Project Management and Risk Assessment Report: Little Angle Home Care

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of project management and risk assessment, specifically focusing on the context of Little Angle Home Care. It begins with an introduction to risk and its impact on organizations, followed by an examination of key stakeholders using stakeholder mapping and Mendelow's matrix. The report explores strategies for avoiding conflicts between stakeholders and identifies critical points within the matrix that require close attention. Furthermore, it delves into potential issues related to leading and managing staff within Little Angle Home Care, highlighting risks such as competition, contractual issues, customer preferences, and stakeholder concerns. Legal and non-legal solutions for minimizing these risks are also presented, including risk identification and mitigation strategies. The report concludes with a summary of findings and recommendations for effective project management and risk reduction.

PROJECT
MANAGEMENT AND
RISK

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Key stakeholders related with project ..................................................................................1
Avoidance of conflict between the stakeholders identified on the matrix.............................4
Describing the points upon matrix that the project should keep the closest eye on...............4
Potential issues faced when leading and managing staff in Little angle home care..............7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Risk can be simply defined as an uncertain condition that impacts negatively on the
performance of an organisation. Different types of risks emerges while doing any kind of project
that is needed to be handled properly so that their affects can be mitigated at certain level. The
present report is based on Little angle home care where by measures of minimising risks
associated with their business has been explained. In addition to this, main stakeholders related
with project are discussed by using a matrix known as relative power.
To the care director,
Little Angel Care Home
Subject : Project management and risk
Date : 6 Jan, 2018
Key stakeholders related with project
Stakeholders are those individuals that would be affect or affected by the policies, actions
and objectives of an enterprise (Teller, 2013). Project stakeholders are those person or group that
have an interest in project of corporation. It has been said by scholars that the primary associates
in a typical company are its workers, customers and investors. Little angle home care also consist
of some partners that can be identified by using stakeholder mapping.
Stakeholder mapping
For any business organization stakeholders are of great importance. They are the one who
helps enterprise to achieve its goals and objective. Mapping is an effective tool that assist in
identifying various such interested parties who has direct or indirect interest in the operation of
business. It holds fifth position in the process of BSR approach. Variety of information that is
received from this mapping tool is who all the major stakeholders of a company, where they do
come from and how do they have involvement in business activities (Schwalbe, 2015). It also
divides the various stakeholders in different category such as connected, internal and external
stakeholders of an enterprise. Thereafter, it also does mapping of powers hold by various
interested group which further helps in determining their role. It's importance in an organization
can be understood as it helps in managing all stakeholders which is required so that effective
communication is established with them and therefore continuity in operations can be maintained.
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It helps in influencing those parties who has less interest in the business as to motivate them to
participate more in operations is positive for growth of the firm. Through interaction with these
parties it can also be evaluated that who holds more interest in the operations of the business
which further aids in taking future decisions.
Mendelow's matrix
Sir Mendelow had developed a matrix in the year of 1991 that helps in analysing key
stakeholders. The main intention of doing is as follow :
 Whether resistance of business partners is probably to inhibit the attainment of the plan of
action.
 What policies might ease the acceptation of such action plans ?
The following strategies may be applied to each quadrant :
 Box A – Minimum effort : Shareholders who have lack of power and interest fall under
this quadrant. Due to insufficiency regarding powerfulness as well as interest make them
more vulnerable to influence (Robichaud and Anantatmula, 2010). Such individuals do
not use their own brain, instead of this they are more likely to accept any of the views
provided by their colleagues and used to follow their instructions.
 Box B – Keep informed : Such type of people show their interest in the strategies of
Little angle home care but they do not consist of any power and due to this they are not
capable of performing any thing. Here management requires to convince opposing
members to the strategy by showing them the plans are justified (Mendelow’s Matrix,
2017). If they do not do so then such individuals attempt to gain power by joining with
the people who lies in quadrant C and D.
 Box C – Satisfied : Managers of Little angle home care need to keep these person
satisfied so that they do not try to move to Quadrant D. This could include assuring them
of the consequences of the schemes well in early or advance.
 Box D – Key players / Participation : Stakeholders fall under this quadrant are
considered as main drivers of change. Even they can stop plans made of managers if not
satisfied by them. Hence, it is the responsibility of management to make them aware
about the planning they had done and also discuss issues that may occur after its
implementation.
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(Source : Mendelow’s Matrix, 2017)
How to determine power and interest
Interest : The level of interest can normally be represented as how possibly it is that a
business partner would take some sort of action in order to exercise his or her capability
(Wysocki, 2011). There are some methods that will lead to their interest :
 Higher personal financial investment in what the business does
 Lack of alternates (such as alternative job, consumer, manager or supplier)
 Potentiality to be named to account for failing to observe (for instant local councils or
legal bodies such ad regulators) Higher impact of society on firm (for example, well known, visible goods association
with particular issues).
Power : Some of the potential powers are cancelling orders, resignation, dismissing
directors, granting contracts, withdrawing labour, setting remuneration, etc. (Nieto-Morote and
Ruz-Vila, 2011)This is to be noted that legal bodies tends to shift power from one shareholder to
others. It can be understand from below discussed laws :
 Employee protection legislation (Health and safety, dismissal, redundancy, etc.) moves
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Illustration 1: Mendelow’s Matrix

the powerfulness to workers and keep it away from business partners and management as
well.
 Environment protection norm shift power to regional citizens and interested parties.
 Customer law moves powerfulness to users.
Avoidance of conflict between the stakeholders identified on the matrix
A famous theory named as Mendelow's matrix is utilised for doing mapping of
shareholders. The phenomenon of mapping deals with their conflicting demands. It assist venture
in identifying expectations as well as power of their collaborators and in turn supports in
establishment of political parties. This process includes decision making on below listed issues :
 How curious the inter - pleader is to impress their requirements on the selection of
strategies of organisation, i.e. how probably is the shareholder to exercise powerfulness ?
 To what level they have power for imposing their expectations ?
Some of the conflicts emerges among stakeholders which are listed below :
 Shareholders who lies in Box A do not has more power will try to move or join other
people who have more power as they are are not capable of doing anything with the
strategies (Larson and Gray, 2013). This conflict can be avoided by giving such group
appropriate power so that they can also participate in process of decision making and
represent their ideas. By this way, interest rate can be increased in them.
 Partners who fall under Box B also supposed to gain power as they show keen interest in
strategies of organisation but they are not able to take any important step regarding this
(Meredith and Mantel Jr, 2011). So, this creates a conflict among them and it can be
removed by providing them some power of taking part in the process of strategy making
of venture so that they get satisfy.
Describing the points upon matrix that the project should keep the closest eye on
Management of Little angle home care should keep their eyes on all those person who can
change the strategies of corporation. In simple words it can be said that managers should focus on
Box D as it consist of all major players who can bring change and need to console them about
schemes made by them. By doing this, they feel satisfied as are now become familiar about those
in advance and can give their suggestion on that if they want any modification.
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Risk associated with project
Several risks related to the project of Little angle home care are stated below :
 Competition : As Little angle is a home care that offers teaching facilities to small
children so many risks are emerges at the time of making them learn new things. The first
one is high level of competition as large number of companies are rising that is offering
the same kind of services. Due to this, the core customers of venture get segmented and as
a result sales rate get reduces.
 Contractual risk : Each and every project needs several types of contracts with different
parties like personnels, suppliers and others. Contract management is the process of
creating, executing, examining and managing the contract successfully (Kerzner, 2013).
Failure of concentrator in meeting the definite terms and conditions is called as
contractual risk. Key dimensions of such kind of risks are procurement, pricing,
utilisation, etc. In terms of pricing, clients consist of low uncertainty of cost. On the other
hand, seller has margin uncertainness.
 Risk associated with customers : The preferences of users of Little angle home care
changes as time passes due to this so many changes needed to done by workers on regular
basis. This is a complex task so treated as risky element. For example, some parent desires
that their child should know all the current knowledge that helps them in throughout their
lives. So, they have to train their teachers regarding this and offers updated learning based
information to their students.
 Stakeholders risks : Different stakeholders of Little angle home care are its workers,
customers, investors, suppliers, etc. Suppliers may demand high costs in return of
supplying few services or products only, due to which company may face large sum of
loss (Kutsch and Hall, 2010). On the other hand, some risks are also associated with staff
members that are their migration to other company, emergence of conflicts among
employees, strikes done by personnels in order to convince managers towards their
demands, etc.
Legal and non-legal solutions undertaken to minimise risk
In order to reduce risks, legal as well as non legal issues can be obtained. Legal solution
simply refers to the strategies that are legally adopted in order to decrease the risk in context with
project. On the contrary, non legal solutions are defined as those tactics that is not associated with
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norms and legislations, which can be followed for reducing risk. Some of the non – legal
solutions to the above discussed risks are described below : Risk identification : This is a disciplined method to determine like likely risk factors or
occurrences that might give adverse impact on the project. Some of the major risks are
highlighted by giving a risk breakdown structure. This structure consist of following
risky events :
◦ Technical : Workers who are handling some machineries for cooking food are at
danger as their safety and security level get decreases. An individual can also face
technical issues while performing some tasks.
◦ Financial : Company may suffer from financial risk as there comes a situation when
there is a urgent need of some investment but accurate revenue is not present within
corporation (Hall, 2012).
◦ Political : Government is imposing taxes of high rate and that is why large sum of
money gets spend only in paying such taxes. This is treated as political risk.
◦ Contractual : Some of the uncertainties emerges due to the contracts which is made
between stakeholders, shareholders, workers, customers, etc. If promises made by
company do not get full filled then such risks come into picture.
◦ Environmental : Most of the risks emerges from outer environment where company
perform its operation. This may include sudden change in weather, risk associated
with polluting the surroundings, etc.
 Risk evaluation : This process includes rating of risk so that company may get familiar
with their impacts and likelihood (Flyvbjerg, 2013). It is noted that some hazards have
harmful effect on project while others might do not have significant influence. On this
ground, risks are rated to high, medium or low and average.
 Risk mitigation plan : Project team of Little angle home care have to formulate a
mitigation plan in order to avoid the presence of unpredicted events. First of all managers
need to avoid such risky elements that would impact project to a greater extent. But if this
is not possible, then they can prepare some schemes so that they can reduce its impact.
 Contingency plan : This is a method of developing some planning for setting a sum of
fund aside as reserves in order to deal with various unforeseen events like financial
issues. Little angle home care should design a contingency plan whereby they should
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keep some amount of money so that they can overcome financial crisis.
Some of the legal solutions are also present that is used to mitigate the impact of risks :
 Equal pay act 1963 : This is a United States labor norm proposed by government of UK
in the year of 1963 (Fleming and Koppelman, 2016). as per this law, no discrimination
should be done on the basis of sex and equal wages should be provided to each and every
employee of organisation. Little angle home care should follow this law and provide fair
pay to their personnels and decrease their conflicts or strikes level.
 Environment protection act 1986 : This legislation was given by central government for
protecting and improving environmental quality, controlling and reducing pollution from
all sources (de Bakker, Boonstra and Wortmann, 2011). This also prohibit the formation
of any industrial facility on the grounds of environment. It lay down procedures for
setting standards of discharge of environmental pollutants. By this way, this legal norm
aids in minimising risk associated with environment.
 Employment protection act : This law offers workers the power to claim against any
damages occurs regarding health and care at the time of working in organisation. Thus,
Little angle home care can apply this law and reduce employee related risks.
Potential issues faced when leading and managing staff in Little angle home care
In every company it is required to manage and lead the whole staff so that they can work
in right direction. Little angel home care is also following such criteria so that they can get the
work done by employees in right format so that firm can attain their goal and objective in proper
manner. There are various issues faced while leading and managing employees and workers in
entity and those as follows:
 Not providing feedback: The most common issue faced by management is not receiving
feedback from the different levels in organisation. Not getting proper feedback from other
levels make difficult for senior executive to make proper decision and strategies. This
creates difficulty for cited venture to lead and manage them in effective way as because
employees and staff does not provide feedback to upper level on time. Mainly, feedback
not provided just because senior executives and other member does not communicate with
employees and workers on regular basis which make them not to give feedback on time.
 Failing to define goals: Several issues emerge when management is not being able to
define the goals of company to lower level work forces in right context. This create
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problem and issues for managers to handle them and to make them aware about the goal
and objective of firm (De Bakker, Boonstra and Wortmann, 2010). Communication and
interaction with lower level should be done in correct manner so that goals and objective
of entity can be understood by them in correct way.
 Recruitment made in hurry: When effective working is required in company then they
goes with hiring large number of employees. For this, instant and digitalised recruitment
is the thing which firm adapt to bring in more workers so that vacancies can be filled. But
in hurry the recruitment is done in wrong manner as choosing the wrong people for the
right job and thus such person bring negativity in firm and he/she is unproductive,
ineffective and uncooperative which bring not working in right direction which affect firm
to attain their goal and objective in proper manner.
Moreover, there are various solution to such problems and can be effective as well and
may help in attaining their goal and objective in correct way. The solution are as:
PROBLEMS SOLUTION
Not providing feedback: The senior executive and upper level has to go
with interaction part with lower level so that
they can feel the part of organisation and
regular communication with them make them
to provide feedback time to time in right
prospect.
Failing to define goals: Therefore, proper communication level is
required in firm so that goal can be defined to
lower level in right manner. Using proper
content and communication level help firm to
attain their goal and objective in proper way.
Recruitment in hurry: It is required to know by senior level on regular
basis as which vacancy is blank in company
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and according to such recruitment process can
be done and effective people can be received
(Burke, 2013). Choosing right people for the
right job make firm to work in great way and
providing them the training program make
them to work in effective way so that Little
angel care home can accomplish their goal and
objective in right direction.
Hence, it is needed to manage and lead the staff in right manner so that Little angel care home
can accomplish their goal and targets on time.
CONCLUSION
From the above based report, it can be concluded that risk management is very important
in every organisation. Little angle home care also needs to handle their risk that emerges while
carrying out their project. Some of the legal as well as non legal solutions have been discussed in
this assignment in order to minimise the impact of uncertainties. Legal solutions includes some
legislation made by government bodies such as Equal pay act 1963, Environment protection act
1986 and Employment protection act in order to deal with different issues of firm. In addition to
this, potential issues faced by Little angle home care while leading and managing their team
members and its solution has also been explained here in detail.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Burke, R., 2013. Project management: planning and control techniques. New Jersey, USA.
De Bakker, K., Boonstra, A. and Wortmann, H., 2010. Does risk management contribute to IT
project success? A meta-analysis of empirical evidence. International Journal of Project
Management. 28(5). pp.493-503.
de Bakker, K., Boonstra, A. and Wortmann, H., 2011. Risk management affecting IS/IT project
success through communicative action. Project Management Journal. 42(3). pp.75-90.
Fleming, Q. W. and Koppelman, J. M., 2016, December. Earned value project management.
Project Management Institute.
Flyvbjerg, B., 2013. From Nobel prize to project management: getting risks right. arXiv preprint
arXiv:1302.3642.
Hall, N. G., 2012. Project management: Recent developments and research opportunities.
Journal of Systems Science and Systems Engineering. pp.1-15.
Kerzner, H., 2013. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and
controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Kutsch, E. and Hall, M., 2010. Deliberate ignorance in project risk management. International
journal of project management. 28(3). pp.245-255.
Larson, E. W. and Gray, C., 2013. Project Management: The Managerial Process with MS
Project. McGraw-Hill.
Meredith, J. R. and Mantel Jr, S. J., 2011. Project management: a managerial approach. John
Wiley & Sons.
Nieto-Morote, A. and Ruz-Vila, F., 2011. A fuzzy approach to construction project risk
assessment. International Journal of Project Management. 29(2). pp.220-231.
Robichaud, L. B. and Anantatmula, V. S., 2010. Greening project management practices for
sustainable construction. Journal of Management in Engineering. 27(1). pp.48-57.
Schwalbe, K., 2015. Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.
Teller, J., 2013. Portfolio risk management and its contribution to project portfolio success: An
investigation of organization, process, and culture. Project Management Journal. 44(2).
pp.36-51.
Wysocki, R. K., 2011. Effective project management: traditional, agile, extreme. John Wiley &
Sons.
Online
Mendelow’s Matrix.2017. [Online]. Available through:
<http://knowledgegrab.com/glossary/mendelows-matrix/>.
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