Leadership, Project Management, and Power in J & J Furnishings, Ltd

This report analyzes leadership styles, focusing on transformational and transactional approaches within the context of J & J Furnishings, Ltd. It highlights the importance of transformational leadership for inspiring employees and achieving organizational goals. The report then explores project management tools, specifically the Kanban tool, for efficient project execution and resource management. Furthermore, it examines six types of power, emphasizing referent and informational power, and their influence on project team dynamics. The report concludes by addressing the challenges project managers face, such as managing teams across different time zones and communication barriers, and suggests strategies for overcoming these obstacles, including the use of technology and regular communication to ensure project success. The importance of training and aligning projects with corporate strategies is also underscored.

Introduction:
The company J & J Furnishings, Ltd is flourishing under the strong leadership team,
the company has projected certain goals which are to be achieved through the strong
management and the leadership. For achieving the goals, the company must follow the
transformational leadership style (Jogulu, 2010). The transformational leadership is such type
of leadership where the management works in hand with the employees for identifying the
changes. Leaders working under the transformational leaderships are the leaders with vision
and creating an inspiring vision and with the execution of certain changes. These are the
leaders with the high emotional intelligence and integrity (Jogulu, 2010). They inspirers the
team with the clear set of goals and expects the best results from the team. Such type of
leadership style will serve motivation among this boosting the morale and the performance of
the employees (Jogulu, 2010).
Leadership Styles
Transformational leadership results in inspiring the employees for
changing their expectations and perceptions towards the work for achieving the
organizational goals that are achieving the long term sustainability and to upgrade the
system through innovation and implementation of the latest technology (Jogulu, 2010).
Transformational leadership is just about the give and take relationship, and works for the
team benefits and achieving the company objectives. In above case, the goals of the
company are discussed that is to improve the efficiency and follow such strategic plans
which help in achieving the needs or requirements of the consumers (Mahajan, 2011).
The company focus is just to revitalise it and with this increasing the profitability of the
company (Mahajan, 2011). Transformational leadership results in extraordinary changes

when the company focused on adding new changes to the company growth and the long
term sustainability. Supporters by means of their leader’s skills, beliefs, and personal
strengths help the employees to focus on achieving goals (Mahajan, 2011). An immense
leader accepts challenges and follows taking the greater ownership of the related task and
work while understanding the strengths and the weaknesses of the processes. Such
leadership style of management sets the goals to be clear, encourage others with having
high expectation and providing recognition and support.
The transactional leadership style is based on the transaction that occurs between the
employee and the leader (Mahajan, 2011). In such leadership style, the organizations only
pay the employees for the efforts done by them and see the relationships as the series of
the transactions. Thus punishments, rewards reciprocity, exchanges that are emotional,
economic or physical are such "transactions" which are the base of the transactional
leadership. Hence, the concept of following the transformational leadership is because as
this provides the direction towards the vision along with the essentials of empowerment,
having the concern for individuals, and even the task orientation (Sethibe & Steyn, 2017).
The transformational leader job is not only providing inspiration but is to be among the
employees in achieving the commitments and the goals of the company.
Tools and techniques to be used as a project manager:
While conducting the business projects there is always a chance or risk of occurring
the adverse conditions, which in turn results in the failure of the project or fail to meet the
planned objectives such as the cost, quality and time. Being a project manager one has to
consider the different activities, tasks and work for accomplishing the deliverables of the
project and also considering any risk which results in the actual outcome to be different from
the outcome that is expected (Jowah, 2015). Utilizing the technologies related to the project

management minimize the disturbance of regular business activities in several cases by
placing beneath a solitary command for all the resources, skills and technologies required to
understand the project (Jowah, 2015). The processes of the project management mainly
include the four key phases that are commencing the project, scheduling the project; project
execution and finally accomplishing the project.
The tool which as the project manager will implement in influencing the project team is the
Kanban tool which will help in managing and monitoring the project with the emphasis on
the continuing delivery and to avoid overburdening the project team (Jowah, 2015). Applying
such tool in the project management results the teams to work more efficiently together and
further optimises the project. In the case of J & J Furnishings as the project management,
manage the supply chain with having the knowledge of the manufacturing material and the
raw material with its effect on the environmental criteria project plan (Jowah, 2015). The
Kanban project management tool will use the line of resources that are pulled in the processes
as per the requirement. Such process will avoid the excess of the ordering the raw material
and the overproduction of the products (Jowah, 2015). The tool will result to keep the
resources in the required amount and replacing the one only when it is used. The tool will be
effective in visualising what is required in the workflow which results in watching the project
activities in the context of the one another and proves to be very informative. The lean
system of the tool will help the team to balance the flow based approach to avoid the over
commitment of the teams and enhances the flow if one thing is finished then the next highest
thing will be visible form the backlog. Kanban promoted the continuous collaboration and
also encourages an active team workflow.
Six types of power:

Power is such a force which induces the behaviour of the others. For the innovation
and the organisational growth certain power are requires for overcoming the resistance and
inducing the changes. In the case study, the management is implementing certain changes for
the growth of the organisation, as a result for the successful implementation of the changes
the power which as a project manager is to be applied for influencing the project team is the
power of referent and the informational power (Ponnappa, 2015). The refrent power and
expert power both are positively related to the agreeableness which results in influencing the
project team (Raven, 2008). The referent power results in the other to behave like the one you
want to be, hence for influencing the team to work as the leader is working, referent power
contributes a lot. Referent power along with the expert power is correlated positively with the
commitment of the employees towards the organisation, performance and supervision
satisfaction (Ponnappa, 2015). The higher the level of the referent and expert power among
the project manager higher will influence the project team.
Reward and legitimate power results to motivate the team members to work collaboratively.
The power of reward results, motivating the employees towards achieving the desired goals,
as there is a direct relation between the reward and the performance (Minelle, 2013). On the
other side, the legitimate power is as a result of the structural power of the individual which
gives the right to command obedience. Legitimate and reward powers, which stalk from the
individual’s situation in the society was completely related to sociability (Minelle, 2013).
That is, persons high in sociability have a tendency to rely further on legitimate and reward
powers. Employees probably look for the individuals who are having the desireability
characteristics of identifying, admiring and trying to please. The rewards develop a sense of
positivity in the performance as it motivates the team to achieve the desired goals that are
great efficiency in the supply chain, working further for the corporate social responsibility,
innovation the new technologies in the business and IT updations which result in the growth

of the company (Easton & Rosenzweig, 2014). The success of the project depends on the
collective working of the team having the acquired knowledge related to the project (Medina
& Francis, 2015). Hence, for having an impact on the success of the project is to have the
desirable information related to the project. Having the information results in an individual to
act in a different way, such a power among the project manager leads to acess the
confidential fianancial reports which are significant for the company growth and success
(Medina & Francis, 2015). Along with this, the success of the company is influenced in a
great way by the power of reward, rewards in a great way influences the performance of the
employees .
Steps were taken by the project managers to alleviate the challenges
As a project manager, it is his responsibility for the successful completion of the
project. In the case, the project manager has to mange the team of the 40 individuals who
blong to the different time zone, experience, and backgrounds. The first challenge which the
project manager faces is to manage and collaborate the team members of different zone and
time (Mascia, 2014). For managing such complexity, mature tools are to be utilised which
results to efficiently collaborate online rather than to work with the restricted technologies
(Iacob, 2013). Lack of communication is also one of the challenges which can be resolved by
scheduling the regular meeting for gaining the trust of the team. To avoid missing the
deadlines the project manager has to assign the task to the employees with the specific
deadlines and must have a watch and makes sure that is plenty of time for the changes,
amendments and review if required further (Iacob, 2013). It is better for the Project
management to document the changes, authenticate, evaluate its impacts, find a go for the
solution and have the request related to the changes get approved before the solution is
executed. To ensure training of the individuals this ensures the employees to understand the
culture of the organisations and to understand their roles in ensuring the success. Hence, to

conclude the company is required the link the project with the corporate strategies and train
the individuals related to the project for increasing the likelihood of the project

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