Introduction
Managing a project is a difficult task, especially in cases where the involved members are resistant to leadership and the opinions of others or are not willing to experience change. Diversity in the lead opinion may significantly affect the process and outcome of a project. These are some of the problems affecting Cerberus Corporation.
Susan seeks to lead a successful office transition project, which involves replacing the current office furniture with corporate standard furniture. However, Jon Wood, the new planning manager, resists any attempt to replace his file cabinets, citing their fitness to his office and the fact that his department was making losses at the time. Since Susan is under instructions to lead and manage the project to its success, there must be initiatives to determine a solution to the conflict between Jon and Susan’s team. This analysis seeks to address the problem affecting Susan and her team. Also, it seeks to determine the options available for Susan in solving the problem and the initiatives that Cerberus Corporation should do to avoid such conflicts in the future.
If you were Susan, what would you do?
Discussion of concept, aims, and objectives
First, it is worth noting that Susan and her team are involved in a project whose objectives are to ensure that the company obtains standard furniture that will promote its functioning through improving the working condition of its office employees. By replacing the old furniture with standardized ergonometric office furniture, the company seeks to motivate its employees, thus increase its productivity. Secondly, Susan’s team has the objective of ensuring that none of the office employees in the company is left out in the new office transition, which is a corporate strategy to enhance the working conditions. However, it is worth noting that Jon Wood’s claim is justified by the fact that his department is undergoing hard economic times and needs to save as much as possible and avoid unnecessary costs until its problems are solved.
To solve the problem affecting Susan and her team in the project, it is worth applying the concept of project management. In this case, Susan needs to go back to the initial stages of discussing the project’s aims and objectives must be redone. Susan seems to have failed right from the time she and her team agreed with Gretchen there was a need for the corporation to review its furniture and fitting but failed to involve other departments in decision-making. Although it is necessary for the team to ensure that the transition affects all the departmental offices, failure to include members of these departments caused the conflict.
What, if anything, could Susan have done differently to avoid this problem?
Alternatives
Thus, if I was Susan, I would convene a crisis meeting with the team members and seek to persuade them to agree to meet their general manager. The aim should be to inform the general manager of the situation at hand and seek to persuade him to involve other general managers in other divisions, especially in Jon Wood’s division. Secondly, Susan should propose to include members of other departments in the project team to ensure that they are part of the transition body. In such a case, Susan and her team would be in a better position to manage the project with success because general managers must step in to solve the stand-off between Susan and Jon.
Alternatively, Susan and her team should have just considered replacing crucial furniture such as tables and chairs because they directly affect the employee’s body. Since the aim of the company is to ensure its employees’ health at the workplace is protected, replacing file cabinets is not necessary. The most important thing is to replace the old office chairs and tables with ergonometric ones. Since Jon Wood is not opposed to an attempt to replace his chairs and tables, then it is necessary to leave the file cabinets intact in his office.
What could the management of Cerberus do to more effectively manage situations like this?
The root problem lies within the management at Cerberus Corporation. For instance, the corporate structure is confusing, while effective communication is lacking. The general managers seem to be making independent decisions on their own without involving or notifying their counterparts in other departments. If there were effective communication along and across the corporate structure, it would have been easy for Susan and her team to communicate with other office employees in other departments.
Conclusion and recommendation
Therefore, it is recommended that the company’s top management restructure the organization to allow for open and effective communication between the departments, general managers, and their juniors.
Secondly, it is strongly recommended that the management at Cerberus Corporation to position departments within their specific buildings to ensure that there is easy management of projects such as the one Susan was managing. It appears that every person in the company is free to move offices regularly and frequently, which may disrupt the smooth running of the departments. Therefore, the company must develop a more rigid approach to the departmental positioning to manage situations like the one affecting Susan and her team.