PROJ6006 Case Study: Analyzing Leadership in Project Management

This case study examines different leadership styles and their impact on project management, focusing on democratic and laissez-faire approaches. It discusses tools and techniques for project managers, including monitoring, communication, and motivation through reward, persuasion, and charismatic power. The study also addresses the development of self-managed teams and the challenges project managers face, such as team members lacking awareness of their responsibilities, meeting deadlines, and managing geographically dispersed teams. The analysis emphasizes the importance of clear communication, appropriate leadership styles, and proactive problem-solving to ensure project success. Desklib provides solved assignments and resources for students.

Running Head: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR AND PEOPLE MANAGEMENT
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ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR AND PEOPLE MANAGEMENT
Institution’s Name:
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Organizational behavior and people management
Leadership styles is a way in which leaders in an organization improvise approaches to
direct, plan implementation and the way to motivate different people working in that particular
organization. It can also be behavioral schemes that leaders embrace to impact the behaviors of
those working under them. Different leaders have different leadership styles. These leadership
styles are affected by different elements such as the personalities of leaders, the objectives of the
organization and the competitive nature of the company (Hitt, et al 2015). The main aim of this
paper is to highlight the different leadership styles implemented by a different organization.
Democratic leadership style gives the employees an opportunity to participate in decision
making (Sharpe 2011). The lower level employees are empowered by the management; they are
able to measure their own performance in the company. There is a continued flow of information
from top managers to lower level staff (Choi 2007, p. 245). This form of leadership is the best
since the employees are focused as they are part of the decision making of the company and thus
work towards attaining the goals of the company. This form of leadership can majorly be used
when the company has a lot of issues that require different opinions from different staff members
to come to an agreement. Also if a company relies on teamwork democratic form of leadership is
the best way to achieve the goals of different groups in a particular company project. Laisseiz
faire leadership (Sharpe 2011) on the other hand can fail the company from achieving the set
goals as the manager gives the mandate to employees to make their own decision and choose the
path they think is good for them. This may not help the company in any way towards achieving
the set goals, this only works when the employees are well vast in the knowledge and are experts
in making different decisions. But if those under the manager are not well trained, it is not easy
for this form of leadership to work.

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There are a number of tools and techniques that project managers put in place in order to
ensure the smooth running of events in a particular organization. Monitoring and conversation
are one of the greatest tools that managers of different projects implement. This tool allows the
manager to be closer to the team members and solve different issues that might arise Avolio,
Walumbwa & Weber (2009, p. 430). The manager uses a tool called performance appraisal to
evaluate the performance of different members in a given project. This tool is used to
comprehend the potential of different members in a team for the future growth and development
of the project. Management skills that managers are equipped with allow them to work closely
with the team members and other stakeholders and this helps them curb conflict among the
members of different teams. For the project to run effectively, this is enhanced by the
interpersonal skills of the project manager. This skill contributes to the success of the project.
Project managers possess three important skills which include influential skills, effectual
decision making and leadership. During the initiation of the project, the manager organizes the
team members to assist in carrying out the initiation activities of the project.
Project management commutation does not mean that speaking and hearing what the team has
to say but it involves comprehending the message completely (Collins 2014). Communication by
the project managers can either be active or passive (Neuliep 2012, p. 10). By active, the
manager can engage the audience face to face, through video conferencing, and even in person
presentations. The passive method of communication may include email, blogs or webcast
among many other methods the manager may wish to communicate with the staff. Managers can
choose to use attachments for status report details, the audience understand differently, there are
those who can comprehend the information in exceptions while others can only understand
information that is detailed (Collins 2014). The manager can email both the detailed and the

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exceptions to the audience. The manager should also use a technique which allows him to report
less when reporting to higher managers (Pujari 2015). Mostly the team members need detailed
information based on their work while higher managers need information that is summarized. It’s
advisable for the manager to use proper channels of communication, mostly paper is not
advisable. The communication can be done through the email if it is intense and voicemail for
information that is not long or complicated. The manager is allowed to use colors to show the
health of the project. Whereby the green color shows that the project is safe and on the right
track while red shows that the project is at a very high risk, yellow on the other hand is the
average (Collins 2014). The manager should schedule communication so that everyone in the
organization is aware of when communication is expected.
In the article about the types of power, the manager can use to motivate the team to achieve
the objectives of the project is very clear on what managers should do. Managers should use the
reward power, which states that many people work to their best or are motivated by rewards as
they do their duty. The project manager should promise different rewards to employees this can
motivate them to work extremely harder to achieve the set goals of the project (Shenoy n.d). The
manager has to look for a way to either increase the comfort of employees or reduce the
discomfort they might be experiencing. The power of persuasion whereby the manager presents
the arguments in a way that encourages the team to work, through this power, the manager can
make employees only focus on the success of the project. In short the way, the project manager
addresses the employee’s matters to the success of the project. The charismatic power which is
also termed as personal power addresses the personality of the manager. A manager with an
attractive personality is likely to amaze the staff and this definitely motivates the employees to
copy from the manager (Shenoy n.d). Through the expert power, the manager leads by an

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example. The manager is able to direct information, apprehension, and expertise to the other
members of the team. By doing this, helps the team to feel at peace and work towards the goals
of the project. Referent power is whereby the project manager mentions to the team the
compliment from the head manager said concerning their hard work (Colquitt, et al 2017). This
alone motivates the team and trust in you more since they believe you associate with big people
in power and they would work even harder just to be like you the manager.
There are different methods that are used to develop self-managed teams for agile products;
teach principles of self-management, self-managed teams are not used to supervision or leaders
giving them direction (Boyer 2010). But leadership and management are important in setting the
goals and giving direction within the confines of the structure of the team. A self-managed team
is incapable of functioning if there is no communication. It should work on the intramural
communication. During the meetings, team members are advised to share their different views be
it on profits, loses or any issue they might have as this helps in the growth of the project.
Communication is a crucial block for the team's trust. The team should spend more time
backdating on what the members might have faced that hindered their progress. During this time
members share more on their experiences during the sprint period, the difficulties they faced and
all that. Self-managed agile projects focus on individuality. The team states that each member is
treated as an individual and not as a group.
The leadership style chosen by the leaders in a particular company has a great impact on the
achievements of the project (Bell 2013, p. 69). Choosing a democratic leadership style is more
advantageous to the decision making in the project since everyone is involved (Choi2007, p.250).
The teams are given opportunities to share their views and it is the work of the manager to
analyze the different views and decide on the final agreement. Under the autocratic approach, it

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cannot work well since the leaders are kind of dictating to those working under them. The staff
is not given an opportunity to participate in the decision making of the project implementation.
Laissez-faire plays no leadership role as all the mandate is given to employees to make decisions.
This leaves the democratic leadership style to stand out.
Project managers face quite a number of challenges carrying out different managerial duties of
the project. One of the major challenges is those team members who are not aware and cannot
comprehend their responsibilities (Johnson 2015). This is a problem that project managers can
handle before assigning duties to the team members. The managers have to ensure that the team
has clear information about who is responsible for what in the organization to avoid confusion
among the team members. Another challenge is meeting deadlines; this is a crucial problem
(Lonoff 2015). To handle this, the project manager should allocate team members with particular
deadlines for different parts of the project. Through doing this, the manager is in a position to
make corrections if they are there in good time. Or another way the manager should handle such
an issue is by dividing the project into small portions with enough space that will enable him to
make changes in good time before the delivery period is reached. Another challenge is when the
manager is not aware of a problem in the institution (Choi, Goh& Adam 2016, p. 14). A good
project manager should hold meetings with the team members either weekly or bi-weekly to
check on the status of the members how they are faring on and if there is a problem that needs
quick solution it should be solved. The biggest challenge that project managers face is managing
and integrating with team members who are in different locations and different time zone
(Lonoff 2015). To curb this particular problem, managers should implement a tool called EMC
Syncplicity. This is a great tool that will allow employees to work from their different locations
and the project functions without any hindrance.

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