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De Montfort University

Masters of Business Administration (MBA)

Module: Project Management

Module Code: PoPP5013

Report on Leadership and Team Working in Projects

Submitted to: Dr. Kathryn Jones and Dr. Steven Griggs

By: Nwani, Mark Kido

Student ID: P10523986

Date Submitted: 9th May, 2012

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(Word Count: 3,838)

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Table of Contents

1.0 Introduction 4

2.0 Leadership 4

2.1 Key Factors of Leadership that impact on a Project Outcome 5

2.1.1 Vision 6

2.1.2 Emotional Intelligence 6

2.1.3 Motivation 6

2.1.4 Directing and Scheduling 7

2.1.5 Providing Problem-Solving Techniques 7

3.0. Team Work 8

3.1. Key Factors of Team work that impact on a Project Outcome 9

3.1.1. Cultural Misunderstanding 9

3.1.2. Conflicts 9

3.1.3. Implementation of Action Plans 10

3.1.4. Distributed Leadership 10

3.1.5. Communication 10

3.1.6. Innovation 10

3.1.7. Time Management 11

3.1.8. Fragmentation of Assigned Roles 11

4.0. Conflict Management in Project Teams 12

4.1. Suppression 12

4.2. Smoothing 12

4.3. Withdrawal 12

4.3. Splitting 13

4.4. Confrontation 13

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4.5. Compromising 13

5.0. Personal Reflection 13

6.0. Conclusion 14

7.0. References 15

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1.0. Introduction

According to Lock (2003, p. 3) the main aim of a project manager is to ensure the

accomplishment of a project meets the expectations of its sponsor within the specified time

indicted without exceeding the budgeted funds and resources set aside for it. Thus, a project

achieves a desired outcome when all parties involved work together irrespective of

differences in their background, portfolio and level of expertise to achieve a common goal. A

project usually is made up of a team of staff led by the project manager whose primary role is

strategic planning, delegation of duties, co-ordination of activities and monitoring of roles

assigned to each member in the team, as well as motivating them to work more effectively by

offering incentives where necessary.

The quest to achieve an anticipated outcome in a project work sometimes result in conflicts

due to the fact that it may be the first time the team is working together or differences that

may arise in the development of action plans to accomplish the project. It is paramount the

project manager develop ways of containing the situation from escalating to the point where

the project fails to meet its completion date by taking certain conflict management policies to

resolve the conflict in order to reach a conclusive agreement that benefits all parties involved.

As such, this report would focus on giving an in-depth analysis of what effective leadership

and team work in a project entails, how they impact on the outcome of a given project, as

well as the conflict resolution avenues open to a project manager to implement in resolving

conflicts that have the tendency to arise in the course of undertaking a project.

2.0. Leadership

Mantel, Meredith, Shafer and Sutton (2001, p. 35) indicted that leadership signifies the co-

ordination of activities of other individuals or groups by giving them directions on how best

to accomplish it, as well as keeping them motivated by ensuring they are enthusiastic, well

informed and well organized so that they are able to integrate their working structure more

effectively and engage in knowledge sharing. Furthermore, the portfolio of leadership is more

facilitative in nature than authoritative due to the fact that its main role is to facilitate the

emergence of sustainable harmony among team members/subordinates being led by way of

not just monitoring and directing their activities, but also communicating efficiently before,

during and after a project.

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Riaz and Haider (2010, pp. 29-30) held that there are two key types of leadership styles

project managers usually adopt in leading their teams in order to enhance team’s performance

level and unify the working outline for a project. They are; transactional and transformational

leadership styles. According to Avolio and Bass (1991) transactional leadership style entails

the use of rewards/incentives by a leader to team members for accomplishing a project as a

way of influencing and controlling their behaviour, as well as eliminating underperformance

problems by encouraging them to develop a collective vision that focuses on factors beyond

their self-interests.

Transformational leadership style on the other hand as explained by Avolio, Waldman, and

Yammarino (1991, pp. 9-12) is characterized by four elements which they referred to as the

four Is. They include; inspirational motivation, individualized consideration, idealised

influence and intellectual stimulation. They further went on to stress that the end result of the

transformational leadership style encompasses; increased organizational performance, long-

term presence of the organization in the market through strategic policies that have been

developed and sustained, enhanced charisma of team members as well as increased employee

and customer satisfaction due to the creative insight and intuition of the leader.

Leadership as such plays a crucial role in the outcome of a project as it ensures project teams

are well coordinated and focused on accomplishing the project through the adoption of a

number of factors which would be discussed in the next section.

2.1. Key Factors of Leadership that Impact on a Project Outcome

Watson (2008, pp. 181-189) held that a project leader needs to possess certain key leadership

skills in order to have a significant impact on the outcome of a project. They include; vision

for team, emotional intelligence, motivation as so to ensure consistency in project team’s

working momentum, directing and scheduling of team member’s roles in order to delegate a

job description that matches the proficiencies of each team member and providing problem-

solving techniques to cushion the effect of conflicts that may arise during the project in order

to ensure efficiency in service delivery when the project is completed.

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2.1.1. Vision

According to Hallett (2008, pp. 62-65) vision is a key element in project management a

leader needs to possess in order to effectively plan and organise the allocation of resources

that ensures a project meets its desired outcome. It is the drive that enables a project leader

formulate the right goals, objectives and strategies required to succeed in a project owing to

the fact that it gives him a clear focus on what to do, how to go about generating the right

resources and team to accomplish it and what the desired outcome of the project is likely to

be if this is adhered to and sustained in the project’s duration.

In addition to this Christenson and Walker (2004, pp. 39-45) viewed vision as being an

intellectual work done through substantial creative work for the purpose of generating vital

action plans needed to actualize a project and meet the deadline allotted to it. In essence, once

a leader has a well-detailed vision of how to achieve a project and gathers the right team with

relevant competencies, this would lead to the emergence a mutual satisfaction level of all

parties to the project on its outcome.

2.1.2. Emotional Intelligence

Goleman (1995) contended that empathy has two key attributes which impact on a project’s

outcome. They include; social and personal competencies. Social competency consists of

social awareness and relationship management, while the personal competency deals with

self-awareness and self-management.

A project leader has the responsibility to possess these two traits as they give him an

extensive insight on the feelings of project teams which aids in the decision making process

to be developed so that they are carried along in its formulation in other to avoid conflict or

lowering the working morals of team members who may be uncomfortable with the action

plans devised.

2.1.3. Motivation

Schmid and Adams (2008, pp. 60-71) contended that what distinguishes a management of a

project from general management is the temporal nature of the former, which leads to the

formation of temporal teams (most of which have not worked together before) and also a

temporal leader.

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In order to ensure the team formed work in harmony, they stressed that the project leader

needs to encourage high intrinsic team motivation despite the fact that the overall

organization policy may create a culture of low motivation. This is due to the fact that project

teams need to be constantly motivated and high-spirited so that it translates to efficiency in

their performance of a project.

2.1.4. Directing and Scheduling

Project teams need to have their roles effectively directed and scheduled by the project’s

leader in order to create a well-structured hierarchy of control which follows a centralised

system of leadership that takes the top-down approach in order to reflect positively on the

outcome of a project because it ensures an adherence of the laid down leadership structure in

place by the project team.

In addition to this, project teams need to be efficiently governed so as not to result in the

project being inconclusive due to the lack of a hierarchical chain of command. Thus,

leadership in a project entails being strong-willed in formulating control measures that

monitor the activities of a team following a particular order so as to meet the requirements of

the project sponsor at its scheduled completion time.

2.1.5. Providing Problem-solving Techniques

The generation of systematic problem-solving techniques that project members need to

implement is a critical aspect of leadership in a project due to its temporal nature and the fact

that the teams selected to accomplish it may be working together for the first time.

Additionally, disagreements are to an extent inevitable as a project progresses through its

lifecycle and the project leader is charged with the responsibility of always proffering

solutions on avenues to be taken to resolving it so as not to affect the project from reaching

completion.

In addition to the above leadership elaborated factors, other important aspects of leadership

that impact on the outcome of a project include; strong level of communication with project

teams, planning effectively on how a project would be implemented and sustained, ability to

listen and address critical issues affecting teams, incorporating the organizational values of

the company into the project so as to reflect the level of competence of the company,

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strategic decision making on how a project should be carried out, formulation of a

SWOT/PESTEL analysis for the project, being optimistic enough to give a well-detailed

assessment of the project as it progress so as to inquire the level of achievement recorded and

if changes need to be made in certain areas to enhance its value and the creation of risk

management measures to leverage the impact of risks that may arise in the duration of the

project.

3.0. Team work

The ability of a team to work effectively has to a significant extent become an element for

measuring the efficiency of delivery of a project in an organization in terms of their capacity

to work together to actualise a common goal within the duration of the project, while having

strong communication capabilities for the purpose of sharing knowledge and fostering

harmony through joint intellectual effort to achieve a desired result.

According to Welbourne, Johnson, and Erez (1998, pp.540 - 555) team work entails working

with designated people to achieve the stated goals and objectives of an organization by

ensuring each member of the team is carried along in the decision making process in order to

reach a consensus on the likely strategies to the implemented in performing the project. A

team becomes more effective when the project manager makes use of boundary spanners who

are flexible enough to crossover several job descriptions due to their versatile know-how on

various aspects of a project. Conrad (1990) indicted that the concept of boundary spanning

originated from a general system of theory which views an organization as being made up of

several parts and processes which need to be aligned through individuals with flexible skills

capable of switching roles and sharing knowledge with colleagues, thereby not just building

an effective team relationship, but also promoting strong rapport through a cross functional

activities which is what effective team work in a project entails.

Summarily, a strong level of team work in a project leads to the creation of sustainable

knowledge sharing and enhanced communication avenues which strengthens the working

relationships of team members and enable them progress in mutual agreement at each stage

of the project. In addition to this, there are a number of factors which relate to team work that

impact on the outcome of a project and they would be analyzed in the next section.

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3.1. Key Factors of Team work that impact on a Project Outcome

An overview of factors that relate to team work which impact on the outcome of a project

include; cultural misunderstanding, conflicts, effective implementation of action plans,

mutual understanding of the project, distributed leadership among the project team, consistent

sustainable communication, innovation, time management, organizational bias among team

members and efficient fragmentation of assigned roles.

3.1.1. Cultural Misunderstanding

Earley and Mosakowski (2000) indicated that getting teams to work effectively in a given

project is a major issue not only because they may be working together for the first time, but

because they may also have different backgrounds and ethnicity which affects their roles with

other team members in a project.

In addition to this, Katzenbach and Smith (2003) contended that teams must have a constant

demanding performance challenge to create and sustain themselves regardless of any

differences that exist among them so that they are able to adopt strategies and policies

formulated to achieve a common goal.

3.1.2. Conflicts

Amason (1996, pp. 139-148) and Jehn (1995, pp. 256-282) identified three types of conflict

that exist among teams. They include; relationship conflict which is based on social and

personal issues disagreed upon which have no relation which the project, task conflict which

encompasses disagreement on the task being handled and process conflict which describes

the disagreement on the delegation of roles as well as strategy to be implemented and

resources to be channeled to it.

It is important the project manager and team know the distinguishing features of each of these

conflict types in order to enable them develop techniques of managing the conflict to avoid it

from escalating. Conflicts are inevitable in a project and need to be managed properly by all

parties involved in the project so that the project can be achieved at its stipulated time.

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3.1.3. Implementation of Action Plans

Project teams are usually charged with the responsibility of coming to a mutual agreement on

the action plans to be adopted towards achieving a project. This is done by having a joint

understanding on what the project entails, carrying feasibility studies to know how best to

formulate strategies to accomplish it and also an assessment at each stage of the project to

ascertain their progression level in order to know areas that need to be enhanced and also if

they are going in line with the expectations for the project.

3.1.4. Distributed Leadership

Deming (1986) took the view that distributed leadership eliminates the emergence of an

unjust system which annually rates team members based on their performance and as such

annihilates the essence of team work because it often tends to nourish rivalries and politics

among project teams which poses a threat to team work efficiency. As such, the aim of

distributed leadership in a project is to empower team members to take responsibility for their

assigned roles and ensure they build a strong working culture by functioning effectively

together to achieve a common goal.

3.1.5. Communication

Quashie (2009, pp. 212-216) contended that the systems of communication need to be well

structured in a way that in a way that is critically managed among project teams throughout

the span of the project from its inception to completion for the project to be successful. In

addition to this, he stressed that a project is performed through the use of entangled systems

and processes within which it is difficult to achieve a strong level of success in a project’s

outcome without team-bonding efficiency using communication as an organizing factor that

is given top priority to be sustained.

3.1.6. Innovation

Innovation and creativity among project teams is a key determinant factor to a project’s

outcome because it adds value to the set goals and objectives, creates a significant level of

uniqueness in accomplishing the project so as to give the project team a competitive

advantage over other groups and also ensures team members maximize their potentials to

enhance the outlook of the project in its completion.

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3.1.7. Time Management

According to Kasturi and Gransberg (2002, p. 16) time management gives as extensive

insight to the significance of team work in a project’s delivery system as it ensures every

team member is conscious of the timeline given to the project and dedicate more effort in

their responsibilities. Furthermore, time management entails four key elements which are

constantly adopted in project management for teams to be more effective and committed to

actualising the common goal of the project. They include; activity logs, strategic planning,

SWOT analysis and network programming, Kasturi and Gransberg (2002, p. 17-18).

3.1.8. Fragmentation of Assigned Roles

A distinct level of division in team member’s responsibilities is an essential element in team

work owing to the fact that in as much as each team member has an assigned task to handle,

some may not be as efficiently skilled as others and need to have their roles further sub-

divided so as to ensure boundary spanners provide support to them by performing cross-

functional roles that carries the project members along in order to increase their level of

competency, Siu (2006, pp. 9-11).

Summarily, the key factors of team work that have a significant impact on the outcome of a

project need to be adequately managed so that the project successfully progresses in its stages

though the joint effort of the project leader and team members in ensuring the outlined plan is

adhered to, with measures taken increase the cordial working relationship that exists among

them.

4.0. Conflict Management in Project Teams

Thamhain and Wilemon (1975, p. 31-36) held that in the duration of a project’s lifecycle

detrimental aspects of conflict among project teams can be minimised if a project manager

anticipates the tendency for potential conflicts to arise and understands the determinant

factors that led to it so that strategies can be formulated to contain it. Due to the temporal

nature of a project and other factors such as the likelihood the project selected team members

may by working together for the first time, conflicts maybe inevitable and project managers

are charged with the responsibility to effectively manage it so that the main goal of the

project is not altered.

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According to Meredith and Mantel (2003, p. 295-296) a party to a conflict will be satisfied

when the level of frustration being faced has been significantly lowered to the point where no

action, either present or future is contemplated against the other party or parties in the

dispute. As such, a conflict is said to be resolved when parties involved are jointly satisfied

with the outcome of measures adopted by the project manager to manage it.

Thus, certain critical modes need to be implemented by a project manager to manage

conflicts that arise in among project teams in order to ensure continuity in their job

description which invariably translates to a positive outcome of the project. These modes

according to Blake and Mouton (1964, pp. 18-203) include; suppression, smoothing,

withdrawal, splitting, confrontation and compromising.

4.1. Suppression

This encompasses dealing with the conflict by adopting a “cutting it off” framework, which

implies the project manager deals with the conflict the way he deems appropriate. In this

mode, resistance to working more effectively due to team disagreement is eliminated by the

project manager through the application of the authority-obedience control formula and

letting the disputing parties know any decision made is final and can’t be altered for any

reason.

4.2. Smoothing

This entails the process of striving to talk conflicting parties out of the conflict by persuading

them to come to a mutual agreement on how good things are, as opposed to how bad things

might be. Here the project manager strives to integrate team member’s working structure and

enhance the level of working harmony among the team by even going the extra mile to treat

divergent viewpoints in a generally open way that the parties in the dispute never come to

grips with.

4.3. Withdrawal

Withdrawal as a form of conflict management relates to a situation where the project manager

doesn’t take any action in try to resolve the dispute in a project team as he perceives the

situation is likely to disappear with time. In this mode, when decisions are made and project

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members question certain aspects of it in a quest to create a tensed atmosphere with regards

their functions in the project, the project manager simply doesn’t insist on implementation

and leaves responsibility on how they choose to undertake the project to them.

The project team always tend to work more closely and better overtime if the mode is

adopted due to the less interference of the project manager in their roles unless it reaches a

state where there is a likelihood of the conflict jeopardizing his portfolio and he needs to take

decisive actions to cushion it.

4.4. Splitting

This deals with keeping the team members to the dispute apart until factors that led to the

conflict’s emergence are addressed and resolved amicably. The idea behind keeping both

teams in distance of each other is designed to enable the project manager find an agreeable

meeting ground by splitting the differences to get a resolution the appeals to the parties

involved so as to ensure their strong working culture is unhindered in carrying out their

assigned roles.

4.5. Confrontation

Directly confronting the project teams involved in a conflict gives the project manager the

ability to correct the causes that led to the conflict and proffer a joint remedy on how best to

avoid its occurrence during the cause of the project. Confrontation enables dialogue to take

place and the team members involved in the conflict air their views on how exactly they feel

which enables to project manager effectively explore resolution avenues open to him.

4.6. Compromising

This entails a process whereby the project manager searches and bargains for solutions to a

conflict which eventually brings a significant satisfaction level to the parties involved in the

dispute on the resolutions reached. Thus it follows a “give-and-take” approach in dealing

with conflicts by finding a desirable meeting point which the conflicting teams are ready to

adopt to resolve the dispute on agreeable terms.

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5.0. Personal Reflection

Spencer (1993) identified six key personal characteristics of a project manager that ensures a

project is accomplished with the time set for it. They include; helping and human service,

cognitive ability, personal effectiveness, managerial & impact and influence. During the

course of the individual and group reports respectively, I have been able to acquire the

cognitive and personal effectiveness competencies which aided in formulating the right level

of ideas and information channels that where embarked upon to get the relevant materials to

actualize this report, while ensuring consistency in communication avenues among my team

members so that ideas where shared and collated to form a group presentation that had the

joint approval of all parties involved. This process on the long-run had a great impact on the

inputs generated for this individual report and I intend to do a Continuous Professional

Development (CPD) Project Management course in order to further expand my project

management know-how and apply it in my organizational management field in the not too

distant future.

6.0 Conclusion

In conclusion it can be seen that effective leadership and team work plays a significant role

on the outcome of a project as they both have to maintain a consistent level of harmony and

efficiency in carrying out their assigned tasks to meet the stipulated time given for the project

to be completed. Furthermore, project managers are charged with the responsibility of

implementing appropriate conflict resolution avenues as outlined by Blake and Mouton

(1964) in managing conflicts that may arise among team members during a project so that the

stages of the project are unhindered, which translates to a joint satisfaction of all parties to the

project on its outcome.

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7.0. References

Amason, A. C. (1996), Distinguishing the Effects of Functional and Dysfunctional Conflict

on Strategic Decision Making: Resolving the Paradox for Top Management Teams, Academy

of Management Journal, 39, 1, pp. 139-148

Avolio, B. and Bass, B. (1991), Full-Range Training of Leadership: Manual, Bass/Avolio &

Associates, Binghamton, New York.

Avolio B., Waldman, D. and Yammarino, F. (1991), Leading in the 1990's: The Four I's of

Transformational Leadership, Journal of European Industrial Training, 15, 4, pp. 9-16

Blake, R. R. and Mouton, J. S. (1964), The Managerial Grid: Key Orientations for Achieving

Production Through People, 3rd Edition, Gulf Publishing Company, Houston, U.S.A.

Christenson, D. and Walker, D. H. T. (2004), Understanding the Role of "Vision" in Project

Success, Project Management Journal, 35, 3, pp. 39-52

Conrad, C. (1990), Strategic Organizational Communication: An Integrated Perspective,

Second Edition, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Fort Worth, Texas

Deming, E. W. (1986), Out of the Crisis, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, Australia

Earley, P. C. and Gibson, C. B. (2002), Multinational Work Teams: A New Perpective,

Mahwah, N. J., London - Earley and Mosakowski (2000)

Goleman, D., (1995), Emotional intelligence: Why it Can Matter More than IQ, Bantam

Books, New York

Hallett, A. (2008), 'From VISION to ACTION', New Zealand Management, 55, 2, pp. 62-65

Jehn, K (1995), A Multimethod Examination of the Benefits and Detriments of Intragroup

Conflict, Administrative Science Quaterly, 40, 2, pp. 256-282

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Kasturi, S., and Gransberg, D. (2002), Time Management- A Design-Build Builder's

Perspective, Cost Engineering, 44, 9, p. 16-23

Katzenbach, J. R., & Smith, D. K. (2003). The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-

Performance Organization, New York: Harper Collins Publishers

Lock, D. (2003), Project Management, 8th Edition, Gower Publishing Limited, Hampshire,

U.K.

Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M. and Sutton, M. M. (2001), Project Management

in Practice, John Wiley and Sons, New York, U.S.A.

Maylor, H. (2005), Project Management, 3rd Edition, Pearson Education Limited, Essex,

England

Meredith, J. R. and Mantel, S. J. Jr. (2003), Project Management: A Managerial Approach,

5th Edition, John Riley and Sons Inc., New York, U.S.A.

Quashie, S. (2009), Systems of Communication and Management in the Construction

Industry, Proceedings of the European Conference on Management, Leadership &

Governance, pp. 212-221

Riaz, A. and Haider, M. H. (2010), The Role of Transformational and Transactional

Leadership on Job Satisfaction and Career Satisfaction, Peer Review and Open Access

Journal, 1, 1, pp. 29-38

Schmid, B, and Adams, J (2008), Motivation in Project Management: The Project Manager's

Perspective, Project Management Journal, 39, 2, pp. 60-71

Siu, L. H. (2006), The Boundary Spanner’s Role in Organizational Learning: Unleashing

Untapped Potential, Development and Learning in Organizations, 20, 5, pp. 9-11

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Spencer, L. (1993). Competence at Work: Models for Superior Performance, John Wiley &

Sons, New York

Thamhain, H. J. and Wilemon, D. L. (1975) Conflict Management in Project Life Cycles,

Sloan Management Review (pre-1986), 16, 3, p. 31-50

Watson, P. (2008), A Methodology for Attaining and Assessing Project Success for

Rehabilitation Projects, Journal of Building Appraisal, 4, 3, pp. 181-189

Welbourne, T. M., Johnson, D. E., and Erez, A., (1998), The Role-based Performance Scale:

Validity Analysis of a Theory-based Measure, Academy of Management Journal, 41, 5,

pp.540 - 555.