Leadership Implementation at SkyLark IT Limited - Assignment Example

Leadership Implementation at SkyLark IT Limited Name: Roll No: Class: Teacher: Subject: May 03, 2008 University: Executive Summary In this paper, we have attempted to discuss the theme of leadership in the context of project management. Leadership is in fact a complex process through which a person influences people to accomplish task, objective or mission and directs the related organization in manner that makes it coherent and cohesive. The emergence and utilization of global and international work teams has changed the overall landscape and scenario of working environment. We have also discussed different phases of a project ‘Centre of project management excellence’. All the three phases of the project, its purpose, funding and stakeholders have been discussed in the paper. Contents Leadership Implementation 1 2 Executive Summary 2 Contents 3 Introduction 4 About Company: 5 Aims 5 Discussion 5 Leadership & Engineering Business Process 5 Concept of Leadership 5 Leadership Theories 7 Engineering Project Management with Leadership Application 8 Leadership Application in Planning and Production Control 10 Leadership in Procurement in Inventory Control 12 Leadership in Strategy Application 12 Purpose of Leadership Application at SKYLARK IT LIMITED 13 The Repository-Coach Model 16 The Repository Model in SKYLARK IT LIMITED’s IT and Production House 17 Repository-Coach Manager 18 SKYLARK IT LIMITED’s Stakeholders 19 Conclusion 21 Recommendations 23 References 25 Introduction Leadership can be defined as a property and process. The process of leadership is the utilizations of non-coercive impact to coordinate and direct the activities of the members of group that is organized to accomplish the objectives set for group. As far as property is concerned leadership is the set of characteristics and qualities that are attributed to those who are professes to successfully employ such impact. Project can be described as temporary organizations formed by its base organizations to perform an assignment or job on its behalf. A project can also be termed as a temporary attempt for creating an exclusive product. Increasingly organizations are now utilizing projects in their routine work for accomplishment of goals. Projects usually involve a diverse and distinctive set of human resources that basically perform interrelated activities and the main customer for the product is mostly interested in the efficient use of resources to complete the project more effectively and timely. The primary aim of ‘SkyLark IT Limited’ is a joint venture project for management methodology, templates and tools. The primary purpose of the project is to establish a methodology and develop support templates that are supported with different leadership styles in the company. It also investigates a specific portfolio management resolution and a joint project tacking and related oversight solution. It also examines the feasibility of a centre of excellence along with competency of SkyLark IT Limited (SKYLARK IT LIMITED). About Company: Derek Creswell formed a company ‘SkyLark IT Limited’ that is present in the business scenario for the last 47 years. Later on, a multi-national company purchased the right of ownership. Directors have acquired the services of a new CEO with the determination of placement of focus on customer. Staff strength at present is 1400. Fifteen years earlier, there were 3500 people on the payroll of company. There are four divisions in the company located at different places in North East of England. A diversification of services is present with company targeting both business as well as public customers. Aims The aim of the project is to investigate a large project and apply the theme of leadership throughout the project. In the way the potential problems have also been identified that are likely to be encountered and the possible solutions that are used by a leader to resolve such problems. Discussion Leadership & Engineering Business Process Concept of Leadership Leadership over individuals is exercised in case a person with specific purposes and motives mobilize, in conflict or competition with others, political, institutional, psychological and different other resources so as to engage, satisfy and arouse the motives of followers. Leadership have also been defined as a complex process thorough which a person influences people to accomplish task, objective or mission and directs the related organization in manner that makes it coherent and cohesive. (Jugdev, K. 2002) A preponderance of concentration on management and leadership has been specifically on individual manager or leader. However the perspective and position of these persons are quite different in that the leaders or mangers seem to push their employees to desired aims, objectives and goals. Leaders seem to pull their employees in a certain direction for accomplishment of goals. As such the reciprocal nature that exists is found between those who motivate to lead and those persons who decide to follow. The investigation and research intended to explain a successful leader can be traced back to as far as the psychological attributes to management and leadership behaviors and styles. Presently much attention is being concentrated on change theory and the associated effectiveness of leaders as catalysts of change. This change theory having a huge impact is in fact a new style that began to evolve in the mid of 1980s and start of 1990s known as ‘transformational leadership’. Transformational leadership is mostly characterized by increased awareness of needs of followers empowering their followers to confront with the status quo, inspiration of followers to envision and much more personal self cognizance of the example they mostly set as leaders. These features of transformational leadership are also termed as visionary or charismatic leadership. Leadership Theories Authentic leaders desire to serve genuinely and are specifically interest in facilitating individuals than they are in authority and power, prestige or money. The authors says that most of the leaders are directed by the specific qualities of passion, hear and compassion as they are by the characters of the mind. George supports a single global standard for ethics and defines five distinctive dimensions of the particular term ‘authentic leadership’ as: understanding their primary purpose-passion; practicing hard values-behavior; leading entirely with heart-compassion; establishing relationships- connectedness; representing self-discipline- steadiness. Goldsmith, Greenberg (2003) conducted a survey of two hundred future chief executive officers in one hundred and twenty international organizations to exhibit their attitudes and approaches connected to global leadership. Their main approach was to inquire about people as to how they view the future of leadership. One main finding was that the future leaders in the global arena would require having a monetary and financial understanding of the global economy, an awareness of variety of cultures, an understanding of regional and global markets and an ease with diversity tension- the capability to direct this energy more effectively. Goldsmith, Greenberg (2003) stressed the necessity to falsify and nurture partnership from belief in the capabilities, accountability and trust of partners. They suggested that for the purpose of retaining leaders organizations should exhibit respect, create flourishing environments, provide extensive training and coaching, reward achievements, provide feedback and last but not least listen. Listening, as per authors, is the most probably the one absolutely essential capability for a global leader to become successful as listening in fact leads to learning. The notion of learning is about other, self, firm and the industry. Goldsmith, Greenberg state that the there are specific items that evolved from their work as most significant for the future. They are thinking globally; appreciating cultural diversity; developing technological know-how; building alliances and partnership; and sharing leadership. Engineering Project Management with Leadership Application Advancements made in information technology along with the rapid development of Internet have lead to overall expansion of globalization. Information technology has in fact contributed to the breakdown of time and geographic barriers between and within organizations in their quest of economic and trade growth. The saturation of global economy has ultimately resulted in increased integration and interaction of economic systems that would generally have not been capable to coexist because of space and time restrictions. Due to increase in interaction and interrelations of systems most of the organizations are in a phase of evolving into dynamic and flexible forms that can familiarize more swiftly with customer requirements, SkyLark IT Limited is of the companies that focuses on application of leadership philosophy at all spheres of business including general projects management. SkyLark IT applies the concept of leader-less teams with motivator leader held teams in various departments like: Procurement Inventory control System Planning and Design Production planning and Manufacturing Quality Assurance and Standardization Department Sales and Marketing After Sale and Customer Care The emergence and utilization of global and international work teams has changed the overall landscape and scenario of working environment. Global work teams depending on information technology for interaction have been generally termed as virtual teams. Through these teams organizations are in a better position to tap into the specialization of skilled personnel fro every corner of the world and establish teams that can work together supporting the organization in achieving business objectives. (Bartlett, C. 2004) Project managers at SkyLark IT Limited are in a better position to choose the best available resources for a specific project no matter how big or small they are or where they are located. Much significant is placed on adhering to powerful techniques of project management that are the result of some specific needs to decrease the number of projects that fail to deliver the desired results or cancelled prior to completion. At SkyLark IT, project teams become an integral part of business management and team leaders support them in meeting the objectives of business. Project teams are managed similar to organizing of traditional teams here at SkyLark IT Limited. The arrangements of project management present new and innovative challenges directly to project managers who are given the task of delivering a successful job. One of the primary challenges is the maintenance and development of trust in the project environment. A project team comprise people working on one and the same project that could spread over more than one site and whose all members depend heavily on technology, electronic communications and specific means other than the famous ‘face-to-face meetings taking place at one physical location. The theme of project management stresses different dimension of groups and site locations along with shared coordinated and communicated technologies. (Bartlett, C. 2004) Leadership Application in Planning and Production Control Project managers are leaders and describe a manager as a special individual who accomplish goals with the support and through other persons. Both management and leadership accomplish the vision set for project through the endeavors of other persons in different aspects of project planning and production control. Effective leadership in projects here is related with the articulation and anticipation of a structure, motivation and vision of different people to accomplish the objectives of organization that further strengthens the business capabilities of SkyLark IT Limited. According to Christenson, D., the effective project leadership starts with vision, which is the expectancy of an end or future state of where the leaders desire the project to end. It also represents an anticipated cultural condition. It also represents the state at which the leader has arrived at a particular picture of the end condition. The most important success element for project teams is that they should have a shared and common idea of the difference they attempt to achieve as a result of the project. (Christenson, D. 2005) While talking about leadership application in engineering business and its process, next comes another aspect i.e., questioning and listening, which in fact is the continuous challenging and confronting of status quo. The leaders should be determined if it is believed that right things are being done. However, they should listen consistently and consider all the required data for assessing the effectiveness of the present strategy of leadership. Group team leaders at SkyLark IT Limited always focus on the true application of ‘encouraged listening methods’. All team members are free to speak about their reservations, objections and felt constraints even against their leaders’ decisions. Once the method of applied leadership is exercised by listening and questioning then leaders focus on ‘influencing and empowering’. It means those people who are responsible for the mission of project or the project team should be empowered. It should be ensured that the project teams are appropriately supported, motivated, enabled and possess all the required responsibility and authority to do their job for accomplishing the desired end state. During production planning and goal achievements, such techniques give leavarge to the production capacity and lean production becomes possible as all members are empowered and they work with more dedication and commitment with the company. Marshalling, influencing and developing the dedication and commitment to stakeholder for assuring their actions are in fact in the best interest of the related project. (Ackerman, L. and D. Anderson. 2001) Leadership in Procurement in Inventory Control Financial department along with procurement and inventory control plays an important and vital role for the success of the company. The next significant element in effective project management through leadership is understanding the whole system with self-understanding. Self-understanding is the essential requirement and ultimately interlinked with ‘emotional intelligence’. While focusing on all the factors at once, company leaders are in a position to explore more in lesser time and Another important factor is ‘communicating’ the benefits and vision of the project for the purpose of aligning perceptions of stakeholder of the vision and also to ensure that it is a shared vision. It should be urgent and as such be acted upon at once. At SkyLark IT all such elements are linked together and people involved in inventory control, procurement and finances are also invited in the process of decision-making. While applying such leadership techniques and giving confidence to the members of team, SkyLark IT Limited significantly reduces its unwanted expenses and produce more revenue with the support of employees. Leadership in Strategy Application Strategizing is also the planning for long-run that continuously evaluates the environment in which the project and the host organization exists. It is also required for every project for ensuring that project is aligned strategically with the main goals of organization. The strategic alignment guarantees continued and continuous relevance of the particular project in a dynamic business environment. Governance, another important element of project management is creating of the organizational structure of project within the organization and the project. (Christenson, D. 2005) At SkyLark IT the process of making strategies and their application; both are applied in closed coordination with concerned departments and their managers. This coordination brings the business process to a more professional look and working together with other departments become highly efficient. Managers are communicated and a systematic feedback flows around the business environment. Purpose of Leadership Application at SKYLARK IT LIMITED At SKYLARK IT LIMITED, for phases, one and two the structure was as a conventional committee structure in which the chairperson established the agendas and managed the meetings. Committee approves one the project charter; it broke into different sub committees to investigate each and every project. The prime purpose of phase two was much narrower as it was building a funding proposal and also defining the themes of what became ultimately SKYLARK IT LIMITED and attempted to acquire funding for it. This phase established the future purpose along with the structure of project management centre of excellence is to ultimately spend some extra time studying how such decisions were executed. However the chair specifically selected for this sub-committee was in fact a non-IT project manager. The sub-committee, after several meetings, presented the following objectives to a much larger group: Examine the present the current expertise of project management in different ministries. Study the present utilization and usage of project management offices in ministries. Define different business alternatives for advancing the above two distinctive areas through a paradigm of COE. The above-mentioned objectives were decomposes further into a job break down structure so at the time of delivery provide a powerful investigation of the many functions and forms of a centre of excellence. One participant identified that in the early part of second phase during researching and designing SKYLARK IT LIMITED, the members put together a job breakdown structure of different components that were required and then sequenced them and ultimately put them into sub-phases. The work breakdown structure included a breakdown of jobs that were quite possible for a centre of excellence and represented two different phases for developing a centre of excellence. Phase one was assigned to ‘plan and build a centre of excellence’ that included two sub-categories of planning, ‘centre of excellence’ framework and establishing SKYLARK IT LIMITED. Phase two was given the title of ‘Operate and Enhance SKYLARK IT LIMITED’ and had five distinctive sub-categories as follows: Continuous Productivity Competency Managerial Improvement Procurement Process Standards designed for retaining project managers Mentoring/consulting and Strategic Alignment and configuration Integration. Next step in the project structure was to study the present project management development and maturity to attempt a determination of, which functions, and what form, would have the greatest possibility of success. The hypothesis in this vital step was the sophistication of a particular knowledge structure required to match the present maturity level of organization in project management. Therefore, it was needed to evaluate the readiness of the organization for specific kinds of knowledge structures for the purpose of increasing the possibility of such structures being triumphant once implemented. One methodology for accessing the readiness of organization is to determine the maturity level of project management in which SKYLARK IT LIMITED is to exist. The group then familiarized themselves with the general project management maturity paradigms that are available in literature. Some expected benefits were also identified in the phase two as expected from SKYLARK IT LIMITED. They are: Eliminating redundancies in project. Standardizing and regularization project delivering. Avoiding the ‘greatest and the latest’. Improved communication along with organizational alignment specifically to strategic goals. Promotes professionalism. Avoidance of previous mistakes. Cost savings in the deployment and acquisitions of tools and also in the research. Since a decision was made to use Centre of excellence model, the various forms of centers of excellence were investigated, mostly through World Wide Web that showed hundreds of centers of excellence. An advanced search made in this regard found many centers of excellence in large software companies such as ‘People Soft Organizations’ and ‘Microsoft’. Decision Framework Model by Gartner (Light and Berg, 2000) was chosen as appropriate framework for development and identification of a suitable centre of excellence. Model of Gartner is composed of three options: Repository Repository Coach and Repository Coach Manager The Repository-Coach Model The Repository-coach model identifies SKYLARK IT LIMITED implementing the standards and methodology that was amicably shared across each and every segments of the organization. This would need that SKYLARK IT LIMITED be staffed to a particular level and possibly could not be organized through a committee alone. Moreover it includes: Practices of project management and mentoring relationship shared throughout business boundaries. Best practices shared and documented with the office assuming the role of communications coordinator. Performance of project is monitored and the outcomes used to enhance performance and impact training curriculum. Coordination of consulting, mentoring and training across the organization. Mostly supports in coordinating particular cross-jurisdictional projects along with prost project reviews and Coordinates solicitation, assignment, selection and requirements of contracted project management resources. The Repository Model in SKYLARK IT LIMITED’s IT and Production House This model would find SKYLARK IT LIMITED as a primary source of information on the methodology and standards of project. The office would resemble virtual, with partial staff support and help from member organizations. The area of concentration on the methodology would be in maintaining it. This paradigm is mostly used as an initial step to enfranchise the theme of sharing and consolidating information. Repository models are in fact simple to implement with low costs involved as staffing is minimal and most of the human resources are acquired through a specific committee structure. The main cost could be storage costs provided the repository was virtual. Repository-Coach Manager The third alternative available is the most consolidated paradigm as project management is particularly concentrated in SKYLARK IT LIMITED. Moreover, in addition to maintaining and managing the methodology as well as coordination of training, other features of this model are: SKYLARK IT LIMITED is involved in each and every project, irrespective of the size. The centre is primarily responsible to manage and coordinate those projects of a particular scope, duration, impact or size wherever they occur. The project managers and engineering staff required to report directly to SKYLARK IT LIMITED’s CEO and are also assigned to projects as required and SKYLARK IT LIMITED evaluates scope, verifies budgets, allocates resources and also verifies risk appraisals prior to the undertaking of project. There are some project offices in government that have assumed some of the responsibilities, mentioned above, but many of them do not possess the buy-in or the desire in their organization and also the resources with the necessary expertise to implement successfully a repository coach manager model. The sub-committee, in remembrance of the potential advantages, submitted ‘Options Paper’ to IGPMMG. It was identified in the paper that a low level is found in management maturity throughout government. The recommendation was to select and implement a repository model that presented the under-mentioned products or services: Constant support and development of a common tools, templates and methodology. Coaching on the tools, templates and methodology. Web access to the general tools, templates and methodology and A Forum in the duration of two months for the purpose of education and maintaining network amongst such stakeholders in government project management. Phase three project structure was mostly based on the work discussed above and commenced the repository model that was duly supported and backed by a cross government committee. Moreover, this committed also met monthly and sponsored bi-annual practice forums for the purpose of sharing information. The entire work of this committee was often to sustain the methodology of project management, templates and tools that were specifically hosted on a web-site. The secondary task of this committee was to search sustainable funding for the project management centre of excellence. SKYLARK IT LIMITED’s Stakeholders The executive sponsor and the primary stakeholder at the commencement of this specific project and also throughout the Phase one was the local Chief Information Officer. Team members of the project in this duration was in fact a tight weaved group of information and technology project managers that represented some of the ministries in government. As such the lead project management methodology was adopted by this particular group for the purpose of customization. In phase two there were even smaller groups of persons but a broader representations from all government ministries. The expansion and development of representation was due to the phenomenon that most of the individuals were beginning to get information about project and subsequently became interested in joining. Moreover, in the phase two, many non-IT project managers started participating and were possibly responsible for the tools, templates and methodology being generalized for common use in and outside IT environment. At SkyLark IT the process of protecting stakeholders with the help of IT network is applied. This process ensures the right and benefit protection of workers, suppliers, sellers, distributors, advertisers and stockholders. In phase three, a continued development of interest was experienced in the centre as shown by the moderate growth of membership at monthly meetings with almost thirty people attending. There was a continuous expansion in the representation from ministries and also from agencies. The basic change in stakeholder was using a staff member to direct and guide basic project management training and support business of project management centre of excellence. The ultimate outcome has been the capability to move successfully from Repository model to Repository Coach Model as already discussed. The first six month results are as follows: Refreshment of website of community. Continuous professional development of group members and Launch and maintenance of basic project management training program. Conclusion SkyLark IT Limited consists of multiple project of Engineering are these projects are mostly confronted with the complexity of sustaining schedule and cost objectives and at the same time attempting not to compromise on the objectives set for performance and encouraged by research and development. In case it is required to maintain an even interface with technical experts, strategy for confronting with this sort of scenario may need acute skills of human that also include the element of empathy for the professionals in different project participants. For this purpose advanced and very focused leadership methods are applied in organization at various levels from procurement to customer services and from finance to production. The effectiveness of the strategies set in project management about motivating and resolving conflicts mostly depends upon the methods that are used in confronting with the participants of projects. The project manger should be aware of the circumstances under which proposals should either be rejected or accepted. Continuous rejection of recommendations for change could lead to a lower level of motivation in project team members. (Ackerman, L. and D. Anderson. 2001) The influence of project manager on the motivations of team member seems vital to maintaining direction and control of project. This also leads to another kind of conflict that is mostly generated by the boundary position of project manger, rewarding the members of project. The supporting project staff is mostly inspired by problem-solving circumstances that result in suggestions to the project manager. However for the purpose of meeting the specific project objectives the professionals in the project should work on problems that are well-defined. Enhancing the inspiration levels of personnel move directly against the structure of reward, that is established in the systems of most of the organizations. (Christenson, D. 2005) While independence and self-reliance are considered essential motivations for the support of project due to the structuring of objectives of projects, the personnel are not only regularly directed to resolve particularly and in most of the cases narrowly stated complexities, but the project manager might not be in particular position for rewarding directly their performance in relation with salaries, promotions or merit increases. While managing complicated work a project manager is regularly forced to sustain some sort of a balance between the managerial and the technical requirements of his/her job. For example if a project manager is to deal with a technical problem that could disrupt the set objectives of project, he/she should normally make a managerial and technical decision prior to the resolution of problem. Another example can be quoted that if a team member in a research and development section informs project manager that a crucial project element has only a dependability factor of ‘X’ it is most likely the project manager would attempt to weigh the specific technical decision of acceptance/non-acceptance of the suggested reliability quotient as compared with his/her schedule and budget objectives. (Ackerman, L. and D. Anderson. 2001) A project team that is safe in the knowledge that their firm acts on proper methods and procedures while dealing with its staff has in fact a better opportunity of recognizing the project manager who ultimately appointed by the firm as a trustworthy and capable of leading the project team to achieve success. The presence of structural protection such as guarantees, regulations and of course, the legal recourse can play an important role in ensuring the stakeholders of project that the environment is helpful for, and motivates the environment of industrial projects. Recommendations This research at SkyLark IT Limited revealed the importance of leadership and management skills in engineering concerns. This specific result tends to provide that skills of team members are critical tools that are required to become successful for achieving objectives set for the project. The results obtained are inspiring and consistent with the studies made by other researchers. Mechanisms of team support like exercises of team building could be used not only for increasing the speed of privatization but for the overall success of project itself. (Bartlett, C. 2004) It is pertinent to mention that the communication strategies in such engineering departments are developed in project management that are to be employed to build the overall positive environment of industrial projects. Such kinds of communication actions ultimately include proactive along with orientations of task output, process management, explicit time and predictive and frequent communication that will support the development and maintenance of the confidence level of team members inspiring them to deliver the required level of performance in the project. (Christenson, D. 2005) Members of engineering project team involved in coordinating, trusting and communicating in a positive way increase the performance level of the project. In the environment of a project, the team members are required to be more independent performing their jobs in autonomous environment. The results in the study provides sufficient evidence specifically for project manager that should depend less on control and more on confidence and trust as far as the environment of project is concerned. Three propositions related to risk are involved in the field of engineering project management are: The anxiety in project management over risk associated with project varies in association with the ultimate responsibility for the success of project. The greater is the duration of stay in the field of project management, the more is the propensity for project managers and his/her team to remain in the position of administration within an organization. The level of anxiety on professional obsolescence differs with the duration of time spent in the position of project management. References Ackerman, L. and D. Anderson. 2001. The Change Leader's Roadmap: How to Navigate Your Organization's Transformation. New York, New York, USA, Pfeiffer Bartlett, C. 2004. Matrix Management: Not a structure, a frame of mind. Harvard Business Review 68(4): 138-145. Christenson, D. 2005. The Project Management Office a Centre of Knowledge Excellence? Proceedings of the CITC-III Conference, Construction in the 21st Century, Athens, Greece Goldsmith, M., Greenberg, C. L., Robertson, 2003. A. and Hu-Chan, M. Global Leadership. Jugdev, K. 2002. Project Management Maturity models: The silver bullets of competitive advantage. Project Management Journal 33(4): 11 Kendra, K. 2004. Project Success: A Cultural Framework. Project Management Journal 35(1): 30-45. Light, M. and T. Berg. 2000. The Project Office: Teams, Processes and Tools. Gartner Inc. Sauer, C., 2001. Where Project Managers are Kings. Project Management Journal Vol. 32(4): 39-49. Read More