Project Management -Team Lifecycle and Conflict within the Team - Essay Example

Question: During the module you were a member of a project team on the project management exercise. Write a report reviewing and critically evaluating the performance of your team on that exercise. you report should concentrate on how the team functioned rather than the technical aspects of the project management exercise itself, your should include comments on Teams Belbin Team lifecycle Decision making procedures Conflict within team Team leadership Q1 Introduction The essay focuses on experience and feedback from project management exercise. the essay want to analysis our teamwork form five respects which are the teams Belbin profiles, the team lifecycle, decision making process, conflict with the team and team leadership. The teams Belbin profiles According to results of Belbin profiles, each member is allocated within different teams by an adviser. In terms of our team, it had a rudimentary knowledge of function through the team balance sheet. There were nine kinds of roles in the Belbin profiles. Our team covered eight of these roles. Most of our members tended to be teamworkers. Coordinators, monitors evaluators, implementers, completer finishers and specialists totaled two individuals. The plant and resource investigator both were represented by a single team member. There was no shaper in our team. In fact, there was a good group atmosphere in our team in the initial stage. Specifically, there were no conflicts. Each member was more likely to agree with other member’s idea and keep his/her own idea from becoming contentious. Each member was more likely to be a yes man in initial stage. There were two reasons which made our team better in the situation. One was the allocation role within the group. This affected members cooperation. Belbin (1989) gave some pointers on this issue when he stated that the shaper and teamworker were an unlikely combination; but he implied that the chairman and teamworker were a combination which would, probably, be found together. Another interesting aspect is the relationships that were exhibited between team members. Because each member had met each other, members were more likely to make a good impression on one another in subsequent meetings. However, too warm of a group atmosphere can bring some negative influences on the team. We found that although we had a good group atmosphere, performance of our team was inefficient in the initial stage. This was because our team lacked a shaper and most of members were teamworkers; this led to our team sometimes being indecisive and the pressure and dynamic of our team was not enough. Therefore, some members had to make some change in order to enhance efficiency of our team. Member L, whose result for the Belbin questionnaire indicated that they would likely be a coordinator and plant started to focus on their own ideas. Likewise, member Q whose result forof the Belbin questionnaire indicated that they would be a monitor evaluator had some change of roles with member L. Consequently, I found that the team was always changing. Yet, our team did made some change after our team found these problems. Member roles were destined to change and adjust with the teams changing roles and outlook. Some members would go to fill the role which the team was looking for in order to represent a more balanced group. Members L and member Q were increasingly gravitating towards being shapers; as they were becoming more and more dynamic and active. Each role of the members had a changed and some roles were more likely to be unstable in the project process. When the team needed strength of a role and the role was lacking in the team, some members easily adjusted and changed from their own roles to new roles that were lacking. Coordinators and monitor evaluators were flexible and easy to fill. On the anther hand, the other three members, whose results for the Belbin questionnaire proved to be stable were more difficult. There were no differences between the identity of team workers and real situations. Overall, each members real behavior was roughly similar with Belbins role behavior. Especially, three members behaviours can be accurately matched to behaviour of the teamworker. These three members were easily affected by other members and they a good overall awareness of teamwork. Two of team members were also more likely to be completer finishers. Sometimes, they paid too much attention to detail; which lead to slow decision making. However, one members real behaviors had some differences with Belbin role theory. Member L was more likely to be a coordinator, plant and resource investigator for the team’s balance sheet. In fact, member L was oftentimes challenging the dynamic in our team and was impatient for progress. Her real behavior is more likely to match that of a shaper. The team lifecycle According to (Rickards, T 2000) Tuckman proposed a model of team development and it is four-stage in 1965.The paragraph use the Tuckmans four- stages to show and analyses the process of our team. Forming Our team was established in this stage. Each member did not understand other members potential or actual roles; so to make a good relationship between each member and each members role definition was proposed in the stage. Most of our team was more likely to be a team workers; which directly affected the stage from two aspects. Most of our members were very cautious in this stage; as they focused on building a good relationship with other members. This lead our team spend too more time in the forming stage and it decreased the efficiency of our team. Most of members reserved their idea and more and more paid attention to others idea. This was partially due to the fact that they worried that it can be lead to a conflict and affect their relationship between members. Therefore, the situation lead to a general lack of idesa and the performance of the team’s efficiency decreased. Storming We had a basic level of understanding for each member and we also found some problems of our team in this stage. Firstly, we faced a serious problem concerning theperformance of our team. Hence, our team recognized that to make our team to be more efficient, the creation of a goal or primary object towards which we were striving would need to be effected. Members started to express more and more ideas in order to boost the efficiency of our team; because we did not know each members work capacity and whether each members ideas had a high feasibility. We found that ideas of two of our members could give higher feasibility. The other three members were becoming increasingly trusting and our team began to form around this core. Norming Because of the teamwork approach for our team was mostly fixed, team effectiveness was largely increasing in this stage. Each member adjusted their team roles and the behavior basics on our teamwork approach so that each member the teams role is basically fixed. Specifically, members sought out their appropriate role and jobs in our teamwork approach. Our teamwork approach was one that held two core members responsible for the whole project; with another three members responsible for their own divisions. Because our structure of teamworkwas effective, we focused on developing work within divisions as a means of maximinzing overall effectivenss and ability to meet deadlines. Performing Our team effectiveness is ranks as a high priority on this stage. The teamwork approach of our team was also fully formed at this juncture. Each member can be relied upon to know and focus on his own job and range of work. Therefore, two core members did need to involved to engage necessarily metrics within their respective division. Decision making procedures A reasonable decision making procedure is an indispensable part of correct decision making. In fact, our team made some inappropriate decisions early on in the project management exercise. Inappropriate decision making can bring negative influences to the team; such as loss of efficiency of teamwork, trust of team members and overall confidence of its members. According to Buchanan and Hucznski (2010) "The traditional approach to understanding individual decision making is based on classical decision theory and the rational economic model. The rational economic model of decision-marking is still popular among economics scholars in suggesting how decision should be made" (insert page number here). The rational decision making model helps people to make decision that will maximize their benefit and minimize cost. Consequently, using rational economics of decision making to compare and analysis our teams decision making process revealed that there were some ares for improvement. There are five steps in rational decision marking model. Step 1 is recognition and definition of a problem or opportunity. Within this stage, the teams members should be clear to understand their goal and outcome. However, we had several situations which were uncertain in terms of their goals and outcome.. The main reason is that our communication and cooperation was not tacital enough in the beginning. Overall, most of our decision marking can be clearly understand by our members; so we had good performance. In the step (2), the search for alternative courses of action, was engaged. The team was able to approach some effective alternatives for the team to choose. In fact, we did not lack a proliferation of good alternatives. Members L and Q were keen to always provide some valuable alternative and other tmembers could often find some alternatives as well. Therefore, we do not have a problem in this step. Step (3) gathering and analyzingas a means of developing alternatives. More precisely, members within this stage can make sure that there is enough data and information to support alternatives. Most of our alternatives came out suddenly; without careful analysis and thinking. This allowed for a negative runway effect in our decision making process and directly affected the last two steps. (4) Stage four is reflective of evaluation of alternatives and selection of the most suitable one. It is within this stage that pros and cons of each alternative is weighed. The team evaluated each alternative and understood their advantages and disadvantages. Then, the team made a sequence of choices based on each alternatives advantages and disadvantages. A third step brought some negative influences for fourth step; such that we did not enough information and analysis for each alternative. Accordingly, we were not affective in comparing and evaluating each alternative. The situation seriously extended the time required and decreased most suitable possibilities for decision making. (5) It is within this stage of selection and implementation for the preferred alternative that our team made decision marking that wasmainly affected by the speed of the appearance of ideas instead of its quality. We were more likely to choose the alternative which was shown quickly by our members.. For example, when two people were thinking about the same question, one may react quicker and give the solution quicker; although such an answer may not perfect at all. Conflict within the team It is a well-known fact that conflict is widespread within any form of teamwork. Likewise, there were some conflicts in our team. Some conflicts can bring some positive influence and some conflicts make some negative influence as to the prospects of further group work. The first part that will be discussed is the conflict frequency in our team. According to Buchanan and Hucznski (2010) "The interactionist frame of reference on conflict view it as a positive force within organizations that is necessary for effective performance". They suggest that the interactionist frame of understanding can accept the inevitability of conflict and contains the notion that there is an optimum level of it (not too little or too much). Further, it understands that this method is best used to achieve that level through the intervention of manager. Thus, the level of conflict being an optimal can bring a high organizational performance and functional conflict which supports organization goals and enhances performance. Conversely, if the level of conflict is too little or too great, this enables organizational performance to be low and make dysfunctional conflict; which hinders organizational performance. In terms of our team, some of our teams member overly worried concerning their relationship with others. Therefore, most of our teams conflict level was quite little; an unfortunate fact that saw us pay the price later. For instance, it can lead team work into near stagnation. Because our conflict level was too little, we found it difficult to make key decisions. It really took time for us to make vital decisions; necessarily robbing us of the capacity to devote this time to different projects later. Thus this made our rate of progress relatively low. If we could stimulate our level of positive conflict, we could have increased performance within the team. The second part is the way we engaged conflict resolution in our team. According to Thomas (1976), he distinguished five conflict resolution approaches based on two dimensions. The first dimension is how assertive or unassertive each party was in pursuing their own concerns. And the second dimension is how co-operative or uncooperative each was in satisfying the concerns of the other. The five conflict resolution approaches were competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding and accommodating. Because our members tended to be unassertive and cooperative, the majority of our conflict resolution approaches were avoiding (unassertive and uncooperative) and accommodating (unassertive and cooperative). Thomas (1976) believed that the likely outcome of avoiding problems can lead to long-term frustration manifested. Our team had the same situation that Thomas (1976) described. Some conflicts were not resolved by our members; however such members chose silence for these conflicts. For example, we had a conflict similar to the accommodating theory. In this conflict, member Z had a different opinion with member Q. Member Z thought that we should put more workers in module A; however member Q thinks that we should put more workers in module B. As a result, the argument between these two members became more and more intense. Suddenly at a point, they realized that their conflict level was little bit high. They worried that the conflict between them may affect their private relationship; thus they chose to be silent and modest instead of continuing argue. Member Q said that it was ok to adopt the idea of member Z and vice versa. However the puzzle they argued about was not solved actually and the puzzle remained relevant long after the argument concluded. Finally we adopted the idea of member Z; although it was not a perfect solution. Team leadership There was an overall level of democratic leadership in prior periods in our team and the democratic leadership shifted to autocratic leadership in later periods. Personally, I suggested our teams leader was a qualified leader (Member L). Generally, this member was fully capable of being the teams leader. According to Jung & Avolio (1999) transactional leadership is defined as motivating the follower through contingent-reward-based on exchange. The transactional leader gives reward, a chance of promotion, and honor to followers as a means of satisfying said follower. The follower obeyed commands of the leader and finished the leaders goals as they came due. Obviously, the transactional leadership is universal in our life. Member L was unfortunately unable to provide rewards to us; thus member L is a transformational leader. Jung suggests that the transformational leader bases their actions more on trust and commitment than on contractual agreement. The transformational leader can boost the motivation of followers in order to achieve the goals of group; which was done by Member L. In terms of our team, member L was effective to allocate the task to each member and organize meeting. There were no leaders in our team in prior period, so our teamwork was somewhat inefficient. Member L determiined that someone should be the teams leader to organize and lead our team. Therefore, she tried to do more work and allocate tasks to us. Member L often asked for some suggestions from other members in prior periods. When the time was becoming increasingly tight and Member L was not more likely to ask suggestion from, she tends to be an autocratic leader. Conclusion Overall, I understand that each team has different situations and problem from the project management exercises. An imperfection that we experienced was that there was no shaper in our team. This lead to series of influences on our teamwork; up to and includingteam lifecycle, decision making and conflict. Question: cost performance on project is often poor, what are the possible causes of this and how can it be improved? Q4 Cost performance on project Introduction The essay focuses on the cost performance on project. There are two parts in the essay. The first part is to analyze and research the factors which can cause the cost performance on project being poor and the second part is an overview of some methods and tools which can improve cost performance on the project. Some factors which can cause poor cost performance There is no doubt that there is a definite link between cost, quality and time spent on a project. The project manager controls cost and should base this on defined time and quality constraints. According to Atkinson (1999) "The planning, monitoring and control of all aspects of a project and the motivation of all those involved in it to achieve the project objectives on time and to the specified cost, quality and performance". Therefore, to balance the relationship between cost, quality and time, there is a direct need to focus on effective cost performance. In terms of quality, a high quality is more likely to mean high cost and longer period of time invested. For instance, if a project manager wants to make a high quality project, he/she will need high quality materials as well as workers. Likewise, the manager will have to balance this against the expense of such inputs. High quality workers should also be more careful to perform the project specifically according to their assignments; thus spending more time at each phase. Similarly, a short time tends to mean a higher cost and lower quality on a project. For example, a project manager who wants to decrease the time for a project will find that the need to be faster or to get material and recruit more workers for his project in a rapid time frame is extremely difficult. Thus, he has to spend to more money for transportation, supply chain and more workers. Overall, time and quality of the project are two factors which often lead to poor cost performance. Human factors It is generally accepted that the project is finished by people; so the behavior of people within the project is a factor that can lead a poor cost performance. Iyer & Jha (2005) suggest that there are seven reasons that lead to poor cost performance. 1. "Conflict among project participants, according to their questionnaires survey," is the first and highest reason. This reason mainly explains either the difference of opinion or lack of coherence in some way. The project participants do not reach an agreement for cost budgeting or cost planning of project; thus it can be easy to lead to inefficiency in cost control. For example, if there is an argument in a project, some of the project participants may believe that they should buy higher quality material and only need to employ normal workers in order to control cost of the project and retain a good quality of the project. Other project participants may think that just buying normal material and employing high-skill workers would be sufficient. Therefore, if they do not make an agreement, it is impossible that they can have a good cost performance. The top manager should create a suitable environment to avoid conflict among participants. 2. "Ignorance and lack of knowledge of project manager" creates a dynamic by which the project manager is not able to use appropriate planning tools and techniques and he lacks understanding in the operating procedure. In the situation, there is a very slim chance that good cost performance will result. For example, if a project manager has a lack of knowledge for a market, he cannot choose cost-effective products within the market. What is more, he cannot know that which part of materials he can lower the price and buy second quality ones and which part he cannot lower the costs and must buy the first quality ones; making sure the total quality of the project remaining the same. The top managers are able to supply the knowledge needs of project participants such as regular training. 3. "Presence of poor project specific attributes and non existence of cooperation" there are two categories in this factor. Firstly, the project formulation is inadequate in the beginning. Secondly, the project activities need high technology. 4. "Hostile socio economic and climatic condition". This reason can bring negative influence for cost performance; such as frequent stoppage of work, labour unrest, and reduced productivity. Especially, some large projects are obvious to effected by socio economic and climatic conditions. If a countrys inflation is obviously set to increase, price of the material is more likely to be increasing in the country as well. Iyer believes that "Projects where political view against the project can lead to inflate the schedule or cost manifold or has led to shelving of the project itself ". Top managers can, through forecasting and analysis, form social data to make plans for economic and climatic conditions. 5. "Reluctance in timely decision" is another area that will be discussed. The reason for this is no doubt that it can directly block cost performance and development of a project. Decisions that are not in time may lead to shelving the project and upsetting deployment of other projects; which means that the manager have to add the expense of more money for these delayed decisions. For example, if there is a real estate project and its project manager making decisions chooses a different kind of material that does not show up on time, this can lead to a situation in which the workers cannot continue their work until they get the required materials. It also can lead other relevant work to be delayed. Therefore, the project manager should pay more salary for workers and more rent for the equipment used. 6." Aggressive competition at tender stage" will also be analyzed. Iyer suggests that although aggressive competition at tender stage can improve the cost performance of the project but it is not true in practice. 7."Short bid preparation time" is also relevent. There are generally conception stages within each and every project. Further, the execution step and handing over step in project duration is also relevant. In order to have more time for execution or unforeseen events, their representatives are more likely to shorten the bid preparation time itself. Because contractors want to get the job done, they cannot face the owners to give a reasonable time to quote for the project. The situation can lead to cost inaccuracy and an increasing the gap between quote costs and real costs. Some method and tools which can improve cost performance on project Method The project manager can establish a viable plan to avoid poor cost performance. A reasonable cost plan is the root cause of good cost performance in any project. Further, a cost plan can be built on two basic parts. First part is collection of enough data. Accurate collection of four kinds of date is an indispensable part of a realizable cost plan. (1) The operation method for planed product, material supply, labor salary of project. And (2) The planed consumption of direct material and time quotas of direct labor. (3) Likewise, the planed price of material and cost budgets of each department are also required. (4) The cost budget of each time period of the project should be established along with a reasonable forecast and calculation of the cost budget of the project through collection of data. A complete cost estimation process can be efficient to increase accuracy of the cost plan. In general, there are 12 steps in the cost estimation process. These are to develop the WBS, to schedule the tasks, to retrieve historic cost data, to develop cost relationships, to allow for learning, to identify skills and wage rates, to develop labor and material cost, to develope overhead and administration costs, to apply escalation and inflation, to calculate estimates, to analyze, adjust and support, and finally - to publish. Monitoring and reviewing progress The project manager should be able to monitor and review progress of the project on time. It is essential to know where each fund traces and make each fund transparent so that strict procedures for reimbursement can be implemented. Monitoring on time can make sure that once the project manager is completed that there are no large differentialst between the real fund and the planed fund and the PM can take immediately action to adjust or change for the situation if this indeed occurs. If the situation can be resolved in time, this will be becoming increasingly serious and likely a danger to the overall cost overrun for the entire project. The manager can get some valuable feedback from monitoring; which is of importance as this will provide for more timely and relevant information. Forecasting where possible The development process of the any project is uncertainty. Project managers find it difficult to know what will happen in a project that is in the development process. Similarly, the cost of the project is also an uncertainty. There are three respects in uncertainty of the project. (1) The specific activity of project itself is uncertainty. Some events of the project are possible to be unknowns or the project manager can through fully forecast to make corresponding plan before these events happen. (2) Activity scales of project and their quantity of consumption resource are uncertainty. The project manager can fully analysis these to forecast suitable range of the scale and its quantity. (3) The price of resource which be expended by project is variable. The project manager can through investigate relative market to forecast a reasonable price range for relative resource. Tools Earned value analysis is an effective tool to enhance cost performance on a project. According to Howes (2000) "Traditional Earned value Analysis is an established method for the evaluation and financial analysis of projects throughout their life cycle". Thamhain (2003) found that through investigating 400 professional who worked with projects, realized that 41% of the 400 professional promoted the Critical path method. The earned value analysis was generated from analysis of three basic parameters. The three parameters are budgeted cost for work scheduled (BCWS), budgeted cost for work performed (BCWP) and actual cost for work performed (ACWP). Firstly we need to create the Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled as a planned budget. Actually this links to time scaled S curves that are derived from activities. The work done is budgeted in terms of the original budget and the Budgeted Cost of Work Performed can be determined at any time during the project. The Schedule Variance is the difference between BCWP and BCWS. Furthermore, the Schedule Performance Index is the ratio between BCWP and BCWS. If the SV is negative, this means that the project is behind schedule as defined by the budget. What is more, if SPI ratio is less than 1, this also means that the project is behind schedule as defined by the budget. An estimate of the revised project duration can be obtained by dividing the original project duration by the SPI. The actual cost of Work Performed can be derived from the project accounting system at any point of time during the project. The difference between the BCWP and the ACWP is the Cost Variance. Furthermore, the ratio BCWP/ACWP provides a Cost Performance Index. The project is subject to a cost over-run if the CV is negative or CPI less than 1. Conversely, the project cost performance is better than expected if the CV is positive or a CPI is greater than 1. It is also possible to determine the Estimated Cost to Completion, and the Forecast of Project Completion Cost is obtained by adding the ACWP. Therefore, EVA provides a consistent method for project performance evaluation, and it allows comparisons between projects utilizing the project indices SPI and CPI. Conclusion Overall, good cost performance plays a key role in formulating a successful project. It is undeniable that good cost performance for a project needs effective cooperation between the project and the participants. Good cost performance for a project needs to realize that the project manager should identify success and failure factors. The project manager must know that it is not enough to only maximize use of positive method and tools but it is more important to minimize negative factors. References Buchanan, D.A and Huczynski, A. A (2010) Organiaztional Behavior. 7th ed. FT Prentice Hall Jung, D. I., & Avolio, B. J. (1999). Effects of leadership style and followers cultural orientation on performance in group and individual task conditions. Academy of management journal, 42(2), 208-218. Rickards, T., & Moger, S. (2000). Creative leadership processes in project team development: an alternative to Tuckmans stage model. British Journal of Management, 11(4), 273-283. Iyer, K. C., & Jha, K. N. (2005). Factors affecting cost performance: evidence from Indian construction projects. International Journal of Project Management, 23(4), 283-295. Howes, R. (2000). Improving the performance of Earned Value Analysis as a construction project management tool. Engineering Construction and Architectural Management, 7(4), 399-411. Atkinson, R. (1999). Project management: cost, time and quality, two best guesses and a phenomenon, its time to accept other success criteria.International journal of project management, 17(6), 337-342. Vargas, R. V. (2003). Earned Value Analysis in the Control of Projects: Success or Failure?. AACE International Transactions, 21(4), 211-214. Thamhain, H,J (1998). Integrating Project Management Tools with the Project Team. Long Beach: 29th Annual Project Management Institute Seminars& Symposium. Read More