Swinburne University Project Management Reflective Research Report

This report is a reflective analysis of project management experiences, focusing on team dynamics and leadership. The student reflects on their role within a project team, examining the significance, aims, and objectives of the project. The report identifies and discusses project management issues, such as the lack of leadership and common perception within the East Asian Community, proposing solutions like the commander and cultural approaches. It also explores team dynamics, highlighting both positive and negative aspects that impacted team performance, and the strategies used to manage them. The report further delves into two key project management issues: teamwork and communication challenges, explaining the choice of these topics and justifying the selection of Tuckman's teamwork theory to gain deeper insights. The student applies this theory to analyze team development stages and the importance of effective teamwork, concluding with a discussion on how the theory helped in understanding team dynamics and potential issues.

Each student is required to prepare and submit a written research and reflective report of 3300 words
(anything over the word limit will be ignored and will not be marked). The purpose of this report is to
1) reflect your experience as part of a project team in the group assignment, and 2) research on two
project management issues (out of five) in which you are required to use appropriate concepts and
models relevant to deepen your insights into the issues.
Your work should be of a high academic standard. Your reflection and research should be presented
in the table provided and uploaded electronically to Blackboard by the due date. You are expected to
follow relevant parts of the required style guide, and includes the use of Swinburne University
Harvard Style referencing. Your report is to be typewritten, in English, and printed out on A4 pages.
The report should be written in clear, plain language, so that non-expert users can easily understand
it.
Project Management Issues
The five issues are in video format and made available on Blackboard. They are prepared by four
significant project management scholars that are invited to give guest speeches this semester,
namely Prof. Mark Keil, Prof. Susan Newell, Prof. Andrew Edkins and Prof Blaize Reich.
Complete this Assignment in the table format presented.

Your Name: Your student ID:
Issue / Concept Specific aspect / area of
focus Your response Grade & comments
Introduction Introduction to your project
team and your role within it.
[50 – 100 words] /2
Project management
concepts
Comment on the project
significance, aims and
objectives and what you have
learnt from this experience.
[100 words]
East Asian Community is a development that lies on two factors:
foregoing strategy
Frameworks of regional cooperation that are currently ongoing.
In the research I came across few challenges that is currently East
Asian Community Is facing and these are: regional leadership is
lacking, lack of Common perception (Acharya, 2014). Statistic
management includes construction and implementation of the
aims and objectives of an organisation by the topmost
management of the organisation which is based on assessment of
resources and competing environment. In order to meet the
objectives of the Asian community I made use of strategic
management approach to enhance the aims and goals in which the
community was lacking. From the research I learned Practical
functionality is necessary element in enhancement factor.
The leading aim of the study is to enhance the project of Asian
Community Building with strategic tools of project management.
The objectives of the study are as defined below:
 To understand the concept of Asian Community Building.
 To determine the role of project management strategies
and enhancing the plan of Asian Community Building.
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Identify and explain one or
two key problem[s]/risk[s]
encountered and describe
your response and why that
approach was chosen.
[100 words]
During the research I encountered two problems with East Asian
community:Lack of leadership quality lackof common
perception.
In order to solve these issues I followed two approaches:
 The commander approach: This approach was chosen by
me to solve leadership issue (Nahavandi, 2016). Top to

down approach was followed. Leaders do not play active
role to implement the strategy because strategic leader is
basically a planner.
 The cultural approach: I made use of this technique to
solve second issue where everybody had different
perceptions on the same topic.. The reason behind using
the approach was it shatters barricade of differences
among management and their employees so that they can
have collectively common thoughts and viewpoint on
topics.
Team member
dynamics
Explain what team dynamics
worked well during the
semester and why. What
insights will you take into
future projects?
[100 words]
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Identify one or two key team
dynamics [positive or
negative] which impacted
your team’s performance?
Explain how these were
managed. Describe your key
learning outcomes?
[100 words]
Team composition
and process
Identify one aspect that:
1. Worked well
2. Did not work so well.
Explain your choice using
one illustration for each from
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your weekly progress reports
to support your choice.
[100 words]
List clearly the two chosen
project management issues
from the chosen international
speakers. Explain why you
choose them.
[150 words]
Two basic issues chose by the speakers are:
 Working in team: Team work is an essential feature in
managing project. Working within a team sometimes
becomes difficult because of conflicting ideas and
perceptions. Team work comes up with collaborative
ideas. In many situations project requires skills that team
lacks. As a result, required outputs would not be
generated. Leadership is basic requirement for working
within a team. Leader is responsible to assign the roles and
responsibilities of individuals to carry out the work
assigned to them properly.
 Communication and management challenges: Poor
communication can lead to improper understanding of the
project which may result into varied outcomes. Thereby,
communication and management of work within a team is
essential.
I have selected these topics because to work in any organisation, it
is required to work collectively in a team. Team work produces
better results and while working in team I got to learn different
aspects of the concept which individually I would have not been
able to cover (Hill, and et.al., 2014). Similarly, communication
between team members is essential to produce correct results.
Communication helped me to solve queries efficiently.
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For the first issue, identify at
least one academic theory to
deepen your insights into the
issue
Briefly introduce [and
Team work is necessary while working in an organisation. team
work produces significant outputs by collecting different
perceptions and thoughts of each and every member of the team.
Tuckman's teamwork theory has been used by me for effective
and efficient team building (Rickards and et.al., 2015). Tuckman
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reference] your chosen
academic theory.
Justify your choice.
[400 words]
theory describes how to work in a social psychologists team on
behalf of the U.S. Navy. The team conducted study on a small
group with limited members to analyse their behaviour from
different aspects. Tuckman analyses 50 articles on group
development and found two common characteristics which are
 structure of group
 task activity
From the study, he came to understand that teams are evolved
from groups via four different stages. These are described as
below:
 Formation of team: This is the initial stage in development
of team. Individuals have not gathered together as team
yet. Every member is busy in getting their place in the
team. They are making groups of different sizes. They are
also asking questions of being here (Natvig and et.al.,
2016).
 Storming: Now everybody started identifying themselves
as a team. At the current stage, it challenges are given to
each other and to the leader of they team as well. They
identify what they are going to perform and what are the
objectives of working in a team. In this stage, team
members will face conflicts as well due to different
perceptions of each and every, member of the team. As a
result of conflict, people might lose focus and their
performance would get affected.
 Norming: In this phase, team members collaboratively
come along for development of project by identifying their
assigned job role. This phase can also be called as stage of
togetherness.
 Performing: This is the last stage in team building
technique. It emphasises on tasks as well as on building
relationships among team members to energise working
within team. Team work enhances Performance .
The Tuckman model emphasises on evolution of team from

groups. It also shows different problems and issues that may arise
during team formation at each stage. I made use of this model for
evolution of team so that every member can understand working
in team and can identify the benefits as well. By working in a
team, I get to learn so many different things which I might not be
able to get through if I had worked alone. This model made me
understood the importance of working in teams as well as issues
that could arise like unequal participation of members and
conflicts in viewpoints.
Using your chosen theory to
explain how this helps you to
gain deeper insights into the
first issue.
[600 words]
Team building is an important concept to produce effective and
productive results (Engeström, 2008). Team building is basically
capabilities of individuals to work within a team by identifying
strengths and weaknesses of individuals. Teamwork is effective
when every member of the team identifies his/her strengths and
work accordingly. People should build relationships with other
members of the team to have effective results. Performance get
enhanced when you work in a team and it becomes easier to
achieve results. Theory used in the study of team work helped me
to understand advantages as well disadvantageous of team work.
 Better Solutions: Quality is the main aspect for team
work. Companies prefer teamwork as individualized work
because it results in quality solutions. More creative
approach can be used to come to a solution. Team work
have different employees with different perceptions,
thereby they come with alternative benefits and
disadvantages. Working team enhances the best solutions
by working together continuously.
 Better Production: Along with quality solution, better
product delivery is also necessary. While working in team,
I found that members working in team motivated each
other to produce quality results. Therefore, efficiency of
the work increased. Working within a team created healthy
and friendly competition to put more efforts on the work
assigned to them.
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 Quality work: When employees work collaboratively in
team, it results into quality product. I found that team
members helped each other in solving variety of problems
to ensure quality product.
 Acceptance of change: I analyzed during the research that
when you are working in team it makes you able to accept
changes at workplace it could be technological or team
change etc.
 Motivation Development: Participation of team members
created positive working culture. While working in team, I
got chance to show my abilities
 Time Saviour: When I worked within team, it saved my
time and cost of development. Group decisions ensured
less time consumption. The cost for participation also got
reduced.
 Unequal Participation: While working in teams, there
comes many situations when members of a team rely on
others to do work. As a result, there is unequal
participation of the team members .
 Longer process: Team work process involves output of
one task to be used as input of others. As a result, the
whole process takes longer time to complete. There comes
situation like when you need to choose appropriate team
member for the task. Members specialised in that
particular field are required to be identified. Thus, a lot of
time gets consumed in the team selection process.
While working in a team, I came across various situations where
students were working as a team in the activity assigned to them.
But on the same hand, people while working together to come on
certain solution by efforts made by each and every team member
I found that views and perceptions of many students were
conflicting at the same time. They had arguments on certain points
and followed group discussions also to gather productive ideas of
everyone to produce the best results. I noticed several benefits for

the students like:
 Breakdown of task into parts so that its complexity would
reduce
 Refining of understanding through group discussions
 Time management in an efficient way
 Planning for the accomplishment of work becomes easier
Identify your new learning
and explain how this insight
will influence you in the
future.
[200 words]
Team work refers to the process of learning in a group. The
objective of team work is to come on a certain point
collaboratively with discussions, conflicts and practices. Teams
are required to develop their agenda for achieving success.
Teamwork skills are important as it covers efficiently that areas of
the topic which I may not have considered before and
collaboratively I can come up with a solution. There are
challenges every day which cannot be solved independently.
Similarly, while working on project, I generally face several
issues which sometimes become impossible to solve individually.
When I work in a team, I get better suggestions for solving the
issue. Thus, team work enables me to work together to come up
with individual's ideas. While working in teams, I analysed that
every person has different viewpoints that may cause conflicts
between team members as well. Therefore, to solve such issues, it
is required to correspond to the team's culture where discussion I
can lead to specific results. This team building and working in
teams would help me in future as well to work within teams which
would ultimately enhance my skills. Team working gives
opportunity to learn new things.
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For the second issue, identify
at least one academic theory
to deepen your insights into
the issue
Briefly introduce [and
reference] your chosen
Communication is a two-way process to reach on certain point of
understanding in which participant of communication exchange
feelings, ideas, thoughts, etc., (Sapienza, and et.al., 2015).
Lasswell's theory of communication can be used to understand
motives and principles of communication. From the second world
war experiences, Lasswell introduced model of communication
which has five levels into it.
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academic theory.
Justify your choice.
[400 words]
 Who:. To whom you communicate:
 Says What: it contains the message section that is what it
does want to say. The message to be deliverd is included.
 In which Channel: medium to be used for communication
 To whom: audience going to listen.
 To what effect: extent of desired effect.
The Five W's
The model developed by Lasswell was further modified and now,
it is called as Five W's. To manage change, the model is being
used continuously.
 Who should be told?
People who are required to be informed must be addressed clearly.
Communication should be related to everyone. Everybody should
be communicated with the necessary details which are required to
be told. Person should be identified who are important and
relevant for the information to be communicated.
 When should be told?
Time chosen for communication should be considered relevantly.
When discussions are required to proceed into any work then
communication should be carried out at one place only so that
confusion in understanding the work can be avoided.
Misunderstanding can also be reduced to a high extent.
 What should they be told?
The messages needed to be communicated should be clear and
understandable. It should not be complex and must not create
unnecessary meanings to the current message.
 Where should message be conveyed?
The effective and efficient medium should be selected to deliver
message to required people. Communication should be done in a
proper way at proper place. Avoid communication in public
places, parking places etc. If communication is not effective it
would result into unclear messenges.
 Who should control the communication process?
Person who has well understanding of the subject should

communicate message. If required external mediums can also be
considered for the communication process.
Communication theory used is completely justifying. At any
workplace, communication is a foremost important part.
Communication makes us understand the needs and messages of
the opposite person. The theory that I used helped me to
understand various factors that are required for communication
and before starting any an interaction these must be satisfactory
to give effective and efficient results at workplace.
Using your chosen theory to
explain how this helps you to
gain deeper insights into the
second issue.
[600 words]
The second issue was of communication management. After
performing, I came to understand the elements of Lasswell's
model of communication that are important to consider before
starting any interaction . It described the need of the clear
message. If message is not clear to understand than it would
ultimately result into finagled outcomes. Thereby, to start any
project requirements and scope of the project are required to be
clear.. Effective communication is required for proper functioning
of an organisation. Communicative plays an important role to
individual's responsibilities. Planning starts when communication
is initiated. With the communication, information is spread among
everyone. The importance can be summarised as:
It promotes motivation by enabling in timely achievement of
targets due to clear roles and responsibilities. By clearly
identifying the task to be performed and clarifying all necessary
details with it, performance gets improved. I analysed that when
complete information and data was provided about the task, I was
able to perform in much better and efficient way. This is because
the details clearly specified the goals and outcomes required.
Hence, it made my work easier to perform.
Communication improves decision making in any organisation. If
message is clearly communicated, it improves decisions to be
made by the organisation (Ramjit, 2015).
An individual who is well informed or has all the necessary
information required will have better attitude. Thus,
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communication helps in altering individual's attitude. I also found
that team members who were clear with their work objectives and
with all the essential information and data were able to perform in
a significant way.
In today's world, to be social is an important factor. In the
research, I found that everybody needs to be socialised at certain
time period. People can stay alone at specific time period but after
sometime, people are required to communicate and share
thoughts and feelings. With the help of communication you
socialise and can exchange ideas. I got to learn so many things
when I interacted with different people during research work.
When I met with different set of mind people and had some
conversation with them, I came across with certain things like I
assessed that each person has his/her different perception and
viewpoints on a topic. They don’t share common thoughts and
hence, conflicting thought's were encountered
Communication also helps in controlling various situations that
might turn worse. By communicating with others one can solve
various issues and problems. behaviour of a person can be
controlled with effective communication.
With the help of communication, one can build and win trust of
the employee working in an organisation. When a person feels
low at workplace and a sense of loss of job, communicating with
employees can made them feel valued. When communication was
conducted openly during the work, everybody was well informed
about the work happening in organisation. Thus, it reduces feeling
of cluelessness.
Communication helped me to build relationship among team
members on professional as well as personal level.
Thus, when communication was clear it reduced confusion about
the work needed to be done.Communication brings employees
together collectively by sharing their ideas and thoughts
collectively to come with a solution. When there are different set
of departments which are working on same projects but different

modulescommunicationcan bring them to single streamline.
In the research, I found effective communication builds innovative
ideas to implement in the work. When I worked with so many
members in the team, I came along with several innovative ideas
that made my work unique and significant from others.
With communication, it got easier to manage team and its
members and resulted into effective team. It also helped to boost
up the morale of team members.
Identify your new learning
and explain how this insight
will influence you in the
future.
[200 words]
Communication helps in a wide range to individuals as well a
team. Communication is a two-way process to reach on certain
point of understanding in which participant of the communication
exchange feelings, ideas, thoughts, etc. Lasswell's model of
communication helped me to understand the way in which
communication process should be conducted along with the key
elements to be kept in mind while starting the process. Therefore,
in the research process, I gained knowledge on the importance of
communication in daily life and benefits of effective
communication (McQuail and et.al., 2015). Communication helps
in contributing company's growth. Communication helped me to
build relationship among team members on professional as well as
personal level.
By clearly understanding the task to be carried out and clarifying
all necessary details with it, performance gets improved.
Communication brings employees together on a single platform
for sharing their ideas and opinions to come up with solution.
Communication improves decision making in any organisation. If
message is clearly communicated, it improves decisions to be
made by organisation. Thus, strong communication will let me do
my work in an effective manner.
Communication ensures transparency in work and within the
organisation. Communication could be written or oral. Written
documents are proof to the details and can be used in the future if
required to be considered.
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