B6019 Project Leadership : Dissatisfaction Assessment Answers

Reflective Journal 1

Based on both the information in module 1&2 and your personal experience, reflect on these questions:

Reflective Journal 2

Based on this case, please address the following questions:

Answer

Reflective journal 1

Leadership styles in different phases of project management

A project manager can employ different leadership style during different phases of a project’s life cycle. In fact, it is rather essential to adopt a different leadership style during different phases in order to ensure high productivity of the team. This is predominantly because no leadership style can work for every situation or for every leader. Some project would require that during the conceptualization phase and the planning phase, the leader must adopt a participative leadership role and switch to an autocratic or commanding style during the execution phase. During the initial phases, it is important to invite ideas to gain a clear working direction for the team. Allowing participating during this phase will also instil an increasing sense of ownership (Men, 2014).

Similarly, the increasing pressure during the execution phase may require the project manager to adopt an autocratic leadership style in order to get the work done on time. If the project is found to be on the wrong track at any given point of time, the project manager must adopt a transformational leadership style. The nature of the project also largely determines the leadership style adopted by the manager. For critical projects working on discrete information, the leader must discourage team participation and give strong commands. Therefore it can be established that a project manager can adopt different leadership styles during various phases of the project’s life cycle.

Equal treatment for the team

As a project manager, it is important to treat all members equally. Inherently all the team members perform different roles and have different levels of productivity. But irrespective of that, I believe they all belong to the same team and hence are bound by the same set of rules and regulations. This does not suggest that the project manager adopts a same approach towards all employees but rather understands the all team members are different and it is important that all members are optimally treated. And it is the responsibility of the manager to identify that optimal treatment. For example, some members might work best under pressure. Hence the manager must levy pressure. On the other hand, some people perform better when they are left on their own. This fosters their creativity and enables them to work harder.

In my opinion, it is fair to assume that employees perform differently and hence it can be demotivating for high performers to be treated in a similar manner as those who do not perform. However, same treatment towards all employees creates fairness in managerial decision making and instils improved levels of discipline in the team (West, 2012). An equal treatment towards all employees also establishes the project manager as fair, impartial and just leading to improved trust and transparency. Unequal behaviour also leads to favouritism that can create discrepancies between employee satisfaction levels. Same treatment of all team members is a prerequisite of a productive team and hence must be practices irrespective of individual performances and personalities.

Reflective journal 2

Stakeholders of the aged-care facility

Stakeholders are all the people who are directly or indirectly associated with the organization (Bourne, 2016). Stakeholders can be internal to the organization as well as external. Predominant stakeholders for the aged care facility would include elders admitted to the facility, families of these elders, care takers, doctors, and nurses, other NGO organizations, vendors, police officials, government, investors and media personnel. The stakeholders can be approached and contacted via Email, telephonic contact or one on one meetings or with the help of other organization. Awareness camps can be arranged wherein the stakeholders can be informed about the intricacies of monitoring elders in the care facility.

The ethical concerns regarding monitoring older people can be communicated to all the stakeholders by conducting an event and inviting everyone or holding one on one meetings with all the stakeholders of the organization. There should be transparency in such communications (Cooren et. al., 2011). It is important that all the stakeholders have detailed awareness about the facility and the project. All their questions must be efficiently answered. Communication with stakeholders plays a key role in the success of any project. Hence if any of the stakeholders require any further clarifications then one on one meetings should be encouraged.

Dissatisfaction among stakeholders

There are several reasons that can lead to dissatisfaction among stakeholders. Technology plays a critical role in this project as the project involves several important tools that will be used to monitor the behaviour of older people. Therefore technology failure can be a reason behind stakeholder dissatisfaction. Besides this, if all the ethical concerns are not communicated to the stakeholders then they may be dissatisfied. The subject here is sensitive and hence efforts must be put in to ensure that all the stakeholders involved understand the level of sensitivity towards the problems faced by the older people. If any of project members does not depict a clear sensitivity and understanding, then too the stakeholders may be dissatisfied.

Lastly, the idea behind the project is to offer feedback to nurses in order to increase level of satisfaction levels of elder people as well as their families. Hence it is important that after providing this feedback, it should be followed up that steps are being taken to improve the condition of the facility. If that is not done effective, then the stakeholders would be dissatisfied.

All of these causes can always be transparently communicated to the stakeholders involved. It is essential to discuss the causes as well as their impact so that efforts can be made to address dissatisfaction among stakeholders. Communication plays a key role in such projects and if the stakeholders are dissatisfied then it is only open communication that can be the first step to addressing these grievances.

References

Bourne, L. (2016). Stakeholder relationship management: a maturity model for organisational implementation. Routledge. United Kingdom.

Cooren, F., Kuhn, T., Cornelissen, J. P., & Clark, T. (2011). Communication, organizing and organization: An overview and introduction to the special issue. Organization Studies, 32(9), 1149-1170.

Men, L. R. (2014). Strategic internal communication: Transformational leadership, communication channels, and employee satisfaction. Management Communication Quarterly, 28(2), 264-284.

Tourish, D. (2014). Leadership, more or less? A processual, communication perspective on the role of agency in leadership theory. Leadership, 10(1), 79-98.

West, M. A. (2012). Effective teamwork: Practical lessons from organizational research. John Wiley & Sons.