Strengths | Weaknesses | |
---|---|---|
Functional | Lowest administration costs Reasonably successful in past | Coordination across functional areas is more difficult |
Reasonably successful in past | Inflexible | |
Pools technical and professional expertise | Communication across functional areas is more difficult | |
Handles routine work well | Long, slow chain of command | |
Allows training and apprenticeship in departments | Possibly poor communication with client | |
Line management has control of projects and change | Tends to push decision making upwards | |
Easy to set up and terminate projects | Novel objectives difficult to achieve | |
Limits career development outside recognised paths for staff members | ||
Tends to dampen creative initiatives | ||
Matrix | Acceptable to 'traditional' managers | Dual reporting lines of project staff |
Retains functional strengths and control of paperwork | Staff appraisal and performance measurement difficult | |
Some planning power in project team | Can cause conflicts of priorities for staff | |
Faster start-ups | Wider skills required of project manager (e.g. teambuilding more difficult) | |
Top management retains control of projects but relieved of day-to-day decisions | Project manager may not be able to influence who is assigned to the project | |
Flexibility of personnel assigned | Dilutes the resources available from functional areas | |
Reasonable interface with clients and customers is possible | ||
Some teambuilding is possible | ||
Project | Greater authority and control | High administrative costs |
Team members contribute to, and share, objectives | Project manager involved in more administration | |
Teambuilding and communication made easier | Difficult to graft on to established organisations | |
Quicker decisions | Project more difficult to terminate | |
Fewer political problems Good client contacts | Project staff may feel a lack of job security | |
Good client contacts | Project staff may feel let down on return to functional job | |
High degree of management skills development | Project staff may feel they have undefined career paths | |
Easier for top management to coordinate and influence | Slow to mobilise | |
Can give career development/change for team members | Often limited number of good project staff available | |
Builds synergy in team | ||
Clear responsibilities, can be profit centres |
the trend is becoming a powerful one, set to take self managed teams from leading edge status to mainstream.
Better customer service, more motivated staff, and better quality of output are the three top motives for moving to [self-managed teams], managers report.
Self-managed team | Self-organising team |
---|---|
Usually part of the formal reporting structure | Usually outside the formal reporting structure |
Members usually selected by management | Members usually self-selected volunteers |
Informal style of working | Informal style of working |
Indirectly controlled by senior management | Senior management influences only the team's boundaries |
Usually a permanent leader, but may change | Leadership variable – perhaps one, perhaps changing, perhaps shared |
Empowered by senior management | Empowered by the team members and a supportive culture and environment |
Team role | Team strengths | Allowable weaknesses |
---|---|---|
Plant | Creative, imaginative, unorthodox | Weak in communication skills |
An innovator | Easily upset | |
Team's source of original ideas | Can dwell on 'interesting ideas' | |
Implementer | Turns ideas into practical actions | Somewhat inflexible |
Turns decisions into manageable tasks | Does not like 'airy-fairy' ideas | |
Brings method to the team's activities | Upset by frequent changes of plan | |
Completer-finisher | Painstaking and conscientious | Anxious introvert; inclined to worry |
Sees tasks through to completion | Reluctant to delegate | |
Delivers on time | Dislikes casual approach by others | |
Monitor-evaluator | Offers dispassionate, critical analysis | Lacks drive and inspiration |
Has a strategic, discerning view | Lacks warmth and imagination | |
Judges accurately; sees all options | Can lower morale by being a damper | |
Resource investigator | Diplomat with many contacts | Loses interest as enthusiasm wanes |
Improviser; explores opportunities | Jumps from one task to another | |
Enthusiastic and communicative | Thrives on pressure | |
Shaper | Task minded; brings drive to the team | Easily provoked or frustrated |
Makes things happen; pressurises | Impulsive and impatient | |
Dynamic, outgoing and challenging | Intolerant of woolliness or vagueness | |
Teamworker | Promotes team harmony; diffuses friction | Indecisive in crunch situations |
Listens; builds on the ideas of others | May avoid confrontation situations | |
Sensitive but gently assertive | May avoid commitment at decision time | |
Coordinator | Clarifies goals; good chairperson | Can be seen as manipulative |
Promotes decision making | Inclined to let others do the work | |
Good communicator; social leader | May take credit for the team's work | |
Specialist | Provides rare skills and knowledge | Contributes only on a narrow front |
Single-minded and focused | Communication skills are often weak | |
Self-starting and dedicated | Often cannot see the 'big picture' |
I have learned from experience in this group that you can only follow one of the rules [try to give up, and attend all meetings], you can't follow both. And so I have decided that I will continue to attend every meeting but I have gone back to smoking two packs a day and I will not make any effort to stop smoking again until after the last meeting.
A project is a unique venture with a beginning and an end, conducted by people to meet established goals within parameters of cost, schedule and quality. (Buchanan and Boddy, 1992).
A project is a set of people and other resources temporarily assembled to reach a specified objective, normally with a fixed budget and with a fixed time period. Projects are generally associated with products or procedures that are being done for the first time or with known procedures that are being altered. (Graham, 1985, pp. 1–2 quoted in Buchanan and Boddy, 1992).
[A project has] dedicated resources, a single point of responsibility, clear boundaries across which resources and deliverables move, limited duration, [it is a] one-off task and [has] objectives. It is a useful way of organizing work. Projects don't arise without deliberate intervention. (Gray, 1994).
The simplest form of a project is a discrete undertaking with defined objectives often including time, cost and quality (performance) goals. All projects evolve through a similar 'life-cycle' sequence during which there should be recognised start and finish points. In addition the project objectives may be defined in a number of ways, e.g. financial, social and economic, the important point being that the goals are defined and the project is finite. (Association of Project Managers, 1993).
… a specific undertaking to achieve a number of objectives. The most common examples of programmes are development programmes or large single purpose undertakings consisting of a series of interdependent projects. Examples include product and economic development programmes where the programme follows a concept/design/development life cycle before moving into implementation of multiple projects. (Association of Project Managers, 1993).
The sponsor is the person providing the resources for the project: the person who should be responsible for ensuring that the project is successful at the business or institutional level. [The sponsor's] role, which is akin to the Chairman of the Board, is different from that of project champion. (Morris, 1994).
Project management | Operations management |
---|---|
Significant change | Any changes are small and evolutionary |
Limited in time and scope | Never-ending |
Unique | Repetitive |
Resources transient | Resources stable |
Goal-oriented management | Role-oriented management |
Transient | Stable |
Attempt to balance performance, time and budget | Performance, time and budget usually fixed and balanced |
Need to balance objectives | Management generally in a state of equilibrium |
More exciting (perhaps!) | 'Steady as she goes' feel |
I believed, for example, that a leader could operate successfully as a kind of advisor to his organisation. I thought I could avoid being a 'boss' … I thought that maybe I could operate so that everyone would like me – that 'good human relations' would eliminate all discord and disagreement. I couldn't have been more wrong. It took a couple of years, but I finally began to realise that a leader cannot avoid the exercise of authority any more than he can avoid the responsibility for what happens to his organisation. (Douglas McGregor, founder of the 'Human Relations' movement; quoted in Handy, 1993)