Project Governance Structures and Leadership Approaches Adopted by Hitachi Construction Company - Case Study Example

GOVERNANCE AND LEADERSHIP OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT   (Course Instructor) (University Affiliation) (Student’s Name) Date Project governance structures and leadership approaches currently adopted by the organization. Project organization structure can be defined as the structure that makes it possible for the coordination and the implementation of the project activities. The main reason for having project management in place is come up with an environment that creates an environment of team members with minimum or no disruptions, conflicts and overlaps (Indelicato, 2010). One of the most significant choices in the management of the project is the type of organizational structure that would be employed in the project for purposes of project governance and leadership. Each and every project has its own characteristics and the designs of the organizational structure needs to consider the environment in which the organization operates in, the characteristics on which the project will operate and the level of authority in which the top level management of the organization will be bestowed upon (Indelicato, 2010) . One of the most significant goals of an organizational structure in project management is to reduce the levels of uncertainty and the confusion that normally occurs at the initiation stages of the project. The organizational structure gives a definition of the relationship between the team members in the organization as well as the relationship between the organization and the external business environment. The structure gives an overview of the authority in form of a graphical representation normally known as the organizational chart (Indelicato, 2010). The governance and leadership structure of project management at Hitachi Construction Company The leadership and the management of any Hitachi Construction Company need to create a project structure that would meet the different project needs at the different levels of the project. The structure should not be too rigid or too lose since the purpose of the structure is to make it possible for people to interact in order to achieve the goals of the project within the various constraints of the schedule, scope, budget and the quality (Hitachi Construction Machinery, 2016). The goal in designing a project management structure is to provide an environment that the management of the project can utilize to influence the team members to do their best in carrying out their roles. The board level in project management. A project board has a key responsibility of supporting the project team in giving the overall direction as well as the management of the project and to make the important decisions that include the commitment that the project is provided with adequate resources for it to achieve its objectives. The composition of the board should be such that all the stakeholders of the project are represented so that their interests will easily be taken care of (Hitachi Construction Machinery, 2016). To maximize the prospects of success, the interests of the consumers, the suppliers have to be represented in the project board. The board is chaired by a senior responsible owner who also acts as the executive officer of the project being responsible for the decisions that relate to the project (Wang and Huang, 2006). The membership of the board should comprise of an individual who represents the senior management who have interests in the project and whose actions would greatly be affected by the project. The individual would also represent the users in order to air their concerns as well as their interests. The skills and the attributes of the board members should include:- Understanding the plans of the project and monitoring the progress against the project plan. Appoint the top level of management as well as setting the time they are supposed to operate in office. Understanding as well as acting on the factors that affect the success of the project as far as its objectives is concerned. They have the authority to release the funding and other resources from the users and the suppliers. Maintain a harmonious relationship with all the stakeholders within as well as outside the organization. Ensure the delegation of authority where needed to ensure that the project is able to achieve its objectives. Be conscious of the broad perspectives and how those perspectives affect the project. Portfolio and Program Management With the ever increasing focus on the delivery of positive results on investment in Hitachi Construction Company, the management of the organization has implemented the program and portfolio management roles in order to improve the project’s success levels (Wang and Huang, 2006). A program can be defined as a group of related projects that are managed in a coordinated way in order to achieve the benefits and the control that would not otherwise have been achieved had they been managed individually. Program management is the act of applying knowledge, tools, skills and the methods to a program for the purpose of attaining the objective of the program as well as obtaining the results that would not be met if the program were managed individually (Hitachi Construction Machinery, 2016). A portfolio can be defined as a group of projects brought together to facilitate the proper management of the task in order to meet the strategic goals of the organization. Portfolio management in the Hitachi construction company refers to a central management of one or more portfolios with the sole purpose of achieving organizational objectives (Wang and Huang, 2006). Program management in the Hitachi construction company industry is majorly concerned with the improvement of a group of mutually beneficial Hitachi construction company projects as well as other initiatives in the project (Hitachi Construction Machinery, 2016). Portfolio management on the other hand has the main focus of achieving the strategic organizational goals, from a set of programs as well as projects which in most cases are not necessarily related. At the top of program management are the sponsors of the project as well as the program management committee. Their main responsibility is to oversee the implementation of the program strategies and also to define the relationship between the program and the overall management of the organization (Wang and Huang, 2006). The project portfolio in a Hitachi construction company project is categorized into buckets that allow the project managers to group the projects and the programs in accordance to their potential level of profitability (high, low, and medium) each of them with a corresponding level of risk. The efforts of a portfolio management are focused on increasing the overall levels of profits of the portfolio (Wang and Huang, 2006). Governance of individual projects Project management is not the same as project management. In Hitachi Construction Company, the governance structure adopted by the organization is the traditional model of governance where the board of management oversees the organizational operations through established committees along the departments but delegates the management work to the executive director (Bekker, 2015). The concept extends the principle of governance into both the managing of individual projects through the formal structures and the defined responsibilities as well as the management of the projects at the organizational level. Today, most Hitachi construction companies are developing a number of models for a governance structures which in some cases could be different to the traditional organizational structures that we are used to. This is because it gives a clear definition of the strategic decisions making roles that relate to particular projects. This concept is particularly important where there is a need to control the changes being introduced into the organization (Hitachi Construction Machinery, 2016). When well executed, it can have importantly positive effects on the quality as well as the speed at which decisions are made in the organization. Figure 1 (Hitachi Construction Machinery, 2016)  Project management is that managerial activity within which the decisions of the organizations are made. Project governance is a crucial part of any individual project since while the responsibilities and accountability associated with the business of the organization are laid down in their plans; rarely does an equivalent system exist to govern the setting up of its capital. For instance, the organizational chart gives us a good sign of who in the company is in charge of any given operation that is conducted by the organization (Bekker, 2015). The role of project governance in an individual project is that it provides a framework for decisions making that is logical, strong and could be redone in order to govern the capital investments of that particular organization. This way, the organization will have a clear approach to conducting both its operations as the normal day to day activities and its change of business or the activities of the individual project (Bekker, 2015). Leadership of the project The organization uses the participative leadership structure where the leadership of the organization values the input of the team members and reserves the final decision making to the top level management. The advantage of this structure is that it boosts the morale of the team members since they are allowed to be part of the decision making organ of the organization (Hitachi Construction Machinery, 2016). The role of a leader in any project is to advance the project destinations, energize positive connections, bolster compelling cooperation, raise spirit, and engage and rouse people. Leaders require supporter, yet leaders should likewise themselves have the capacity to take after. Numerous tasks will be a part of a program or portfolio that additionally has its pioneer. A project administrator should be a solid leader. However, he should have the capacity to be a team player in regard to the project program or portfolio (Lindgren and Packendorff, 2009). Most of the projects will utilize the resources from the host companies. The team will originate from the departments which have their own directors who additionally give authority. The earth where people are all the while part of a project team as well as a functional group is called matrix management. The project chief's way to deal with administration must recognize that those being led likewise have practical obligations and responsibilities (Lindgren and Packendorff, 2009). The most important reason for the need to have a strong leadership in project management in the Hitachi construction company industry is informed by the need t5o build team work amongst the employees and the management of the project. The Hitachi Construction Company operates in a situation where no one can do anything significant on their own. Team work is very vital if the project is achieving the purpose to which they are intended. To have such a bond in the project team it is important that the project management is able to identify a team leader that has strong leadership attributes (Lindgren and Packendorff, 2009). Relationship with stakeholders The project management in the Hitachi construction company organizations has placed a lot of focus on the need to build a strong relationship with the stakeholders. The project management leadership has placed emphasis on the fact that a good manager of a project is not one that is able to execute all the tasks that are related to the management of the project (Hitachi Construction Machinery, 2016). A good project manager is one who can strike a balance the needs of the stakeholders as well as their interests and ensuring that all the stakeholders can come together to support the project in achieving the objectives they were meant to achieve. The success of the project in the Hitachi construction company industry depends in the perceptions of the stakeholders on the value that has been created by the project and the nature of their relationship with the team executing the project. This explains the reasons why most of the successfully executed projects are those whose management has instituted a proper relationship with the stakeholders (Wang and Huang, 2006). The success of the project as well as its failure is down precisely to the expectations as well as the perceptions of its stakeholders and the willingness and the capability of the project team and its leadership to effectively manage the relationship within the organizational environment. Project management involves not only the objects in the project, the plans as well as the outcomes, but also involves people and most importantly the stakeholders (Wang and Huang, 2006). The stakeholders can be the strongest advocates on behalf of the project and in some unfortunate cases could be the ones who turn around and spell doom to the project. The stakeholders can help the project managers have positive results out of the project that would help them achieve organizational objectives. The stakeholders are therefore very crucial in project management (Wang and Huang, 2006). Suggest new or additional governance structures and leadership approaches that could be adopted to improve project performance in the selected organization. Hitachi Construction Company has a number of other leadership and governance structures that it would embrace and ensure that the organizational objectives are met with the expectations of the stakeholders. There is the free reign leadership structure where the employees are given the freedom to make decisions as to how they were going to carry out certain tasks in order to achieve a given task. This is usually so for the most experienced employees where the leader would only state what they want done without stating how they want it done (Lindgren and Packendorff, 2009). The other structure is the autocratic structure where decision making is only reserved for the top leadership of the organization so that employees are only required to follow the instructions without questioning or challenging them. The other governance structures that could suit the company include the operational model where the board level management does the governing and performs the real work in the organization. There is also the collective governance model where both the board of management does its operations as a team in as far as decisions are concerned on governance. Management model on the other hand is where the board operations are done through functional teams that may or may not be under the responsibility of a coordinator. There is also the advisory board model. In this model the board is dominated by the executive officer and confirms the recommendations that have bee3n developed by the executive officer (Bekker, 2015).  Bibliography Bekker, M.C 2015, ‘Project governance – the definition and leadership dilemma’, Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 194, no. 2, pp. 33–43. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.06.117. Hitachi Construction Machinery 2016, Hitachi construction machinery. Available at: https://www.hitachicm.com/global/ (Accessed: 16 October 2016). Indelicato, G 2010, ‘Work breakdown structures: The foundation for project management excellence’, Project Management Journal, vol. 41, no. 3, pp. 101–101. doi: 10.1002/pmj.20190. Lindgren, M and Packendorff, J 2009, ‘Project leadership revisited: Towards distributed leadership perspectives in project research’, International Journal of Project Organisation and Management, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 285. doi: 10.1504/ijpom.2009.027540. Wang, X and Huang, J 2006, ‘The relationships between key stakeholders’ project performance and project success: Perceptions of Chinese construction supervising engineers’, International Journal of Project Management, vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 253–260. doi: 10.1016/j.ijproman.2005.11.006. Read More