Project Management Negotiation Skills and Organizational Structures

This report examines the crucial role of negotiation skills within the context of project management, specifically focusing on a case study involving a project manager named Ava. The report details the negotiation process, emphasizing skills such as problem analysis, verbal communication, and decision-making, crucial for resolving conflicts, particularly those related to employee compensation. It explores strategies for team member selection, highlighting the importance of creating a positive work environment and offering incentives to retain talent. The report also covers the negotiation skills required at each stage of the project life cycle, from initiation to closure, and analyzes how organizational structures influence the negotiation process. By examining functional and projectized organizational structures, the report provides a comprehensive understanding of effective project management negotiation.

PROJECT
MANAGEMENT IN
CONSTRUCTION

Table of contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Question 1: Negotiation skills used by Ava in project management......................................1
Question 2: Modules for selecting the right team members in the negotiation process:........3
Question 3: Different negotiation skills required in the project life cycle.............................5
Question 4: Organisation structure that effect the negotiation process. ................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

Illustration Index
Illustration 1: Negotiation process........................................................................................................3
Illustration 2: Project life cycle ...........................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Project management is the process by which a project is initiated, planned,
implemented, controlled and closed. In this report, Ava is at negotiation phase, where she
has to negotiate with her project members regarding the compensation they are getting
because management is not agreed with the pay which Ava is giving to the members. She is
at very complex stage where if salary is reduced, employee will leave the project in mid
which will create complex problems in the organisation such as reduce production and
profitability. The report includes various skills which Ava should adopt for proper
negotiation are problem analysis, verbal communicate, decision making etc.
Question 1: Negotiation skills used by Ava in project management.
Negotiation is the process by which individual settle their differences, where they do
agreement or compromises so that they can avoid future dispute and argument. If any dis-
agreement arises between individuals so their main aim was to understand the problem and
find the best outcome in the company they are working (Keil-Slawik. 2012). Thus, the
principle of seeking mutual benefits, fairness and building the relationship are the key to
reach at outcome. For doing negotiation, different skills are used by Ava to satisfy their
project team as well as management so that team members will not leave the project in
middle, the skills are as follows:
 Problem analysis: Ava used problem solving skills to identify the interest of each
party in the negotiation. If the detail analyse is done, she can able to know the party
interested in the negotiation and determine the issue and outcome goals. In this case
the negotiation is taking place between the Ava who is project manager and project
team regarding the salary, where she is paying large amount to their employees
which is not according the management of the organisation. She analysed the
problem that in the Indian economy, the programmer are getting $15 which is
maximum amount and she is paying $40 which is very large amount. This analyse
help her to provide the evidence to communicate with the team members and will
able to provide benefits to her as well as her employees.
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 Preparation: Before entering into the meeting, Ava was totally prepared, she was
having all the evidence and strategies to provide the win-win situation to the
negotiation. Preparation includes identification of the goal, alternatives for the stated
goal and areas for the trade. It helps to identify the relationship between the
negotiation parties and past negotiation which have taken place between them. As
the past negotiation and their outcome provide the way to Ava to continue this
discussion to the better outcome (Timmermans and Tavory, 2012).
 Verbal communication: According to the case, Ava have good communication
skills, she can clearly and effectively communicate the negotiation factors to the
interested parties. If the discussion are not being transferred properly, then
misunderstanding will arise. In the meeting, she should state his desired outcome as
well as his reasoning (Keil-Slawik. 2012).
 Decision making ability: Leader should have proper decision making skills. She
should have good knowledge about the parties interested in the negotiation, how
decision will affect the environment of the organisation and consequences of the
decision. The leader should aware about the alternative she should select wheatear
compromising that is to give benefits to the employees or winning where she finds
her benefits so that discussion ends.
Different way in which she can conduct the negotiation process.
 Pre-negotiation: Another process which Ava can select is pre-negotiation, conduct
discussion and post-negotiation. In the first stage she can make the plans for
conducting the meeting and find the benefits for her as well as the employees. She
can identify various alternative to solve the problem of paying large wages to the
team members and select the strategies to solve the problem by doing negotiation
(Timmermans and Tavory, 2012). She can find various facts about the Indian
economy by conducting the research which provides evidence to her for proper
conducting the negotiation.
 Conduct meeting and discussion: In the previous stage, she had got prepared for
conducting the negotiation, now the next stage is conducting the meetings in which
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discussion can take place related to interest of both the parties. First, agenda is
decided by her about setting the priorities in which the meeting will conduct.
Further, she can communicate the offer where she will tell the team members that
she is going to pay less salary as per the management decision and then she will start
the negotiation. After that all the interested parties will match their needs to reach at
final conclusion.
Illustration 1: Negotiation process
(Source: Negotiation framework for solving disputes, 2016)
 Post negotiation: At the end, the most effective alternative is chosen where both the
parties have benefits from the negotiation and analysing the future effect of
discussion on all the interested members (Doloi 2012).
Question 2: Modules for selecting the right team members in the negotiation process:
Given the Project manager has had made claims to employees about various
measures for project implications by hiring workers at high salary basis. Now for generating
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effectiveness with this team of workers who have larger than life expectations Ava must
take calculated measures to ensure running of company.
In a business dealing with professionals is a daily routine, to cope with the
requirements of these professional programmers they can give a more friendly working
environment that would make their work somewhat less tedious. If the incentives would be
stopped then make room for more leaves on their calendar and stop working for optimum
hours. People take the work seriously so they can finish it earliest, the work of managers
must be to make the high way clear for professionals to finish their work at quick pace
(Doloi 2012).
Giving perks like optional working hours and work from anywhere would prove
profitable for both employees and employer in long term. Also, take the employees on paid
tours and organising events to maintain their loyalty to the brand would prove successful to
Ava. Without time management the company would otherwise fail, so setting up deadlines
and chase will serve employees respect and bonuses at regular intervals (Timmermans and
Tavory, 2012).
Take feedback from employees over and over to keep them satisfied with their
working environment. Make personal contact and involve with the professionals to give a
sign that the work is important and share with them crucial details that could prove
important. Provide them all legitimate details on time so they can stay updating their work
to meet the company's requirement (Timmermans and Tavory, 2012). Understand that the
work for the company, only the developer is tracing a design which they believe is perfect.
Correcting mistakes on time would make work more efficient and employees will enjoy the
working experiences throughout, it will be less burden if all bugs are pointed out while
making these sites and so now to pressure professionals to repeat their works.
Own a liability to these professionals by keeping them with pleased the company
after completion of project by handing them tokens of appreciation and recognition. Keep
them only for exclusive projects and let the loopholes be filled by smaller workers.
Organise competitive benefits for the professionals like a chance to be selected for major
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projects in the future. To keep this business the project manager may deal with the
association members on the above topics (Timmermans and Tavory, 2012).
Question 3: Different negotiation skills required in the project life cycle.
In the construction company, they generally have five phases of project live cycles
that are as follows:
 Initiation: it is the first stage of project life cycle, where the organisation need to
create and evaluate the project in order to find its flexibility. For starting any project,
manager need to identify the objective and goals which can be related to company's
opportunity and problems. The phase communicate deliverables and participating
work group are find out (Hwang and Ng 2013).
 Planning: it includes the further development of the project in detail so that
objective can be achieved and all the work, responsibilities and authority are
identified. The organisation mainly find out project scheduling software like
PRIMAVERA and MS project, whis may also called as scope management. The
budget are prepared related to all the expenses inured in the project and then control
over cost during the implementation of the project.
 Execution: It is the stage where the plans are put into the action and the work have
been started. Proper control and communication is needed in this step so that proper
control is done on the plans (Meng, 2012). This task is mainly carry out by the
project manager, she is the only person who allocate responsibilities, authority,
resources and task to all the members of the project. The manager provide direction
toward the achievement of objective which is made by the organisation and motivate
them to fulfil all the task which is allotted to them.
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Illustration 2: Project life cycle
(Source: Stages of project life cycle in construction
company, 2017)
 Performance evaluation and monitoring: In this stage, comparison of standard
performance and actual performance are done so that project manager can able to
identify problems and find out that group members are able to implement all the task
or not. If any deviation occurs, corrective measures are taken to solve the problems
(Lee and Yu , 2012).
 Closer stage of construction project: In this stage documentation is made out of
the project and then that document is handed over the customer, realising the project
resources and the close is transferred to the stakeholders.
Question 4: Organisation structure that effect the negotiation process.
Organisation structure have major impact on the negotiation process. There are
different type of company's structure that are as follows:
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 Functional structure: The venture is based on the functional division such as
human resource, IT, finance, purchase, marketing and research and department.
Each department work separately and isolated groups are forms and every unit
members work to achieve their department objective. In functional structure of
organisation, negotiation takes place on the function basis such as in human
resource, all the discussion and settlement are done related to wages, training,
recruitment and hiring whereas in marketing department, related to selling,
advertisement are done (Doloi 2012).
 Projectised organisation structure: In this, project manager have full right over
the project. He/she only takes the decision, set objectives and assign the task to the
members. All the members of the project group have to report to the manger of the
plan. Negotiation in such structure done by organising meeting with the member and
leaders of the project. All the problems are communicated to the manager.
CONCLUSION
It can be summarised from the project report that for running any project in different
organisation, the process should be follows that include initiation, planning, execution,
performance evaluation and close. By following and implementing this process,
organisation cab able to achieve their objectives and policies. There are different type of
organisation structure which effect the negotiation process such as projectised and
functional.
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REFERENCES
Journal and Books
Doloi H. 2012. Cost overruns and failure in project management: Understanding the roles of key
stakeholders in construction projects. Journal of construction engineering and management. 139(3),
pp.267-279.e.
Lee S. K. and Yu J. H., 2012. Success model of project management information system in
construction. Automation in construction. 25 pp.82-93.
Meng, X. 2012. The effect of relationship management on project performance in construction.
International journal of project management. 30(2), pp.188-198.
Hwang B. G. and Ng W. J., 2013. Project management knowledge and skills for green construction:
Overcoming challenges. International Journal of Project Management. 31(2), pp.272-284.
Timmermans S. and Tavory I. 2012. Theory construction in qualitative research: From grounded
theory to abductive analysis. Sociological Theory. 30(3), pp.167-186.
Construction M. H., 2014. The Business Value of BIM for Construction in Major Global Markets:
How contractors around the world are driving innovations with Building Information Modelling.
Smart MarketReport.
Larson E. W. and Gray C. 2013. Project Management: The Managerial Process with MS Project.
McGraw-Hill.
Floyd C. Züllighoven, and Keil-Slawik R. eds. 2012. Software development and reality
construction. Springer Science & Business Media.
Kerzner H. 2013. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling and
controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
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