Creative Strategies For Conflict Management and Community Building - Case Study Example

? Reflective Report [Supervisor’s Introduction About the Client Our client is Salford Council Business team that helps in supporting business professionals to make growth in their existing businesses and also to help in re-creating new business opportunities for the people living in Salford City. The major aim of our client is to help entrepreneurs in assessing available resources, and to attract large amount of investment in the city. About the Task The task involves reviewing the website of the client and to determine and evaluate its style, looks, the web design, and to inquire how it enhances the experience of the user. The basic objectives of a task have been highlighted below: To critically evaluate the website of the client and to compare the outlook of its website with other websites that introduces the similar features like Birmingham and Leeds. How can the website be improved and what changes might it require? To conduct a market research and to find out the target audience of the current website. To evaluate the website using 10 usability criteria. Jobs Assigned There were 11 group members involved in the project that were assigned with different tasks to help completing the project on desired time. Following are the names of group members and their tasks which were assigned to each individual: Khurram was provided with the opportunity to describe the project plan and project scope related to the improvements in the website of Salford City Council. The project plan includes describing milestones of the project, its goals and deliverables. The work also includes making up of Gantt chart. Nadia and Ruby were provided a mutual task in which they had to develop 15 questionnaires for the survey and found the target audience of the website as described by our client Ruth. Abdul, Mike, and Neil were to compare website of Salford City Council with other competing websites of Birmingham and Leeds City Council. The evaluation was carried out using the 10 criteria highlighted in the project guidelines. Stephen and Li worked on the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques to increase the ranking of their website in Google. They were also involves in introducing reciprocal links in to the website which was sent by Ruth in a document. Case studies template was designed by me. Ozon and Marios described in their part of how Salford City Council can design mobile application in their website. The Aim of this Report The aim of the particular report is to describe the driving force of the group in conducting the particular research for the term project. This report helps in understanding how the project was performed since the very beginning and how did the team coordinated in achieving the desired results. Theories McClelland’s Human Motivation Theory has been applied to increase the motivation amongst group members. The theory helps to identify the nature of every group members to which they are motivated. If a person is praised in a group meeting for his good performance but it not made any impression on the person but rather it made him feel bad. The idea behind this theory is that, every person has different personalities and managing every person is never easy (Jelencic 2010). If a person is managing a team, it is essential to know what motivates an individual group member that is how a person can be motivated effectively. The theory helps a leader in identifying the motivational driver for the group member. Similarly, the group leader used to assign suitable tasks according to our own taste and if a person would never want to stand out in a crowd, then a person is appreciated in private. The second theory relates with the Tuckman’s theory which was introduced by Bruce Tuckman in 1960’s. According to the theory there are five stages in developing a group. The stage one of the group has successfully been applied in our group which focuses upon making small groups between people that have good understanding amongst themselves (Anyanwu 2009). This would help them in good coordination and successful completion of the task. In our group, small groups were formed amongst individuals that were allowed to perform similar tasks. For example, Nadia and Ruby were provided similar task for developing questionnaires due to good understanding and having similar nature and area of expertise. Similarly, Ozone and Marios were assigned a task to design the mobile application for their website. The third theory defines about the controlling and managing the progress of the project. The theory that has been applied in our group is known as Amabile and Kramer’s Progress Theory. The theory states that if group members are communicated about small wins and progress of the project, it makes them motivated and encouraged. This helps in influencing their work performance and makes them motivated throughout their project. Similarly, our group leader would define small tasks and continuously making us informed about the overall project progress which made us perform even more. The idea behind the whole theory was to making us involved in the particular project which was essential (Kouzes and Posner 2012). Personal Contribution and Team Contribution When the project was due to start in a month, our first group meeting was called in which we discussed the various issues of the project and to determine how should we go about it. The first meeting was very formal due to the unfamiliarity of various group members. However, as the time passed on the group started to coordinate well amongst different group members. The foremost thing that was outlined in our first meeting was regarding developing small groups between people that goes well along with a particular teammate. The tasks were assigned according to the area of expertise the individual had. The team contributed well with the project and was directed well by the leader. Salford City Council was been picked as our client in our first semester, and the website’s representative Ruth described the nature of the project to our group members. There had not been any type of difficulties regarding the understanding of the project, because each group member would describe about a particular scenario if anything was not understood by any group member which shows amount of communication and coordination amongst group members. At the start of the project, the group members had to consult with the group leader and Khurram to define the project plan so as to make clarification accordingly. When we were able to understand the project plan then everything went as smooth because the group leader had clearly defined the respective parts to its group members and had mentioned how the work should be done. Therefore, the group member had to consult with the group leader if they had any problems or had to ask anything from the client. As individual performance is concerned, my work was to design case studies template and had to define how it works best. I was also assigned to design our group logo to which I found it very interesting. Apart from that, the group leader had asked me to check progress of the project in the absence of the group leader. I had to report the progress of each individual and report it back to the group leader when available. This also has developed some leadership qualities and helped me in managing the group. All the work was performed according to the mutual understanding and collective response of the entire group members. The work was collected after the end of every week and presented to the client to check whether we are going on the right track and the client evaluated our progress. This phase was enhancing our learning skills as the client briefed us of what things that she might want to include in the research and what things to exclude. At the terms end, we were asked to present our research report to our client and our professor. Reflection This module has been a great experience for me as it has provided the opportunity to bring different undergraduate programs into practical application. Practical application along with theoretical knowledge has increased my overall knowledge, which is sufficient for my future course projects. Being part of the module, I have been able to apply different concepts including concepts of project planning, management and team building which have worked out best for my personal development skill. Meanwhile, the module has enabled me to think like a team leader and has groomed me to work with a professional working team. On the very first this project has enabled me to test my project management skills. The project involved the concepts of project planning and management accompanied by MDP (management development program), which is my further course subject. In the application of the project, I have been able to understand the relationship between PM and MDP, which are quite close concepts in adaptation and implementation. This is going to serve me in the future aspect especially when I am going to be part of a project management team. Overall the project has opened me to different undergraduate programs like the financials of the project brought me to accounting concepts, similarly the web designing activity compelled me with IT application. This is how I have been able to improvise my personal skills in a comprehensive manner and in a way to excel in the future concern. Additionally as the project was based on a real client, it enabled me to test my practical learning skills. As the client was real, I was able to learn professional management attitude which involves strategic thinking and tactics to counter back bottlenecks and challenges in the project. It gave me a room to grip on step wise project planning, which is totally based on short term (day to day) and long term (consequential) planning. The most I achieved from the project was good communication. As the project involved regular meetings with the client, it enhanced my conversation and communication. It improved my language, my speech and my way of deliverance which is going to favor me in all my future course programs. Clear communication is very important in the business environment especially when you are dealing with professional clients and when you are in a business environment that requires that clarity in attitude. The project has brought me on business experience and style of speaking with managers and experience works men. This has boosted my confidence and my interpersonal skills which will definitely benefit me in the future. Research activity has been the central part of the project. The project also enhanced my research skills as I was on data analysis which required extensive research and extraction. This sharpened my research approach and gave me a direction on how to access feed data. Filtering the information and then applying it on the project was part of the project activity, which substantially improved my overall research skill. Meanwhile, research is significant for future operation as it implies in all contexts whether you are in professional life or in course work study. Apart from all, the project has driven my social skills like being punctual is must in an MDP project. Additionally I have learned to respect peers, elders and people who are on the upper position, which is important when you are with a professional business team. Understanding social diversity and managing conflicts have also been learned in the project. This has prepared me for hard times especially when there are non-issues becoming issues in the project. The project has raised me on special social engagement as I met with people of different backgrounds, different thinking and different intelligence styles. It was entirely a true learning experience giving me a chance to work with a professional working team. Project management is not a single man’s job and hence requires the skill of coordination and team integration. Being a team member of the project, I learned to be responsible, disciplined and determined to my work. This was important as it led me to meet short term goals of the project, which were essential to be met for the long term plans respectively. Apart from all, if you are part of a project then you have to show team commitment. This is also what I learned from the project as the core tasks assigned to me were met at the first level and as per the requirement of the project. Learning team work has also groomed me to my personal level. It is something that I can utilize in the future team based projects and also in my professional career. Project Progress The group meeting was held every week to discuss the project of the report and to discuss future planning of the project and how the group members should go about it. There were different modes of communication involved in order to interact daily with every group members. WhatsApp application and through emails the contact was maintained through each group member. We had regular meetings with our tutor and the client in order to update them about the project and make corrective actions if we were going off track. This helped us learn and gain endless information regarding different methodologies in conducting research. Our first group meeting was held 10th October in which every group member introduced themselves in the library. The purpose was to familiarize each other and the nature of project was briefed by the project leader. Small groups were also developed in the particular meeting session. The meetings normally lasted about 40-45 minutes in which the group leader would discuss future issues that are to be encountered in the project. The meetings with the client were of great importance for our progress because Ruth would let us know about what additions that can be made in the project. Conclusion Salford City Council business team had been the project of our group in which we had to critically evaluate their website and to compare it with other similar websites and to come up with improvements. There were many tasks involved in a particular project which was distributed amongst individual and collective group members according to their area of expertise. The project helped to adopt various theories in managing the group which had supported me and group members throughout the project. One of the three theories that I liked to adopt was the motivation theory. The group leader had developed a taste of understanding the nature of each individual and allocated the task accordingly. We all knew that each individual had different nature of personalities and should be dealt accordingly. This aspect was nicely covered by the group leader. My learning skills were greatly enhanced due to the particular project because the client was offered with the progress of the report and she used to make corrections in the project and made some additions. As the time went on, we got to understand what our client really wanted and we carried out the work with more command and enthusiasm. Overall, the project helped us in coordinating with our team members and helped in assessing our own mistakes. List of References Anyanwu, C., 2009. Creative Strategies For Conflict Management and Community Building. 1st Edition ed. Bloomington: AuthorHouse. Jelencic, M., 2010. Motivation Theories - An Overview. 1st Edition ed. Norderstedt: GRIN Verlag. Kouzes, J. and Posner, B., 2012. The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations. 5th Edition ed. New York: John Wiley and Sons.. Read More