Organizational Behavior - Case Study Example

Name: Tutor: Title: Organizational Behavior Course: Date: Introduction Management of projects has become a complex task in today’s world. Therefore, dynamic groups and teams are considered a fundamental component of a project’s success. An effective team depends on the competence of the project leader in managing its members as well as ensuring that all aspects of the project are fairly handled by each member. For a software development, as a project leader it is essential to develop a set of proven guidelines that will be effective in ensuring that the expected requirements of the project are successfully delivered. Development and management of an effective team requires project leaders or managers to create an atmosphere of cooperative as well as efficient team culture (Highsmith 2002). The study focuses on how a professional project manager in software development will build up and motivate a team of people with diversified skills, for instance, system specification analysts, database administrators, programmers, web developers for effective and efficient completion as well as deliverable of the software project requirements. Determining where to obtain requisite staff, identifying each team member’s roles and responsibilities, how they should communicate with one another and develop the necessary rapport, resolve conflicts as well as monitor the performance levels are considered as the key to ensuring the effectiveness of the software team. Steps to develop an effective team for a software development project Understanding the interpersonal dynamics within teams enables project managers to identify the optimal organization of individuals to ensure an effective team and improved performance. This implies that when individuals work as a team towards achieving a common goal, distinctive interpersonal dynamics are essential for a project. Team-building should be a continuous task to be implemented by manager in charge of the project. As a software project leader, it will be important to observe and evaluate some critical factors in order to determine whether or not the team working on the new software will demonstrate effective performance. Cohesiveness is one of the critical factors to be observed. Team cohesion is essential because it determines the level at which member relationship are developed, giving an opportunity to all members to trust, respect and appreciate each other’s abilities and ideas (Beal & McLendon 2003). As a project leader, it will be critical to determine whether or not the team members equally contribute to their group discussions and the tasks assigned rather than simply creating cliques of cohesive units. It is important to note that a cohesive, efficient and productive team whose members feel comfortable in their duties and work in collaboration demonstrates how effective the project manager is in executing his or her tasks. In order to foster cohesiveness throughout the software project, it will be important as a project leader to ensure that all team members perform their duties cooperatively. This will involve sharing of the common goals and resources required to achieve them. It is common for team members to disagree, but how the project leader takes the responsibility to resolve the conflicts as they occur is a subject that calls for special attention. At the time of assigning tasks to team members, the project leader will have to consider the skills and interests of each member, for instance, whether the member is good at programming, system analysis, system requirements analysis, web development, or database administration. This will help to avoid letting the team members to be dominated by the verbal, aggressive and popular personalities (Plowman 2010). Evaluating the size of a team is also another important step to be considered to ensure an effective team. Since software development projects involve accomplishing complex tasks, it is the project leader’s duty to maximize productivity so as to ensure improved team performance throughout the phases undertaken to develop the software. As the project leader, it will be essential to determine whether the software team is too huge or small for the project by evaluating how successfully and harmoniously the members work in collaboration, how the required tasks are efficiently accomplished by the team. It is quite clear that an increase in team size leads to higher chances of conflicts due to a decrease in cohesion levels as well as inefficient productivity. Therefore, stability becomes yet another critical step to be taken by a project leader to ensure less turnover rates among the team. By ensuring low turnover rates among the members, the software project leader will promote group cohesion, improved communication methods as well as create role identity that is effective throughout the project cycle. Project leader will also make continued evaluation of the level and manner at which all the members are observed to be comfortably interdependent with each other through sustainable relationships (DeMarco & Tim 1999). Efficient communication approaches are crucial to ensuring effective teams. In order to promote team cohesion, member satisfaction and motivation, the project leader will be required to focus on implementing a more formal type of conflict resolution process, particularly in situations where the conflict cannot be resolved internally and more effectively by the software team. As a project leader, some of the key indicators to be observed to ensure effective team communication will include following effective and efficient processes, for instance, involving all project members and paying attention to their opinions as well as improve communication frequency when making decisions. The project leader should pay attention to conflicts as they occur, taking into consideration that conflicts are natural particularly when individuals gather to work in groups. However, if conflicts are handled well they can result in constructive ideas. It is crucial for the manager concerned to let problems appear on surface since some levels of conflicts among the co-workers is considered to be normal. Since various people with diverse skills will be required to handle the tasks, it will be necessary for the project leader to expect more conflicts whenever changes are proposed or implemented which may affect the goals or membership of the software team (Plowman 2010). As the project leader, it will be important to remember own leadership role. Although it is the leader’s role to encourage his or her team to feel enthusiastic ownership of work being accomplished, it is advisable to avoid just being one of the software team. This is because the project manager is accountable to his or her own boss for the outcomes from the team. Therefore, it is crucial to hold each team member responsible for the meeting goals as well as solving problems in the course of providing software project deliverables. Throughout the software project lifecycle, the project manager should make sure that team members interact at all meetings. Team members should be encouraged to ask help from each other, without necessarily channeling it directly to the leader. It is arguable that synergy on teams can only be achieved when the team members feel free to express their views through suggestions that develop on the creativity of fellow team members (DeMarco & Tim 1999). The project leader will need to appraise and reward software team as whole. Although it may be argued to be too late to affect the project deliverables, the project leader should value celebrating the successful completion of critical phases of the project work for effective team building. Therefore, the manager leading the software project should focus the team members on the set goals. In this case, the value attached to the goal will be the functional requirements expected the software being developed to accomplish. The goal can be reinforced by considering it as a reason for celebration as well as the time to appreciate the achievements made by the software team. This appreciative leadership to be demonstrated by the project leader will enable to motivate as well as focus the members of the software project. In doing so, the project manager provides an implicit promise that successful completion of the project will be celebrated since it is led by a wise manager who would not work outside the agreed scope of the software project. As a result, the manager will ensure that same members work collaboratively to accomplish the future tasks assigned to them and within the specified time period (Plowman 2010). It is important for the project leader to plan for small celebrations concerning the team’s achievements of the important milestones. This implies that acknowledgments of the incremental successes may prove to be motivating than the end-of-project rewards. However, it is rewarding to take into consideration that a team review can not be replaced by individual performance review. It can be noted that a work group develops into a team when team members view their tasks not merely as what is expected of them as an individual, but the contributions they make to the overall success of the project. Therefore, following the above steps to develop an effective team, the manager in charge of the software project will ensure that the team develops the required synergy to shift the software work group with dynamic skills to an improved level of cooperation and high productivity (DeMarco & Tim 1999). How to effectively lead and motivate teams Team morale is considered one of the success factors of effective project management. Normally, a number of definitions of successful projects base on how a project meets user’s needs, is on time and budget. In today’s competitive world where proficient software developers are hard to get, the project definition should be broadened to include morale of a project team. This implies that successful measurement of a project depends on the morale of the concerned team, particularly at the final stage of the project. This is because at the final phase of the project, each member of the project team appreciates to have learned something out of the project experience, enjoyed working in collaboration with others on the project as well as prove to be willing to work on future project needs (Lawrence 1999). As a project leader it is important to start with oneself. It has been argued that in order to motivate others, the project manager has to be motivated himself and think positively at all situations. Being a role model, it will be crucial to be energetic and inviting to make the software team have confidence in their leadership exercised on them as well as follow the project process willingly. It is always good to support the team by allowing them to have the confidence and ability to fulfill their confidence. The project manager should find it necessary to appreciate his or her team members as it makes them to work harder for recognition. At the time of communication, the leader should be humble and choose the words wisely that appreciate all the roles played by team members. Since the software project will be divided into various phases, the effectiveness of the project manager to motivate the team will be demonstrated through identifying the milestones so far reached in the project. Therefore, the project leader will organize for celebrations upon reaching the required milestones on the allocated time period. As a team leader who is time conscious, it will be effective to plan the work parties early enough to enable all the team members to gather around and celebrate freely rather than worrying about the commitment expected of them (Neil 1996). Given the fact that the software development project will involve different people with diverse skills accomplishing different tasks, it will be essential for the project manager to share any information about the progress of the project to the team as well as ensure a sense of ownership. Since they are accountable for the project deliverables, the leader should let them know the conditions and constraints surrounding the project. As a result, the team members will be able to come up with productive suggestions as well. Furthermore, when faced with a work-related problem the project leader should make the team his or her best resource, and thus view them as a case in discussion if well managed and motivated. This suggests that conflicts that arise from team members and the project manager should be discussed by the two parties. It will be effective to discuss and welcome ideas and revise the best ways to solve the problem as a team. Once the team has become confident with the leadership style and view the project leader as part of them, it becomes easier for the manager to rev them throughout the project process (Thomas 2003). Conclusion From the above discussion on software project management, it can be concluded that an effective team depends on the competence of the project leader in managing its members as well as the ability to ensure that all aspects of the project are fairly handled by each member. Team-building should be a continuous task implemented by manager in charge of the project. The ability to understand the interpersonal dynamics within teams enables project managers to identify the optimal organization of individuals to ensure an effective team and improved performance. Efficient communication approaches are crucial to ensuring effective teams. It is important keep low turnover rates among the team members by promoting group cohesion, improved communication methods as well as creating role identity that is effective throughout the project cycle. Acknowledgments of the incremental successes proves to be motivating than the end-of-project rewards. The project leader is tasked with the responsibility to organize for celebrations upon reaching the required milestones on the allocated time period. The size of team can be determined by evaluating how successfully and harmoniously the members work in collaboration to decide whether the software team is too huge or small for the project. Bibliography Beal, D & McLendon, C. L., (2003) Cohesion and performance in groups: A meta-analytic clarification of construct relations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88, 989–1004. DeMarco, T & Tim, L., (1999) Peopleware; Productive Projects and Teams, 2nd ed. New York: Dorsett House. Highsmith, J., (2002) Agile Software Development Ecosystems, Addison Wesley. Lawrence, H., (1999) Managing Teams, McGraw-Hill NY. Neil B. H., (1996) Organizational Patterns for Teams, Pattern Languages of Program Design 2, pp. 345-352, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. Plowman, N., (2010) Seven Factors of Effective Team Development and Performance. McGraw-Hill. Thomas, K.W., (2003) Intrinsic Motivation at Work: Building Energy & Commitment, Berrett Koehler. Read More