Effective Project Leadership: Managing People, Change & Culture

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of managing people and project leadership, focusing on the critical aspects of teamwork, organizational culture, communication, and change management. It delves into the issues of managing teams, highlighting the Belbin's team role model and Handy's organizational culture to understand team dynamics and cultural influences. The essay critically discusses the importance of communication and change management in project management, referencing Kotter's change management model for effective implementation. Furthermore, it evaluates the impact of organizational culture and leadership in projects, touching upon Lewin's leadership styles. The aim is to provide a detailed understanding of the challenges and strategies involved in effective project management and leadership, with a focus on creating a harmonious and productive project environment.

MANAGING PEOPLE AND PROJECT LEADERSHIP
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Critical discussion and evaluation of issues of managing people in projects including teamwork
and culture.......................................................................................................................................2
Belbin’s team role model.............................................................................................................3
Handy’s organisational culture....................................................................................................4
Critical discussion and evaluation of issues of communication and management of change in
project management.........................................................................................................................5
Kotter’s change management model...........................................................................................5
Critical discussion and evaluation of the impact of organisational culture and Leadership in
projects.............................................................................................................................................8
Lewin’s leadership styles.............................................................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
Reference list.................................................................................................................................12
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Introduction
Project management is the root behind the success for a work. Project Management deals with
the initiation, execution, generation of teams in order to manage or plan and complete the task
within time in an easier way. In simple words we can say project management is the art of
managing a task. The idea of modern project management is developed in 1950s in the United
States of America and spread gradually with the course of time. It’s a must to mention that
leadership and teamwork plays a significant role in management. It’s the leader who leads the
entire team and the team works in order to achieve the ultimate goal. Though it sounds easy but
in reality not like that; managing people and organizing them is a tough job that is to be done
within a limited time period to reach the goal. In spite of having diversity in cast creed color and
language the team leader pushes the team to reach their ultimate success. Culture and
communication is also very important while managing the task. Communication is the path by
which the ideas or instructions flow, so communication is another vital material for management.
This assignment primarily focuses on the basics of Project management and leadership and its
various sides from different approach. The study highlights on the various aspects of managing
people within a team or in a culture, issues of communication and management of change,
organizational culture and leadership issues.
Critical discussion and evaluation of issues of managing people in projects
including teamwork and culture
A Declaration is often heard, that project management is not so easy to do. It’s because the entire
task is divided into several parts and each and every part has its importance. Leaders or
employees often face various issues while conducting the work. So the leaders will have to be
attentive as well as alert all the time on the work process. Leaders too have some duties on his
team i.e. employees. We often heard of various issues between employees and leaders, this is an
example of mismanagement. So the leaders have to follow some guidelines. There are problems
like inadequate system structure, environment problems, possible scopes, stressful environment
etc, such lack leads to mismanagement and failure. Successful management is a result of well
planned initiative, planning, execution of the idea and the harmony of team work. Time
management plays a vital role too but haste often leads to mistakes, the conflicts in projects is
often caused by schedules, cost, priority, technical opinions and the change, that most of the
people are reluctant to accept (Kiznyte, Welker, and Dechange, 2016).
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Belbin’s team role model
Every person behaves differently when they are put in a group. Belbin and his colleagues found
that there are some common types of behaviors which are stable enough to be identified
separately.
According to Belbin there are nine different team roles as follows-
A) Implementer: In a team an implementer is the organizer who maintains the rhythm
and regularity in the team. Implementers execute all the plans and put them into action
and thus managing peoples in a team becomes easy in an implementer is around but
sometimes they can be inflexible and reluctant to new thoughts (Kiznyte et al. 2016).
B) Resource investigator: Resource investigators bring new thought and idea in a
team and sometime improvise old thoughts. Hence they are the source that brings
everyone in the team participates positively but sometimes they can get carried away and
not complete what they start (Leach, 2014).
C) Plant: A plant is also a creative thinker but in peace. They can solve difficult
problems and give new ideas also but sometimes they can get a bit unrealistic and act in a
way which won’t give practical results.
D) Monitor: Monitors are the analyzer and evaluator of a team. They overview every
project and gives accurate analysis and judgment. People management in a team gets
highly boosted in presence of a monitor as everyone is guided in a right direction and no
time and energy is wasted (Trivellas and Drimoussis, 2013). The only lag is a monitor
can be too critical at times.
E) Shaper: Shapers are passionate ones who clear all the obstacles and provide
positive results. Hence shapers are the driving force in a team that carries the members
forward but being so driven they can hurt others feeling and become intolerant.
F) Coordinator: A coordinator is calm and open minded. Any tough is always taken
by them. Team unity depends largely on the success of a coordinator. But they can
become slightly manipulative.
G) Completer finisher: In a team a completer finisher deals with potential problems,
maintains quality and analyses risk. A team is a lot safe around them but they worry a lot
and discourage other members which can give negative impact on a team (Zulch, 2014).
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H) Team worker: team worker is caring and maintains team spirit but they avoid
conflict and crunch moment decisions.
I) Specialists: Specialists expertise and specializes knowledge but they do not interact and
remains isolated.
Handy’s organisational culture
For every project management it is very important of managing people while doing the team
work. Every project management team should have their own culture also. Handy’s
organisational model is one of the particular model for managing people and working as a team.
Working as a team increases the cooperation, knowledge and understanding (Mandiartha and
Duffield, 2016). There are four types of culture within Handy’s organisational culture. These are
power culture, role culture, task culture and person or support culture.
Power culture is looking like a spider web. By using this power culture people can assure and
control the resources which are used in project management. The person having the highest
power is placed at center and remaining place beside the middle person.
Role culture is the other culture of Handy’s organisational culture. Personal power is the main
power, worker follows the personal power. Here the job is done with the help of the role of
persons. Role culture enhances the security for the management of project. One can get a huge
opportunity for developing career.
Task culture is a classification of Handy’s organisational culture. Task culture is all about project
based culture for doing a job as a team. As the project is the main purpose of this culture team
works and people management are main objective of this culture for solving the project
(DuFrene and Lehman, 2014). Task culture is also important project management culture for
competitive market system. But this task culture can convert into the role culture for
unsuccessful organisation.
Person culture or the support culture is the last culture of Handy’s organisational culture. It is
rarely found in organisations. It is used to assist the individuals according to their interests. This
culture is used to create for particular purpose and can be reformed.
Using this Handy’s organisational culture the people can increase their knowledge as well as
improve the functional area, team leading and as well as group maintaining power.
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Critical discussion and evaluation of issues of communication and
management of change in project management
Communication is the important factor improving the project management. Earlier the diversity
of the people within a group could not improve the project .But nowadays people are very much
concern about the communication for upgrading the people and project management system.
The effective communication between the team upgrades the project. Use involvement,
executive management, important statement which are required -these are the main objective for
the betterment of communication and management.
Effective communication is used to take a prior decision while anyone needs to receive the
information. Every project should include a good communication skill between team leader and
coworkers. Good communication is used to explain a project right way. One can get exact
information a project for exact project management. Communication improves the whole project.
Communication skill creates a good relationship between the workers (Hesselbarth and
Schaltegger, 2014). Decision making process, problem solving power, reporting guidelines are
needed for improving and create the betterment of project management. Managing the people
and improving the communication skills are the main criteria for project management.
Kotter’s change management model
1. Create a sense of urgency
The first step discuss about the changes which are certain and also what are the coming impact of
those changes in the long run. The employees also need to understand that change should be
taken within a certain period and define the change with proper communication (Matos Marques
Simoes and Esposito, 2014). The benefits, which would be, offer in the near future to be
employees.
2. Create a guiding coalition
The process is more important than the result, and then the first priority should be the process.
The organization usually puts a team, which is open to communicate with the employees,
generate the productive results and finally regulate the change, which would be a benefited for
the organization (Valackiene and Susniene, 2013). Managing change is not mechanic activity. It
requires a throughout understanding of human reactions. People respond differently to stress.
Stress can either motivate people or lead them to the feeling of being swamped.
3. Create a vision for change
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In the words of Albert Einstein “Imagination is more important than knowledge”. The HR
employees should be processing what are the benefits of the changes in the long run and also the
other benefits they would be enjoying the down the line. Changes now a day’s comes with
physiological threats of losing their jobs in the short run, but they do not usually understand what
the benefits are they would be enjoying in the process (Lindahl, Bodin, and Tengo, 2015).
4. Communicate the vision
Communication is more important than action and a proper communication can generate or
resists the impact of the any outcome. The understanding of the employees, which must be
maintained in the process along with their needs, wants, opinions, concerns and finally the
anxieties about the change in the process (Cordery et al. 2015).
5. Remove obstacles
There are always one or more than one obstacles; we should be sacrificing something for our
better future, which also implies for the organization. We should be calculating our loss in the
short run and our profits in the end, are they worth of. On the other hand, if it is just the trend so
it is better to visualize our own position and sacrificing is not always present which can only be
overcome with the proper communication and understanding.
6. Create short-term wins
The motivation comes from mind. The mind depends on the process, which we see and visualize
in the end. Short-term wins are the process actually being the improvise the confidence level and
generate more enthusiastic in the process so they would be looking for more change in the
organization. The more one provides confidence to the organization the better for you to generate
productive results.
7. Consolidate improvements
Nothing is constant so before you comment on something make sure that you are definite about
those things. According to the John Kotter, many of the organization changes due to anticipating
about anything much before its time (Too and Weaver, 2014). Small wins or loses are just the
beginning to the long run changes. Therefore, as the betterment of the organization the change
management we should not be commenting anything previously or as per date scheduled.
8. Anchor the changes
The last step is the most important one due to any changes comes with a price and much more
hectic if it is just for only one time. Therefore, as the manager of, one should always keep
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evaluating the process on the daily or weekly or monthly basis and make sure that changes helps
to everyone and once a change should always keep constant to the betterment of the organization
(Osorio, Quelhas, Zotes, and Shimoda, 2014).
Figure 1: Change management model
(Source: Heagney, 2016, p.65)
Communication is very essential in today’s world. A lot of companies fail to make its customers
understand the policies. This happens due to lack of proper communication between the
organization and its customers. The Kotter’s change model discusses about telling the stories of a
company’s policies or communicating with the customers in an aligned and engaging way.
Engaging stories influences the people who are buying the products and services of that
company.
The strategies and the new ideas of the company can be dictated through every medium possible
as the Kotter’s Model of Change suggests. This enhances the communication techniques between
the organization and its buyers. Kotter’s model also suggests that communication should be
proper, simple and should have connection with the customers. This way the organization can
understand its people better and can build its relationship with the outer world.
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Kotter’s Model of Change is an effective way of understanding communication in a professional
level. This helps the communication and also builds a sustainable relationship with its clients.
Critical discussion and evaluation of the impact of organisational culture and
Leadership in projects
The impact of organizational structure and leadership plays an important role in projects. The
structure within an organization gives an acute idea of the designated work that needs to be
completed. The organizational structure of a company shows the project requirements and also
paves the way for decision making in various fields of the project. The leadership impact on
projects deals with how the manager or the head of the organization gets the work done by the
sub-ordinates or the employees working under the particular person (Osorio et al. 2014). To
complete a certain project, leadership skills are important as it brings the team working on the
project together. A good leader will work with patience and will have to understand the people
within the team.
Projects are very common and it is very important to follow a distinctive path for its completion.
This is where organizational structure plays an important role. The organization design has to
make sure that the tasks within the project are divided properly into specific jobs. This makes it
easier for the people working on the project. The impact of the organizational structure falls
directly on the project management. The project management basically deals with the scheduling
of work. The level of communication is also affected by the organizational structure. The
communication within an organization working on a certain project is better when there is a
proper structure. Organizational structure also brings with it the chain of command impact, as the
people working on a project are bound to receive orders from the upper sections of the
organization (Rose, 2017). This involves taking orders and working in a particular way. Without
proper guidance and commands the project might not be effective and is bound to fail.
Likewise leadership is an important part when it comes to projects. In large organizations,
leadership is very important as the leader has to communicate with the workers properly and
communicate all the necessary ideas and to the team. Managing a decent environment and
working place is also the duty of the leader. Leadership impacts the working nature of the team
on a project. It needs effective and descriptive leadership.
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Lewin’s leadership styles
Kurt lewin’s theory of leadership has three styles namely authoritarian leadership, participatory
leadership and delegative leadership framed in the year 1930.
Authoritarian leadership:-
In authoritarian leadership style the leader is responsible for making any decision whether it is
appreciated or not by other member of the group. The leader is always in believe that his
decision making power is superior. Usually in this style there is least or no communication
between the leader and the group members. Generally he or she recommends the method to carry
out the task assigned to the team member.
This leadership style has both negative and positive side. Dealing with inexperienced group
members who lack knowledge for that particular work, this style is in incredible help. But on the
other side experienced member get the least opportunity to showcase their efficiency and suffer
from low self-esteem. In any organization to manage their personnel, the team leader plays a
great roll. If the leader using this style to handle their employee does not get to achieve their goal
in a preferred manner and the work culture may hamper as the new ideas are not accepted all the
time (Valackiene and Susniene, 2013). This kind of management style sometime found useful
dealing with new and fresh employees as they get a proper guidance from their team leader.
Participatory leadership:-
In participatory leadership model the leader always possess a belief in team members and prefer
to accomplish the job with the collaboration of the members. The leader always put forward the
idea of the others and encourages them to work as a whole. In this type of leadership criticisms
are accepted gracefully by the leader. Since, this style allows the member to take decision,
sometime this style does not work out with the inexperienced team member. Organization using
this method to manage their personnel can achieve their goal early than the stipulated period as
the employee get the similar opportunity to express their ideas and organization get a
commendable work culture and working environment (Apm.org.uk, 2017). However, sometime
the team members not get a fond to their job as they have a clear idea that if the failed their
leader will perform on their behalf.
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Figure 2: Lewin’s leadership styles
(Source: Kerzner, 2013, p.54)
Delegative leadership:- In this style, in general the leader does not bother to take any decision on
himself or herself and prefer the team members to do the task on their own method regardless of
the suitability of that method in that situation. According to the team member's’ perspective this
method is most acceptable but in consideration of the situation sometime it does not work
properly. This management style is does not suitable for the members who really don't have that
much competency to carry out the job in a preferred manner or in case of any emergency
(DuFrene, and Lehman, 2014).
This theory, if applied to any organization to deal with their employee are found to be helpful as
the team member get the opportunity to frame their fresh idea and get an encouragement to do
something creative. In contrary if the employees are not found that much efficient and motivated
towards their work, the organization might be in jeopardy.
In a conclusion it can be said that the participatory management system is best among the above
mentioned methods.
Conclusion
In a certain project the success depends largely on management of people associated with it. If
the man power is managed properly then positive results can be attained like these, a) better
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efficiency in delivering service, b) improved customer satisfaction, c) better flexibility, d)
increased risk management, e) opportunity to expand the service f) increase in quality, g) getting
the edge in competition etc.
If the project plan is complex then management of the peoples can be complicated as this can
mislead the members. Not only this, if plan is not understood properly by all then it becomes
very difficult to deliver the project is it is needed. Hence project planning should be flexible and
ready to accept modifications. Other than this cost overhead can be a big issue for the small
companies and also those companies facing financial crisis. Another issue related to project
management is non-creativity among the managers which leads to obsession.
To be a successful company hence a management of people and flexibility innovation in the
project and helping out each other for betterment of company is very much needed. A company
can temporarily achieve success without proper man management but not in a long race.
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