Ajax Case Study

How effective is Tran as a project manager? Explain giving specific references to the information in the case

Tran can be considered an effective project manager by considering his achievements. It is evident that he has completed five projects for the company out of which half of them were completed ahead of the schedule. This indicates that he has committed his life entirely into serving the organization and ensuring it attains it mission and goals. Additionally, he makes a good leader for the team as he is able to realize and raise concern about the split that existed in the team he was to lead during the project. He realized that the difference in the team would affect the results of the project or it slow as the success of the project relied entirely on team work. Notably, he is effective as a good manager should have problem-solving skills. To solve the issues that were affecting his team, he organized a team building retreat ahead of the start of the project where all individuals had a chance to relate and create a bond of working together as a team despite the difference in age. Additionally, he is seen to be knowledgeable as he has the best management skill as he realizes the team was getting demotivated by the daily challenges they were encountering. He decides to hold daily meeting before they started their work and they had a chance to take about the previous day accomplishments as well as that day’s plan. This motivated the team members as they realized that despite the challenges they faced, there was still progress. Additionally, he is a team player as he starts spending most of the time with the troop giving them encouragement and congratulating them on their achievements. The role played by Tran throughout the project indicates that he is an effective manager as he helps different individuals to work together as a team to attain a common goal.

Using examples in the Ajax case, identify and discuss the difference between functional and dysfunctional conflict on a project

while people are working together as a team there are high chance that conflict will occur as a result of diversity. If not well handled, the conflicts may lead to the failure of the project and therefore it is important to establish its cause and handle it before it negatively affects the team and the entire results. There are two types of conflict that can occur within an organization or a team which are functional and dysfunctional. While functional conflict tends to be healthy and constructive dysfunctional conflict is unhealthy and may negatively impact the group. In the Ajax case, there appears to be a dysfunctional conflict at the start of the project whereby the team members cannot relate due to generational difference. There appears to be a large gap between the ages of the hardware and electrical engineers. As a result, there is a difference in relation as while some think of constructive agendas the others are focused on enjoying their youthhood. The difference even leads to hardware engineers believing that the pay for electrical engineers is too high considering their stay at the organization. Such conflicts lead to demoralization among the team members thereby affecting their productivity. On the other hand, functional conflict is present in the team due to the difference in skills they possess. Such conflict is healthy as it results to diversity which leads to the accomplishment of the task. Additionally, such a conflict leads to innovation and improvements within the team and this is why they are able to find a solution to any task they face.

What are some of the risks/issues that Tran face that could negatively impact the success of the project?

Every venture is associated with risk and challenges that if not well handled may affect the success of the project. Tran is no an exception and he is dealing with several issues at the moment. The first major issue was the split down the middle of the team. The differences among the individual in the team is a major challenge as the success of the project depend entirely on the harmony of the team. Trans seem to have handled this issue effectively since after the two-day team building retreat, all members seem to relate well. The retreat seems to have brought togetherness thereby bringing the entire team to the mission of the team. Secondly, the major issue that trans is facing is associated to the technological challenges that the team was encountering. There were technical difficulties as this was a new project and hence little was known about it and it had to undergo several tests. Notably, Tran understood the risk that was associated with the transition of a project from the lab to the real world and knew the road would be filled with dangers. Additionally, integrating the disparate system would be a difficult undertaking for his team. Therefore, Tran had to ensure the togetherness of the team and despite the final results it was evident that he was able to solve the issues as in some occasions the team worked extra hard to recover the lost time.

If you were the project manager, how would you go about solving each of these problems? Why would you use the approaches you suggest?

Tran overall decisions were effective especially at the start of the project. Arranging a team building event was a good way of solving the generational difference challenge. As a project manager perhaps, I would have handled the rest of the challenges slightly different as compared to Tran. I would have focused more on the scope and planning of the project which seem to be lacking as Tran is seen to be making last minute decisions after there was a failure in the testing.  During the planning, a comprehensive risk analysis would have generated possible solutions that would aid in solving the technical challenges. Additionally, I would be vigilant in making goals and ensure constant motivation among the team members as the task there were undertaking required commitment. Notably, since this was the first time the team was working on such a project, I would ensure to create room for time adjustments. This would have reduced the chances of overworking the team members while trying to recover lost time. Therefore, as the project manager I would have communicated with the organization’s top management to set up a second timeline that allocate recovery time in case of hiccups.

Why was it appropriate for Tran to hold the formal team-building session on the project?

For one to become an effective leader they must ensure that all member of the team appreciate and respect the diversity. Therefore, it was a necessity for Tran to conduct a team-building session as it was the only way to bring the two groups to work together as one and strive toward accomplishment of a common goal. Therefore, the session was necessary for building trust as this is necessary to ensure that each individual can count on the other. Trust makes people feel safe and can work better as a team by letting the other team members know their strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, the session was necessary to bring engineers together by improving interpersonal relationships. This allowed them to work together despite their difference in age by allowing them to focus on the project and the role everyone has to play. Notably, the exercise can be associated with other benefit such as fostering creativity, increasing productivity and creating a platform for communication. Therefore, the major role of the whole exercise was resolving the conflict that existed between the two groups before it became a full-blown dispute.