Effective Leadership in Project Teams

This assignment focuses on the crucial role of leadership in project teams. It examines different leadership styles, analyzing their effectiveness in diverse project settings. Students will explore strategies for fostering collaboration, managing conflict, and promoting high performance within project teams. The analysis emphasizes practical applications and real-world scenarios to illustrate the impact of leadership choices on project outcomes.

Team Conflict Resolution Recovery Plan
Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Team Dynamics.....................................................................................................................................2
Conflict Resolution Leadership.............................................................................................................4
Motivation and Confidence...................................................................................................................8
Conclusions...........................................................................................................................................9
References...........................................................................................................................................10
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Team Conflict Resolution Recovery Plan
Introduction
Any project is executed by a project team that has a number of members with different
attitudes and working styles that can lead to conflicts. These conflicts when mild are usually
ignored by the project team but as the conflicts grow in severity, they can affect the project
performance and thus, resolving these conflicts becomes essential.
This report studies the case of a healthcare organization called Healthcare unlimited that is in
the process of development of software system for database extension which involves a
significant number team members involved in planning, coding, development,
implementation, and testing. The project is facing a list of problems and conflicts that are
being explored in this report. The project has already exceeded the budget by 20% and has
significant delays. At this point, major conflicts have created an unhealthy working
environment that is causing performance issues. At this, point, it is necessary for the
company to resolve all conflicts and rebuild the confidence of team members on project such
that it can be put back on the track. The report includes exploration of appropriate leadership
styles, resolution steps, and confidence building strategies have been identified for recovering
from conflicts (Adhiraj, 2013).
Team Dynamics
There are five stages of development of a team on a project that include forming, storming,
norming, performing, and adjourning as per Tuckman’s model of team development.
In forming stage, people start to work together and understand each other as the team member
roles are not very clear at start. In storming stage, the team roles are defined but because of
differences in working styles of people, there are conflicts that can cause a failure in the team
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Team Conflict Resolution Recovery Plan
if not managed carefully. The roles have to be clarified at this stage to ensure that conflicts
are minimized (Beheshtifar & Zare, 2013).
In norming stage, several differences get resolved and people start to appreciate the strengths
of others in the team. They start to socialize and thus, know each other well. There can be
overlaps between norming and storming stages as new responsibilities may get added to the
project resulting into conflicts that are further resolved (Chaudhry & Asif, 2015).
In performing stage, people start to work on a unified goal without conflicts as structures and
processes in team are well set. At this, stage the leader can focus on team development and
delegate most tasks to them. Project teams are usually formed only for the specific time till
the project lasts. As the project comes to the stage of completion, the adjourning stage is
reached, in which project team members are released and organization is restructured
(Barnwell, Nedrick, Rudolph, Sesay, & Wellen, 2001).
In the current project, people have started to perform but with new requirements defined for
the next stage of development, the team has come back to the storming stage which has
resulted into certain conflicts that need to be resolved. There are certain areas where the team
is lacking which are why the team is unable to reach the next performing stage with ease
(Brown & Hyer, 2009). For these areas, the project team members need training. These
include:
 Testers are not familiar with the new machines implemented and have to be trained on
the testing requirements. For this, it is essential that the project requirements are
clearly defined and communicated to the team and their functional outcomes are
properly identified (Dafoulas & Macaulay, 2001).
 The current program coded by Java has some system issues that the development
team is unable to resolve and thus, intervention is needed from the vendor for the
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Team Conflict Resolution Recovery Plan
resolution. The vendor would have to provide updates training to the programmers to
address these needs.
 Changes have been made in user requirements which have resulted into coding errors.
Thus, the team of programmers need training on the additional requirements of the
software system to be developed (DuBois, Hanlon, Koch, Nyatuga, & Kerr, 2017).
 The project manager has not developed any communication plan, risk management
plan, or implementation plan because of which testing requirements are not very clear.
Thus, project manager needs to be trained on the project management practices
including team development, communication planning, implementation planning, and
risk management (Edmondson, 2012).
 The programmers are mostly new to the coding system they are using for the current
development and thus, they are required to be trained extensively on Java coding systems
(Gemmill & Wilemon, 1994).
Conflict Resolution Leadership
Conflict arise when the differences of opinion between team members is too significant to
ignore and can cause issues that need to be addressed. Negative experiences and emotions are
generated in such which can affect the team performance and these experiences have to be
replaced by positive experiences in order to resolve conflicts. Be it any form of conflict,
conflict resolution usually follows a mediation process that involves preparation,
understanding of conflicts, and mutual agreement between conflicting parties (Gratton &
Erickson, 2007).
While preparing to deal with the conflicts, the conflict has to be acknowledging by the
conflicting members as well as their subordinates. Discussions should happen between team
members so that process of resolution can begin. These discussions would include assessment
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Team Conflict Resolution Recovery Plan
of the impact of the conflicts on team dynamics and team performance. Post these
discussions, all members of the team must be keen on resolving conflict and conflicting
members should become open communication for resolution (Saeed, Almas, Anis-ul-Haq, &
Niazi, 2012).
Following the preparation, come another step in which situation has to be understood and
problems need to identify. View of all members has to be heard at this stage. In this stage,
positions of people are clarified, underlying assumptions, beliefs and facts are listed, and
situations are analyzed in small groups using these assumptions, beliefs and facts. A formal
evaluation process may be used at this stage such as identification of quantitative pros and
cons of each resolution option, force field analysis and paired comparison analysis. Based on
this analysis, agreement can be reached between conflicting members about the causes of
conflicts such that resolution strategies can be identified (HENDEL, FISH, & GALON,
2005).
In the current project, some causes of conflicts include:
 There is no communication system established for reporting the progress of the project
because of which the progress of the project is not timely and sufficiently communicated to
the team members. The project needs to have identification of reporting requirements such
that the same can be met by the communication system.
 There is no risk management plan established that leaves the team helpless when identify
appropriate strategies for managing issues that have risen on the project currently. These
risks include delays in deliveries, cost overrun, lack of knowledge of project team members,
errors in software developed, and more (Horner, 1997).
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Team Conflict Resolution Recovery Plan
 The system implementation plan is not defined carefully which is causing confusion on what
should be included in testing. This would need development of testing document with clear
identification of the testing factors and guidance on how these may be tested by the testers.
 Some of the team members are playing dual roles which are causing role conflicts resulting
into pressures. This could be because of the lack of clear identification of the team roles and
responsibilities. Thus, the team leader should bring back the team and clarify roles with
elimination of the overlaps between team roles (Khahro & Ali, 2014).
 No scheduling has been done for the project based on TCO fee and thus, the project team is
unable to control time and costs on projects. Because of lack of definite schedule of the
project, the team is confused on when deliverables have to be made which is causing delays
(Mueller, 2015).
 Required resources are either not available or are not equipped for handling the work that
include policy documentation and testing. Because of lack of sufficient resources, the
project development is taking more time. Moreover, the team is not sufficient equipments
for handling or automating project work and thus, most processes used are manual that are
time consuming and putting performance pressures on the team (Saeed, Almas, Anis-ul-
Haq, & Niazi, 2012).
 User requirements have changed leading to additional work pressures on the team. This could
be due to the lack of sufficient involvement of the project stakeholders at the project
planning stage. No clear project plan has been developed considering needs of all
stakeholders which has resulted into major scope changes in different stages of project
development.
The major conflicts that can be identified on the project include lack of communication, lack
of role clarity, and differences in priorities. These can be resolved using following strategies:
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Team Conflict Resolution Recovery Plan
Lack of communication: As the project lacks proper communication plan and reporting
structure, communication requirements must be identified and a communication management
plan must be developed for internal communication and stakeholder communication
management (Salla, 2013).
Lack of role clarity: Role clarity can be brought about by having discussions with the team
and identification of the responsibilities that do not overlap and assigning the same to
individuals based on their knowledge, skills, and experiences (TeamFME, 2013).
Differences in priorities: Stakeholder management plan can be developed where the
priorities of stakeholders and noted and appropriate strategies are defined to manage them
sufficiently on the project and making adjustments in resource allocation and scheduling
based on differential priorities (Team FME, 2014).
As the project team is fluctuating between the storming and norming stages of team
development on the project, a variation would be needed in the practice of the conflict
resolution leadership style. Different leadership styles that can be used for conflict resolution
at this stage include guiding, coaching, structuring, and directing (Suff & Reilly, 2006).
Guiding is used when employees have some weaknesses that need to be accepted and
improved with guidance from the leader. At this stage of the project, the project team
members do have sufficient skills to manage project work. For instance, the programmers do
not have sufficient knowledge of the current coding system being used. Testers are not
familiar with testing requirements. Sufficient plans for communication, risk management and
implementation management are not set showing the lack of project management knowledge.
Thus, the leader has to follow the guiding style and come up with ideas for improving the
team knowledge and performance (Sense, 2009).
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Team Conflict Resolution Recovery Plan
Motivation and Confidence
It is essential to keep the team motivated in the times of major problems on the project and
their confidence has to be brought back on the project so as to retain them and sustain the
project performance. It is essential that at this stage, a cohesive team is developed to improve
performance (Sarieddine, 2013). A number of motivation strategies can be used for building
cohesiveness in the team such as:
 Establish clear mission for the project and communicate the same to the project team
members so that most appropriate team members can be selected to achieve specific
goals of the project
 The project leader can make use of some team building exercises that would improve
coordination between the team members which would have positive impacts on the
team performance.
 The team leader should give time to explore the strengths of each project team
member and develop a plan to make the best use of these strengths for achieving the
project goals.
 The goals, processes, and strategies must be clearly communicated to each team
member by the leader through development of effective communication methods
(Chaudhry & Asif, 2015).
 Leader can ask for feedback on the project issues to each team member on the project
to highlight on project flaws and identify solutions to the existing problems on the
project
 Leader should appreciate the involvement and contribution of the team members
through celebrating milestone achievements to motivate them to perform better in
future.
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Team Conflict Resolution Recovery Plan
Conclusions
The current report explored the case of an organization called Healthcare Unlimited, LLC
which is a healthcare service provider looking for expanding its clinical data warehouse
through development of three modules including DB tables, promote tables, and vendor
reporting. The report explored the current conflicts that are faced by the organization. It was
found that the team is fluctuating between norming and storming stages as new project
requirements have emerged. The project team lacks appropriate knowledge of required skills
including programmers, testers and project manager and a need for training of the project
team on each of these was identified. Further, considering the team development stage and
the conflicts on the project, a guiding leadership for conflict resolution was recommended.
For building a cohesive team, some motivation strategies were also recommended that would
help bring back the confidence of team on the project. These included establishing of project
mission, exploration of the strengths of individuals, communication of resolution and
management strategies to project team members, taking of feedback from members, and
appreciation of member’s contribution through celebrations.
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Team Conflict Resolution Recovery Plan
References
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Beheshtifar, M., & Zare, E. (2013). Interpersonal Conflict: A Substancial Factor to
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Brown, K., & Hyer, N. L. (2009). Managing Projects: A Team-Based Approach (5th ed.).
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synthesis of Literature. Journal of Business Management & Reseearch, 9, 238-244.
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Retrieved from https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/knowledge-sharing-teams-
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