Team Leader in a Marketing Project - Essay Example

Project Communications of the Name of the Concerned Professor November 4, 2010 Project Communications 1. a) In a team scenario, a member’s ability to listen gets further challenged by varied associated and often unavoidable factors like culture and gender related affiliations. Inappropriate or compromised listening gives way to a misinformed and rather unrealistic assessment as to the extent, depth and nature of the respective group’s or team member’s “interest, expectations, importance and influence (PMBOK Guide, 2008, p. 246)”, in the envisaged project. Consequently this leads to egoistic stand offs, misunderstandings and confusions. In a team, effective and proactive listening on the part of a team leader and other members not only facilitates productive interaction, but, also help a team identify, clarify and collectively commit to long term and short term organizational goals, in a way that is in consonance with the individual abilities and aspirations of most of the members. During my involvement as a team leader in a marketing project, I came across a situation, where the team members failed to create a positive listening environment owing to their disparate emotional and intellectual temperaments. However, once the individual members were assigned commensurate task roles in the group interactions, as per their respective listening type, the very issues and insight that earlier created discord, started to being perceived as potentially productive and informative (Engleberg & Wynn, 2010, p. 194). b) The assortment of any mission oriented team is inevitably based on the premise that each and every member is endowed with specific abilities and skills, a harmonious exploitation of which helps assure the success of a project (Engleberg & Wynn, 2010, p. 195). “Listening” and “team talk” are related in the sense that they are the two sides of the same coin called group communication. Both skills practiced judiciously, help the individual team members identify each other’s abilities and differences and make them understand, respect and accept this diversity. Productive group communication, which is always a balanced combination of listening and talking skills, also helps the respective team members solicit feedback as to the clarity and effectiveness of their verbal and non-verbal inputs (Engleberg & Wynn, 2010, p. 202). This gives way to the essential group cohesiveness and a unified commitment to the project goals (Engleberg & Wynn, 2010, p. 226). mGAMES scenario represents a situation where a potentially profitable and capable organization is unable to adapt to and evolve as per the changing dynamics of the gaming industry, just because of the chronic inability of the respective team members to listen to and understand each other’s perspective (Hill, 2002, p. 11). Informed communication skills could definitely help these varied stakeholders to not only understand each other, but also bridge the existing trust deficit within the organization. 2. A-E-I-O-U Model is an approach towards conflict management, which relies on collaboration and ‘positive intentionality’ (Engleberg & Wynn, 2010, p. 221). Most of the conflict situations sprout from a negative perception of each other’s intentions by the group members. A-E-I-O-U Model offers a breakthrough in the sense that it holds that a change of perception gives way to a change in approach. This strategy not only motivates the group members to think positive of each other’s intentions, but also extends to them an opportunity to voice their feelings, misapprehensions, preferences and confusions. Lopez, being a neutral entity at mGAMES could have acted as a mediator and called a meeting of senior managers (Engleberg & Wynn, 2010, p. 223). In this meeting, Lopez should have requested these managers to set aside their misgivings, and voice their feelings and concerns and the possible alternate solutions to the current stalemate (Engleberg & Wynn, 2010, p. 221). This would have had a cathartic and trust building impact on the internal stakeholders, and would have stimulated them to cooperate. 3. a) Being a part of a team comprising of members from varied cultures that is the USA, Uganda and China calls for a working understanding of the respective culture dimensions and communication approaches associated with members from different countries (Engleberg & Wynn, 2010, p. 87). In such a team one needs to be cognizant as to what levels of individuality and equality do the members from different nations prefer (Engleberg & Wynn, 2010, p. 87). This also necessitates awareness of each members score as to uncertainty avoidance; masculinity-femininity, high context-low context and monochronic-polychronic on the Hofstede’s scale (Engleberg & Wynn, 2010, p. 86). Such information will necessarily be promulgated individually to the associated team members, in the form of a meticulously researched hard copy document or a PDF file, depending upon their location (PMBOK Guide, 2008, p. 260). b) As the assorted team comprises of members from varied cultures, they are bound to have different aspirations, objectives and ways of doing things. The overall success of the project will depend on the commitment of respective team members, which will be a function of their levels of motivation (PMBOK Guide, 2008, p. 418). So the team leader’s initiative in such a situation should be to help the members configure a team identity based on a harmonious blend and respectful recognition of their innate differences and disparities (Engleberg & Wynn, 2010, p. 226). Team members will be encouraged and rewarded for their ability to adapt to and contribute towards creating a supportive environment for the entire team (Engleberg & Wynn, 2010, p. 226). Members will be encouraged to think in terms of group accomplishments and collective satisfaction (Engleberg & Wynn, 2010, p. 226; PMBOK Guide, 2008, p. 418). c) In the group under consideration, any viable communication plan cannot do without being sensitive to the cultural differences specific to varied sub-groups. It needs to be cognizant as to the speaker-responsible or listener-responsible communication preferences of the stakeholders (Engleberg & Wynn, 2010, p. 201). The Plan Communications will have to adapt and adjust to the respective sub-groups’ need for direct communication strategies or more indirect and predominantly non-verbal modes of communication (Engleberg 7 Wynn, 2010, p. 201; PMBOK Guide, 2008, p. 251). The choice of media and information distribution tools and strategies will also need to be in consonance with the preferences of the constituent cultural sub-groups and with the real or virtual environment in which they work (PMBOK Guide, 2008, p. 261; Engleberg & Wynn, 2010, p.127). Such cultural sensitive strategy will minimize the communication constraints and foster maximum cooperation on the part of stakeholders. 4. a) Framing plays an important and central role in a negotiation process. The salient advantages of framing are: Framing helps a prospective negotiator to develop and configure a specific perspective that helps one adjust and accommodate to the issue under consideration in a propitious way (Thompson, 2009). Framing helps a negotiator to cull out the features associated with an issue that lie within a frame and are pivotal and crucial to a negotiation process, while ignoring the features and attributes that fall outside the frame and may misdirect or confuse the negotiation (Thompson, 2009). The selected frames do always have a direct bearing on a negotiation process as they helps a negotiator organize and align the researched information and data in consonance with the possibilities and constraints imposed by the selected frames (Thompson, 2009). This prevents a negotiation from going loose or wayward. O.J. Simpson trial is an apt example of framing (Venter, 2004). In this trial, the prosecution framed the trial in the context of a wife-beater against a woman victim, while the defense framed the trial in the context of an individual from a minority group against a biased police (Venter, 2004). The final outcome of the trial was determined by the frame accepted by the jury (Venter, 2004). b) A negotiator may not always be able to wrench out the most preferred outcome in a negotiation process. So the determination of the Best Alternative to a Negotiated Settlement (BATNA) plays an important role in a negotiation. BATNA helps a negotiator determine as to what extent one is willing to deflect away from the best possible settlement and when one ought to quit the negotiation process (Thompson, 2009, p. 15). BATNA helps a negotiator clearly decide as to which settlements are acceptable and which are not up to the mark and unacceptable (Thompson, 2009, p. 15). The selection of the targets on the part of a negotiator on the basis of BATNA identification helps one approach the negotiation with confidence and awareness (Thompson, 2009, p. 38). The identification and foreknowledge of a counter party’s BATNA negates all possibilities of being tricked or confused by an adversary (Thompson, 2009, p. 38). The process of BATNA identification necessitates a through and well researched preparation on the part of a negotiator (Thompson, 2009, p.1). It helps a negotiator to sift between the pertinent and superfluous issues associated with a negotiation. BATNA helps negotiators approach the negotiations in a realistic and pragmatic context. Word Count: 1500 References A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) (4th Ed.). (2008). Newton Square, PA: Project Management Institute, Inc. Engleberg, I. & Wynn, D. (2010). Working in Groups (5th Ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc. Hill, S. (2002). mGames. Richard Ivy School of Business. The University of Western Ontario. London, Ontario, Canada: Ivey Publishing. Thompson, L. (2009). The Mind and Heart of the Negotiator (4th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Venter, David. (2004). Framing-An Important Negotiation Tool. The Negotiator Magazine. Retrieved November 5, 2010, from http://www.negotiatormagazine.com/article224_1.html Read More