...focus on the human side of projects, organizational behavior theories provide insights into group work, and we draw from these to establish best practices for difficult project situations, such as dealing with an under preforming team member. Hard skills – focus on the work to be done in the projects, includes clarifying what is to be produced, developing a list of tasks to produce the end product, and tracking the progress of that work. Project – a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique project, service, or consultant. Projects vs Business Processes – Unique output and a beginning and an end Team – more than one person can complete, variety of skills Manager – leader Team Member – execute project tasks, produce deliverables, participates Sponsor – middle man for team and organization Client – the end user, the needs Resource Manager – provide resources and people Triple constraints – scope (functionality and quality), resources (costs), time (schedule) Framework Initiate -> Plan -> Execute <-> Monitor -> Close Scope Statement Mission(what/when), justification(why), assumptions(high-level), communication(channel), documents(where will they be kept), stakeholders(who), signature SMART – specific, made to deliver, agreed up on, realistic, time-framed Work breakdown structure – a deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the project team to accomplish the project objectives and create the...
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...up for that. In fact, the employees at Rogan got what they deserved based on the ideas they gave (or interactional justice). Likewise, Aspect Communications incentive plan is based customer service (or procedural justice) in which all 400 employees are equally rewarded when the customers are happy. At the Calvert Group, distributive justice was implemented where the bonuses are distributed to the outstanding performers as well as regular distributions of the company’s yield. As a result, employees will work harder in efforts to monetary bonuses. Indeed, the incentive plans at all three companies are based on a fair outcome and in the end will have a positive impact on the employee as well as the employee. Moreover, the employees will have a sense of satisfaction at their jobs, which increases production and quality. Effective incentives involve more than just money. Explain what these three firms are doing in recognition of this fact. While monetary incentives are great but money does not buy happiness, nor does it buy engagement and loyalty. Studies have shown that non-monetary incentives motivate and engage employees in ways that money is incapable of doing (Thampan, 2013). For instance, at Rogan the main purpose of their incentive plan was giving the employees self-concordance and accountability for their own work. In addition, their fate for the incentives all depends on them...
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...A strategy is a set of related actions that managers take to increase their company’s performance. Strategic leadership is about how to most effectively manage a company’s strategy-making process to create competitive advantage. The strategy-making process is the process by which managers select and then implement a set of strategies that aim to achieve a competitive advantage. Strategy formulation is the task of selecting strategies, whereas strategy implementation is the task of putting strategies into action, which includes designing, delivering, and supporting products; improving the efficiency and effectiveness of operations; and designing a company’s organizational structure, control systems, and culture. Maximizing shareholder value is the ultimate goal of profit-making companies for two reasons. First, shareholders provide a company with the risk capital that enables managers to buy the resources needed to produce and sell goods and services. Risk capital is capital that cannot be recovered if a company fails and goes bankrupt. Second, shareholders are the legal owners of a corporation, and their shares represent a claim on the profits generated by a company. Thus, managers have an obligation to invest those profits in ways that maximize shareholder value. By shareholder value we mean the returns that shareholders earn from purchasing shares in a company. These returns come from two sources: (1) capital appreciation in the value of a company’s shares and (2) dividend...
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...Module Four/Term Three: Applied Psychodynamics Module code: FFCS403S4 ASC Final Project Final Essay: The project Conflict: productive and destructive dynamics in the work place. Conflict is a recurrent phenomenon in the workplace, its impact can have reverse effects and push people to either surpass themselves, or the contrary deteriorate. When you have individuals coming from all different backgrounds and beliefs merging together in the workplace, conflict is inevitable. There are the work-specific problems related to promotions, salary disparity, lack of recognition for achievement, or shared responsibility among a team. There are also more general issues with personal space and privacy; and then there are plain old personality conflicts.” In this reflective, observational and theory piece of essay, I will explore the topic of ‘Conflict’, as it is relevant to the organization in which I am working. I will include observations drawn from a fellow student’s workplace, and reflections on the process of undertaking the project. Also integrating the different aspects of my learning by adding relevant psychodynamic theory, to try and clarify my reflections and to make sense of this piece of work. Naturally, I will disguise the names of individuals and organizations for the purpose of confidentiality. Let me also add a little note to declare that English is not my first language. The process of undertaking the project was not an easy task. What was required for this compelling work...
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...motivation of earning profit for which they produces the product that are on major demands or create the demand by making advertisement and other promotional activities to attract people towards their product. To have a successful business support of all stakeholders are required. Funding research for the research is one of the strategies of company to support that. Funding helps in building image in public, which help in generating goodwill for the company at the same time it helps the researcher. A Typology of Stakeholder Attributes: Legitimacy, Power, Urgency How do managers decide which stakeholders deserve their attention? Stakeholders have attributes including legitimacy, power, and urgency. A typology of stakeholders has been developed based on these three attributes.17 When these three attributes are superimposed, as depicted in Figure 3-4, seven stakeholder categories may be seen. The three attributes of legitimacy, power, and urgency...
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...international. The young high-flier Paul Paus is sent by the head office of the European chemical company EUROCHEM to run the marketing team in the Shanghai office. Paus, who seemed to be the perfect person having the necessary skills and qualification for this job, has proven to be ineffective in his team-building program and failed to develop cultural awareness by ignoring local practices. Despite Paul Paus was a young, innovative manager performing very well in Europe he failed in Europe. But why? There are the following characters in case: * Paul Paus: the European expatriate who worked in the head office in Antwerp for 4 years * Mr Olsen: an expatriate with intercultural experience, general manager & head of China Eurochem * Mr Li: deputy manager, close relationship to Olsen * Mr Wu: young employee of marketing department, expertise in marketing * Mr Vandenbergh: director of marketing in head office, sent Paus to Shanghai Analysis Significant mistakes have been made by all persons involved in the project. Three major issues occurred in the case of “Eurochem Shanghai”: * problems of international managerial transfers, * management, communication and strategic issues, * as well as leadership and managing diversity problems all caused by cultural differences and different ways of doing business. 1) Problems of international managerial transfer At a first glance Paul Paus appeared to be qualified for the challenging assignment...
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...Cost Planning: There are various types of costs involved in a project fixed, variable, direct, indirect, and sunk. Fixed costs do not change. Whereas, variable costs fluctuate throughout the life of the project. Direct costs are those that come directly out of the budget and are often seen as outsourcing or contracting expenses. Indirect costs are often shared expenses across various projects. Sunk costs are costs that bring no value to the project, often a result of a mistake or a result of something going wrong in a project. Due to lengthy projects, I have never personally encountered the cost involved, but I am interested in if anyone has personally dealt with sunk costs and how this may have affected the overall budget or outcome of the project. Earned Value Analysis: I also found when researching the history of EVM that there are 32 criteria that are used to determine an organizatin performance with Earned Value Management Systems. There are 5 categories with a total of 32 criteria. It's an interesting read because so far there is a relationship to the chapters we have read so far. Category 1: Organization ( A lot around Work Breakdown Structure and organization of costs) Category 2: Planning and Budgeting (Scheduling, sequencing, time phase planning for the ability to measure costs against budget, budget against work packages, reserves and undistributed budget.) Category 3: Accounting Considerations (Work Breakdown Structure, Direct costs, indirect costs...
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...converse in several languages, hut he was less familiar with Corning and its businesses. In contrast, ITT decided to set up a massive educational program to "globalize" all managers responsible for its worldwide telecommunications husiness-in essence, to replace its national specialists with global generalists. Corning and ITT eventually realized they had taken wrong turns. Like many other companies organizing for worldwide operations in recent years, they found that an elite of ¡et-setters was often difficult to integrate into the corporate mainstream; nor did they need an international team of big-picture overseers to tbe exclusion of focused experts. Success in today's international climate-a far cry from only a decade ago-demands highly specialized yet closely linked groups of global business managers, country or regional managers, and worldwide functional managers. This kind of organization characterizes a transnational rather than an old-line multinational, international, or global company. Transnational integrate assets, resources. 124 and diverse people in operating units around the world. Through a flexible management process, in which business, country, and functional managers form a triad of different perspectives that balance one another, transnational companies can build three strategic capabilities; • global-scale efficiency and competitiveness; n national-level responsiveness and flexibility; and • cross-market capacity to leverage learning...
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...Assignments from the Readings Write a 700- to 1,050-word paper in which you respond to the questions at the end of the case study. 1. P5-3 Sharon Smith, the financial manager for Barnett Corporation, wishes to evaluate three prospective investments: X, Y, and Z. Sharon will evaluate each of these investments to decide whether they are superior to investments that her company already has in place, which have an expected return of 12% and a standard deviation of 6%. The expected returns and standard deviations of the investments are as follows: Investment Expected Return Standard deviation X 14% 7% Y 12% 8% Z 10% 9% a. If Sharon were risk neutral, which investments would she select? Explain why. She should accept Investments X and Y because these have higher returns than the 12% required return and the risk wouldn’t matter. b. If she were risk averse, which investments would she select? Why? She would then accept Investment X. It provides the highest return and has the least amount of risk. Investment X offers an increase in return this is because you are taking on more risk than what the organization earns. c. If she were risk seeking, which investments would she select? Why She would accept Investments Y and...
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...Backdating Stock Options – Overstating of Net Income Comverse Technology Inc is a provider of software and systems enabling net-work based multimedia communications services. It is a publicly traded corporation on the S&P 500 and NASDAQ-100. It was founded in 1984 and publicly traded since 1986; Comverse Technology Inc is based in New York. Comverse Technology has 5 subsidiary companies. They are Comverse, Verint, Ulticom, Startel, and Starhome. Each subsidiary is a provider of communication services. Comverse Technology Inc’s Board includes a majority of independent directors. The Board has four standing committees: Audit Committee, Compensation Committee, Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee, and Executive Committee. Three former Comverse executives were charged August 9/2006 for creating secret slush funds and backdating stock options causing Comverse to publicly file false financial reports, deliberately misstating earnings. The scheme took place from 2001 through to 2005. The former CEO Jacob ‘Kobi’ Alexander, former CFO David Kreinberg, and former General Counsel William F. Sorin manipulated millions of stock options by backdating them to when stock prices were at low point. As part of the scheme executives made material misrepresentation to shareholders regarding stock option grants and concealed the compensation expense, thus overstating its net income and earnings per share. By using hind-sight 20-20 they were able to find dates were the stock was low...
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...com International Journal of Project Management 27 (2009) 182–193 www.elsevier.com/locate/ijproman Rethinking IT project management: Evidence of a new mindset and its implications Chris Sauer a,*, Blaize Horner Reich b b a Fellow in Information Management, Saıd Business School, University of Oxford, Egrove Park, Oxford OX1 5NY, UK ¨ Professor, Segal Graduate School of Business, Simon Fraser University, 500 Granville Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6C 1W6 Received 12 August 2008; accepted 19 August 2008 Abstract This paper contributes to the rethinking project management agenda in relation to the information technology (IT) sector. Our analysis of the evolution of thinking and practice among leading IT project managers across four countries elicits nine principles and four personal qualities that constitute the core of a mindset that facilitates rethinking the practice of IT project management. We compare this with the Rethinking Project Management research agenda [Winter M, Smith C, Morris P, Cicmil S. Directions for future research in Project management: the main findings of a UK government-funded research network. Int J Project Manage 2006;24(8):638-649.]. Our contribution is to (1) validate the directions defined in that agenda; (2) identify elements not incorporated in it and (3) provide examples that crystallise the agenda for the domain of IT project management. Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd and IPMA. All rights reserved. Keywords: Project management; Information technology;...
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...------------------------------------------------- What is a Project? Learning Objectives After completing this topic, you should be able to * recognize examples of a project * identify the characteristics of a project 1. Project characteristics Projects make up almost half of the work that most organizations do. Organizations use projects to help meet their strategic goals. In terms of strategic goals, projects may help an organization meet changes in market demands, customer requests, or organizational requirements. They may also help an organization make the most of technological advances or meet legal requirements. Select each strategic goal for examples. ------------------------------------------------- Market demands ------------------------------------------------- The goal of a project may be to respond to increases or decreases in market demands. For example, car manufacturers research and design fuel-efficient cars to meet market demands for greener products. ------------------------------------------------- Customer requests ------------------------------------------------- Projects may help organizations satisfy customer requests. A call center may use a project to upgrade its computer systems based on requests for faster response times. ------------------------------------------------- Organizational requirements ------------------------------------------------- Projects can help meet changes in organizational requirements. So a company...
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...Sigma at Wipro Technologies: Thrust on Quality Abstract: Six Sigma at Wipro Technologies: Thrust on Quality Wipro Technologies is a global services provider delivering technology-driven business solutions that meet the strategic objectives of clients. Wipro has 40+ ‘Centers of Excellence’ that create solutions around specific needs of industries. Wipro delivers unmatched business value to customers through a combination of process excellence, quality frameworks and service delivery innovation. Wipro is the World's first CMMi Level 5 certified software services company and the first outside USA to receive the IEEE Software Process Award. Wipro has one of the most mature Six Sigma programs in the industry ensuring that 91% of the projects are completed on schedule, much above the industry average of 55%. Six Sigma provides the tools for continuous improvement on existing processes thereby helping sustain the SEI-CMM Level 5 and CMMi certifications. This case focuses on the initiatives taken by Wipro Technologies to implement the Six Sigma Quality tool to achieve sustained strategic business results. It explores the implementation procedure at Wipro Technologies and the benefits reaped by the company on account of adopting Six Sigma. The case also throws light on the recent developments in the Six Sigma concept including Wipro’s Six Sigma Skill base and consulting experience and explains how the company intends to build its expertise and experience – to bring continuous...
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...“GE’s GLOBAL VIRTUAL TEAM WANTS TO REAP THE WIND” |MODULE M 5 CREATING HIGH PERFORMANCE PROJECT AND PROCESS TEAMS | |OB in Action Case Study 1. Executive Summary OB in Action Case Study GE’s Global Virtual Team Wants to Reap the Wind. PART A 1. Question 1 A definition of groups and teams is contrasted within the views of three current authors in this report to provide a model for understanding the nature of groups and teams in organisations. It begins by defining the various types of groups and teams, reasons for their formation, and characteristics of groups and teams, a summary of objectives is defined. OBJECTIVES : 1. Describe the various groups in organisations 2. Stages of group development 3. Characteristics of effective work groups 4. Describing various teams that exist in organisations 5. Characteristics of effective teams Differences of the above objectives between the three authors will be clarified to determine an understanding of how each author arrives at concluding how groups and teams serve organisations. Authors: Stephen P. Robbins, Timothy A. Judge; Gibson, Ivancevich, Donnely, Konopaske; Andrew J. DuBrin. OB in Action Case Study GE’s Global Virtual Team Wants to Reap the Wind. VARIOUS GROUPS IN ORGANISATIONS P. Robbins, A. Judge define groups as two or more individuals, interacting and interdependent who come together to achieve particular...
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...in history. What makes this spill so significant is the fact that the spill continued unabated for three months causing the declaration of a state of emergency across several states (Bozeman, 2011). The purpose of this study is to highlight the significant issues of management and leadership within BP and point out how the poor decisions surrounding the spill deeply hindered their corporate reputation. Additionally, the paper will offer ways in which BP and those involved could have possibly prevented this disaster or have better mitigated the impact had the catastrophe still occurred. Managing risks, monitoring safety, effective communication and ownership of faults are all solutions that if implemented can help BP restore their reputation and prevent misfortunes like this from happening in the future. BP’s Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill: What Went Wrong British Petroleum (BP), In the early evening of April 20th, 2010 uncontrolled hydrocarbons escaped causing an explosion on the oil-drilling platform Deepwater Horizon resulting in one of the worst environmental disasters in world history. Within 36 hours the massive oil rig, approximately 300 by 300 feet had deteriorated and sunk into the Gulf. Eleven inhabitants on the rig died as a result of the explosion and this was just the beginning of the damage. Crude oil gushed from the uncapped well for over three months and it was not until September of 2010 that the well was completely sealed. The result was a...
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