Leading and managing a human resource project is more of a responsibility and leadership than just a mere task. As such, a project manager plays a great role in determining whether or not a project will be successful. A project manager has many powers including expert power, relational power, reward power, legitimate power and penalty/coercive power (Timothy et al., 2019). In relation to the current project, reward and legitimate power are the most relevant. Several issues such as training needs, staff changes, morale changes, and role clarification result from managing a project and they can be solved through training, recognition, clarification of roles of impacted individuals (Timothy et al., 2019). A project manager faces challenges such as skills inadequacy, lack of accountability, resource deprivation, poor communication and impossible deadlines (Meng & Boyd, 2017). Training, provision of adequate resources, effective communication, clear and reasonable deadlines, and redirecting the project team towards a common goal are some strategies that could possibly reduce the experienced challenges. Developing a comprehensive communication management plan should be considered equally essential before project execution. The main purpose of the plan is to enhance cooperation, harmony, and coordination among the team members which eventually leads to a project success (Malcher, Andrea, & Pasztorova, 2017). The structure of the plan should follow the existing organizational structure. Emailing, text messaging, teleconferencing and oral communication during meetings are the most effective methods of communication. Timing should follow the project milestone to ensure that none of the project activities are interfered with.
Project managers often have several types of power including legitimate, reward, coercive, referent and expert power. Legitimate power and expert power are the most relevant in the current human resource project. While legitimate power allows a project manager to ensure that all members perform duties within their job description, reward power ensures that all members who perform well are rewarded. In practice, the project manager has a team that helps to come up with a plan and manage major parts of the project (Timothy et al., 2019). The project manager has the power to ask the members of this team to perform certain activities but reliable outcomes are seen when the manager is able to instruct planning of these activities. Notably, in the current project a plan is more important than delegation of duties: changing or improving organizational behavior in order to increase service delivery requires a lot of keenness. As a project manager, planning the exact mode of service delivery would be the first step. Every team member would then be assigned a specific duty which should be performed under close supervision to ensure that the members perform their tasks effectively (Meng & Boyd, 2017). Secondly, members who perform best should be rewarded through recognition, training or even valuable assignment. This would motivate the team members to perform their duties perfectly. The criterion of achieving such recognition should be possible and fair for all members (Meng & Boyd, 2017). Effective exercise of these two powers would ensure great success in human resource project and also ensure that positive outcomes while managing the project.
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Several outcomes result from project management and they include morale changes, staff changes, role clarification and training needs. Projects have difficult periods when celebration milestones are few and there are high work demands. During these periods, project managers should remember that they can either detract or enhance the members’ morale depending on how they wield their power, appraise progress, communicate or even how they generally manage the project. Understanding the concerns of the members and supporting them during this period would help boost their morale (Timothy et al., 2019). Staff changes often occur in the middle of the project due to conflict, poor appraisals, necessary reassignments or even insufficient progress. Recognizing that these changes are occurring and treating everyone respectfully is a major initiative that a project manager should take. Formal introduction and providing added individuals with all the required information about the project will also ensure that all the members are on the same page and that staff changes do not affect the project. Training needs are sometimes identified in the course of the project due to poor performance (Timothy et al., 2019). As a project manager, one should ensure that necessary training is offered to guarantee project progress. Responsibilities misunderstanding and miscommunication might halt project progress. The only solution to this problem is clarification of responsibilities of all affected individuals and training them if need be. When managing a project, issues cannot be avoided, but how a project manager solves the challenge defines the progress of the project.
In the course of ensuring project success, a project manager faces several challenges. Poor communication due to lack of well-defined communication methods is the major challenge encountered by many project teams. During training, project managers should put more emphasis on both oral and written communication. Briefing the members during meetings and ensuring that members communicate effectively throughout the project is crucial (Meng & Boyd, 2017). Text messaging and emailing should be considered the most effective methods of communication. Resource deprivation is the second challenge that almost every project team encounters (Meng & Boyd, 2017). The management should provide enough capital and personnel in order to run the project effectively. Training on prioritized resource allocation should also be done before the project starts. Skills inadequacy is also a challenge that might be realized before or even in the course of the project. Training should be done in order to ensure that the members acquire required competencies and skills. The final challenge that is most common among many project managers is impossible deadlines (Meng & Boyd, 2017). Project managers have the tendency of pressuring the team members to meet impossible deadlines. Notably, such pressure reduces productivity and morale of the members. Project managers should try to set achievable deadlines with reasonable expectations. Challenges are part of every project but with effective training, communication and reasonable deadlines, these challenges can be solved.
Communication can be considered the most critical part of every project and, therefore, coming up with a communication management plan is important. The main purpose of a communication plan is to enhance coordination, harmony and cooperation among the team members. It also confirms work authorization, conflict resolution, requirement determination and receiving project progress feedback (Malcher et al., 2017). The existing communication structure of the organization should be used to ensure that the team members understand and avoid incurring the costs of inventing a unique communication structure. The best method of communication would be teleconferencing, emailing, text messaging and oral communication which are easy to use and understand (Malcher et al., 2017). The communication plan timing should follow the project milestones developed to ensure that none of the project activities are interfered with. The needed-basis timing should also be incorporated to ensure that the members are up to date in case any issues arise.
It is evident that leading and managing a project involves a series of activities. The project manager has several types of power but the most relevant powers in the current project are legitimate and reward power. Issues such as staff changes, morale changes, training needs and role clarification result from managing a project and they can be solved through training, recognition, clarification of roles of impacted individuals. Poor communication, skills inadequacy, resource deprivation, and impossible deadlines are some of the challenges faced by a project manager. These challenges can be solved through training, resource management, proper communication methods and setting achievable deadlines. Finally, coming up with a communication management plan is critical. The plan should address the main purpose of enhancing cooperation and coordination. Following the existing organizational communication structure ensures that the information is well understood and unnecessary costs are avoided. Text messaging, emailing and teleconferencing are the best methods of communication. The communication plan should follow the project milestone and also incorporate the needed-basis timing.
References
Malcher, V., Andrea, S., & Pásztorová, J. (2017). Communication management in software projects. International Journal of Information, Business and Management, 9 (4), 32-40
Meng, X., & Boyd, P. (2017). The role of the project manager in relationship management. International Journal of Project Management , 35 (5), 717-728.
Timothy, J. Kloppenborg , Vittal Anantatmula & Kathryn, N. Wells (2019). 4 th edition. Contemporary Poject Management.
