Project Management: Teamwork, Communication, and Virtual Teams

This project management assignment explores the differences between team leadership and team management, emphasizing their roles in achieving organizational goals, such as those of global companies like Coca-Cola. It delves into the necessity of both styles, providing examples of when each is most effective. The assignment highlights the advantages of teamwork, including enhanced skills and faster task completion, and discusses a student's personal experiences with successful teams. It analyzes the impact of a lack of commitment within teams and the importance of communication with stakeholders, sponsors, and team members, suggesting effective communication methods and providing examples of communication successes. The assignment also addresses the challenges of virtual teams, offering solutions like clear communication tools and well-defined project documentation to overcome difficulties such as time zone differences and lack of direct interaction. References from project management literature are included to support the analysis.

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Project Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note:

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1. let’s start with a discussion about team leadership versus team management. I think we
all intuitively know what that means, and can think of times when we felt we were being
“handled” in one way or the other. Discuss an example of your experiences with that, and
what worked and what didn’t work.
Both team management and team leadership have their contributions in business
organizations in their own way. Global business organizations such as Coca-Cola are often
considered to be the title sponsors of global sports event such as the FIFA world cup and
effective team management of the stakeholders of Coca-Cola are required to get hold of their
client FIFA over the coming years. The services offered to the global tournament should be of
high quality this would help them in the renewing their contracts in the coming tournaments this
business aspect of Coca-Cola is maintained by their team management ability.
The role of a team leader is very much important for the employees of the organization to
attain the organizational goals at the end of the calendar year. Team leadership quality is an
essential factor for the enhancing the overall productivity for business organizations such as
Coca-Cola as it helps in improving the factors associated with the progress of the project such as
effective communication between the external stakeholders.
2. Continuing on the theme of project leadership versus management, do you think there
are times when both of these styles are necessary? Explain situations when you think one or
the other mode might be best.
The successful completion of the project within the assigned timeframe needs the
involvement of both project team management and project leadership styles (Meredith et al.,
2016). The role of the project managers, as well as the role of the team management, is important

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as the collective effort from both the two aspects of a project are required to manage the different
internal and external factors associated with the project such as the communication of the
supplier of the raw materials as well as sales and marketing required for the raw materials in the
production unit. Every production unit has numerous subunits which needs the attention of the
project managers and the team leaders associated with the project. The role of team leaders and
project managers are important under different circumstances. Effective and professional
leadership styles of the team leaders are important for the employees as they can motivate them
under adverse business situations which are common in most of the industries (Nicholas &
Steyn, 2017). Team management is very much useful to main long term business relations
between the organizations and its associated stakeholders.
3. We are discussing doing work through teams. think of why teams are often the best way
to approach a problem or project. Discuss at least three clear advantages of working in
teams. Provide an example of your personal experiences of when teams you were on really
did well – and why.
Team effort of a business organization is sometimes more useful than any individual
effort as it helps to deal with critical situations where the collective effort of all the team
members provides a wide range of fresh and innovative ideas which can be applied in the
projects. Synergy can be created with the help of the collective effort of the team members in any
specific project as compared with any individual project. The strength and shills of the project
group members are enhanced increasingly if they work on group projects which can be the first
advantage associated with working as a team (Walker, 2015). Tasks can be completed within the
timeline or faster than the individual efforts can be the other significant advantage associated

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with the team projects. The other significant advantage is the improvement of adaptability for the
members who are working under the guidance of experienced professionals within the team.
Collective team effort is very much useful in the IT outsourcing projects where each
project is done by a team of website designers, website developers, maintenance, software
testers, server and internet providers and backend team working on the flaws of the project. Each
of the members has their roles in the project which has to be done successfully so that
productivity of the IT sourcing projects is increased.
4. In Patrick Lencioni's book, Kathryn talks the team through the ways a team doesn't
perform well. Of her five named problem areas, pick one that you’ve had experience with.
Share your experience, and tell us what happened, why you think it happened, and the end
result.
Out of discussed problem areas, lack of commitment from the members of the business
organizations can be one of the most significant factors which affect the performance of the
team. Considering IT website developmental organizations working on outsourced projects it can
be said that each of the stakeholders associated with the project should not be having a
commitment issue. There is an accountability issue associated with these projects which can be
minimized with the help of the commitment of the stakeholders of the project.
Communication with the clients is very much important in the IT outsourcing projects
and any kinds of commitment issue may be very much bad for the organization. The end
products are shown to the clients during the demos and any kinds of commitment may be a
concern for the clients for these software development organizations (Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017).
Any kinds of sever issue may be also bad for this kind of business and might be the reason for a

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huge business loss. These kind of issue can be solved with the help of digital contracts which are
needed to be signed by the stakeholders of the project.
5. Communication with your team, your sponsors, and the stakeholders is critical when
working projects. Discuss some ways that might be effective in establishing good
communications for all parties involved, and why different methods might have to be
employed for different parties. Give examples of your experience with communication
success.
Communication is very much important for all the stakeholders associated with the
business organizations. Establishment of effective communication between the stakeholders can
be done with the help of the mobile devices connected within a private network. Each
stakeholder should be having an account in the official portal and communication can be done in
a group within the portal as well as in inboxes. The portal should be having immediate
notification criteria so that it can alert the stakeholders with the help of a notification message
when they will be approaching deadline in their assigned task in the project. Personal profiling
and getting pro-active with the help of day end sessions in the organizations are the other ways
by which client engagement is possible in the business organizations. Every stakeholder of the
project must be managed with a different communication strategy (Kerzner, 2018). The external
stakeholders of the project need nonverbal communication so they can use a text-based
communication platform to get involved in the business processes and the internal stakeholders
of business organizations need both verbal and non-verbal communication which requires
platforms supporting both text messages as well as video calling facilities. Undivided attention
can be given to the stakeholders of the project by the management team with the help of effective
communication platforms (Heagney, 2016). Share point, google drive and drive box are

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commonly used communication devices used in business organizations. According to me,
effective communication is very much important to track the activities of the stakeholders in the
projects thus it helps to improve the productivity of the business organization.
6. Communications really get difficult when you are working with a virtual team. (You’re
probably discovering that as you work on your team assignment this week!) What are some
of the difficulties inherent to the virtual environment, and how can you overcome them?
There are few difficulties associated with the working with virtual teams such as the
problem in time zones as the team may be from some other continent. Loss of morale and team
spirit and lack of trust between the team members are the other significant factors affecting the
productivity of a virtual team project (Harrison & Lock, 2017). Lack of direct communication
and lack of social interaction are the other challenges while working on virtual team projects.
Virtual team meetings where the agenda of the project are discussed in the initial stages of the
projects are the primary way of addressing the challenges associated with the virtual team
projects. Basic fundamental rule for the stakeholders of these projects should be understood by
every entity associated with the project. The above-discussed issues can be resolved with the
help of the multiple communication tools. The documentation of the project before the start of
the designing phase considering the detailed deliverable and project scheduling technique along
with milestones needs to seriously considered by all the members of the virtual team projects
(Fuller et al., 2017). The selection of the perfect candidates for the virtual team projects and
maintaining professional work environment are other significant ways to deal with the
difficulties of virtual team projects.

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Reference
Fuller, M. A., Valacich, J. S., George, J. F., & Schneider, C. (2017). Information Systems Project
Management: A Process and Team Approach, Edition 1.1. Prospect Press.
Harrison, F., & Lock, D. (2017). Advanced project management: a structured approach.
Routledge.
Heagney, J. (2016). Fundamentals of project management. Amacom.
Kerzner, H. (2018). Project management best practices: Achieving global excellence. John
Wiley & Sons.
Kerzner, H., & Kerzner, H. R. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning,
scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Mantel Jr, S. J., & Sutton, M. M. (2016). Project management in
practice. Wiley Global Education.
Nicholas, J. M., & Steyn, H. (2017). Project management for engineering, business and
technology. Routledge.
Walker, A. (2015). Project management in construction. John Wiley & Sons.