Effective Project Management Strategies

This assignment explores the importance of effective project management in today's fast-paced business environment. It highlights the need for timely motivation to make employees highly productive and efficient. By adopting integrated and practical approaches, managers can tackle day-to-day challenges and stay ahead of competitors. The document draws on various references from books and journals, online resources, and research studies to provide a comprehensive overview of project management strategies.

MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Problem statement/definition ..........................................................................................................1
Analysis .........................................................................................................................................4
Recommendations ...........................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Management is an art. It is getting things done by other. Management always plays a vital
role in any organisation. The processes of management involves planning, organising, staffing,
directing and controlling. Effectiveness in such processes helps in attainment of organisational
goals. An enterprise main challenge is optimum utilisation of available resources. It usually
consist of human resources, financial resources, and technological resources. There are various
issues arise in management of a company. The problem solving skills and ways to tackle such
issues decides where a company stands in terms of its rivals. Oman is a country which depends
mainly on income generated from oil and gas industry. Oman oil is facing many challenges
regarding staff turnover and profitability. Staffs are unproductive and inefficient. There are
problems with respect to operation cost, business growth and poor talent management. Cost
incurred on various activities needs to be evaluated and monitored. Planned budget can play a
huge role in such task. Also retaining and attracting talent in organisation is the main function of
human resource department. Management should also work for improving efficiency of their
human resources by training and developing them. Human resources are life blood of any
organisation. They make an enterprise competitive. Thus, staff satisfaction is vital for
performance improvement of a firm.
PROBLEM STATEMENT/DEFINITION
Oman oil is a firm wholly owned by government of Oman. It is a national petroleum
investment enterprise found in the year 1996 by government. The company works in oil and gas
industry. Firm also invests in the generation of power, energy transport, refining of oil and
manufacturing of petrochemicals. Oman country's economy depends mainly on oil and gas
industry which contributes around 90% of revenue. Performance of Oman oil will definitely
affect the income generation for the government. Firm is facing challenges with regard to
increased staff turnover. There are issues regarding cost of operations, de-growth and poor talent
management. Retaining and attracting talent is one of the major tasks of human resource
management. It is the life blood for an organisation. Satisfaction of employees is necessary. A
highly motivated and satisfied employee contributes more to the organisation rather than an
unsatisfied one. It plays a keen role in deciding the profitability of a firm.
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A highly profitable firm always focuses on training and development activities of
employees and regularly motivate them. Encouragement in motivational level of employees will
make work effective and efficient. Employee turnover is always a problem for any of the
enterprise. Skilled, knowledgeable and experienced workers is a key to increase profitability of
firm. Retaining talent in an enterprise is of utmost importance. Losing trained and skilled
employees is a major problem for Oman oil as it will result in high cost of recruitment and
training. Long term employees have more information and knowledge with regard to job roles
and responsibilities. They can perform those specified roles in an effective manner as compare to
new joiner who hardly have knowledge about company. However, when these skilled and well
trained employees resign, it results in high turnover of employees.
The main causes of employee turnover can be discussed as under-
Poor management- Management plays a crucial role in training and making employees
suitable for the job role. It is the management that assigns them responsibilities and boosts them
to improve their productivity and efficiency. Appreciation and delegation of authorities will help
in same task. If an employer constantly show negativity towards work done by employees, it will
make them unsatisfied. Also, lack of appreciation and motivation can be one of the reasons
behind poor management. Oman Oil Company is facing same problem of high employee
turnover. The challenge arise due to dis-satisfied employees which resulted in low profitability
and de-growth of business. Thus, poor management will definitely hamper employees
performance at work.
Hiring decision- Hiring talent is a critical task. An individual who is good in paper may
not be effective in practicality. The match up of employee’s skills with the job roles is important.
A HR specialized person cannot able to handle finance department role and vice-versa. Thus,
role assigned to employees must be suitable according to their knowledge possessed. Giving
inappropriate role to talent will make them leave an enterprise. For long lasting selection of
talent is necessary.
Overloaded- Burden on employees will hamper their performance. Now-a-days
organisation pressurise their employees to work more. This will result in making them
unproductive. The burden should not be there on employees. They have assign target that re
achievable. Also team working should be given emphasis in Oman oil to improve their
performance.
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Employee’s expectation- Employee’s expectations are needed to be fulfilled. A highly
satisfied employee will work way better than a dis-satisfied employee. Those employees are
productive for a firm. Oman oil should give emphasis on satisfying expectations of their workers.
Also, regular feedback needs to be taken from skilled employees to know more about their
requirements and problems faced by them during work course. Usually, pay scale, benefits,
conditions of work, are important characteristics that Oman oil should consider.
Not encouraging- Workers of a firm needs to be continuously motivated during
achieving high performance (Zwikael and Ahn, 2011). Rewards should be given to high
performing employees. So that they will feel the sense of growth and opportunities in an
organisation. This is one of the essentials of management. A motivated employee will be willing
to work more. Thus, Oman oil should consider such aspect to reduce turnover of employees.
No team work- Team work will definitely improve coordination among workers.
Building up of team and making them to coordinate is always vital. Thus, steps needs to taken
with regard to team work in Oman oil. Lacking in the same will decrease efficiency of
employees.
Lack of cooperation- Now-a-days employer work for building teams in a firm that will
increase cooperation and coordination among colleagues. It will also result in effective
communication. The lower management give their feedbacks that are of utmost importance in
decision making (Zutshi, et. al., 2013).
Better opportunities- Opportunities available in the market will definitely attract talent
of an organisation. Rivals always provide better pay scales or hike in salaries will definitely
result in high turnover. A firm should have to adopt such strategies that will help firm to retain
its talents.
Lack of feedback- A feedback always gives an idea to an organisation about the problem
and issues an employee is facing at work. Knowing about those issues and rectifying them at
time is needed to improve performance. Thus, lack of feedback can be possible reason for lack
of productiveness of employees.
Thus, these are the possible causes of high employee turnover which lead business
towards failure.
Impact of turnover on company
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The retention of talented and knowledgeable employees are always vital for an
organisation. High staff turnover will lead business towards failure (Storbacka, 2011). Thus,
Oman oil should build up such strategies and policies that result in retention of employees.
Management role is most important in such issues. The influence of replacement of such talents
various in number of factors. It includes difficulties in fulfilment of vacant position, cost incurred
in recruitment and selection of employees and most important is making talents suitable for job
role. The training and development cost of employees are usually huge. In oil and gas industry,
employer usually incur more money on training and development of workers. As risk is more
and to deal with such hazard workers should be fully knowledgeable (Rowe, et. al., 2011).
Generally workers in oil and gas industry have years of experiences. Thus, Oman oil should
consider all these aspects of employees turnover. In this way they can able to make employees
more satisfied which results in improvement in profitability of firm.
Analysis
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High employee turnover is difficult situation for any enterprise. Dealing with the same
quickly is must for an organisation to be competitive in market. The ways to improve employees
turnover are as follows-
Improvement in hiring process- Hiring process is one which decides where an
organisation stands. Selection of appropriate employee who can plays job role effectively is the
main motive (Muller, 2011). If an individual is good in paper, it does not mean he/she is good in
practicality also. Expert and professionals from Human resource department is needed to hire
best one among all. It is one of the best way to reduce employee turnover.
Opportunities for growth- Every individual who joined an organisation will look for
opportunities related to growth aspects. The growth aspects will provide motivation to work
well (Lahdenperä, 2012). Opportunities should be provided to one who is working well as
compare to others. Also review of pay scale of employees in a year is must to boosting up their
morale. This all will helps in improvement in their efficiency and productivity.
Employees engagement- an employee engagement can be possible way to improve
employee turnover in Oman oil company. Obviously an engaged employee will work well and
possibility of innovation and creativity will be more. This helps in gaining competitive
advantage. Employees needs a positive motivating environment . They also want recognition and
challenges in their roles.
Training and development activities- Training and development activities will;
definitely boost up morale of workers. They will think that organisation is concerning about
them (Khan, et. al., 2011). This will result in reduction of employees turnover and improvement
in their performance. These will push themselves up and show willingness to work.
Collection of feedback- A manger should look for feedback from employees time to
time. Feedback always gives an advantage to firm to know more about work conditions,
employees expectations and work culture. Communication always plays a vital role. This helps
in removing problems and issues of workers at work. Thus, they can able to work effectively
towards accomplishment of organisational goals and objectives.
Recognise employees- Every individual wants to get recognized and respected. Workers
should be known by their performance and their efficiency. Rewarding employees for best work
is necessary to motivate them and to create healthy competitive spirit among employees.
Competitive spirit will make them work better than other.
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Team building- It can be one of the method to deal with high employee turnover. Oman
oil should give more emphasis on building teams and team working. Team working will always
make workers coordinate with each other (Kerzner, 2013). It boost up flow of communication in
an organisation and surely helps in resolution of problem of high turnover.
Motivation- Motivation is one of the most important technique of retention of employees
. A worker needs to be regularly induced towards high performance. Various financial and non-
financial aspects can be considered by Oman oil to boost up their employees. This will result in
increase in efficiency and productivity of workers. Human resources are the only one that make a
firm highly recognizable. A company can able to achieve its set goals and objectives by regularly
motivating employees at work (Keen, Brown and Dyball, 2005).
Motivation is always the most essential tool for management to improve performance of
business. Motivation is force that changes behaviour of people at work. Oman oil should use
various theories of motivate to tackle problem of high employee turnover. The effective human
resource will make an organisation to achieve its goals and objectives. The theories of
motivation can be used to analyse problems related with performance of business. Some of the
popular theories of motivation can be discussed as under-
Maslow's need hierarchy theory- it is one of the most popular theory of motivation. It
consider human needs as the major criteria of motivation. This theory is emphasise on the factor
that individual's basic need must be fulfilled before they will be induce to achieve higher level
needs. Maslow's describe a pyramid consisting of five needs starting from physiological needs.
He suggested that once a given expectation is met, it no longer serve to induce workers. The next
level of expectation will get activated in order of motivation. The most basic is physiological
need which involves food, clothing and shelter related essentials. Without them man cannot able
to live, hence termed as needs for survival. After satisfaction of physiological need, the next
expectation generated is safety needs. Financial stability, health and well being are the
components of safety needs. The next step is social needs which include love and belongingness.
Socialising and family are the one for which a man works. Satisfaction of social expectation arise
Esteem needs. This is the desire to be respected and recognisable. It also called as self-respect. It
include elements such as self-confidence, knowledge and achievements in life. Inability to fulfil
such needs results in inferiority feeling. Finally highest level in a pyramid is self-actualisation
needs. It refers to becoming what you are capable of. It is an individual's ability to transform
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perception into reality. This theory of motivation has gained wide recognition and hence of
utmost importance for a manager of an organisation.
Herzberg's motivation hygiene theory- It is also known as two factor or dual theory of
motivation. He defines what makes an employee satisfied and dissatisfied at work. He made a
conclusion that component that make employees satisfied are very different than those aspects
that dissatisfy them. He classified two factors as Hygiene and motivation factors. These factors
both influenced motivation of employees.
Hygiene factors- Such factors usually involves policies of company, working conditions,
safety and job security. If case of absence of such factors, it will lead to dissatisfaction among
employees. For example- unpleasant condition for working.
Motivational factors- Such factors involves achievement, recognition, responsibilities
and growth prospects with the company. These factors truly motivate employees to work harder.
For example- enjoyment at work.
A manger of an organisation should consider such factors to make their employees
satisfied. Motivating factor enhance employee satisfaction and induce them to work better.
However hygiene factors does not provide satisfaction to workers but absence of them will
surely dissatisfy them. Oman oil is also facing problem of satisfaction among employees. They
should have to consider Herzberg's theory to make their employees motivated and hence result in
reducing employee turnover (Hill, Jones and Schilling, 2014).
Vroom's expectancy theory- It is one of the most important theory of motivation. The
theory is founded on the key element that an individual will put a high level of effort if they
knew that their efforts will result in performance. This eventually related to the rewards they
receive. An individual will likely to consider three elements to decide how much efforts a person
put in work. These elements are instrumentality, Expectancy and Valence. All these factors will
influence motivation. According to Vroom's expectancy theory, people will get inspired if they
knew that their performance will result in rewards for them.
Impact of high employee turnover on financial aspect
High employees turnover result in incurring cost on recruitment and selection of new
talents in an organisation. Oil and gas industry usually incur huge expenditure on training and
development activities of employees. To make new talents to adapt to new roles, training and
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development plays a crucial part (Fleming and Koppelman, 2016). This will result in decreasing
revenue and income of company.
Impact of high employee turnover on strategy
Strategies needs to be reframed in case of high employee turnover. The quality of
products and services offered by a firm will be highly affected as new talents will definitely need
time to be adaptable. Replacement of an experienced and skilled worker is difficult to be done.
Top management of an organisation needs to be concerned about such issues and resolve them
(Fewings, 2013).
Impact of high employee turnover on human resource
This surely will result in low morale of human resources. High employee turnover will
put burden on employees that are remained in an organisation. Increased workloads and
responsibilities will definitely result in demotivation of employees.
Impact of high employee turnover on operations management
If employees are not productive enough it will definitely hamper various activities of
operations. Operation management is always vital for Oman oil. They have to perform various
operations in organisation, effectively managing such activities are of utmost importance.
Operation management will make business competitive in market. Thus, it will affect operations
management. A manager need to frame strategies to tackle with the same.
Impact of high employee turnover on innovation and creativity
If more employees will leave the job, it will affect innovation and creativity of workers
remained in Oman oil. Thus, leaders role is quite crucial in such a way that will motivate
employees to perform their work at level best.
Impact of high employee turnover on project management
Project management is also crucial for an organisation. A team build various teams to
deal with the same. Any employees who is leaving team will lower down productivity of team
and eventually hamper performance of Oman oil.
Recommendations
To deal with high employee turnover, Oman oil should build such strategies that will
result in motivating employees. Highly motivated employees will always be willing to work.
Since human resources are of utmost importance for a firm. They make an organisation
competitive in terms of their rivals. Efforts of employees will result in revenue generation. If
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employees are not satisfied, surely business will going to fail. A satisfied employee will work
way better than unsatisfied one (Elbashir, Collier and Sutton, 2011). Managers also needs to be
trained to effectively manage their subordinates at work. Promoting work life balance is the main
part of keeping workers happy, and productive. Also an enterprise working in oil and gas
industry need to give training to new joined talents which incur more more. To deal with such
aspects top management should have to build specific strategies and plans. Also looking towards
all the resolution method suggested like improvement in hiring process, feedback collection,
opportunities for growth, team building and motivation (Bavota, et. al., 2012). By the effective
application of such strategies, such issues are reduced or eliminated. A manager and leader both
have to play a crucial role in dealing with the with problem of high employee turnover. A
manager should have to frame such strategy which will help employees to know what are
expected from them, what are their role in Oman oil. A leader should boost their morale to
improve performance at work for higher productivity and efficiency. Time to time work done by
employees should be evaluated. Also effective action towards training and developmental
activities will definitely help to make employees productive at work.
CONCLUSION
By this report, it has been concluded that management of human resource are always
difficult task for a firm. It is human resource only that make a firm highly competitive. Retention
of talent and attracting talent are always necessary. Oman oil is facing challenge of high
employee turnover due to reason related to operating cost and poor talent management. These
causes resulted in poor performance of company along with low employees satisfaction. A
satisfied employee will surely work way better than unsatisfied employee. Timely motivation
needs to be given to make an employee highly productive and efficient. Management face
various issue on day-to-day basis but how they deal with such problems decides where an
enterprise stands in terms of their rivals.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bavota, G., et. al., 2012, June. Teaching software engineering and software project management:
An integrated and practical approach. In Proceedings of the 34th International
Conference on Software Engineering (pp. 1155-1164). IEEE Press.
Elbashir, M.Z., Collier, P.A. and Sutton, S.G., 2011. The role of organizational absorptive
capacity in strategic use of business intelligence to support integrated management
control systems. The Accounting Review. 86(1). pp.155-184.
Fewings, P., 2013. Construction project management: an integrated approach. Routledge.
Fleming, Q.W. and Koppelman, J.M., 2016, December. Earned value project management.
Project Management Institute.
Hill, C.W., Jones, G.R. and Schilling, M.A., 2014. Strategic management: theory: an integrated
approach. Cengage Learning.
Keen, M., Brown, V.A. and Dyball, R. eds., 2005. Social learning in environmental
management: towards a sustainable future. Routledge.
Kerzner, H., 2013. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and
controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Khan, Z., et. al., 2011. Push—pull technology: a conservation agriculture approach for integrated
management of insect pests, weeds and soil health in Africa: UK government's Foresight
Food and Farming Futures project. International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability.
9(1). pp.162-170.
Lahdenperä, P., 2012. Making sense of the multi-party contractual arrangements of project
partnering, project alliancing and integrated project delivery. Construction Management
and Economics. 30(1). pp.57-79.
Muller, R., 2011. Project governance. Strategic Direction. 27(2).
Rowe, A.K., et. al., 2011. Impact of a malaria-control project in Benin that included the
integrated management of childhood illness strategy. American journal of public health.
101(12). pp.2333-2341.
Storbacka, K., 2011. A solution business model: Capabilities and management practices for
integrated solutions. Industrial Marketing Management. 40(5). pp.699-711.
Zutshi, A., et. al., 2013. An integrated management systems approach to corporate social
responsibility. Journal of cleaner production. 56. pp.7-17.
Zwikael, O. and Ahn, M., 2011. The effectiveness of risk management: an analysis of project risk
planning across industries and countries. Risk analysis. 31(1). pp.25-37.
Online
fish bone framework regarding high employee turnover. 2007. [online]. Available through
<https://aiu.edu/publications/student/english/131-179/Project-Management-Total-
Quality-Management.html> .
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