What Role Project Management and Communication Have on the Success or Failure of the Project - Assignment Example

Task A To a larger extent, it can be argued that good project management has a greater impact on project success than good project leadership. In their study, Turner and Muller (2005) have found that leadership style of the leader has less impact on the outcome of the project since there are certain competencies required to execute the project. Whilst there is no universally agreed definition of what constitutes project success, it is generally believed that the achievement of the targeted goals is essential in order to determine its success or failure. As such, this paper seeks to discuss the extent to which project management and communication have a significant role on the success or failure of the project. The paper seeks to critically evaluate various secondary sources of literature to ascertain the claim made above. The paper starts by outlining the meaning of project management and it will also outline the significance of communication when undertaking a particular project. As a point of departure, it is imperative to begin by defining the term project management. “Project management” can be defined as the planning, organizing, scheduling, leading, communicating, and controlling of work activities to achieve a predefined outcome, on time and within budget,” (Burger & Josler, 2005, p. 25). This can be achieved through the use of a certain methodology whose objective is to ensure that the goals of the project are attained within a certain time frame and budget. In order to promote the delivery of quality products and results, coordination is vital. This can be achieved through coordination of the team members involved in a particular project. This brings us to the notion that communication plays a pivotal role since it may be impossible to coordinate the efforts of the team members without communication. According to, Verma (1995, 1996 as cited in Prabhakar, 2008), communication, teamwork, and leadership are important elements of project management that can contribute towards the success of a particular project. On the other hand, it can be noted that in as far as project implementation is concerned, communication plays a pivotal role in order to ensure that all people involved in the project are aware of their role expectations. According to Hoboken (2008), there is virtually no project that can properly function without a good communication system in place. There are various communication tools that can be implemented when carrying out a project. One of them is the critical chain method which is meant to ensure that “a typical organization completes projects at twice the rate of conventional methods,” (Hoboken, 2008, p.276). The critical chain greatly helps to reduce multitasking when carrying out a project where cross project measurements are taken into consideration such that each member knows what task to work on the basis of vital information provided by the project manager. According to Ochieng & Price (2010), projects particularly those related to the construction are carried out by people from different backgrounds. As noted, the major critical success factor of a project is communication. In cases involving large projects characterised by large taskforces, the major problem likely to be encountered is related to barriers to communication in the event that people involved use different languages. Essentially, communication is specifically meant to transfer information from one point to the other. Thus, effective, timely and ongoing communication process throughout the project is imperative in as far as achievement of project goals is concerned. The project manager has a pivotal role to ensure that all communication systems are coordinated in such a way that all the members involved in undertaking the project are aware of their role expectations project. Communication in a project is mainly used to deal with problems as well as conflicts that are likely to be encountered during its implementation. Virtually, a project is doomed to fail without proper communication implemented by the responsible project managers. Basically, communication is loosely defined as the process of sending messages from the sender to the receiver. Thomason (1988, as cited in Ochieng & Price, 2010, p. 451), defined ‘‘communication as the lifeblood of any system of human interaction as without it, no meaningful or coherent activity can take place.” Communication allows the members involved in the project to share their ideas that can also be used to create knowledge that is essential in executing the project. However, the major challenge of managing multicultural teams in projects is related to barriers to communication among the team members. Basically, team communication enhances mutual understanding among the individuals involved in the project. Where there is mutual understanding among the members, there are likely to be less conflicts. Thus, it is important for the project manager to control all communication processes in a project in order to ensure that all member activities are well coordinated. Team communication can be enhanced through improving the communication system among all the members involved. This can be achieved through opening communication channels such that the project manager is in a better position to get the information pertaining to the needs of the members of the team as well as providing them with feedback in various tasks they would be undertaking in executing the project. When communication channels open, it becomes easy to control the behaviour and the activities of the team members given that the line of authority is clear for everyone to see. A project manager who communicates effectively is likely to impact positively on the behaviour of the team members since they are aware of their role expectations in carrying out the project. This can also help to create position power and authority. In the traditional organization, position power is provided largely in the form of legitimate authority where the project manager is given the power to oversee and control the activities of the other people undertaking the project (Thamhain, nd). The efforts of all the members are directed towards the same direction which is a positive advantage for the project manager. The other important thing that should be noted by the project managers is that communication is a process and it varies from one culture to the other. Managing multicultural communication in a project is always a problem. According to Ochieng & Price (2010), communication among people from diverse cultural backgrounds ought to be carefully managed so as to ensure the creation of mutual understanding among all the people involved. People from diverse backgrounds use different forms of communication including non verbal communication. An effective project manager analyses the different styles of communication that are used by different people and he tries to master them. Since a project is often carried out over a short period of time depending on its size, it is imperative for the project managers to be quick learners who can grasp the communication needs of people from diverse backgrounds. In their study, Ochieng & Price (2010) found that addressing cross-cultural communication especially in heavy construction engineering projects is key in improving the sector in the future. Whenever there is open communication among people from various backgrounds, it can be seen that trust is likely to be created among them. Trust can be cultivated where there is mutual understanding and interpersonal communication between the project leaders and their teams from different cultural backgrounds. It becomes easy for all the members to focus on one direction if they share the same vision as well as goals towards the attainment of the project goals and objectives. Interpersonal communication also helps to remove the barriers to communication that may result in other members feeling alienated especially from their leaders. Mutual trust is thus a very important component that can lead to project success in any situation. Undertaking a specific project is a process that should never be fast tracked since this is likely to bring about disastrous results. Team cohesiveness through effective communication is very important since it helps the project manager to be in full control of all the activities that may take place when undertaking the project. This is supported by the following statement, “the project manager must build multidisciplinary teams into cohesive work groups and successfully deal with a variety of interfaces, such as functional departments, staff groups, other support groups, clients, and senior management” (Thamhain, nd, p. 158). The project manager will be in a position to track and control all activities taking place in the project if there is cohesion among the members involved. I have also realised that it is very important for the project manager to interact with all team members when carrying out a project since this helps them to generate the much needed knowledge in executing the project. The only important thing is to create mutual understanding among all members so that conflicts are minimized. Conflicts are counterproductive when carrying out a project. In order for the project to be a success, all the phases should be carefully implemented where feedback is duly provided to all the members. In order to be successful in implementing a particular project, I have noted that the project manager ought to follow a detailed schedule so as to ensure that every task goes according to plan. Failure to take this golden rule into practice when managing a project is suicidal. This may result in the intended goals of the project being missed as a result of the fact that the project manager has failed to communicate the right channel that can be taken into consideration when managing a project. It is also essential for the project manager to make it a policy that every person reports to him so as to be able to map out a clear schedule that can be followed. The use of ad hoc meetings is also very important when carrying out a project since this helps the project manager and the members involved to share the same vision and goals of the project. Thus, the project manager should encourage the members to communicate through the use of e-mails and interpersonal communication so that they can exchange vital information required in carrying out the project. Project objectives are never lost if there is sufficient information about the different tasks to be executed in the project. Over and above, it can be noted that the success of a project mainly depends on different components related to communication. The team members need to pull their efforts towards the same direction so as to be in a position to achieve the desired goals. Consensus through mutual understanding is very important in a project and this can be aided through interpersonal communication. The project manager has a duty to communicate a clearly defined project plan which outlines all the project schedules that ought to be undertaken as well as the people responsible for undertaking them. This helps to create mutual understanding among all the people and they can share their ideas and views which can positively contribute to the success of the project being undertaken. The other critical success factor in carrying out a project is related to group support since it enables the people involved to pull their efforts towards the achievement of the desired goals. The project managers ought to encourage the members to provide their views that can be used to build team cohesiveness. The other important consideration is related to building team commitment. According to Thamhain (nd, p. 162), “project managers should determine whether team members lack commitment early in the life of the project and attempt to change possible negative views toward the project.” The project manager should try to establish why lack of commitment exists and this is often done through communication with all the members involved. For instance, conflict among other team members may be one of the reasons why they lack commitment. Therefore, it is the duty of the project manager to find ways to satisfy the interests of those members who lack commitment to the project. Overall, multicultural teams are comprised of people from different backgrounds hence communication is important in order to complete the project successfully (Ochieng & Price, 2010). It imperative for the project managers to make sure that the nature of interactions among the team members does not impact negatively on their ability to share ideas that are essential in creating the required knowledge to successfully complete the project. Virtually, there may be no project that may succeed without proper communication. Essentially, communication is more important in carrying out a project compared to leadership skills. The main reason for this assertion is that projects are often undertaken by people from diverse backgrounds whose languages often differ. In order to reduce the barriers to communication that may exist, effective communication is vital rather than leadership styles. Task 2 The success of a project mainly depends with the competence of the manager than his leadership style. There are some people who believe that the success of a project is determined by the leadership style of the leader but this claim has been refuted. There is no correlation between the leadership style and competence of the project manager which entails that leadership style has little influence on the outcome of the project. No matter what kind of a project, the leaders should be competent in managing projects and should also be good in communication. Communication among people from diverse cultural backgrounds should be carefully managed so as to ensure the creation of mutual understanding among them. However, there are certain competencies that a leader should learn in order to be able to lead effectively. Therefore, the school of thought that argues that the success of a project mainly depends on the leadership style is incorrect. As noted above, people need to acquire different competencies that make them effective leaders. This is mostly done through learning. References Thamhain, H, J “Studies in Project Human Resource Management: Leadership” Bentley College Hoboken NJ, 2008, Project management communications bible. Wiley Publishing Inc. Josler, C & Burger, J 2005, “Project Management Methodology in Human Resource Management” CUPA hr Journal, Vol. 56, No 2. Ochieng , EG & Price, ADF, 2010, Managing cross-cultural communication in multicultural construction project teams: The case of Kenya and UK, International Journal of Project Management 28, 449–460 Prabhakar, GP, 2008, “What is Project Success: A Literature Review” International Journal of Business and Management, Vol. 3, No. 9 Turner, RJ & Muller, R 2005, “The Project Manager’s Leadership Style as a Success Factor on Projects: A Literature Review” Project Management Journal, Vol. 36, No. 1, 49-61. Read More