A Successful Downsizing: Developing a Culture of Trust and Responsibility - Case Study Example

A Successful Downsizing: Developing a Culture of Trust and Responsibility Affiliation: Date: 1. Describe specific practices that successful project managers apply in exercising their leadership and management roles overall. The most common of the practices is organizing the employees into various teams so that people in departments work as a team rather than as individuals. The advantage of this is that the manager does not have to be receiving reports from individuals which is not only tiring but costly and time consuming but receives from a team. Teams also complete work within a short time frame and the work is well rounded as it has only the best solutions after deliberations and removal of criticisms. Team leaders also handle the major decisions of the work without the manager having to be the decision maker on minor things. The other thing to success project management is to hand over all the responsibilities to the contractors and led them do their work without constant supervision. When they are left to be in charge of their work, they take the work seriously because they are the owners. They are responsible for all the decision making as long as they fulfill the time deadline and work within the provided budget. They are left to be creative as long as the final product meets the specifications and design of the customer. This reduces pressure on the part of the contractors and leaves them at ease to decide the number of employees to work on each project, which project to start with and what time to dedicate to each project. The manager delegates duties and downsizes the organization to create room for growth and reduce redundancy. The project manager is able to do this through becoming an overseer rather than doer of the action. When a company is downsized, it means that the remaining people have rather a lot of work to and hence no time to waste chatting or taking long unnecessary breaks. It also saves up on costs and expenses with fewer employees. A project manager that is not afraid to downsize the employees is a risk taker and hence a good leader and manager. The remaining employees for fear of being the next on line to be sacked work extra hard and increase productivity whereas maintaining the deadlines as well and this improves the overall success of the project in the long run. 2. Evaluate Judy Stokley’s level of success in developing a culture of trust while implementing her drawdown plan as Eglin Air Base’s new Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) program director. Provide three (3) specific examples to support the response. The success level Judy got from developing trust between the government and contractors was enormous and immense. This is evident in the amount of money the air force was able to save which was over $350,000 and over $150 million in the period of 4 years. The expenses reduced to this extent because of the fact that the downsizing of the AMRAAM happened to over 300 employees. Some of the departments such as that of the chief engineer had its employees reduced from 80 to only a mere 12 (Laufer, 2012). This was a major cut in the expenses being incurred by the program. The other evidence of success was the improved relationship between the government and contractors to the extent of either parties being invited to attend confidential financial meetings of the other and asked for their input. This was followed by creation of open communication lines and channels which saw ideas and proposals being provided by either party to the program. There was also removal of the numerous depots that had been set up for repair of the destroyed missiles. These depots had to have all the equipment and lie unused until a missile could be presented. This work was left to the contractors and hence all these depots shut down. This increased the responsibilities of the contractors as well as minimized the expenses of running the depots and in the long run the program saved money. All these success factors contributed to the creation of the culture of trust amongst the employees of the government and the employees of the contractor companies. 3. Indicate three (3) key learning and behavior modification strategies that Judy Stokley used in order to address AMRAAM’s organizational problems and gain the trust of project team members. Provide three (3) specific examples to support the response. Judy realized that the contactors and the government employees did not trust each other and were always suspicious of the intentions and actions of the other. This created barrier in communication as well as increased expenses through having the government hire more people to act as monitors of the activities being carried out by the contractors. The contractors due to this lack of trust and increased monitoring were always working under duress and they ended up not making profits at all. Judy changed all that by eliminating the government monitors and opening up communication between the two parties which ultimately led to creation of trust. Judy proposed that the contractors and the government to have teams and work through team works to complete their work and find way forward for them to co-exist. A team was created of leaders from the contractor companies and from government side and they worked hand in hand bringing forth suggestions and solutions to the issue of creating missiles and how to handle issues such as repair and their warranty. Both sides provided their views and implementation of the best solutions was carried out. This saw the merger of the contracting companies instead of working as competitors, downsizing to reduce unnecessary expenses as well as creation of a good working relationship and environment for them all. The other behavior modification strategy courtesy of Judy was transferring all the responsibilities to the contractors. Since a trust and rapport in the form of open communication had already been established and the monitors from the government eliminated, Judy saw the best way to increase the trust was to let the contractors handle all the work without supervision from the government. This was carried out through a program and technique created known as Total System Performance Responsibility (TSPR). This program saw both the employees from government and contractors leave no secrets between them and even invite each other to confidential meetings and encourage their input. This level of trust and responsibility saw the contractors own their project and in the long run make profits something that was not present before Judy’s behavior modifications. 4. Analyze three (3) actions that Judy Stokley took in order to change the project team’s culture and create a relationship of trust, mutual support, and teamwork between the government and contractors. Support the response with three (3) specific corresponding examples. The first action that Judy took after downsizing the employees was to try and convince the contractors that she wanted them to make profits and not just work with the government without having any benefits to show for it (Laufer, 2012). This was not an easy task considering the past relationship government had been having with the contractors which was sour and fully professional with the contractors taking orders from the government without asking questions about anything. The first step was therefore to create an open relationship between the two parties in business and this was carried out through elimination of the government employees who were working as monitors of the government and supervisors of the contractors. This was meant to create trust and openness between the two parties and in the end it achieved its purpose. Judy teamed up both the contractors and the government employees in order to enable them work better together. These teams are able to make decisions quickly and deliberate more on the criticisms and challenges the two teams were facing on the project and achievement of the goals. This team work faced challenges and resistance from the contractors’ teams initially but with time, they came to trust the leadership of Judy and appreciated the costs and time that working in teams saved. The teams were made up of leaders of the government and the leaders of the contractors in the leadership and decision making position and the rest of the people teamed up. Lastly is the fact that Judy was persistent and took the initiative to explain the plans and decisions on her own without relying on her colleagues or her deputy to do that. She took her time and laid down her plans as well as explaining step by step on how both teams would benefit from the new relationship. Her plans were opposed greatly at first as the contractors did not believe that they would benefit. They thought the new plans were meant to short change them further and leave all the work and costs on them to meet. With time and more research as well as persuasion from those who have worked with Judy in the past and who understood her strategies, they were able to adopt the plans and ultimately led to the success of the project, creation of trust and relationship. 5. Create a personal leadership development plan for Judy Stokley so that she may be eligible for future promotions to leadership roles beyond program director. The plan should, at a minimum, focus on promoting key leadership behaviors, designate specific strategies to promote a higher level of performance relative to the position, and specify actions that Judy could take to promote the AMRAAM culture in her new role. A leader is supposed to be persistent but stern on the implementation of the development plan. This implementation should not be flooded on the employees and the other parties but rather taken step by step in order to make them understand what the plan and the new changes entail and give them time to embrace them while preparing themselves physically and emotionally as well as financially on the impact of the changes. In order to develop a solid plan, a leader needs to have carried out intense research on the organization or project and how things have always been carried out. Point out the weaknesses of the previous leadership and let the employees make the suggestions. Some of the best suggestions should be implemented to encourage the employees to be more productive and own the project as well as encourage responsibility and mutual trust between the leader and employees. Performance increase should be carried out though encouraging independence of the employees. Once they own the project at hand and are given as much decision making ability as possible, they embrace the project and are able to be creative as much as possible who will ultimately lead to them increasing their productivity and beating the deadline. Opening up communication between the management and the employees is another way to ensure performance increase from the employees. The other way is to motivate the employees through increasing their benefits and rewards. This will make them work harder in order to continue to increase their performance for continual rewards and appreciation. Judy has earned trust from the government and the contractors and this position has led to her holding power over the two parties which would lead to any of the future projects by her being embraced. Judy should aim at motivating the employees in the AMRAAM project by offering some promotions and random gifts as well as monetary reward. The money for the rewards can be got from that which has been saved. This is as a way to appreciate the work and efforts of the employees as well as to boost their performance in the long run. The reward system should be incorporate in the culture of the program as it is a motivational technique. References Laufer, A. (2012). Mastering the Leadership Role in Project Management: Practices that Deliver Remarkable Results. New York: FT Press. 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