Executive summary
Organizations come up with different methods of carrying out their operations aimed at achieving a competitive advantage in the business environment. The concept of organization behaviour is very important when it comes to situations where one manager takes control of more than three interdependent groups or individuals. The discussion below represents an interview conducted to a project manager in one of the engineering firms. The responsibilities and requirements for the position are analysed followed by the description of other interdependent people below the manager. The discussion elaborates the kind of relationship available between several individuals, and a recommendation for developing an effective organization.
Table of Contents
Executive summary
2
1.0 Job description of a project manager
3
2.0 Interaction of the project manager with other individuals
5
3.0 The relationship between the individuals and the project manager
5
4.0 The interdependence between the manager and other individuals
7
5.0 The interdependences on the diagrammatic representation
8
6.0 Conclusion and recommendation
9
References
10
List of figure
Figure 1: Diagrammatic representation9
1.0 Job description of a project manager
The interview was carried out to a project manager, Eng. Lionel Nicolai from top contractors Limited. Nicolai is a 45 years old man. He holds many responsibilities that assist in the daily growth of different projects undertaken by the company. Lionel Nicolai advanced to the position as a project manager after completing several years of employment in the engineering field. Eng. Nicolai has a bachelors’ degree in Civil engineering. In addition, he has enough knowledge on business management skills by having a master’s degree in engineering management, technology management, or business administration. In addition, the person has the following requirements although they are less formal. First, he has good analytical skills that assist in evaluating and solving of complex problems. Second he has excellent communication skills in order to oversee the staff performance and relate well with other managers. Communication skills assist the manager in leading other employees and assisting the organization to achieve its goals. Finally, the manager should have technical skills in order to gain full scope of the area being managed (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2012).
Eng. Nicolai has the responsibility of coordinating all technical activities related to all assigned engineering work. Moreover, he takes control of all operations in to ensure they comply with the engineering codes of ethics. In addition, the manager ensures effective communication and interaction between all the project participants in all disciplines. Eng. Lionel Nicolai has the responsibility of researching and developing project teams who come up with new products, designs, and processes. He still checks the technical accuracy of the work done by the staff members. Finally, he has the responsibility of hiring, assigning duties, and supervising those below him (United States Department of Labour, 2012).
2.0 Interaction of the project manager with other individuals
In his operations, Eng. Lionel has various interactions with different individuals from both inside and outside the organization. The individuals are; project sponsor, coordinator, system developer, and consultant.
3.0 The relationship between the individual and the project manager
Margret-the project sponsor
Margret, the project sponsor is a 40 years old lady who comes from outside the organization but her presence is very important since she is responsible for the funding of all activities taking place. Margret commissions other people in delivering the project requirements, and works very close with the Eng. Lionel in ensuring activities run smoothly throughout the project. In addition, she relates with the manager regarding all the information from the project, the budget requirement, time of implementation, and the technological requirements for the project. On the launching of the project, the Margaret ensures that it is reviewed actively by negotiating with the contractors and administrators. Moreover, the project sponsor is the leader of the project steering board, and approves the budget presented by project manager. The manager always gets problems with the sponsor in issues relating to allocation of funds. Sometimes the organization ends up using funds but fails to account for them. There was an instance where Nicolai was unable to account for 5000 dollars leading to a very big problem with the sponsor.
Mark- Project Coordinator:
Mark comes from inside the organization and is very close to the project manager. He is a gentleman 28 years old. In fact, Mark reports direct to the manager. Mark has the following qualities. First, the he manages all support functions that include planning, reporting, and carrying out internal communication with other employees on the work progress. Secondly, the he gives the direction, tools, and procedures to follow while implementing the proposed project with the help of the project manager. Moreover, the individual is responsible for the management of data security, software, and licensing control. The individual should possess quality communication skills, outgoing, and very social with others.
The main problem that Nicolai experiences with the coordinator is when some plans fail to concur with what the organization expects leading to delay in some operations. In some instances, the Mark is forced to work for long hours but receives no extra payments.
John - Systems developer
John come from inside the organization because he carryout continuous checkups on all systems responsible for the running of any project in progress. He works for long hours and with a lot of caution. This person liaises with the project manager in defining and executing project development requirements. John has different responsibilities and must report to the project Eng. Lionel on daily basis. In some instances the individual carryout data mitigation, report on configuration and project development, and responsible for setting out security rights and access permissions. A system developer should have good knowledge of computers and their operations, which requires an individual with high integrity. The system developer should have high integrity and capability.
Sometimes the manager faces problems with the system developer when he fails to come up with applications fit for the project. This makes projects to lag behind and the manager is held responsible by the project sponsor. In addition, John faces problems with developing applications for complicated projects.
Moses Junior- consultant
Moses is 50 years old married man who is an outside individual contracted by the organization, but reports to the project manager. He has close interaction with Eng. Lionel because he manages all suppliers of raw materials, and plans for the project. The senior consultant has very good interaction with the project manager since they meet on many occasions to discuss about the progresses made. Moses is always present during the design of any plan in order to develop the plan into an understandable thing. Moses is open-minded, more social with others, and has ability to make quick decisions in case anything wrong happens while implementing the project. In addition, Moses makes sure all mandatory supplier requirements are fulfilled, and manages the approval of all equipments and materials delivered. Moreover, the he heads all other consultants in the organization by ensuring they maintain quality performance and take the necessary actions.
If the consultant’s designs fail to conform with the manage specifications, they always quarrel a lot. Some of the issues found between mosses and Lionel are related to design specifications being higher than the proposed budget. Moreover, the consultant faces problems with the manager when the accepted designs fail to be produced in time resulting to delays in the organization.
4.0 The interdependence between the manager and the four individuals
In order to develop strong organizational behavior traits, leaders and followers should co-operate in all their actions and solve problems together through dialogue. Taking the responsibility as a manager it would be necessary to listen to the fellow workmate, and try teaching them how to relate with others in the organization. The manager depends a lot on the performance of these individuals in accomplishing the organization’s goals. First, the Eng. Nicolai should contact Margaret in order to get funds for running the project. Her position is very much affected by the outcomes of the project that requires an individual with strong leadership skills, and who has a voice of command. In addition, the sponsor should have detailed information of all activities taking place showing actual figures in order to release the required funds.
Secondly, the manager requires the assistant from Mark, the project coordinator, who makes a follow up on the project and ensure all activities occur as prescribed by the contractor. This position is very crucial in the organization since all the projects being implemented need to be thoroughly coordinated by experienced individuals. Thirdly, the John plays a significant role in assisting the Eng. Nicolai on technical issues in the project. On the other hand, Moses provides the Eng. Nicolai with the necessary design and the actual budget to present to the sponsors. The consultant should be very reliable because they carry more weight on all projects for the organization. In most organizations, people work predominantly with electronic information and communication technologies in order to accomplish one or more organizational tasks (Wiesenfeld et al, 1998).
Diagrammatic representation
Margret Moses Junior
John mark
Figure 1: The interdependence between the project manager, coordinator, sponsors, system developers, and the consultant.( the arrow points the person who an individual reports to)
5.0 The interdependence on the diagrammatic representation
From figure 1, the four groups shown are under the project manager. Some individuals have more power that other and these are shown in bold lines. The project sponsor takes a higher position than others since he controls all the funds getting into the finance department in coordinating the project. On the other hand, the system developers take the lowest position since they report to all others in the diagram. The senior consultant only reports to the project manager, who gives the feedback to others. Dealing with these people makes work more efficient and effective. They motivate other employees who follow them in carrying out their operations in a quality manner. Employees’ engagement in their work stations encourages good production and improves their relationship with their leaders.
6.0 Conclusion and recommendation
Managers are people who set the pace for others to follow and as such, they should indicate the appropriate leadership principles in order to manage people effectively. A principled leader should have a vision, make decisions, willing to take risks, motivate people, manage and build teams, have self-knowledge, have integrity, have good communication skills, pursue lifelong learning, and help others succeed. In addition, a leader should be able to set good expectations to the followers, unite people, and be psychologically fit. Leading is the ability of an individual being in charge of a lot of people or a certain organization. Understanding the dynamics of talent flow among employees in an organization essence of motivation should be put in place in order to prepare them for international operations. The employees who attain these targets then qualify for the compensation. Development of appropriate managerial strategy is essential for every organization. Management strategy helps an organization to collect and utilize the available resources and opportunities to realize profits and become competitive in the market.
Design of a good framework of the top organization with an objective of bringing together understanding among the interdependent group would be recommended (White, 2005). Observing the behavior of the managers assists in determining the cause of a problem and therefore; devising a way of solving it. On the other hand, the performance of these managers will determine their cooperation with the interdependence group. The performance increase is through having regular meetings aimed at discussing the main areas of concern and different people to come up with their solutions. The manager should ensure that the allocated funds are well utilized correctly to avoid issues with the sponsor. On the other hand, the coordinator should ensure he makes the recommended plans for the available projects. Another option involves restructuring the job description of theses employee and department to avoid problems between the manager and these individuals.
Moreover, the manager faced problems with the system developer. These issues could be solved through having the right materials for the system developer. These include updates computers with the capability of accepting different software applications. Finally, the consultant should ensure he offers the required designs that are I line with the expected budget. Employees in an organization are the source of problems requiring the management to take the necessary action to change employees (Bolman, 1997).
References
Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2012). How to Become an Architectural or Engineering Manager.
Retrieved from:
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/management/architectural-and-engineering-managers.htm#tab-4
Jackson, D.J.R., Carr, S.C., Edwards, M., Thorn, K., Allfree, N., Hooks, J., and Inkson, K.
(2005), Exploring the Dynamics of New Zealand’s Talent Flow, New Zealand Journal of Psychology, 34, 2, 110–116.
United States Department of Labour. (2012). Occupation Outlook Workbook. Retrived from:
http://www.bls.gov/oco/home.htm
Wiesenfeld, M.b., Raghuram, S. & Garud, R. (1998). Communication Patterns as Determinant
of Organizational Identification in a Valid Organization. Retrieved from:
http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol3/issue4/wiesenfeld.html
