The Project Management Concepts and Organizational Management - Essay Example

Running Head: Project Environment Introduction Project management is different from conventional management approaches in a number of ways of which is the fact that projects have a definate start and a definate end (Lock 2003). While conventional management lays emphasis on the functions of management such as organising, planning, directing, staffing and controlling. Projects lay emphasis on time management, scope management, risk management, procurement management, human resource management, communication management, material management as well as quality management. Project management is in many ways like conventional management but different due to the fact that unlike conventional management, project management requires some special skills. Project management is usually designed to fit into the scope of the project in question. Some projects are bigger than others and actually may comprise of a series of projects. In this case such projects are commonly referred to as programmes. For instance a project including some construction of an airport, roads leading to the airport, community facilities such as schools as well as a series of other related projects comprises of a really big project and there is a programme. Wembley stadium project is one of the biggest projects in the UK in the recent history (Nicholas, 2004). The Wembley National Stadium Project stretched over a period of 6 years and cost in excess of over ten billion pounds. Lessons learnt from management of the Wembley project as well as other projects serve as great case studies for organisational management especially in regard to how to address the challenges which happen in the process of organisational in change management, conflict resolution, stakeholder management as well as aligning an organisational strategy to the organisational mission. One of the major reasons why projects are conceived is the fact that there are needs in the community, in the organisation or in the society, which needs to be addressed. Project management identifies a pressing need or pressing needs, which it sets out to address by offering the necessary correctional measures. Once the needs have been identified by using the right needs assessment tools, the next step is to prioritise the needs identified in order of priority. Once the deserving cases have been isolated, the project is conceived probably by the change initiators who may include the government, community leaders, the management of the organisation or individuals who have an interest in the project. One of the greatest considerations before initiating a change in form of a project is to analyse the resources required in the project completion. The greatest threat which faces any project prior to initiation or even during the implementation process is the fact that no matter the status of affairs in an organisation or in a given setting there are some people who benefit from the given status. It is such people who pose the greatest threat to the change initiators for project conception in that they offer stiff resistance to the change initiation. Such opponents to change are usually people who benefit from the current state of affairs and see the change as a threat to the status quo, which they benefit from. Therefore there is a need for project managers to identify such people who fail to welcome the change and mange them properly. In some cases those who offer the greatest resistance in case of projects are key stakeholders in the project and therefore their continued resistance to the project may lead to the failure of the project. For example a project like the Wembley National Stadium came under opposition from the local community. Until the standoff between the project management and the local community was resolved it was impossible to move on with the project. In some projects the government may be reluctant to offer the necessary support especially in terms of issuing the right kind of licences. This kind of resistance is common for business organisations, which are in the process of expansion. The lack of support from a government may result from the desire by the given government to protect the local organisations from stiff competition. In other cases change of governments may mean that the new government does not necessarily have the same convictions about the project or the business initiative, which therefore means challenges and problems for the organisation, which is faced with losses in business in case such a standoff is not amicably resolved. No matter where resistance to change stems from, it is necessary for the management of an organisation or of a project to be ready to possess the right skills in successfully initiating change. Therefore successful business or project initiatives require a great deal of change management expertise. Change management involves a transition from the known to unknown and therefore many fear the unknown. The management must be in a position to visualise the end result and communicate the end result including the expected results to the stakeholders in a very clear and easy to understand manner. Organisations can borrow from project management this approach to change. In most organisations employees are rarely involved in the decision making process. In most cases the decisions stems from the top management and handed down to the supervisors and the bottom staff to implement. According to the principles of project implementation principles, the stakeholders in the change management process must own the change process. They should be made to feel that the project is for their benefit. They should be made to understand the implications of resisting the change. They should also be made to appreciate the urgency of the project. In most cases, a project is conceived due to a pressing problem whose time for solution has come and there is no case whatsoever for delays. The above must be communicated to the employees who should be made to clearly understand that the organisation needs to tap into the emerging business opportunities and realign itself in order to survive in the industry. Organisations therefore can adopt the approach of project management to change management and that can make it very easy for organisations, which are eager to realign and gain the much-needed competitive edge in the market. One strength with project management is that it really emphasizes employees' engagement. According to (Nicholas, .2004) employee engagement refers to the make the employees to understand the change process as well as to commit themselves to the corporate goals and objectives. Employee satisfaction is achieved when organisations make the employees to clearly understand and appreciate the position of the organisation in the industry, the threats it faces as well s making the employees to understand that they are the driving force for any change in the organisation. Projects easily achieve engagement from employees by having a well stratified job descriptions the employees accompanied with a very demanding time limits as well as constant audits of success or failure. In projects evaluation is done very often to compare the project progress with the project instruments specifications for example to compare the actual progress of a given phase of the project with the ideal situation as specified in the Gantt Chart. Therefore project management lays a great emphasis on evaluation of projects as well as monitoring to guide the project in order to ensure that it moves within the given time frame. Despite the fact that most projects bring together employees from diverse professional backgrounds, the organisations achieve employee engagement by having clear expectations from the employees. Although the typical structure of a project management is different from that of an organisational management structure. Organisational management structures can draw alot from project management. For instance projects are organised in such a manner that there is at the top a project manager, then a project coordinator below the project manager and project line managers who are in charge of different aspects of the project for instance the Wembley National Stadium project had line management responsible for human resources, quality assurance, procurement, electrical engineering, civil engineering as well as a line manager responsible for communication. The above line managers were all responsible for their respective are as but at the same time were answerable to the coordinator and therefore to the project managers. This concept of empowering line mangers is very useful considering that it is a form of decentralization and delegation of authority. It works very well even for business organisations and leaves the client executive office with enough time to concentrate on the policy issues of the project as opposed to concentrating on issues which can be handled better by other junior employees. As a result of empowering line managers, communication flow is made easy and the organisation becomes more effective in executing its goals and objectives. According to (Nicholas, 2004) line management makes conflict resolution very easy, as issues raised by the staff can easily be resolved without having to wait for a general meeting to be convened. The contact between line managers and that of other employees is very real and therefore employees are freer to communicate pressing issues to a line manager than they are to the CEO. The line managers spend most of the time in the respective departments and they therefore have a direct access to the working conditions of the employees. This becomes easier for them to detect problems and concerns before they get out of hand. The fact that line managers themselves are promoted amongst the employees mean that there exists virtually no communication barriers between them and therefore communication becomes very easy between the two. Line managers also can better understand the employment conditions and advocate for better conditions of employment. Therefore it is very important for business organisations to realign their business structures in order to accommodate for line management. From the above case of Wembley National Stadium, it is apparent that successful projects plan well and put in place contingency measures as well as strategic measures for any eventuality. As the Wembley project case demonstrates sometimes it may take longer to achieve projects' goals than earlier planned. Projects are constantly under the threat of conflicts, lack of finances, resistance from change as well as lack of commitment from staff. Equally baffling to the process of project management is the danger of poor leadership which can result to project failure. The possibility of project failure considering the fact that success rate of projects worldwide has been said to fall below 40% (Maylor, 1999). This therefore shows that by organisations adapting blindly to project management would rarely achieve desired organisational changes. Organisational success requires a combination of good and focused leadership, the right business environment as well as the availability of an enabling environment. The fact that so many projects have ended up failing means that in spite of the fact that the project management has been praised by many as an ideal model for successful running of organisation. It is also worth to note that some factors are only unique to projects and may not be applicable to organisations. For instance while projects have a definate project end and beginning organisations keep on reinventing and repositioning. Usually organisations operate on two sets of goals, short-term goals as well as long term. For projects the goal is to initiate, implement and complete the projects, which are a one-time affair and once they are complete, that need is satisfied and the initiators move on to identify another need and probably start another project. Analysis of aspects of the management of Wembley Stadium Project by a construction firm called Multiplex The project is a construction project aimed at constructing a prestigious modern stadium capable of hosting 60,000. The project was conceived by the care taker body, Wembley National Stadium Limited [WNSL] in readiness for the FA cup after it was realized that, there was a shortage of modern national stadiums capable of holding big sporting events in U.K. The objectives of the Wembley stadium includes: - To build a world-class stadium. To build brand loyalty to Wembley national stadium which is hoped will generate income to the country as well as the Wembley national stadium company. To construct a world-class facility to meet the sports needs of UK. To contribute to the beauty of London by converting the stadium into a skyscrapers in London City. To generate income both foreign and local to the tune of 230 million pounds annually. To strengthen and improve London's economy by contributing in excess of 62 million pounds annually. To create employment opportunities for about 7,500 members of the Wembley community as well as for professionals. Wembley Project scope management. The Wembley had predetermined stages which were to be covered. The milestones were to be covered in order to ensure that, the project was completed. The project engaged in regular audits so as to find out at the challenges and problems the project faced during specific stages and whether the progress is in line with projection. Another consideration of scope management is about the stakeholders roles in the project. The stakeholders in the Wembley national stadium included the British government which is responsible for national stadiums and sports in the country. The Wembley community is also another stakeholder in the project given the fact that, the stadium was constructed in their midst that is, in their neighborhood. The project incorporated and encouraged the participation from the stakeholders. The participation of different stakeholders is very crucial in the success of any given project especially given the fact that, the stakeholders have been identified as a leading cause of many stalled projects (Morris, 1987). The Britain sports ministry played an important as a leading stakeholder in the project especially in regard to the legal implications of the project. For the project to succeed, it had to get the go ahead from the government. The British government was very cooperative in this area in that, it sponsored partly the construction and gave the legal clearance for the project to go ahead. The extent to which the project is supposed to go is also of key interest to any project. In the case of the Wembley national stadium project, the project was initially supposed to construct a stadium capable of holding a capacity of 90,000 people. The impact expected from a project is also of interest to project beneficiaries. In the case of Wembley national stadium project, impact in terms of benefits was expected to be enormous. In the first place, the project was designed to be the world's biggest roofed stadium. This would therefore set the stage for major world sporting event to be hosted in the stadium. Economically the project was to designed to earn the Britain government over a billion dollars in income annually. The history of the Wembely project stretches back to the 1990s when the idea was first forwarded to the government following a report that, the country needed modern stadiums. There are a number of stakeholders in the project with the Wembley project being a stakeholder by the virtue of the fact that, it is the force behind the project as well as the fact that it has invested millions of dollars in the project. The local community has a stake in the Wembley project in that it is their environment that the Wembley project was taking place. Secondly the community has a stake in the company in that its members could seek employment from the company. The British government is a stakeholder in that, it regulates all foreign companies undertaking business in the country and therefore it has a say in the activities of the company. The project experienced numerous challenges in that movement from one phase to the next were not easy owing to challenges especially resistance and the lack of enough finances. The other major challenge has been the fact that, Multiplex was initially faced with problems in securing environmental authorization of its project from the country's environment authority. This presented the project with numerous challenges especially in legal matters. This made it difficult for the project team to pull in the same direction as the challenges impeded progression from one stage to the next. Although the projects activities were well planned, the financial challenge brought about slug-time in the Wembley national stadium project schedule and by the year 2006 when the Wembley project was supposed to be competed, it was still behind schedule. The management however seems to have planned well despite the numerous challenges the project is still progressing and so far the management has resolved all major conflicts especially in regard to financial challenges (Major Projects Association, 1992). Although earlier Multiplex was not solving the problems well, it seems to have overcome this recently most of the conflicts have been positively resolved. As far as resource planning is concerned, the plan seems to have been well as the phases especially the roof construction was completed in line with the initial planning. Integration management. Any project draws professionals from various fields such as engineers, educators, accountants as well as surveyors. For the Wembley project, the project employed professionals from various professional backgrounds and therefore there was the need for project integration management. Multiplex put in place integration management well and the staff involved in the project evidently functioned as a team something which is responsible for the many successes noted in the project. Procurement management for Wembley project was is effective and despite the challenges arising from the slug-time observed. For this project, material planning, human resource planning, and funds disbursement planning, was well managed and no incidents of mismanagement or misappropriation have been reported. The other source of delay for Multiplex was caused by the fact that, the steel used was to be imported. This had an impact in phases whereby the materials or resources required for a particular phase are to be imported. In some cases, delay in ordering was experienced, meaning that, the project would have to wait for arrival of the resources at which time work had to be halted. This again was a source of loss since the staff continued to be paid whether working or not. The company managed these incidences well and from the look of things, the project is managed to overcome all its challenges. A risk is anything that may have a negative impact on a project so as to compromise the ability of the project to achieve its objectives. In all projects, there are constraints of time, finances and quality (Maylor, 1999). To overcome risks such as the ones mentioned above, Multiplex put in place measures to overcome foreseeable risks associated with not completing the project on time. The risk of over-running the set budget was real for Multiplex. This was due to the fact that, the constraints it was facing delayed several phases. Of concern, for the project was the fact that, there had been evidence of sabotage activities from some stakeholders, especially those who were opposed to the project. A project is in most cases a change agent and as it is the nature of human beings, there are those who are always opposed to changes and therefore are likely to be opposed to project activities. Some instances where by the project faced threats from the government are worthy mentioning here. For instance stringent auditing laws by the government were a source of challenge for Multiplex; this was compounded by overshooting the budget which did not reflect on the tender documents. Wembley national stadium project involved many stakeholders, therefore, communication and proper communication is the only way out of managing all stakeholders and keeping them interested and focused on the project. How well communication is managed, leads to success of a project. To achieve effective communication, Multiplex employed communication officers who were responsible for official communication and public relations. The communication staff was responsible for determining who needs communication as well as determining how much communication is being given out. This was very influential in determining the success of the Wembly stadium. Communication management is very necessary in a project in that, where communication is managed properly, project execution is enhanced. On the other hand where communication is managed poorly, sources of conflict are created and therefore this becomes a problem and a source of weakness for the project (Mantle, Meredith, Shafer & Sutton, 2003). As noted earlier, projects mostly bring onboard many professionals with totally different job orientations and skill training. Therefore, how a manger manages people in the project can have a bearing on the project success or failure. For the case of Multiplex the above was a key issue. The other key consideration is that, people in projects mostly work in contracts and therefore unique human resource skills are always needed to tap the most out of the staff as well as maintaining high morale for the entire period of the project. In Multiplex, there were concerted efforts in an endeavor to establish any bottlenecks arising from the human resource management by observing and deducing the type of associations as well as motivation amongst staff. The company ensured the above by investing heavily on its staff by paying market rate or competitive salaries for all the employees it had contracted. A project's success also calls for proper breakdowns for project work (Kerzner, 2001). Therefore, the a project must address the issues surrounding resource planning, achievement of project milestones, plans for evaluation, and monitoring as well as what indicators there are in the project to guide quality management process. By answering the above, the project managers can guide the project team and specifically the project manager in ensuring quality management in the project. For Wembley project, quality had been an issue as there had been accusations the construction not meeting the British construction and building standards. This was a thorny issue for the company but it was resolved amicably. Cost management is concerned with generation of the project budget. While auditing the budget, the key concern to auditors should be on the project investment cost, the project recurrent cost, funds accounting, cash flow in case of income generating projects, and project investment costs (Gardiner, 2005). All the above should serve to assist the project manager in correcting any weaknesses which can cause the project to run out of cash before meeting its objectives or in case of a commercial project, failure to achieve the break even point. For the Wembley project, cost management was well managed, this is evidenced by the fact that, generation of the project budget was done in an open manner and the public was allowed to scrutinize the tender awarding. This indicates that, there was a high level of accountability. Time management is concerned with activity planning, project time tracking and sequencing as well as activity scheduling (Field, & Keller, 1998). How well activities are coordinated points out to project outcome and can serve to sound the alarm in case the project is headed for a delay. At Wembley, time management was not well handled, the time delays, the slug in time experienced all point out to the poor time management. The project managers had failed to regularly review the above in order to ensure project completion on time. Therefore, the company should have ensured that there was a clear forecast to take care of possible time overruns. Conclusion Organisations have a great deal to learn from projects and therefore borrowing some of the project management concepts into organisational management can be fruitful. Project managers needed to strike a balance of project scope, time, cost, quality, human resources, communication, risks and procurement activities as well as the integration of all the areas to come up with a unified project team. It would have been wise for the Wembley project to constantly carry out project audit/reviews. The purpose of a project audit/review is to dissect project progress by assessing milestones and achievements measured against project plans. The audit is crucial in that it can prevent possible project failure hence loss of resources and other capital. References Field, M and Keller, L, (1998), Project Management, OUP. 53-91. Lock D, (2003), Project Management, 8e, Gower. 2-54. Gardiner, P (2005). Project Management: A Strategic Planning Approach, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, UK.87-92. Kerzner, H., (2001), Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling and Controlling, 6e, Wiley: Chichester.66-69. Mantle, Meredith, Shafer & Sutton, (2003), Project Management in Practice, Wiley: Chichester, ISBN 0471451908.111-21. Maylor, H, (1999). oject Management, 2e, Pitman.75-84. Meredith, J. and Mantel, S.J., (2005), Project Management -A Managerial Approach, ISBN 0471073237.12-43. Morris, P. (1987). The Anatomy of Major Projects: A Study of the Reality of Project Management, Wiley.121-29. Major Projects Association, (1992), Beyond 2000 - A Source Book for Major Projects, Telford. Nicholas, J. (2004). Managing Business and Engineering Projects, Prentice-Hall International. 34-87. Turner J. (1998), The Handbook of Project based Management: Improving the Processes for Achieving Strategic Objectives, New York/London: McGraw Hill. 45-67. www.wembleystadium.com Read More