Analyzing Leadership Styles: J&J Furnishings Project Management Report

This report analyzes the J&J Furnishings case study, focusing on leadership styles and project management techniques to address the company's IT system upgrade. The report identifies transformational leadership as a suitable approach, emphasizing its role in motivating team members and fostering innovation. It explores the use of Agile project management and tools like Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) for effective project execution. Additionally, the report examines Raven's six power bases, specifically highlighting referent, reward, and expert power, and how these can be employed to influence, motivate, and ensure project success. Finally, it outlines crucial steps for mitigating challenges faced by the project team, such as establishing a focused strategy and effective communication channels to ensure successful project completion.

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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Leadership Style..........................................................................................................................................2
Tools and Techniques to be utilized as a Project Manager to impact the Team..........................................2
Type of Powers to be used to influence the Project Team..........................................................................3
Type of Power to be employed for motivating the Team Members for Collaborative Work......................3
Type of Power to be used to impact the Success of the Project..................................................................4
Description of the Steps to be adopted as Manager for Alleviating Challenges faced by the Team............4
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................5
References...................................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
J & J Furnishings Ltd. is an organization in Sydney in Australia established in 1965 for building
and selling home furniture. It is planning to add a line of poolside and patio furniture, and it is
expected that their average sales will increase. The top management of the company has realized
that the company needs to upgrade its IT systems to increase its profits. So a project manager has
been assigned for the project with 40 team members from different background, time zones, and
experiences. The paper will choose a leadership style for the project manager and also tools and
techniques to impact the team. It will also use Raven's six power bases for influencing and
motivating the team members of project and impacting the success of project. Moreover, it will
discuss the steps implemented by the manager for reducing the challenges faced by the team.
Leadership Style
Transformational leadership style can be suitable for the project manager to manage the team.
This type of leader encourages the team members by being a role model for them and have a
positive impact on the team. A transformational project manager emphasizes on the needs of the
project above his interests and shows the ethical code of conduct and effective practices of work
to manage the project team (Aga, Noorderhaven & Vallejo, 2016). A transformational project
manager also connects rewards to the efforts of the team members so that it does not feel that
they are money making machines for J & J Furnishings Ltd.
In comparison to other leadership styles, this style of leadership motivates the project team to
become creative and innovative in finishing their tasks. Freedom is provided to the team
members to finish the tasks effectively and focus on the completion of the tasks rather than
blaming the team members (Nkukwana & Terblanche, 2017). This leadership sale helps in
promoting the leadership style through training and mentoring. Resources are provided to the
team members to finish the tasks effectively by the leader (Chimhundu, 2016). Training sessions
are organized to allow the team members for sharing their experiences and improving their
working methods.
Tools and Techniques to be utilized as a Project Manager to impact the Team
Agile Project Management is a project management technique which suggests dividing the
project tasks into small divisions utilizing adaptive strategy and constant improvement and foster

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collaboration among team members to produce maximum values. Agile is being used in software
development projects which are performed by the collaborative team (Chiu, Balkundi &
Weinberg, 2017). The present project of J & J Furnishings Ltd. is an IT software and process
expansion project. So, this technique will be suitable for the project of the company. Observation
and conversation are one of the tools that can be utilized by the manager of the project to come
close with the project team members (DuBois, Koch, Hanlon, Nyatuga & Kerr, 2015). By this
process, he could engage with his team in managing any issues in a specific area and can solve
them. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a project management tool which is suitable for
completing the project. It breaks the tasks into several manageable tasks which could be
scheduled and assigned to the team members.
Type of Powers to be used to influence the Project Team
Referent Power can be employed by the project manager to impact the team of the project. This
is the power of the manager of the project to impact the team members of the project due to the
respect, recognition, and admiration of the team members with their project manager. The team
member will follow their manager, and the manager can also utilize his position as a role model
to influence every team members (Gaski, 2016).
The project manager, with the help of this power, will model his behavior and show proper
conduct to his team members. His position as a role model will influence the team members to be
like the project manager and can encourage them to be committed towards the project. The
obstacles can be reduced through effective collaboration and better work relations (Hornstein,
2015). Constant modeling of the behavior of the manager will reduce the counter-productive
behavior within the team and its members (Siddique & Hussein, (2016).
Type of Power to be employed for motivating the Team Members for Collaborative Work
Reward power can be employed by the manager of the project to drive the members of the team
for collaborative work. The project manager has the capability to reward the members of the
team for their performances when they exceed the expectations. These rewards can be in the
form of promotions, bonuses, more autonomy and responsibilities, praise, and recognition
(Maqbool, Sudong, Manzoor & Rashid, 2017). The anticipation of the reward could encourage
the team members for working harder in order to accomplish the reward. The reward can help
for promoting loyalty in J & J Furnishings, Ltd. If a team member is praised regularly for doing

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his work correctly, it will increase a sense of loyalty in comparison to that team member who is
not praised (Mok, Shen, Yang & Li, 2017).
If the reward is given only to a subset of team members, then it could build healthy competition
among the other team members for achieving the reward. The reward can also improve the
retention such as a team member can be financially rewarded to stay at the company. The project
manager can promise to reward the whole team on the condition that they have to achieve the
targets (Hoda & Murugesan, 2016). It will build a strong bond in the members of the team as all
the members will strive to accomplish the common target.
Type of Power to be used to impact the Success of the Project
Expert power could be employed by the manager of the project to influence the success of the
project. It is the power which the project manager owns that includes knowledge, expertise, and
in-depth information about the project. Since the project manager has a high level of expertise,
he can impact the members of the team to carry on the project with the help of respect and trust
and make it successful (Yahaya & Ebrahim, 2016). These power and expertise are of great value
for the project manager.
Through this power, the team members will be more open for his guidance, as they would trust
his leadership. It could decrease the conflict in the team and make the team to give a high-level
performance. Expert power implies that the team would be naturally impacted by the expertise of
the manager of the project. As an expert, the project manager will have power and reputation; he
has the possibility to be invited in the vital decisions and meetings of the project. He can earn
respect and trust from his team members and impact them to do a successful project.
Description of the Steps to be adopted as Manager for Alleviating Challenges faced by the
Team
The steps to be taken for reducing the challenges faced by the team of the project are given
below:
Make a Focus Strategy - While handling the project of IT software and process expansion, the
team members, project manager and the stakeholders will be involved in various tasks (Tabassi
et al., 2016). They might not be sure of the project strategy and will carry on with undefined
objectives. So to handle this challenge, the project manager, members of the team, and the

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stakeholders need to focus on determining a focused execution plan for the project. The plan will
help them to finish the project successfully with the help of the successful focused execution
plan for the project (Moodley, Sutherland & Preterms, 2016).
Establish Effective Communication - Effective communication is significant for the project
manager, members of the team and the stakeholders. For establishing effective communication,
the project manager must implement a single communication platform which could be accessed
at any time and from anywhere (Zhang, Cao & Wang, 2018). He can adopt effective
communication modes such as emails, text messages, or phone calls rather than organize for live
meetings. Any notifications and updates related to the project such as schedule and any action
plans must be conveyed through this single communication platform (Taucean, Tamasila &
Negru-Strauti, 2016). This will help each team member and stakeholder to be in touch with every
instruction and update about the project without any confusion of multiple communication
platforms.
Conclusion
The paper has selected transformational leadership style for the project manager as well as tools
and techniques to impact the team. It also employed Raven's six power bases for controlling and
motivating the team members and impacting the success of the project. Moreover, it discussed
the steps implemented by the manager for reducing the challenges faced by the team. Reward
power referent power and expert power has been used as the power bases of Raven. Making a
focus strategy and establishing effective communication can help the manager to reduce the
challenges faced by the members of the team.

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References
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