was realise it was falling behind and easures put in place to remedy this. Reinhart conducted his own investigation and realised that the line managers where charging him direct labour time which proved to be expensive, this item could have been noted before commencement of the project had all players been consulted before hand. The line managers had no idea what they had to do on the project but where just given tasks to perform without knowing the strategic vision of the organisation as regards the project. There was a need to do a risk analysis on the project as this would prepare Reinhart for any negative eventualities.
With time the pressure on him increased and the project began to suffer. This is because top management did not realise that by bogging him down in meetings and paperwork they were not giving him ample time to implement his recovery plan therefore the project failed. The problems that The Trophy project experienced were as follows:- ? Unavailability of a business case ? No support from top management ? Lack of a Baseline plan ? No Change management ? Undefined Roles and responsibilities ? Lack of policies and procedures ? Lack of Strategic leadership ? Lack of Budget controls No Customer focus The situation clearly shows a company in stagnation and whose leadership is willing to change their approach to organisational growth through consultation and alignment of their strategic mission with the ever changing surrounding environment. This situation requires an effective guiding coalition to introduce change within all ranks of the organisation. These are to be adhered to if organisational benefits are to be realised. The learning and growth perspective to be applied to top leadership and this to be implemented as well across functional lines.
The vision and mission of the organisation to be taught to every member of the organisation as this fosters synergy and motivation within the employee ranks. 2. INTRODUCTION Reinhart was appointed to be the project manager for the new Trophy project his first project in control. Prior to this ine he had been the assistant project manager on several projects. The inexperience is evident from the onset as the project hits a snag at inception. There is excessive expenditure and the schedules are slipping with each passing day. Efforts to find a lasting solution are met with resistance from the line manager s and the top executive.
As the project progresses so does the accumulation of problems. Reinhart is then requested to formulate a recovery plan which he does but because he has to give a report every Monday of the week he has not enough time to implement and manage his recovery plan. Confusion is reigning in the organisation and Reinhart is given an assistant programme manager who adds more confusion to the project by recommending that the project be computerized. This plan does not work well as the programme objectives could not be handled by the computer. Again an extra $15 000 was required for programming and additional storage space.
The project was abandoned. Eventually Reinhart was replaced after failing to make any head way on the project. Progress continued to deteriorate and the project was finally completed by a third replacement manager albeit One year behind schedule and at a 40% overrun. This assignment will: ? Highlight the problems associated with working without a business case ? Highlight the problems associated with organisational stagnation ? Highlight the importance of HR in an Organisation ? Address the Leadership flaws and the need for Organisational focus ? Lastly motivate the recommendations to solve the problems QUESTION 1.
What are the major problems in the case? 1) Unclear Organisational Culture and Climate There is a lack of organisational value systems. Leaders who should be playing a pivotal role in inspiring and encouraging those at the lower levels are found wanting. There are no defined rites and rituals as shown by the haphazard way the project is being handled. There is no common ground for the employees and a lack of direction. Because there is no structured organisational culture any variables which should arise from it are not found and therefore there is a high likelihood of negative employee motivation and with this performance falls away. ) Lack of Strategic Leadership Strategic leadership has become a must have tool in this ever changing and competitive climate of today. Organisational success in this day and age is highly dependent on effective leadership, because without it an organisation is highly likely to fail. The leadership lacks organisational vision and regard for human resources is totally lacking. Instead they operate through fear and intimidation (as seen when Reichart was told that if he fails he will be in serious trouble) 3) Lack of a viable Baseline Plan The project was not planned at all.
Schedules started slipping and expenditures were excessive which clearly shows the lack of a viable baseline plan. There was no planning to show what needs to be done, who will do it, how much it will cost and how long it will take to complete. The fact that the project had problems from inception means the base line plan had not been thoroughly thought out and planned. 4) No Structures on Allocation of Resources and Billing Line managers were charging direct labour time on Reichart’s project whilst they were not doing the same for their projects.
Without a structure on how projects are charged and the criteria that is to be used the company will likely lose resources through unscrupulous practices. Any staff member who has authority once they see these loop holes will use them for their own enrichment. Resources were left in the jurisdiction of the line managers a move that makes it difficult for Reichart to have control over his team as line managers can allocate or remove them at will. 5) Lack of Structures on Budget control Reichart has to contend with receiving resources from line managers and if their budgets don’t allow them they won’t afford him any help.
Seems budgets were allocated to line managers and they are given the mandate to use them as they see fit. Not having a centralised control system can leave the system open to abuse. 6) Lack of Support from Top Management When things were falling apart Reichart sort the help of top management to rein in the deterioration instead they told him not to meddle with the line managers’ way of doing their work. The lack of organisational vision and effective response to the deteriorating situation at the Trophy Project shows that leadership is lacking. ) Undefined Roles and Responsibilities There is no cohesion and each functional manager is working as an independent entity on the same project. This creates confusion and duplication of work which leads to lack of progress and over spending. This also leads to a demoralised workforce and along with it the project suffers. 8) Lack of Regular Appraisals and Reviews When Reinhart realised that the project was in problems from the onset he was supposed to have reviewed the whole project plan together with his team and made amends where necessary.
It was only after he was requested to give a report after six months of project implementation that he pointed out the problems being encountered on the project. By regularly checking planned progress against actual one is able to identify problem areas on time and be able to take remedial action before it affects the project objective. 9) No Business Case A project has to be aligned with the goals and strategy of an organisation and these are spelled out in the Business Case. There is no business case in the case of The Trophy Project. There is no outline on the budgetary constraints, about what is to be done and why it’s being done.
What are the benefits to the organisation and how will they impact on the organisation as a whole. Without the Business Case the project had to fail. Team members get demoralised because they feel that its of no benefit to them whether it succeeds or not. 10) Lack of Organisational Policies and Procedures There are no guidelines on authority and reporting lines. Reinhart is at a loss as to who to report to and who should be reporting to him. There is no clear policies and procedures in place to guide staff on the best and appropriate methods to use to ensure organisational growth and learning. 1) No Customer Focus There is a lack of respect and focus for the customer. The project is lagging behind but the executive leadership is not willing to play a role in resolving it. When the divisional manager was requested to visit the client with his entire staff to explain the progress and remedial action that will be implemented, he sent Reinhart with a few line managers to try and pamper the client. He was not present. This sends the wrong signal to the client and shows a lack of respect and commitment. 12) No Team Building Efforts There is no effort in team building.
Everyone is operating as a solitary entity and cohesion is lacking. 13) No Implementation of Recovery Plan The involvement of corporate management in the project made things worse in that Reinhart was now beginning to spend more and more time bogged down in paperwork and meetings that he was unable to implement his recovery plan on time to rescue the project from making further losses. He never got enough time to see his plans come to fruition as he had to always prepare paperwork for the following week’s meeting. QUESTION 2 What can be said about leadership at the top and functional management levels of the organisation?
To lead an organisation one has to acknowledge his or her strength and also be able to build on the strength of others. To be a successful leader you have to be able to skilfully influence and direct the emotions of the team in a way that elicits their voluntary participation in learning and achieving the set team and organisational goals (Steyn and Schmikl). To achieve this, one has to be able to motivate and build trust within the team. There should be a common goal and vision for the organisation which will bring benefits of strategic importance not only to the organisation but to its employees too.
This has the effect of creating a highly motivated and results driven team that will be willing to do anything to ensure that the objective is met within the given time frame and within budget. Top management at the company which was handling The Trophy Project operates the old fashioned way of intimidation and self righteousness. They fall in the Low Structure, Low consideration style of leadership, which spells out that the leader is unable to provide any structure and has little consideration for the well being of their employees. There is no effort on human resource development through continuous improvement methods.
Human resource development is stagnant as the organisation does not promote cross functional processes. The core characteristics of great leadership are lacking and this rubs off on their subordinates who are the various line managers and project managers within the organisation. Below is a breakdown of the leadership Composites and Traits displayed in this organisation. i) Lack of Employee motivation (building on and contracting into human resources strengths) ii) Lack of employee satisfaction (as seen with Reinhart when he lost control, he got support from top leadership.
Instead of trying to help him find resolution they instead blamed him and eventually demoted him) iii) Lack of support for the team and project iv) They is no encouragement of employee participation and decision making v) They have no clear organisational goals vi) They are arrogant and self centred vii) There have no long term vision or a mission of the organisation viii) There is no desire to implement organisational change and transformation management. ix) Lack of understanding of strategies for developing human capital. QUESTION 3 What do you think of Reinhart’s leadership and managerial abilities?
Reichart as a leader lacks the confidence and is unwilling to face confrontation head on with a view to finding resolution. Leadership requires one to be able to ride the storm rather than abandon ship at the slightest evidence of danger. When he realised that the functional managers were charging him direct labour time he was supposed to revisit his programme, call all major players including the line managers and clearly show them the objective of the project and what the vision of the organisation was in implementing the project. Find resolution rather than just complaining.
When he was told not to meddle in the functional manager’s allocation of resources and budgeted expenditures he decided to withdraw, a move which was detrimental to the project success. On the managerial level he is unable to take responsibility but rather decides to look for a scapegoat, this is when he was taken off the project then he questioned Red whether he knew who had shot him down. A manager is supposed to be accountable for the project that is under their arm and at the same time should be able to plan and to define the right outcomes and not steps.
Reichart was concentrating on defining the steps to be taken to achieve success but did not inform on how he intends to alter the steps into outcomes for the successful completion of the project. There was no risk calculation done on the project and people who were going to play a role in the project were not consulted a clear sign that he did not value their participation. He lacks focus and is not pro active essential attributes of a manager. In a capsule he lacks both managerial and leadership qualities to effectively realise the organisation’s vision mission.
QUESTION 4 What are your recommendations regarding transformation and change required to ensure effective and efficient functioning of the organisation? a) Introduce Programme Management Processes A programme management is a collection of change actions incorporating projects, tasks, and normal operational work that is purposefully grouped together and provides executives with a vehicle to ensure that strategy is implemented, appraised and reviewed (Steyn and Shmikl) This ensures that everyone involved has a role to play in the organisation’s strategic mission.
Authority, responsibility and accountability should be assigned to all stakeholders. This entails giving full authority to Line, Project and Programme managers over their work. Programme management incorporates a wider scope of activities and the programme manager should ensure that the goals and objectives in the project portfolios are in line with the organisation’s goals and are able to deliver benefits of strategic importance. The use of the Double Loop process of prescriptive and emergent strategy development ensures benefits in organisational transformation and change. ) Build a Conducive Organisational Culture and Climate By creating the right organisational values, elevating inspirational people to leadership positions, having the appropriate rites and rituals in place and an effective internal communication network constitutes an organisation’s culture. The people within the organisation should be bound by certain values and behaviours. They should speak and act as one entity, this entrenches a will to achieve greater things for the organisation as the vision and mission is clearly defined and the path is clearly marked such that there will not be any strays.
To achieve this climate should be favourable. The eight dimensions of psychological climate ensure that employee motivation and commitment to performance is encouraged and these are: i) Autonomy ii) Cohesion iii) Trust iv) Pressure (Knack and Abilities) v) Support vi) Recognition vii) Fairness viii) Innovation c) Implement the Balanced Scorecard based Strategy Implementation By introducing the Balanced Scorecard based strategy Implementation which utilises the TQM principles, an organisation is able to:- i) maintain a strong customer focus i) Continuously improve the organisation’s organs across functional lines(based on performance and review) iii) Involving and empowering the employees iv) Promote cohesion and learning It proposes categories for measuring organisational performance which are financial performance, customer value performance, internal business process performance and lastly learning and growth performance. These four indicators of performance can help an organisation to understand better if they are moving in the right direction or not. d) Invest in Morden Leading edge Human Resource assessment systems
By investing in HR assessment systems it means the people will be put in the right roles. Talent can be nurtured and improved. This will ensure continuous improvement of the human resource and with the advancement of the organisation towards achieving its organisational goals. e) Create Cross-Functional Strategic Transformation, Innovative Continuous Improvement, and Capital Expenditure Project-Portfolio Programmes. There are great benefits to the organisation through improved organisational effectiveness and efficiency in respect of internal and external customers. CONCLUSION
The Trophy project is a project that was not effectively planned and goes to shore that without effective planning and executive leadership support any project no matter how small will be headed for the deep end and is likely to fail. Its crucial to have a well defined system of authority, responsibility and accountability within any organisation’s management system as a lack of these can spell doom for any project or programme undertaken within that organisation. 0. BIBLIOGRAPHY Project Management Consulting AEW Services @ January 2008, Project Management Leadership available from: http:/en. axwideman. com/issacons3/iac1360/index. htm Clements J. P & Gido J, 2006 Effective Project Management Student Issue Thomson-South Western Gray CF Larson EW, 2003 Project management: The Project Management Process Second Edition McGraw Hill Steyn P, 2008 Programme Managing Organizational Performance and Innovative Improvement Cranefield College. (M2) ———————– HP THE TROPHY PROJECT Module 2 Assignment 2 Author: Teyim Khan Denis CRANEFIELD COLLEGE OF PROJECT AND PROGRAMME MANAGEMENT [pic] MODULE 2: PROGRAMME MANAGING ORGANISATIONAL PERFORMANCE AND INNOVATIVE IMPROVEMENT