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Project Management
PROJECT MANAGEMENT LEADERSHIP
FACILITATOR
[DR RUFUS ADEBAYO]
[[email protected]]
[INSERT CONTACT NUMBER]
Examine and analyse the challenges of
operating under a matrix structure.
A
matrix organizational structure is a company
structure in which the reporting relationships are
set up as a grid, or matrix, rather than in the
traditional hierarchy. In other words, employees
have dual reporting relationships - generally to
both a functional manager and a product
manager.
Matrix Organizational Structure: Advantages,
Disadvantages
Advantages:
•
•
•
•
•
Resources can be used efficiently, since experts and
equipment can be shared across projects.
Products and projects are formally coordinated across
functional departments.
Information flows both across and up through the
organization.
Employees are in contact with many people, which
helps with sharing of information and can speed the
decision process.
Staffers have to work autonomously and do some selfmanagement between their competing bosses; this
can enhance motivation and decision making in
employees who enjoy it.
Disadvantages:
 Violation
of unity of command
 Costly structure
 Problems of over specialization
 Difficult in balance
 Feeling of insecurity
 Lack of wide coordination
 Lack of commitment
The matrix structure is generally considered the toughest organizational form to work in, due to the conflicting
pulls on resources. The overlaps can lead to turf battles, and difficulty in determining accountability. The major
disadvantages of a matrix structure are:
Violation of unity of command
In matrix structures, subordinates have to follow instruction from more than one superior. Generally,
they receive orders from functional managers as well as from project managers. In some cases,
subordinates may receive instructions from both the superiors at a time, which confuses the
subordinates. To avoid the problems, frequent and comprehensive communication among project and
functional managers is necessary.
Costly structure
This structure maximizes administrative cost. Here, specialists from the project as well as functional
authorities involve in project works. It maximizes paperwork and other information costs. Besides, it is
essential to pay lump sum remuneration to functional and project specialists.
Problems of over specialization
In some situations, matrix organization creates a problem of over specialization. Specialists from both
functional and project works gather to solve many complex problems of the organization. As many
experts gather to solve problems. In some cases, they waste valuable time in discussing unrelated
subjects matters. Thus, there is a possibility of delay in decision making. In one way, it maximizes the
cost of the organization, and in the other it delays decision resulting in losses in the business.
Difficult in balance
Matrix structure demands a high level of inter personal relations and skill. It is essential to involve both
functional and project specialists. Besides, it is essential to maintain a balance among these authorities
to bring about uniformity in the organizational performance. In practical field, it is more difficult to
maintain a balance among these authorities, especially if they have no positive attitude towards each
other. Thus, the top level management has to invest more time to maintain mutual relation among
these authorities.
Feeling of insecurity
A feeling of insecurity among the employees is one of the limitations of matrix
structure. In many cases, a project runs only a for a fixes duration. After
completion of the defined works, there is more probability of the dissolution of
the project. In such a situation, the problem of unemployment may arise if
another project is not available to the organization.
Lack of wide coordination
Time limit factor of the matrix structure creates problems in maintaining wide
coordination among all the mechanisms of the organization. A project manager
has been given a fixed time to coordinate all the mechanisms to complete the
given work within the fixed time. As the time factor is limited, the manager
cannot maintain a wide coordination among various departments and
authorities.
Lack of commitment
In matrix structure, many specialists and experts are drawn from different
functional departments in a project. They are generally appointed in the project
only for a limited period. Their role is to provide technical and administrative
support to the project managers. However, the project manager does not have
the line authority to coordinate and control these personnel. Hence, a project
manager is unable to make a commitment to achieve the project objectives in
time.
An Organizational Breakdown Structure
(OBS)

An Organizational Breakdown Structure is used in complex projects and
in conjunction with the Work Breakdown Structure. It is used whenever a
WBS would be helpful. It allows an at-a-glance look at the organizational
resources structured in a hierarchical manner. An OBS is helpful in:
· Project Management

· Workforce Management

· Work Breakdown Structures

· Having a visual reference of the resources for any project

· Viewing costs by resource

· Viewing responsibilities by resource

An OBS is not task-focused. For visual representation of tasks within a
project, a Work Breakdown Structure would be used.

How do you Create one?
An OBS is created much in the same manner as a Work Breakdown
Structure
1.
Identify the organizational structure for the resources involved in the
project, and draw this out.
2.
2. Once the structure has been filled out, identify all team members.
Assign each team member a position in the structure. (Figure 2)
3.
3. If there are extra positions that have not been filled, fill them now. If
there are additional resources, assign those resources so that all
resources and positions are accounted for.
4.
4. Be sure that the OBS is structured from the most responsible
department and then by the performing departments at the lower levels.
These lower levels are where the project responsibilities are matched up
with the resource needed.
THE MATRIX ORGANISATION BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE
 The
three different types of matrix structures are:

Co-ordination matrix (weak matrix)

Overlay matrix (strong matrix)

Secondment matrix ( strong matrix)
Matrix OBS
Negotiation Strategies
 Negotiation
is the method used to reach an
agreement by compromise, which is open to
discussion or modification. Negotiation is the
process of trying to get a better deal for the
project than the project manager would get
without negotiation.
 Negotiation is a process of interaction between parties
directed at reaching some form of agreement that will
hold and that is based upon common interests; with the
purpose of resolving conflict, despite widely dividing
differences. This is achieved through the establishment
of common ground and the creation of alternatives.
The three basic negotiation strategies are
•
Win-lose strategy – This strategy is a competitive adversarial bargaining approach
where each party is searching for the other party’s weakness and desires to capitalize
on any weakness discovered. The consequence of this approach is that there is little or
no sharing of information with the other party and consequently, no attempt is made to
understand the other party’s needs and expectations. There is also very little trust
between the parties, which essentially kills effective two way communication and
goodwill. This strategy does not encourage teamwork or collaboration with functional
managers which are two of the key leadership objectives.

Win-win strategy – This strategy is a collaborative approach where each party is
trying to achieve the best deal for both parties – a mutually agreeable solution.
Information is openly shared between parties in order to improve their
understanding of each other’s position. For this strategy to succeed there has to
be a demonstrable climate of trust and honesty between the parties that allows an
open exchange of views and expectations. The win-win strategy is essential when
the functional managers’ input and commitment are crucial to achieving the
desired outcomes for the project now and in the future.
Lose-lose strategy – This strategy basically says that ‘ if I lose , I will make sure
that you lose’. The implementation of this spiteful approach creates unnecessary
enemies that could come back to haunt you in future negotiations. It is far better
for long term business relations to ensure that each party leaves the negotiation
table having won something.

NEGOTIATION TACTICS
The following negotiation tactics outline a number of useful approaches which
should improve the project manager’s chances of getting a better deal:
 Prepare
 Develop
a battle plan
 Exaggerate your position to weaken the other
party’s argument
 Organise frequent meetings
 Recognise that opinions are often temporary
 Solve easy differences first
 Give concessions on minor issues
 Force the issue
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Bargaining: negotiation and bargaining are often used interchangeably as both
concern themselves with reaching an agreement or compromise through the
process of give and take.
Collective bargaining: when two or more parties consisting of groups of people act
collectively.
Persuasion: communicative behaviour intended to change, modify or shape the
responses, attitudes or behaviour of the receiver.
Mediation: the process through which agreements are reached with the aid of a
neutral third party or helper. The third party should have no decision-making power
and have no vested interest in either of the parties.
Arbitration: is when a third party has been brought in to settle a dispute most often
when the two or more disputing parties have failed to negotiate successfully. Eg.
CCMA (Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration).
Lobbying: usually found in national and international negotiations, where one party
tries to pressurise the other, directly or indirectly through a third party.
Talks: informal meetings wherein parties will collect information and explore
other’s point of view, flexibility and acceptability. Only when parties are within
reach of each other’s objectives will the talks become negotiations.
Leadership style
Propose an appropriate leadership style for the project manager
The leadership style is found to be reliant upon a number of
issues:

The personality of the leader

The maturity of followers

The wider needs of the environment
Binary View - McGregor’s Theory X, Theory Y
McGregor (1960 cited in Burke and Barron 2007: 239) proposed
two fundamental approaches to managing people:
Theory X –Authoritarian Management Style: This style assumes
that the average person will do their best to avoid work and
responsibility and therefore must be directed and forced to work.
Theory Y- Participative Management Style: This style assumes
that people enjoy work and will take responsibility by applying and
directing themselves to further the aims of their project.
McGregor’s contention was that Theory Y represented a more
accurate profile of human nature. He suggested that the essential
task of management was to create opportunities, release human
potential, remove obstacles, encourage growth and provide
guidance. He referred to this as management by objectives (MBO).
McGregor’s model is considered to be too simplistic for today’s
effective leader.
 Action
Centered Leadership
 SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP
 EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE LEADERSHIP
(EI) STYLES
Discuss components of emotional intelligence leadership
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Daniel Goleman (1998 cited in Burke and Barron 2007:
248), described six leadership styles that have some
overlapping concepts with the Situational Leadership
Model.
Visionary
Coaching
Affiliative
Democratic
Commanding
Pacesetting
He also asserted that leaders who have mastered four or
more styles – especially the authoritative, democratic,
affiliative and coaching styles – have the best climate
and business performance.
Action Centered Leadership
 The
model focuses on leadership action and suggests
that the leader should focus on three responsibilities:
Task, Team and Individual, acting according to the
demands of each.
GROUPS AND TEAMS
 The
term project teams and project groups are often
used interchangeably to describe a number of people
who have complementary skills and who work to
achieve a common goal, but in the project context that
is where the similarity ends. The important distinction
between a team and a group is how the people are
managed and how they interact together, because they
may well be doing exactly the same work.
MOVING FROM GROUPS TO BEING A PERFORMING TEAM
 The

team performance curve
The team performance curve illustrates how well any small
group of people performs depending on their approach:
HOW CAN WE ACHIEVE SIGNIFICANT PERFORMANCE RESULTS?
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Katzenbach and Smith (1993 cited in Burke and Barron 2007:164) provide a
series of suggestions for how teams can develop their performance.
Themes and identity – Teams often adopt a theme or mission that
establishes or conveys meaning about their purpose and identity. It is important
that the themes have richness in their meaning to the team
Enthusiasm an energy level – Teams both work and play hard and with
enthusiasm, they put in extra time( without being asked) in order to achieve
their goals, and to outsiders, the energy and enthusiasm within the team are
easily recognized.
Event-driven histories – Teams develop stories about their successes and
failures that begin to define how they perceive themselves and their
performance. Events are generally unplanned and have a galvanizing effect,
especially building on effective responses to failures as well as to successes.
These stories help propel team performance.
 Personal commitment – When there is strong commitment to one another’s
development and success, there is always enrichment of the team’s aspirations
and sense of purpose. This trait is most prevalent in a high performing team
and cannot be dictated from outside the team.
Performance results – Effective teams need clearly established measures of
performance that set expectations. These measures are the drivers for the
team and indicate how their effectiveness can be assessed.
MOTIVATION
How motivation theory applies to management?
Motivation is an inner force that causes or induces us to do something. What
motivates one person may not necessarily motivate another. What motivates a person
in one set of circumstances may not motivate a person in another set of
circumstances. The project manager’s task is to influence the situation in such a way
as to encourage the team members to inspire and motivate themselves to achieve the
project’s goals.
The motivation cycle outlines the dynamic and changeable nature of
motivation.
COMMUNICATION

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Effective communication is one of the project manager’s key
leadership skills. Project communication is the ability to transfer
information from one person to another.
The ability to communicate well, both verbally and in writing, is the
foundation
of
effective
project
management
leadership.
Communication enables the project manager to develop
interpersonal relationships; inspire team members, handle conflict,
negotiate with stakeholders, chair meetings and make presentations.
According to the PMBOK (1994 cited in Burke and Barron 2007:
341), project communications management is the process required
to ensure proper collection and dissemination of project information.
It consists of communication planning, information distribution,
project meetings, progress reporting and administrative disclosure.
Communication involves exchanging ideas. It is a way of
getting ideas, information, and feeling across to another party.
Communication needs two parties, and these parties need to
understand one another if true communication is to take place.
COMMUNICATION THEORY
 The
Communication Process
The purpose of a project communication system is to transfer information from
one person or team member to another. Communication is essentially the
interpersonal process of sending and receiving messages and information. The
key components of the communications process are shown in Figure 12.1. They
include the sender who encode and sends (transmits) the message, and the
receiver who decodes and interprets the message. The receiver then feeds back
a response to the sender and closes the loop.
COMMUNICATIONS PLANNING
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Communications planning links the project manager to the
project team and other stakeholders. The project manager
and the project management office are at the heart of the
project’s information and control system. It is the project
manager’s responsibility to not only develop the project’s
OBS but also to develop the project’s lines of communication
and ensure that the right people are receiving the right
information at the right time. The communications plan
should outline the following:
Who? – Lines of communication between sender and
receiver showing responsibility and authority.
What?- Scope of communication, content and format
How? – Email, telephone, meeting
When?- Schedule of meetings
Feedback – Confirms message received and understood –
document control, transmittals
Filing – Filing, retrieval, storing, back-up, disaster recovery
PROJECT MEETINGS AND TEAMWORK
MEETINGS

Project meetings are the project manager’s principle forum to manage the project and communicate with the team members
and stakeholders. There are five basic reasons for holding a project meeting:

Information sharing
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Problem solving

Decision-making

Planning
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Progress evaluation, monitoring reviewing and forecasting.
The minutes of a meeting are a permanent certified record of what was said and agreed by the team members. Minutes should be
taken for all meetings and produced as soon possible after the meeting and communicated to the key people as per the
communications plan.

TEAMWORK

Communication is probably the single most important factor establishing cohesion amongst team members, because good
communication is the thread binding the team members together to create a cohesive bond. It is only through communication
that each team member gets to know the other team members and vice versa. Important themes are:

Team building
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Conflict resolution
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Competencies
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Team roles
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Shared values
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Task
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Progress
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Contribution
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Recognition
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Support
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Effective communication enables the team to work together and perform the project efficiently.
LINES OF COMMUNICATION AND COMMUNICATION
CHANNELS
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LINES OF COMMUNICATION
A line of communication may be defined as a formal or informal
link between two or more people, departments, companies,
suppliers, contractors or stakeholders. The lines of
communication tend to follow the project’s OBS, which not only
outlines the project manager’s position, but also implies
responsibility, authority and who reports to whom.
COMMUNICATION CHANNELS
As a project team grows the number of channels of
communication increases by the formula
n((n-1)/2), where n = the number of people. Accordingly, a team
of 5 will have 10 communication channels and a team of 20 will
have 190 communication channels. For a team of 20 members to
achieve full inter-member communication it will take a significant
amount of time and the team’s efficiency is bound to suffer.
Project Communication and Stakeholder
Management

The overall outcome for this section is that, on its
completion, the learner should be able to demonstrate an
understanding
of
project
communication
and
documentation. This overall outcome will be achieved
through the learner’s mastery of the following specific
outcomes, in that the learner will be able to:
1. Describe communication in a project environment.
2. Distinguish between verbal and non-verbal communication.
3. Discuss the significance of communication in project management.
4. Identify and describe the different types of project meetings, and
discuss the purpose and hosting of each.
5. Identify and describe the different types of project reports, and
discuss the purpose each.
6. Describe and formulate a project communication plan.
Communication in a project environment
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Communicating is a broader discipline and involves a
substantial body of knowledge that is not unique to the
project context.
For example:
Sender-receiver models (feedback loops, barriers to
communication, etc.);
Choice of media (when to communicate in writing versus
when to communicate orally; when to write an informal
memo versus when to write a formal report; etc.);
Writing style (active versus passive voice, sentence
structure word choice, etc.);
Presentation techniques (body language, design of visual
aids, etc.);
Management techniques (preparing a meeting agenda,
dealing with conflict, etc.).
Project communication as an academic field
embraces a large body of knowledge. Within a
project management context, communication
focuses on:
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How the project team members communicate with
one another;
How the project team, and specifically the project
manager, liaise with senior management and internal
stakeholders on project resources and progress;
How the project team liaise with external stakeholders
such as the media and community leaders;
The distribution of information to all project
stakeholders and role-players using appropriate media
and technology;
The planning and compilation of a project
communication plan;
Project-related documentation (progress reports, etc.).
The following communication information
should be contained within the project
communication plan:
 Project
communication strategy
 The kick-off meeting
 Roles and responsibilities of the team
 Project status meetings and frequency
 Change control communications
 Project review meetings
 Transition from deployment to operations
 Closure meeting
Personal communication
Personal communications may include private letters,
memos, some electronic communications (like e-mails),
personal interviews, and telephone conversations.
 Oral
(Verbal)
 Written
 Graphical
 Numerical
 Electronic
Significance of communication in project
management

Project communication, according to Healy (1997:227), has
a dual purpose: the first is to cause some action or
agreement to take place, and the second is to make a
record that might be needed later. The larger the number of
people involved in the project, the more communication
paths there are, and the more project time is spent on simply
sharing information and keeping stakeholders and role
players up to date.
Communication management is even more necessary if the
project team is spread out over different geographical areas
and timelines.
Read more on the following:
 Project
meetings
 Project
Presentations
 Project
reports
Project communication management plan
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A project communication plan defines the generation
and distribution of project documentation among
stakeholders throughout the project (Clements and
Gido, 2011:388).
According to Clements and Gido (2012: 419), the
following elements may be included in a project
communication plan:
Documents (e.g. project charter, contract, scope
document, WBS, quality plan, etc.)
Author or originator
Required date or frequency
Recipients
Action required
Comments
Recapitulation
 Project
communication can take various forms
and encompasses different types of documents,
reports, meetings which are also incorporated into
a project communication plan.
 Project
managers must possess and master various
communication
skills
for
effective
project
management.
This
includes
personal
communication skills, conducting meetings and
delivering presentations, and collaborating with all
stakeholders.
THANK YOU