PROJ6008 Module: Leading Project Teams at J&J Furnishings Case Study

This case study analyzes the leadership and project management practices at J&J Furnishings, a company facing expansion and strategic goals. The analysis examines the company's goals, including environmental sustainability, process improvements, and strategic planning. It explores the selection of a democratic leadership style, emphasizing employee interaction and decision-making. The study delves into the tools and techniques used to influence the team, such as clear goal definitions, skill maximization, and effective communication. It also discusses the implications of power in the project environment, advocating for legitimate power to enhance performance and collaboration. Furthermore, the case study outlines steps to alleviate project challenges, including risk identification, mitigation strategies, and effective stakeholder management. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings regarding leadership styles and project management techniques within the context of J&J Furnishings' organizational environment.

Running head: MANAGING AND LEADING PROJECT TEAMS AT J & J
FURNISHINGS
Managing and Leading Project Teams at J & J Furnishings
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author Note:

1MANAGING AND LEADING PROJECT TEAMS AT J & J FURNISHINGS
Table of Contents
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................3
2. The specified goals.................................................................................................................3
2.1 Goal 1...............................................................................................................................3
2.2 Goal 2...............................................................................................................................4
2.3 Goal 3...............................................................................................................................5
3. The planning of the project....................................................................................................5
3.1 Choosing the right leadership style..................................................................................5
3.2 Tools and Techniques used to influence of the team.......................................................6
3.3 Implication of power in the project environment.............................................................7
4. Steps to alleviate challenges...................................................................................................8
5. Conclusion..............................................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................10

2MANAGING AND LEADING PROJECT TEAMS AT J & J FURNISHINGS
1. Introduction
The assignment deals with the organization named J&J Furnishings Ltd based in
Sydney. The business of this organization includes the building as well as the selling of the
household furnishings in the country of Australia (Heagney, 2016). Two siblings namely
Jessica and Jack started this company with the aim of providing office line furniture at the
initial stage of the company that is mid-1980s. Gradually this company started to expand its
operations by opening showrooms in the places like Tokyo, London, New York and many
other places. The organization currently delivers approximately 130,000 units of furniture in
an annual year. Moreover, the number of employees that are employed with the organization
is approximately 200, which are indulged in the different departments of accounting,
marketing, human resources, IT, sales and many more (Fleming & Koppelman, 2016).
The below stated report deals with the stated project goals regarding the enhancement
of the organization among the competitors that are currently associated with the furnishing
industry (Schwalbe, 2015). In addition to this the report also deals with the planning of the
project implementations that will be beneficial to achieve the goals as set by the higher
authorities of the organization.
2. The specified goals
The goals that are set by this organization for teh enhanced performance of teh
organisation are stated as follows:
2.1 Goal 1
The leadership team of the organization is concerned with the impacts in the field of
environment that associates the shipping as well as the manufacturing procedures based on
the perspectives of the customer and their incorporated surroundings regarding the

3MANAGING AND LEADING PROJECT TEAMS AT J & J FURNISHINGS
manufacturing units of the company (Schwalbe, 2017). In this context, the goal of the
organization is to convince the various stakeholder’s that are currently involved with the
development of the furniture as well as the partners to sustain for long terms. The
organization believes that putting focus on the professional social responsibility will enhance
the company public relations that will further provide greater return on the investments (Sligo
et al., 2017). Thus, the organization is looking forward to put an effective focus on the
environmental factors that are likely to be the safety, the manufacturing materials as well as
pollutants.
2.2 Goal 2
In addition to the above stated goal, the organization is trying to enhance the prior
ordering, billing as well as shipping of the processes that are carried out by them (Harrison &
Lock, 2017). Moreover the CEO has a vision for implementing the technology adhered by the
information systems in the organization to enhance their procedure of execution of the
project. The implementation of the effective as well as sophisticated information systems in
the functional areas of the organization tends to provide better services to the stakeholders
associated with the organization (Vaagen, Kaut & Wallace, 2017). There might emerge
certain risks that are observed while the implementation is carried out in respect to the above
stated goals. These are listed as
 The business loss if there arises any type of inability to in the execution procedure of
the organization.
 The credibility loss of the products as well as services may put a negative impact in
the process of shipping of the goods.
 The loss of the sales as the other companies associated in this business can take
advantage in real times.

4MANAGING AND LEADING PROJECT TEAMS AT J & J FURNISHINGS

5MANAGING AND LEADING PROJECT TEAMS AT J & J FURNISHINGS
2.3 Goal 3
This can be depicted as the strategic plans which is to be implemented for the
effective success in the field of computer needs as well as improve the efficiency regarding
the products and services provided by the company .
3. The planning of the project
3.1 Choosing the right leadership style
The leadership style that is associated with the organization of J & J Furnishings is
that the team comprises of the leaders that can provide benefit to the organizational goals. As
the team of the leaders are associated with the initiative of achieving the sustainability factors
that will lead the way for the organization to achieve the goals as stated by them (Holten &
Brenner, 2015). Therefore, a leadership style that can be effective regarding the organization
is chosen as a democratic leader. This type of leadership is to be very effective as this allows
the interaction among each of the employees present in the lower level as well as the higher
level of the organization (Nahum & Carmeli, 2019). The democratic leadership style is
applied in the work environment of J & J Furnishings, it can be well determined that the
future market position of the organization will be much enhanced in terms of the available
competitors in the market. Moreover, as this organization is going through a digital
transformation it can be well said that it would be very effective for a leader to be capable of
making decisions regarding the implementation of the innovation in the workplace.
The democratic leader must possess excellent motivational as well as inspirational
skills to provide encouragement to the employees working in the workplace of the
organization. This skills of the leader will motivate a large number of employees to dedicate
themselves to the work they are associated with as well as it sustains a great level of the
success regarding the organizational goals (Jacob et al., 2017). This can perceive the skills

6MANAGING AND LEADING PROJECT TEAMS AT J & J FURNISHINGS
that an employee has and the leader could enable a specific employee for the specified task in
the workplace.
3.2 Tools and Techniques used to influence of the team
The tools and techniques that are taken into consideration regarding the achievement
of the organizational goals can be briefly described as follows:
 Clear definition of the purpose: The business team of the organization can be utmost
effective if the requirements to cope with the organizational goals are set in an
enhanced manner (Noe et al., 2017). This is the due responsibility of the leader that is
associated with the project to clearly state the requirements as well as the strategies
that are needed to achieve those goals.
 The maximization of skills: The business leader must be quite capable of the fact that
they can motivate the employees in such a manner that the employees could
effectively maximize their skills in regards to the task they are provided with. The
personalities as well as the skills that the employee possess is said to be the enhanced
with respect to the need of the task allocated to them.
 The use of the right tools: The tools that are necessary for the proper and effective
execution of the whole process must be implemented in the workplace. This promises
a great benefit to the organization and helps to achieve the goals as set by teh leader
of the business management team.
 Frequent team meetings: This is said to be an important technique that can be used by
the project leaders to enhance the production and effective execution of the processes
associated with the project.

7MANAGING AND LEADING PROJECT TEAMS AT J & J FURNISHINGS
3.3 Implication of power in the project environment
According to Hedman & Valo (2015), there are mainly six types of powers that can be
implemented in an organization to enhance the performance of the associated employees.
The type of power that will be implemented with the project teams to enhance their
performance in order to achieve the goals as stated by the organization. The most important
power that could effectively enhance the performance of the above stated organization that is
J & J Furnishings is Legitimate Power. With the help of this power, an individual can assess
both the qualities of leadership and power. This power is adhered to an individual with the
name of the specific position that the individual. This power can enhance the individual to
use their skills in an extreme manner to meet up with the effective performance, which tends
to achieve the set organizational goals.
As the legitimate power enhances the quality of leadership too, the individual
associated with this position must also provide effective motivation to the employees for the
enhanced support towards the task that they be provided with. This type of leadership
provides motivation to the employees with respect to the fact that the employees could work
collaboratively on a single project to effectively attain the strategic goals. The collaborative
work of the employee could enhance the function to achieve the strategic goals of the
organization.
This above stated type of power could enhance the project’s success in various ways.
The individual that is supposed to be a leader in the stated organization adapts this power,
which can be extremely useful for the individuals to gain success in the production as well as
offered services to the consumers. This is due to the reason that if the position is taken away
from the individual the time taken by the next individual is high as well as the infrastructure
might get hampered due to this fact.

8MANAGING AND LEADING PROJECT TEAMS AT J & J FURNISHINGS
The above stated approach is taken as it can maintain the organizational infrastructure
in a more effective manner. This tends to perceive success all throughout the levels of the
organization to meet the strategic goals as set by the organization (Hu et al., 2018). This
approach tends to facilitate the organization with the effectiveness as well as enhancement of
the organizational success that is needed in the marketplace.
4. Steps to alleviate challenges
Being a project manager the identification of the challenges that are faced in an
organization as well as the steps to alleviate these challenges may be stated as follows:
 The project manager should have good ability to understand the overall execution
procedure of the project so that the emergence or occurrence of the risks can be
identified before its emergence (Kliem & Ludin, 2019). This will help the
organization to deal with the risks that are associated with the project.
 One of the major risk mitigation procedure involves the fact of putting the right
persons to involve in the mitigation procedure. This will help to mitigate the risk
easily as the specified personnel’s for the specified genres of risks are associated
(Munyai, Mbonyane & Charles, 2017). This will help the mitigation procedure to be
fast and effective success can occur in the organization.
 Another aspect of risk mitigation includes the fact of meeting the assigned deadlines
in the project. Hence, the project manager should communicate effectively with the
overall team members so that the deadlines could be met in order to restrict any risks
within the project environment (Xie & Ma, 2018).
 The managing as well as collaborating of the various stakeholders in the project
environment can be said to be the best method to mitigate any type of risk that already
occurred or may occur in the stated organization’s environment.

9MANAGING AND LEADING PROJECT TEAMS AT J & J FURNISHINGS
5. Conclusion
Thus, the above stated assignment is said to explain the leadership styles that could be
incorporated at the J & J Furnishings environment. Moreover, the tools as well as techniques
that are associated with the project management environment for the enhancement of the
project team is also stated in the provided report. The powers to influence the project team
members are described in the above assignment, which leads to the identification of the risks,
and the steps to alleviate these challenges are provided. Thus, it can be concluded that the
organization, J & J Furnishings should clearly evaluate these factors to enhance the project
management within the organization.

10MANAGING AND LEADING PROJECT TEAMS AT J & J FURNISHINGS
References
Fleming, Q. W., & Koppelman, J. M. (2016, December). Earned value project management.
Project Management Institute.
Harrison, F., & Lock, D. (2017). Advanced project management: a structured approach.
Routledge.
Heagney, J. (2016). Fundamentals of project management. Amacom.
Hedman, E., & Valo, M. (2015). Communication challenges facing management teams.
Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 36(8), 1012-1024.
Holten, A. L., & Brenner, S. O. (2015). Leadership style and the process of organizational
change. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 36(1), 2-16.
Hu, J., Erdogan, B., Jiang, K., Bauer, T. N., & Liu, S. (2018). Leader humility and team
creativity: The role of team information sharing, psychological safety, and power
distance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 103(3), 313.
Jacob, G. H. H., Uy, M. A., Antonio, T., Christina, C., & Wonohadidjojo, D. M. (2017).
Personal Initiative: Influencing Team Members Through Developmental Feedback. In
Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2017, No. 1, p. 13993). Briarcliff Manor,
NY 10510: Academy of Management.
Kliem, R. L., & Ludin, I. S. (2019). Reducing project risk. Routledge.
Munyai, T. T., Mbonyane, B. L., & Charles, M. (2017). Factor influencing productivity in
manufacturing SMEs.

11MANAGING AND LEADING PROJECT TEAMS AT J & J FURNISHINGS
Nahum, N., & Carmeli, A. (2019). Leadership style in a board of directors: implications of
involvement in the strategic decision-making process. Journal of Management and
Governance, 1-29.
Noe, R. A., Hollenbeck, J. R., Gerhart, B., & Wright, P. M. (2017). Human resource
management: Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill
Education.
Schwalbe, K. (2015). Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.
Schwalbe, K. (2017). Introduction to project management. Cengage Learning.
Sligo, J., Gauld, R., Roberts, V., & Villa, L. (2017). A literature review for large-scale health
information system project planning, implementation and evaluation. International
journal of medical informatics, 97, 86-97.
Vaagen, H., Kaut, M., & Wallace, S. W. (2017). The impact of design uncertainty in
engineer-to-order project planning. European Journal of Operational Research,
261(3), 1098-1109.
Xie, P., & Ma, L. (2018, April). Top Management Team Power Distribution and its Effect. In
2018 International Conference on Management and Education, Humanities and
Social Sciences (MEHSS 2018). Atlantis Press.