Project Process Analysis - Magic Zone Organisation - Case Study Example

Project Process Analysis Paper Introduction Leadership is one of the most important elements of organisational science. To stand in a society, every organisation needs effective leadership practices, aligned with its vision and mission being aimed at motivation and teamwork. These elements in turn, play a vital role to make an organisation stable, effective and resourceful. To sustain in the global business, every organisation needs to follow certain objectives and principles, wherein their leadership practices are deemed as a key driving force (Zambonelli et. al., 1994). Studies have also revealed that the concepts of leadership, teamwork and motivation are strongly interrelated that further determines the success potentials of an organisation in the long-run (Philbin & Mikush, 1999). Without these aspects, an organisation may not only face aggressive competitive challenges but also witness certain demise in its long-term performances. To be specific, motivation is an important factor that aims to energise and inspire an individual to attain future goal. Proper leadership and motivation further encourages a team to chase the determined organisational goals more independently, as it allows individual members to align their personal interests with that of the company’s objectives. It is often argued that with correct motivation, a leader can inspire them and improve organisational productivity along with sustainability in the long-term (Philbin & Mikush, 1999). Contextually, communication also plays a vital role in assuring effective leadership practices, owing to the aspect that through effective interpersonal communication, a leader can lead and motive the team towards a correct direction. In the broader realm, leadership, motivation and team dynamics, all come under human resource management, often influenced by organisational policies, programmes and values (Gick & Newton, 2006). To obtain a better understanding of the phenomenon, the case study of Magic Zone organisation has been considered in this study. As the case scenario exhibits effective leadership practices implemented by the company to drive success through its summer program “MO Magic”, it is supposed to be a relevant example for study wherein effective and successful leadership practices have helped improving team dynamics and motivation within the context. The objective of this study is therefore concentrated on discussing these concepts and its impact on the organisation in both specific and broader platforms. Team Dynamics The term ‘team dynamics’ refers to behavioural relationship between groups, connected through assigned tasks within a company. As per the human resource studies, a group can be developed effectively after passing through the stages of forming, storming, norming, and adjourning. With the help of proper motivation, team dynamics can improve organisational productivity (Zambonelli et. al., 1994). As per the case, to build a strong team, Magic Zone emphasised recruiting professionals from varied backgrounds, such as marketing, finance, and hospitality. To make the summer camp more interesting and effective for youth, every individual has been constantly aimed at improving and updating themselves with new program manuals to gain alignment with the organisational mission and vision. Working individually and working in teams always create different impacts on organisational health and sustainability. While individualistic approach of members often increases risks for misalignment between team objectives and the objectives of the organisation, an effective team can help in planning strategies sustainably and aligning the same with organisational objectives. Efficient team members are also regarded to make the tasks assigned more systematic and creative (Gick & Newton, 2006). For instance, the team members of Magic Zone have focused on segregating the assigned tasks according to the interests of the individual members, which has proved to be a noteworthy attempt in aligning organisational goals with the objectives of the organisation. The result of this particular strategy was witnessed when team members were actively involved in effectively planning every section of the summer camp systematically. To make the team perform more effectively, regular meetings were organised. Communication also held a considerable significance in the organisational strategies of Magic Zone, as the managerial initiatives always remained aimed at preserving effective interpersonal communication and networking through group messages and Google docs. This indicates that the organisation has been successful in integrating new age communication processes and making the teamwork consistent and effective. Traditionally, due to less connectivity, team members lacked effective communication amid them, which resulted in many complications when concerning the decision making process. However, in the current era, with the help of social networking sites and mobile phones, employees can obtain the benefit of remaining connected with each other all time, thus, accelerating their psychological attachment with the organisation and accordingly, gaining effectiveness in all-inclusive decision making (Zambonelli et. al., 1994). The team members have also been much attentive while developing their dynamics in accordance with the organisational objectives, emphasising the visionary approach of Magic Zone, wherein the organisation intends to design its summer camp, “MO Magic”, in a manner that can help city youth to identify new cultures and traditions of people from varied nations. To make the summer camp successful, team members also were concentrated on regularly meeting and discussing new ideas. The ultimate goal of Magic Zone team members has therefore been concentrated on making the summer camp project successful among youth and generating benefit for its community partners, in accordance with the objectives of the organisation. In addition, a systematic operational flow could also be observed within the team wherein the sub-groups formed aimed at making the summer camp, “Mo Magic”, attractive for youth, in correspondence to which, before, the commencement of the summer camp, team members of Magic Zone regularly visited the campsite and designed every activity more creatively (Philbin & Mikush, 1999). Leadership Gick & Newton (2006) asserted that with the help of effective leadership, a project can reach to its ultimate success. It is in this context that a successful leader can influence and inspire the workforce to achieve the determined goals by utilizing its strengths. Similarly, the team members of Magic Zone are divided into various sub-groups under different leaders with segregated responsibilities for the marketing team, hospitality team, and finance team. These three teams formed an important part of the summer camp project, “Mo Magic”. To be noted in this context, the goal of Magic Zone leaders is to make summer camp attractive and effective for its participants, wherein correct decision-making holds considerable significance. Another leadership challenge identified in the project was the budgetary issues, acting as a barrier to generate benefit for its community partners. In this situation, accurate planning and positive thinking skills of team leaders was deemed essential to make the project successful. According to varied management concepts, awareness, empathy, accountability, focus, optimism and inspiration are regarded the common leadership traits that helped the organisation to perform well towards its achievements. Without the leadership traits, managerial leaders are quite unlikely to be effective in motivating or inspiring its team members to perform in a better way. The project coordinator of Magic Zone has chosen specialist professionals for effective planning in all these dimensions with proper inculcation of Google docs and group text messages before and after meetings to deliver a clear idea concerning the determined objectives to its team members (Gick & Newton, 2006). Every team leader has arranged meetings with its members during the planning session. To make every part of the project clear and accurate, team leaders have been regularly communicating with its peer group and community members to minimize confusion and misunderstandings regarding the summer camp project. Communication has undoubtedly played a vital role in enhancing the level of managerial efficiency within the organisation. Due to lesser interaction, team members could have faced inter and intra-team conflicts, which might have further de-motivated the team members. To minimize the chances of such issues, disrupting the progression of the project implementation process, leaders have to be more concerned and communicative with their members. At the time of project planning, every organisation needs full co-operation from its members. In this situation, managerial leaders are the only source to motivate and develop focus among team members and thereafter, make the project successful. In this regards, marketing, finance, and hospitality team leaders can be regarded as the only individuals who can make the summer camp project successful (Buble et. al., 2014). Motivation Motivation is the key to make every project fruitful and operative. Motivation can be active as an internal or an external factor, or both at one instance, which generate interests and desires among individuals to complete the assigned task more efficiently. Moreover, managerial leaders have motivated workforce to achieve the goals and objectives of an organisation. As per the case, team members of Magic Zone, the success of this summer camp was important for the team members, as it had all the potentials to prove helpful for gaining future projects. This again indicates the effective alignment between organisational objectives and the goals of the individual members on personal grounds, whereby the achievements of the organisation seemed crucial to them that would further appraise their efficiency. As per the community partner’s demand, Magic Zone formed three teams in the domains of marketing, hospitality and finance with different specialized professionals, as mentioned above. These team leaders accordingly worked under head project coordinators. The entire chain of team leaders regularly visited the project site and drafted plans in a Google doc that not only ensures proper communication amid the members but also helps in their better understanding of the project requirements and project progress. To motivate the team leaders and team members, Magic Zone project coordinator always remained connected with them through group messaging. This kind of group messaging proved very helpful for every member (Isaac et. al., 2001). Proper project planning and decision-making also created a positive impact among the team members. To improve motivation among team members, Magic Zone’s managerial team also had to provide rewards and extra benefits to make their performance more impressive, which can be identified as a motivating strategy of the organisation. In the modern scenario, due to the hectic schedule, most of the team members were observed as demotivated during the operations. To overcome such hindrances and make team members more productive and motivated, the managerial team emphasised providing them with sufficient counselling, rewards and benefits for better improvement. During the planning phase, Magic Zone team leaders welcome all kind of suggestion from every team members. This kind of activity makes the dimension of planning huge and extended, as with the participation of every team members, the summer camp becomes more innovative and creative to attract a larger pool of audiences (Buble et. al., 2014; Sager, n.d.). Conclusion Conclusively, it can be ascertained that leadership, motivation and team dynamics help to improve performance of organisations to a substantial extent. From the entire study, I have learnt that proper motivation, leadership and team dynamics altogether, helps to form effective planning. Undoubtedly, these three elements of leadership in Magic Zone have yielded complete dedication and contribution from the team members to make the project successful. I also learnt that before planning, every team leader and coordinator must obtain sufficient information regarding the exact expectations from its client, which are again inculcated in the organisational objectives and aligned with the personal interests of the individual members. Through the entire project, I have also been able to understand the effect of positive motivation and leadership that has helped the organisation to perform generously. This project experience has certainly motivated me in my professional and personal life to groom myself as an effective leader, but at the onset, become an efficient follower that will further help me in my consistent improvement. Apart from the dimension of effective leadership, the project management initiatives taken by Magic Zone also indicated a social justice dimension, not only towards the community but also towards the employees. While on one hand it focused on adding value to the youth of lower income groups, on the other hand it also sufficed the individual as well as group needs of its team members. Maintaining effective communication also helped the organisation in managing sufficient level of transparency that in turn signified the social dimension of its strategies. 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