Counter Techniques for Successful Project Planning - Assignment Example

? Preliminary Organizational Analysis Introduction Organizations operating at large level usually find it difficult to maintain consistency in executing its strategic plans. These lapses in execution of strategic plans indicate a lack of efficiency in controlling overall operations of the business. Organizational systems should be developed in such a manner that these systems provide solutions to the issues pertaining to business. Another function can be the provision of a contingency plan to avoid major losses in the future. This report consist of discussion carried out regarding the issues that TransAD is facing at the moment and the probable solutions to solve these issues. The reason for selecting TransAD’s case study is that I am working as a Communication Manager at TransAD since 2007, and I have a keen eye on the issues prevailing in the operational systems of the company. Introduction to the Organization TransAD came into existence in 2006 with the vision of setting benchmarks in taxi regulatory industry of Abu Dhabi according to global standards. TansAD was inaugurated by His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan. TransAD believes on establishing corporate loyalty amongst its customers by providing them comfortable taxi services at their door step. At the same time, the objective of the company is to regulate the taxi traffic in Emriates of Abu Dhabi. Previously, the taxi services provided in Abu Dhabi were owned by private owners as well as taxi service providers. Now, these companies have merged into one and named as TransAD (The Center of Regulations by Hire Cars). The primary aim of establishing TransAD was to bring uniformity in the taxi operations, policies and regulations (TransAD, 2013). At the moment, the company is facing many issues from strategic and operational point of view. Majority of these problems are caused due to improper planning and execution of the essential projects or processes of organizational development. The senior management of the company thinks that these problems are there because the team co-ordinators are not effectively leading and managing their team. The reduced performance of TransAD’s leaders is also reflected in other aspects of the organization such as hiring of the work force, financial controlling, project management and handling etc. Then there are problems in performance evaluation, which is also the resultant of reduced reporting and monitoring by the TransAD’s team co-ordinators. Synopsis of the Problem Being in the travelling services business, TransAD faces a number of challenges such as recklessness of its taxi drivers or the high employee turnover. Especially challenges in hiring a loyal and consistent work force has remained a significant concern for TransAD. This is because the drivers handle the cash which they receive from the customers against the taxi fares. In this regard, there are a number of incidents reported. For example, a driver left the taxi at the stand and kept the cash for the whole day that he received as taxi fare. The high turnover or employees leaving without prior notice is the resultant of lower level of employee motivation due to organizational issues, boredom at the job and unattractive bonus/incentive packages offered to employees. But from the analysis of TransAD’s operations, it is revealed that the organization has undergone a number of significant strategic issues in its operating capacity. Such as, offering loyalty card benefits to customers or offering customers with inter-city travelling through its taxi services. This particular project has been delayed or not executed efficiently. Inadequate planning and execution of the projects is the biggest reason why organizations fail to achieve its desired aims and objectives. Other reasons being weak management of changed environment and policies, working in the absence of a work plan, poor use of mediums of communication and lack of management quality (Dinsmore & Cabanis-Brewin, 2010). At TransAD, the project managers are advised to work in close link with the stakeholders of that project and the sponsors of their projects in order to determine the planning, time duration, costing of the projects, principal responsible personals, process of completing the project and the probable outcomes of the project. It has been noticed that the projects that failed at TransAD lacked all of these determinants in one way or another. The next few paragraphs of this report would look into the symptoms that help the author of the reporter to identify “Inadequate Planning” as a principal source for TransAD’s organizational problems. As a case study, TransAD’s failure in completing its loyalty card project is selected by the author of the report. When the senior management of TransAD decided to offer its customers a loyalty card, on the basis of which customers can avail discounts on their travelling, it had hoped that the project would bring higher revenue into the business. At the start, the project manager was supposed to gain support from the sponsors, stakeholders and the senior management of the company. Unfortunately, this did not happen. It the project manager did not consult with any of the above mentioned personals, and when their ideas emerged in the follow-up meeting, confusion was clearly noticed amongst the project manager’s team members. This issue is indicative of the fact that the project manager possesses authoritative leadership traits and believes that he can complete the job in a better manner, instead of taking support or advice from others (Knutson, 2002). The authoritative traits of Project Manager’s personality overcame once again at the time of developing timelines, costing and preparing budgets for the project. The project manager completed this task speedily, but the management insisted that more time should be allocated while developing the timelines and budgets for the project. This is because the estimates were made poorly, which is indicative of the fact that the project manager did not assume his responsibilities and importance of the project professionally. The budget gone through managements’ review thrice before being approved, but each time, the budgets were either estimated too low or too high, just because there was no planning (Kreitner, 2010). The affect of authoritative traits of the project manager also reflected at the time of defining the scope of the project to this team members and the senior management. It was noticed that the project manager did not define the project efficiently, the resources required to complete the project and the expertise required to achieve the desired objectives. By not knowing these three things, the management was not able to predict and provide what the project management required at the initial stages. Even the project manager and senior manager did not develop any documents or implemented any policy which defined “Project Management Best Practices” (Kerzner, 2013). Another significant symptom of failure sensed by a number of employees was that, the project manager was controlling the whole project from the viewpoint of operations management and not that of project management view. In this manner, the focus of the team designated for this project shifted to the operational matters of the project and not on the planning, execution and management of the project related activities (Turner, 2011). One of the primary issues that management identified was that the project manager was accidentally designated to the project in the absence of the relevant department’s leadership. The project manager did not have any official training to fulfill the requirement of the project. Moreover, he did not possess any experience pertaining to the project management discipline in an organizational setting. The team working under the project manager was aware of the fact but keeping in view the authoritative traits of the managers’ personality, they feared they might lose their jobs if they report to the senior management (Knutson, 2002). Counter Techniques for Successful Project Planning Managers who believe on democratic approach of leadership and management considers others opinion and suggestions as useful for the success of their designated tasks. In my own opinion, the senior management of TransAD should have selected a project manager who believes on democratic approach. Just because the designated project manager was an authoritative leader, the project could not be completed successfully as there was no documented planning and execution of the activities. If the project manager was a democratic approach believer, he would have welcomed the suggestions from the senior management and his team members. A democratic leader would also communicate the project goals and objectives to its team members before initiating work on the project. In such a manner, the project manager and the project team would have identified the potential barriers at initial stages and developed some contingency plans. In this manner, the team would have had several options to complete their designated tasks and achieve the desired organizational results (Hughes et al., 2008). On the other hand, with the help of his team members, democratic approach would have enabled the manager to gather valuable information regarding the processes and expenditures to be made on the project. In this manner, the project manager would have presented a solid documented project plan along with the budget lines that will be used to complete the project in the given time period. It should be noticed here that the project manager might have shared valuable information with the team members and asked them to come up with valuable suggestions for the success of the project, but the authority remains with him, and he is to direct every activity carried out to complete the project successfully (Mosley & Pietri, 2008). By appointing a democratic project manager, TransAD would have gained many advantages. Firstly, the appointment of professional who may be open to work in a collaborative manner would have boosted the motivation level of the employees. As a result, the team for the project would have felt confident enough to fulfill their responsibilities in an efficient manner, without spending too much time and money. Second, the affiliation that the team members would have had with a democratic leader helped the team to lift their spirits and morale to achieve excellence in their work. Another benefit of appointing a democratic leader is that, he or she would complete the project in a short passage of time, due to the sense of urgency to complete other projects (LeadershipExpert, 2010). Organizations that believe on democratic style of management provide an opportunity to the employees to analyze their individual performance against the team performance. This also helps them to determine the areas of improvement. Despite of the fact that democratic leaders brings a number of benefits to the organization, there are certain risks involved in appointing a democratic leader which are discussed in the next paragraph. Disadvantages of Democratic Managers The first and foremost disadvantage of appointing a democratic leader is that, he or she consumes too much time in the initial stages of the project for decision making. In the context of TransAD, appointment of a democratic leader would have meant that the leader will gather suggestions from the team members and the senior pertaining to the successful completion of the project. This for sure, would have taken too much time in the initial stages of the project, but the operational aspects would have been completed before or on time. Another disadvantage of appointing a democratic leader would have been the conflict between knowledge and power of project manager and the illiterate or employee belonging to a different nationality. This situation might have resulted in absolute lower level of trust between the leader and the employees. On the other hand, a democratic leader would have counseled such employees and win their trust to remove any hurdle on the way of completing the project (Mersino, 2013). Another huge disadvantage of appointing a democratic leader would have been the feeling of being sidelined experienced by employees. This happens when an employee start to feel that his suggestions are not welcomed by the manager which results in frustration and ill-will amongst such employees. This is a typical organizational scenario because not everyone’s suggestions can be approved and applied as the managers look for best possible alternatives to complete a project successfully. Last but not the least, a democratic leader for successful project completion at TransAD would have feared that he will lose his authority and control over the team members by keeping his doors open to team members’ suggestions and actions (Singla, 2010). Successful Project management Model A democratic leader would have adopted the model mentioned in the following figure to sort out the hurdles and issues in project completion: Conclusion By analyzing the differences in project management styles, it has been noticed that the TransAD would have achieved the desired results and objectives by appointing a democratic leader. This appointment would have boosted the morale of the employees and their willingness to work towards achieving higher productivity, which would have resulted in higher benefits and compensations to further boost these employees’ performance. A democratic leader would have adopted the model mentioned in the following figure to sort out the hurdles and issues in project completion: Conclusion By analyzing the differences in project management styles, it has been noticed that the TransAD would have achieved the desired results and objectives by appointing a democratic leader. This appointment would have boosted the morale of the employees and their willingness to work towards achieving higher productivity, which would have resulted in higher benefits and compensations to further boost these employees’ performance. Reference List Dinsmore, P. C., & Cabanis-Brewin, J. (2010). The AMA Handbook of Project Management. NY, Washington D.C.: AMACOM. Hughes, R., Ginnett, R., & Curphy, G. (2008). Leadership. New Delhi: Tata-Mcgraw Hill. Kerzner, H. R. (2013). Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling. NJ: John Wiley and Sons. Knutson, J. (2002). Project Management for Business Professionals:A comprehensive guide. NJ: John Wiley and Sons. Kreitner, B. (2010). Management. NY: Cengage. LeadershipExpert. (2010). Leadership Styles-Autocrative vs Democrative vs Bureaucratic. Retrieved October 7, 2013, from LeadershipExpert: http://www.leadership-expert.co.uk/leadership-styles/ Mersino, A. (2013). Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers: The People Skills You Need to Acheive Outstanding Results. NY, Washington D.C.: AMACOM. Mosley, D., & Pietri, P. (2008). Supervisory Management: The Art of Inspiring, Empowering & Developing People. Ohio: Thomson Higher Education. Singla, R. K. (2010). Business Organisation and Management. London, NY: FK Publications. TransAD. (2013). About Us. Retrieved October 7, 2013, from www.transad.ae: http://www.transad.ae/en/main/who.we.are.aspx Turner, G. (2011). Proceedings of the 3rd European Conference on on Intellectual Capital. London: Academic Conferences Limited. Read More